At the risk of kicking the massive societal hornets nest, I would like to approach the identity of Jesus as a topic of discussion. Using texts and evidence more so than opinion and speculation.
He who is like his father
He who inspires awe in Heaven and on Earth
This was a trick question. All of those epithets and phrases belonged to a god that predated the biblical texts by thousands of years. His name is Nergal. Also known by many other names including Melqart, Moloch, Shesmu, and Erra.
In the earliest inscriptions from ancient times Nergal was referred to as...
He who is like his father Ellil
He who inspires awe in Heaven and on Earth
He who leads away the enemies of Ellil
He who has led the people from afar
The God of the Blazing Sun
The God of Child Sacrifice
By the end of antiquity, Nergal was known as...
Below is just a fraction of the biblical verses that depict Jesus in a similar, if not the exact same way as Nergal.
✝️ Jesus, the anointed one.
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,� because he has anointed me� to proclaim good news to the poor.
✝️ Jesus as the Morning Star
2 Peter 1:19 — GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)
19 So we regard the words of the prophets as confirmed beyond all doubt. You’re doing well by paying attention to their words. Continue to pay attention as you would to a light that shines in a dark place as you wait for day to come and the morning star to rise in your hearts.
I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”
✝️ Lord of/He who inspires awe in Heaven and on Earth
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”
A tigi to Nergal (Nergal C)
“Lord who inspires awe in heaven and on earth, who is resplendent in the Land, engendered for kingship by your father.”
✝️Jesus as Son of the living God
Mathew 16:16 ESV Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Nergal was the Son of Dagon/Kumarbi the 4th Enlil, and the 3rd Ruler of Heaven (The Anu Ziggurat in Kulaba, Uruk). Making him the Son of God. Melqart belonged to a trio of major deities.
✝️Jesus as the Good Shepherd
Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd” John 10:11, 14
The earliest reference to a Shepherd/ Good Shepherd for that matter, is Nergal. He attains this title in the Epic of Erra. Also written here in the a Tigi to Nergal (Nergal C) after being given the title of the Enlilship
42-51. Enlil, shepherd of the black-headed, has given you as your name "Lord who leads away the enemies of Enlil, avenger of his father, strong hero".
There are numerous scriptures which refer to Jesus as light, that represents the sun. When Jesus walked the earth light bulbs didn't exist, the light was the Sun. When the sun went down it got dark.
2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.
Here are many more: John 8:12, John 9:5, Matthew 4:16, John 1:3-8, John 3:19-20, John 12:35-36, John 12:46, Ephesians 5:14, Philippians 3:20, Colossians 3:2, and Luke 4:19.
Nergal is referred to as a sun god, god of the Blazing Sun, Son of God in the Epic of Erra. Melqart is originally known as a God from the Sea, later becoming a sun god. Jesus (his miracles and deciples) was heavily tied to the Sea (of Galilee). Later rising as the Sun of God.
✝️Jesus as the God of War, Pestilence and Plague.
"They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful." (Revelation 17:14)
Revelation 6:8 And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.
Jesus rides into battle in the white/pale horse.
Now let’s move past Epithets and go directly into some of the similarities in the texts between Nergal and Jesus.
In the Sumerian texts Nergal represents a very particular aspect of death…a god that inflicts death. Nergal is the god of plague and pestilence. Associated with warfare. Nergal's warlike qualities are illustrated in great detail.
Nergal accompanies the king into battle, delivering death to the enemy. Death via Nergal also had a supernatural dimension, disease often being attributed to demonic forces in Mesopotamia.
Nergal reads very much like the Jesus of Revelation.
✝️Jesus in the Underworld:
And the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.
For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
(In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?
In the Amarna text Nergal and Ereshkigal:
Nergal travels to the Underworld. He conquered Ereshkigal (the Goddess of Death and the underworld) and took the “Kingship over the Wide Earth” and gained command of the gates of the underworld by conquering the guards at all 7 gates.
In the Sultantepe text Nergal and Ereshkigal from Uruk it depicts Nergal spending 6 days in the underworld and rising out of the underworld on the 7th day.
In the Phonecian texts Nergal is equated to Melqart; who is the dying and rising lord from a sacrificial death.
American Standard Version Mark 16:9
Now when he was risen early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons.
Nergal controls a variety of demons and evil forces, most notoriously the ilū sebettu, the "Seven Gods" who are particularly prominent in the myth of Erra as agents of death and destruction
Nergal holds a scepter with two Lion headed dragons with a cross in the middle.
Christian relics depict nearly identical scepters.
Pictured: Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christians.
Encyclopedia of Gods by Micheal Jordon
Myths from Mesopotamia, Oxford
Sumerian Mythology by Kramer
