Lecture: Babylon God Anu

The ancient Sumerian-Babylonian god of the firmament, the 'great above', and the son of the first pair of gods, An and Ki, "descendant" of Abzu and Tiamat.

His first consort was Antu (Anatum), a goddess of creation, They produced the Anunnaki - the "underworld" gods, and the Utukki (the seven evil demons who he often sends to humans to plague them), Antu was later replaced by Inanna / Ishtar after she left Earth.

About these seven evil spirits, we can read more in a Babylonian poem called "The seven evil spirits". He is a "King of the Igigi". He is a god of monarchs and is not friendly to the common people. He is assigned the sky as his domain in 'Atrahasis' (our solar system, their home planet Nibiru?).

He is referred to as,

• "the Father" and "King of the Gods", which signifies his importance in the Mesopotamian pantheon and in the Bible as "
• the Lord, the most High God".

When An and Ki were separated by Enlil, Anu carried off the heavens, and Enlil carried off the earth.

His 'kishru's (shooting stars) have awesome strength. He has the ability that anything he puts into words, becomes reality.

He agrees to send the Bull of Heaven after Gilgamesh on Ishtar's behalf, if she has made sure that the people of Uruk (Erech) are properly provisioned for seven years. He decrees that either Gilgamesh or Enkidu must die for the slaying of Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven.

He sends Kakka to Kurnugi (Kur, Africa) to tell Ereshkigal to send a messenger to receive a gift from him.

When Anzu stole the Tablet of Destinies from Enlil, he called for one of the gods to slay Anzu and thereby greatly increase his reputation.

He gave Marduk the four winds to play with.

He made a whirlwind and a flood wave and stirred up Tiamat on purpose. When Tiamat's retaliation for Abzu's death was discovered, An sent Anu on a peace mission to her, but he returned unsuccessfully.

Anu helps to form a princely shrine for Marduk prior to his battle with Tiamat, and gives him the Anu-power of decreeing fates, such that his word is law.

Anu later retreated more and more into the background. He retires to the "upper heavens" and leaves the affairs of the universe to Marduk and a younger generation of gods. Anu lives in the "third heaven" (Paradise?).

The E-ana in Unug (Uruk Erech) was dedicated both to him and his consort Antu, a temple dedicated to Anu could also be found in Assur.

In the bible we can read about the God Anu in the story of Ur :

• Gn:14:18: And Melchizedek (#) king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.
• Gn:14:19: And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth:
• Gn:14:20: And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.

(#) note: Melchizedek was the same as Shem, the son of Noah, see the Pseudepigrapha book "The Writings of Abraham"

It is notable that Anu went more and more in the background later on, possibly because he retired and leaves Earth and went back to the third heaven (his home planet? "Paradise"?), together with several other Gods like,

• An (his father)
• Nammu and Antu
• Ki stayed on Earth as we can read clearly in the story of the Gods
• Anu was succeeded by Enlil as the "new" king of the Gods on Earth 

Anu came often back to Earth, to see the progress of the work of the other Gods. We will see in chapter 12 that he came back for the last time when his temple in E-ana in Unug (Erech in the Bible) was build by King Mec-ki-aj-gacer (the son of Utu) in 6,850 BCE.

Anu is the same as "The Lord, the most high God", The God as mentioned in Genesis during the lifetime of Abraham (Melchizedek the King of Salem was a priest of the most high God).