1 - Early antecedents

Summary

The Ancient Near East

The idea that a State ought to tolerate the religious beliefs and practices of other communities would have appeared irrational to early civilizations. From earliest times, the institutions of what might be called ‘secular’ authority were so closely interwoven with religious authority as to be practically indistinguishable.

In Sumerian and Mesopotamian mythology, man was created in order to relieve the gods from the burdensome task of providing for themselves: men were created as the servants of the gods. This was also reflected in the Akkadian and Babylonian myths which have come down to us and which represent a continuation and transformation of the earlier Semitic material. It was also implicit within this understanding of the created order that each deity had its own particular dwelling place; and men living there were its servants. If the servants of one god (that is, the people of one city) fell under the sway of those of another, then this was perceived as having some connection with the relationship between the gods themselves. The physical destruction of a city or temple represented the final humiliation of the god.

The versions of the early creation myths that have come down to us reflect the shifts in political power between the warring powers of the region. The written version of the Babylonian creation myth derives from a period of Babylonian supremacy, so it is Bel-Marduk, the god of Babylon, who is invested with supremacy over the other gods of the region.