CFIII, the tales of Gilgamesh...it is believed by many scholars to be a fraud.

Yes I will admit that many consider the Bible a fraud.  But I do wonder sometimes why sources that are considered "equally unreliable" you will have to pardon me, are used to discredit it.  In my humble opion it is the same as the CBS proof against GW coming just when they needed it.  It all seems a little to convenient.  I do not in any way mean to devolve this into a political converstion...that was just an analogy.

But I have read read portions of the "Epic" and I have another interesting thought for you...have you ever stopped to wonder...which was truly written first, Genesis or the "Epic".  After...as they say in my profession..."Never rely on carbon dating alone, you have to use your brain too."

Just a correction, you're not using Christianity when you're talking about the Old Testament, you're beginning with Judaism, and since Judaism is almost a complete offshoot from Sumeria (Abraham was Sumerian). It makes sense then that the Old Testament is partially the story of Sumerian legend. It's not plagiarism in a historial sense at all.

Very, very good people.  I had hoped that you would provide me with more of an intellectual discussion. 

Verocity, there is one big flaw in your argument though.  Were they originally called Jews, or were they called Israelites?  I do believe that they were called Israelites, when God canged Jacob's name to Israel, inpart I belive to set a disticion between them and the Sumerian world surrounding them.

Why I ask would their God go to all of this trouble of setting His people apart only to steal their ideas for His book?

If I had access to some of the threads from about a year ago...we did a thread on the veracity and authenticy of the "Epic of Gilgamesh".  But alas I do not...and I will sit here and wonder if I could have used those arguments here.  For I regret to say, but it has been a long time since I have had a refresher on the infamous "Epic"

I am haphazardly going to ask here...and probably to my greatest regret...what in the blooming hell you are talking about Bahamut.  For I have been on both sides of the love/hate of Christianity coin...and I am not even remotely aware of what you are talking about.

Technically verocity, I must give you many props on one thing that you said...about that it might not be plagerism at all.  I really have no idea how to respond to that.  What if the creation story and the "Epic" are actually the same story, one in the Bible, one on a tablet.  I must admit you raise a troubling point that I must look into further.  And I promise I will.

I am haphazardly going to ask here...and probably to my greatest regret...what in the blooming hell you are talking about Bahamut.  For I have been on both sides of the love/hate of Christianity coin...and I am not even remotely aware of what you are talking about.

Given that we have millions of references to the Epic by contemporary sources all outdating the contemporary references that the Bible gives, radiocarbon dating, and more or less the entire Archaeological community giving us not guesses nor estimates, but hardcore proof, I'd say that the whole "its not copied" rack is over and done with

As for your assertions...I fear I must ask you to state a start date on the worship of this diety.  The reason I ask is that when the Gnostics started overwhelming the Christian society...they incorported a lot of idol worship and even parts of the life of our Lord into Pagan worship of false saviors.

‘Enki and Ninhursag’ is perhaps one of the most difficult Mesopotamian myth for Judeo-Christian Westerners to understand, because it stands as the opposite of the myth of Adam and Eve in Paradise found in the Old Testament Bible. Indeed, ‘ the literature created by the Sumerians left its deep imprint on the Hebrews, and one of the thrilling aspects of reconstructing and translating Sumerian belles-lettres consists in tracing resemblances and parallels between Sumerian and Biblical motifs. To be sure, Sumerians could not have influenced the Hebrews directly, for they had ceased to exist long before the Hebrew people came into existence. But there is little doubt that the Sumerians deeply influenced the Canaanites, who preceded the Hebrews in the land later known as Palestine’ (Kramer, 1981:142). Some comparisons with the Bible paradise story: 1) the idea of a divine paradise, the garden of gods, is of Sumerian origin, and it was Dilmun, the land of immortals situated in southwestern Persia. It is the same Dilmun that, later, the Babylonians, the Semitic people who conquered the Sumerians, located their home of the immortals. There is a good indication that the Biblical paradise, which is described as a garden planted eastward in Eden, from whose waters flow the four world rivers including the Tigris and the Euphrates, may have been originally identical with Dilmun; 2) the watering of Dilmun by Enki and the Sun god Utu with fresh water brought up from the earth is suggestive of the Biblical ‘ But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground’ (Genesis 2:6); 3) the birth of goddesses without pain or travail illuminates the background of the curse against Eve that it shall be her lot to conceive and bear children in sorrow; 4) Enki’s greed to eat the eight sacred plants which gave birth to the Vegetal World resonates the eating of the Forbidden Fruit by Adam and Eve, and 6) most remarkably, this myth provides na explanation for one of the most puzzling motifs in the Biblical paradise story - the famous passage describing the fashioning of Eve, the mother of all living, from the rib of Adam. Why a rib instead of another organ to fashion the woman whose name Eve means according to the Bible, ‘she who makes live’? If we look at the Sumerian myth, we see that when Enki gets ill, cursed by Ninhursag, one of his body parts that start dying is the rib. The Sumerian word for rib is ‘ti’ . To heal each o Enki’s dying body parts, Ninhursag gives birth to eight goddesses. The goddess created for the healing of Enki’s rib is called ‘Nin-ti’, ‘the lady of the rib’. But the Sumerian word ‘ti’ also means ‘to make live’. The name ‘Nin-ti’ may therefore mean ‘the lady who makes live’ as well as ‘the lady of the rib’. Thus, a very ancient literary pun was carried over and perpetuated in the Bible, but without its original meaning, because the Hebrew word for ‘rib’ and that for ‘who makes live’ have nothing in common. Moreover, it is Ninhursag who gives her life essence to heal Enki, who is then reborn from her (Kramer, 1981:143-144).

Biblical parallels in Sumerian literature
Traces of Sumerian religion survive today and are reflected in writings of the Bible. As late as Ezekiel, there is mention of a Sumerian deity. In Ezekiel 8:14, the prophet sees women of Israel weeping for Tammuz (Dumuzi) during a drought.

The bulk of Sumerian parallels can, however be found much earlier, in the book of Genesis. As in Genesis, the Sumerians' world is formed out of the watery abyss and the heavens and earth are divinely separated from one another by a solid dome. The second chapter of Genesis introduces the paradise Eden, a place which is similar to the Sumerian Dilmun, described in the myth of "Enki and Ninhursag". Dilmun is a pure, bright, and holy land - now often identified with Bahrain in the Persian Gulf. It is blessed by Enki to have overflowing, sweet water. Enki fills it with lagoons and palm trees. He impregnates Ninhursag and causes eight new plants to grow from the earth. Eden, "in the East" (Gen. 2:8) has a river which also "rises" or overflows, to form four rivers including the Tigris and Euphrates. It too is lush and has fruit bearing trees. (Gen. 2:9-10) In the second version of the creation of man "The Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being." Enki and Ninmah (Ninhursag) use a similar method in creating man. Nammu, queen of the abyss and Enki's mother, bids Enki to "Kneed the 'heart' of the clay that is over the Abzu " and "give it form" (Kramer & Maier p. 33) From there the similarities cease as the two create several malformed humans and then the two deities get into an argument.

Returning to Enki and Ninhursag, we find a possible parallel to the creation of Eve. Enki consumed the plants that were Ninhursag's children and so was cursed by Ninhursag, receiving one wound for each plant consumed. Enlil and a fox act on Enki's behalf to call back Ninhursag in order to undo the damage. She joins with him again and bears eight new children, each of whom are the cure to one of his wounds. The one who cures his rib is named Ninti, whose name means the Queen of months, (Kramer & Maier 1989: pp. 28-30) the lady of the rib, or she who makes live. This association carries over to Eve. (Kramer, History Begins at Sumer 1981: pp. 143-144) In Genesis, Eve is fashioned from Adam's rib and her name hawwa is related to the Hebrew word hay or living. (New American Bible p. 7.) The prologue of "Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Underworld" may contain the predecessor to the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This tree not only contains a crafty serpent, but also Lilith, the legendary first wife of Adam. The huluppu tree is transplanted by Inanna from the banks of the Euphrates to her garden in Uruk, where she finds that:

...a serpent who could not be charmed

made its nest in the roots of the tree,

The Anzu bird set his young in the branches of the tree,

And the dark maid Lilith built her home in the trunk. (Wolkstein and Kramer 1983: p. 8)

It should be noted that Kramer's interpretation that this creature is Lilith has come into quiestion of late.

Another possible Sumerian carry-over related to the Fall of man is the lack of "pangs of childbearing" for those in Dilmun. In particular, Ninhursag gives birth in nine days, not nine months, and the pass "like good princely cream" (Kramer 1981: p. 142,145) or "fine oil" (Kramer & Maier 1989: p. 25)

The quarrels between herder god and farmer deity pairs such as Lahar and Ashnan or Enten and Emesh are similar in some respects to the quarrels of Cain and Abel. In the Sumerian versions death appears to be avoided, although we do not have the complete Lahar and Ashnan story. (Kramer 1961 pp. 49-51, 53-54)

The ten patriarchs in Genesis born prior to the flood lived very long lives, most in excess of 900 years. The seventh patriarch, Enoch, lived only 365 years before he "walked with God". (Genesis 5). The account which numbers those Patriarchs as ten is attributed to the Priestly source. The Yahwist source (J), details only seven Patriarchs prior to Noah, so that with him included, there are eight antediluvian patriarchs. (Genesis 4: 17-18) The eight antediluvian kings of in the Sumerian King List also lived for hundreds of years. (Kramer 1963 p. 328) S. H. Hooke notes another version of the Sumerian King list, found in Larsa details ten antediluvian kings. (Hooke, p. 130) The clearest Biblical parallel comes from the story of the Flood. In the Sumerian version, the pious Ziusudra is informed of the gods decision to destroy mankind by listening to a wall. He too weathers the deluge aboard a huge boat. Noah's flood lasts a long time, but Ziusudra comes to rest within seven days and not the near year of the Bible. He does not receive a covenant, but is given eternal life. (Kramer 1963 pp. 163-164; Kramer 1961 pp. 97-98)

As far as the New Testament goes, many also draw a parallel between Dumuzi and Jesus because Dumuzi is a shepherd-king and he is resurrected from the dead. This is perhaps appealing to some as Dumuzi's Akkadian analog, Tammuz, appears in the Bible, however Dumuzi's periodic return from the underworld is not unique even in Sumerian literature. His sister Geshtinanna also rises from the dead, and if one counts those born as deities, Inanna does as well. Periodic death and rebirth is a common theme in agricultural myths where the return of the deities from the earth mirrors a return to life of plants.

Here are several links to Enuma Elish texts, if you want, on the sacred texts site, there are also links to the epic of Gilgamesh. The Enuma Elish is supposed to be the primary source material for which the creation story of Genesis is based, however, there are pretty far reaching differences. In some cases, it looks exactly like a basis for Greek god creation though. The geographic references to the T and E (Tigrys (sp?) and Euphrates) are notable, as well as the reference to the flood. Enki references can almost be Noachic in stature.

http://www.gatewaystobabylon.com/myths.htm

http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/stc/index.htm

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~humm/Resources/Ane/enumaA.html

http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/stc/stc15.htm

Very interesting reversal of myths here taken from gatewaystobabylon.com
That excerpt was from this page http://www.gatewaystobabylon.com/myths/tex.../enkininhur.htm