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Gudea Cylinders

The Building of Ningirsu's Temple

About this book
Column A 4

1 his lady, his prayer and supplication, 2 from Gudea, holy Gatumdug accepted.

Journey to Nina and Narration of the Dream to Nanshe

3 He stepped aboard his roofed barge, 4 and at her city Nina, at the quay of Nina, he moored the boat. 5 In the courtyard of the goddess of Sirara, the ruler lifted his head toward heaven. 6 He offered bread and poured out cold water; 7 to Nanshe he went and brought a prayer:

8 “O Nanshe, queen and high priestess, queen of precious decrees, 9 queen who like Enlil determines destinies, 10 O my Nanshe, your word is faithful 11 and excels all others! 12 You are the dream-interpreter of the gods; 13 you are the mistress of the lands! O mother, let me relate now the dream:⁠

14 In the heart of the dream there was a man: like heaven was his stature,⁠ 15 like earth was his stature; 16 as to the crown of his head, a god was he; 17 at his side was the storm-bird; 18 at his feet was the hurricane; 19 at his right and at his left a lion lay couched. 20 He commanded me to build his temple, 21 yet I do not understand who he is.

22 Daylight rose for me over the horizon. 23 Then there was a woman—who was she not, who was she? 24 She wore the sheaves of her hair like a crown on her head; 25 she held a sacred stylus of refined silver in her hand; 26 she had set down a tablet of the favorable stars of heaven,

Texts in conversation

Compare Gudea Cylinders A iv 20 and Ezekiel 40:2

Ancient Near East, Sumerian · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

The Dream of Gudea and Ezekiel both describe temples revealed by divine figures. In Gudea the gods give a plan for building, and in Ezekiel a heavenly guide measures a future temple. Both follow a tradition where divine beings direct temple design.

Passages

Gudea Cylinders A iv 20

Ancient Near East, Sumerian · The Building of Ningirsu's Temple
13 you are the mistress of the lands! O mother, let me relate now the dream: 14 In the heart of the dream there was a man: like heaven was his stature, 15 like earth was his stature; 16 as to the crown of his head, a god was he; 17 at his side was the storm-bird; 18 at his feet was the hurricane; 19 at his right and at his left a lion lay couched. 20 He commanded me to build his temple, 21 yet I do not understand who he is. 22 Daylight rose for me over the horizon.
2125 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Gudea Cylinders

Ezekiel 40:2

Hebrew Bible
1 In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was struck down, on this very day, the hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me there. 2 By divine visions he brought me to the land of Israel and placed me on a very high mountain, and on it was a structure like a city, to the south. 3 When he brought me there, I saw a man whose appearance was like bronze, with a linen cord and a measuring stick in his hand. He was standing in the gateway. 4 The man said to me, “Son of man, watch closely, listen carefully, and pay attention to everything I show you, for you have been brought here so that I can show it to you. Tell the house of Israel everything you see.” 5 I saw a wall all around the outside of the temple. In the man’s hand was a measuring stick 10½ feet long. He measured the thickness of the wall as 10½ feet and its height as 10½ feet.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Ezekiel

References

"... G. Buchanan Gray suggested that the vision of the new Temple in the Jerusalem to come, described in Ezekiel 40–43, might have been influenced by similar Babylonian visions. Gray mentioned Gudea’s dream, wherein the gods reveal to the king the plan of the Temple, in accordance with which he then builds it ... In a series of lectures, Hugo Gressmann discussed the Babylonian background of Ezekiel’s vision of the New Jerusalem (Ezekiel 40–48). He pointed out that the building plan of the Temple was revealed to King Gudea of Lagaš (2200 BCE) in a dream, while it was revealed in a vision to Ezekiel (40:2). Both would, therefore, reflect an ancient Near Eastern literary topos ..."
Daniel Bodi, “The Mesopotamian Context of Ezekiel,” in The Oxford Handbook of Ezekiel, ed. Corrine Carvalho (Oxford University Press, 2018).

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Gudea Cylinders A iv 20 and Ezekiel 40:2

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