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Gudea Cylinders

The Building of Ningirsu's Temple

About this book
Column A 5

1 and she was consulting it internally.

2 Second, there was a warrior: 3 he flexed his arm; a tablet of lapis lazuli he held in his hand,⁠ 4 and for the temple a plan he made. 5 Before me a holy carrying-basket was placed; 6 a holy brick-mold was set in order, 7 and the brick of destiny was placed for me in the mold. 8 In a fine sacred vessel standing before me, 9 bird-men passed the time pouring water ceaselessly; 10 and a donkey stallion at the right hand of my lord kept pawing the ground for me.”

Nanshe’s Interpretation of the Dream

11 To the ruler his mother Nanshe answered: 12 “My shepherd, your dream I will interpret for you:⁠ 13 As for the man whose stature was like heaven and whose stature was like earth, 14 who as to his head was a god, at whose side 15 was the storm-bird, at whose feet was the hurricane, 16 and at whose right and left a lion lay couched— 17 he is surely my brother Ningirsu! 18 He has commanded you to build his shrine Eninnu.

19 The daylight that rose for you over the horizon 20 is your personal god Ningishzida: like the sun he rises for you over the horizon. 21 The maiden who wore the sheaves of her hair like a crown on her head, 22 who held a sacred stylus of refined silver in her hand, 23 who had set down the tablet of the favorable stars, 24 and who was consulting it internally— 25 she is surely my sister Nisaba!

Texts in conversation

Moses Sees a Tabernacle Model Echoing the Dream of Gudea

Ancient Near East, Sumerian · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

In the Dream of Gudea, a god shows the Sumerian ruler a stone tablet inscribed with the plan of a temple. Exodus echoes this pattern when God shows Moses a model of the tabernacle on Mount Sinai.

Passages

Gudea Cylinders A v 4

Ancient Near East, Sumerian · The Building of Ningirsu's Temple
2 Second, there was a warrior: 3 he flexed his arm; a tablet of lapis lazuli he held in his hand, 4 and for the temple a plan he made. 5 Before me a holy carrying-basket was placed; 6 a holy brick-mold was set in order, 7 and the brick of destiny was placed for me in the mold. 8 In a fine sacred vessel standing before me, 9 bird-men passed the time pouring water ceaselessly; 10 and a donkey stallion at the right hand of my lord kept pawing the ground for me.”
2125 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Gudea Cylinders

Exodus 25:40

Hebrew Bible
36 Their buds and their branches will be one piece, all of it one hammered piece of pure gold. 37 “You are to make its seven lamps and then set its lamps up on it, so that it will give light to the area in front of it. 38 Its trimmers and its trays are to be of pure gold. 39 About 75 pounds of pure gold is to be used for it and for all these utensils. 40 Now be sure to make them according to the pattern you were shown on the mountain.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Exodus

References

... In the Gudea Cylinders and other Ancient Near Eastern temple building texts, the construction of a divinely pleasing sanctuary necessarily involved receiving and following a detailed and divinely revealed plan. The same is true in the Bible, but unlike Gudea, who needed to virtually pry the details of the plan out of the deity through cultic means, this information is readily forthcoming in ancient Israel (Exodus 25:1-9; 1 Chronicles 28:11-19; Ezekiel 40-42). The revealed tabnit 'plan' or 'pattern' of the biblical tabernacle, the temple, and their furniture (see specifically Exodus 25:9, 40; 26:30; 27:8; Joshua 22:28; 1 Chronicles 28:11-12, 19; compare Ezekiel 43:10-12) corresponds to both the gis-hur ('plan') of the temple and the visionary picture of the completed sanctuary in the Gudea Cylinders ...
Richard E. Averbeck, “The Cylinders of Gudea,” in The Context of Scripture, Volume II: Monumental Inscriptions from the Biblical World, ed. William W. Hallo and K. Lawson Younger Jr. (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 420.

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 v 4 and Exodus 25:40

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