June5] PROCEEDINGS. [1894.
of the assembly," and would then be a parallel to "the mount of
the congregation" of Is. xiv, 13.)*
He is " the king," and Abad-taba or Arad-hiba constantlycallshis
god "the king,"or "the mightyking." He is "the warrior,"which
remindsone that the Lord is called " a man of war." He sits even
"on the throne of an exalted sanctuary,"he had "a high dwelling-
place in the world," and his "city was on high," all of which
presenta parallel to " the mountain of the Lord's housebeingexalted
above the hills." He was to be " propitiated withwine," which
remindsus that Melchizedek, kingof Salem or Jerusalem, " brought
forthbreadand wine."
Is it too much to regard theseparallelsas more thanmerecoin
cidences? I leave my readers to judge for themselves. We shall
not know all about the god Ninip untilall the texts referringto him
havebeenstudied,but the number and nature of those textsshow
that he was an important deity,and the details theygiveseem to
indicatewhy he was chosen as the type of the " Most HighGod "
of Salem.
- Since writingthe above, however,I have copiedK. 8830, where(line4)
fc.Jp: ^f '-^|jf-y _.^y\^iubiu-uikinakioccurs, and is followed by the
words<jgj •£- --y+y «f y~~ yj guy <ye£tyj tjf, kuai.^n
Hani,alardeni," the sanctuary of the assembly of the gods, the place of judg
ment." In line 7 the word occursagain,thistimewithoutthe suffix kit or ki.
In the creation-legend it is described as " the seat of judgment of the great gods."
Besidesthe heavenly ublu-ukkinakti(or iibSukaitaki), therewasalsoits earthly
counterpartin the temple of Merodach at Babylon.
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