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the Semitic conception of divinity. If Baal were a counterpart of
the human father, there would be a divine family and a divine
court modelled on the pattern of those of his worshippers. The
god would have not only his wife and children, but his slaves
and ministers as well. The deities of heaven would thus fall
into orderly groups of higher and lower rank; the higher gods
would tend to separate themselves more and more from those
of subordinate degree, and the latter to sink into the position of
second-rate intelligences, who stood midway between the gods
and men, and depended on“the great gods”for their offices and
existence.
The conception of a divine messenger or angel who carried
the orders of the higher god from heaven to earth and interpreted
his will to men, goes back to an early period in the history
of Babylonian religion. We can trace it to the time when the
Sumerian first began to be affected by Semitic influence. The
sukkalor“angel”-minister plays a prominent part in primitive
Babylonian theology, but it is noticeable that he is usually a son
of the god whose messages he conveys to gods and men. Asari
or Merodach is at once the son and the minister of Ea; Nin-ip,
of En-lil. The fact points to an age when Sumerian animism
had already been succeeded by Semitic Baalism; the spirit or
ghost had become a god in human shape, who begat children and
required an envoy.
When Merodach became the god of Babylon, and with the [362]
rise of his city to political power entered the circle of the supreme
gods, he in his turn needed a messenger. The latter was found
in the god of the neighbouring city of Borsippa. The growth of
Babylon was accompanied by the decay of Borsippa, which in
time was reduced to a mere suburb of the rival town. The god
of the suburb was necessarily annexed by the god of the city
which had absorbed it, and as necessarily became his follower
and servant. Khammurabi, to whom Babylon owed its position
and influence, even transferred the ancient temple of the god