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It's a stretch, but I suppose you could call the Babylonians a "different denomination." Didn't want to insult anyone by putting this on an Adventist topic.<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1><b>quote:</b></font><p><b>Sabbath Origins: The Pre-biblical Origins of the Hebrew Shabbat and its derivation from the 2900 B.C. Shuruppak Flood appearing in <i>The Epic of Gilgamesh</i> and <i>The Epic of Atra-Khasis</i></b> <BR> <BR>by <BR> <BR>Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld y de la Torre, M.A. Ed. <BR> <BR>Original draft: 20 April 1999 <BR> <BR>Revisions & Updates through 18 January 2009<blockquote>Google ranked this article Number One over 1,380,000 other urls when "Sabbath Origins" was keyed in on 27 October 2007. <BR> <BR>Yahoo ranked this article Number One over 1,950,000 other urls when "Origin of the Sabbath" was keyed in on 27 October 2007. <BR> <BR>Yahoo ranked this article Number One over 7,930,000 other urls when "Origin of the Sabbath" was keyed in on 10 January 2008. <BR> <BR>Google ranked this article Number One over 8,600,000 other urls when "Origins of Sabbath" was keyed in on 14 July 2008. <BR> <BR>Yahoo ranked this article Number One over 4,610,000 other urls when "Sabbath Origin" was keyed in on 01 January 2009. <BR> <BR>Google ranked this article Number One over 1,930,000 other urls when "Sabbath Origin" was keyed in on 01 January 2009.</blockquote>Two professional Bible Scholars noted that an impasse had been reached by 1972 regarding attempts to identify the pre-biblical origins of the Hebrew Shabbat or Sabbath. Their observations caused me to investigate in 1996 the Mesopotamian myths for myself to see if I could possibly find or identify some composition that had been "overlooked" by the professional scholars. This article is the result of those investigations. <BR> <BR>Below, Professors Andreasen's and Hasel's comments on professional scholars having hit a brickwall in their attempts to identify the pre-biblical origins of the Sabbath: <BR> <BR>Professor Andreasen (currently President of Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, a Seventh-day Adventist Seminary) noted in 1972, that attempts to identify the pre-biblical origins of Sabbath had reached an impasse:<blockquote>The interest in extra-biblical origins of the Sabbath has now subsided. <BR> <BR>It is generally agreed that the seventh-day Sabbath is old, dating back to pre-monarchial, and undoubtedly to Mosaic times. Beyond this point scholars now proceed with a great deal of tentativeness. <BR> <BR>It is recognized that the various hypotheses regarding Sabbath origins have exhausted the available source material without providing any final conclusions. <BR> <BR>The origin and early history of the Sabbath thus continue to lie in the dark. <BR> <BR>This does not mean that the quest for the original Sabbath has been completely in vain, for it has provided illustrations of special days which demonstrate some similarity of the biblical seventh-day Sabbath, which may have influenced it, or even helped formulate it, but this latter process is unknown. <BR> <BR>It is not surprising, therefore, that Sabbath studies should shift their attention from the extra-biblical to the biblical sources, and that is precisely what has happened.</blockquote><a href="http://www.bibleorigins.net/sabbathorigins.html" target="_blank">http://www.bibleorigins.net/sabbathorigins.html</a><!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>
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<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1><b>quote:</b></font><p><b>Israel's "New Moons and Full Moon Observances"</b> <BR> <BR>(Originally "Mesopotamian Lunar Memorials"?) <BR> <BR>And <BR> <BR><b>The Shabbat (Sabbath) = Shapattu Controversy</b> <BR> <BR>Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld y de la Torre, M.A. Ed. <BR> <BR>04 June 2001 <BR> <BR>(Revisions through 22 July 2008) <BR> <BR>This article argues that Israel's New Moons as well as Passover on the eve of the Full Moon may have been derived originally from ancient Mesopotamian Lunar Festivals. <BR> <BR>Furthermore, the controversy which exists among some scholars seeking a relationship between the weekly Hebrew Shabbat (English Sabbath) and Mesopotamian Full Moon Shapattu on the 15th day of the lunar month is explored. <BR> <BR>I understand that the weekly Shabbat has NOTHING to do _directly_ with the Shapattu, it is derived from another motif, found in the Epic of Gilgamesh and Atarhasis myths. <BR> <BR>For me, the weekly Shabbat is an "inversion" of the 7th day when ALL the gods rested after destroying mankind with Utnapishtim's Flood. <BR> <BR>Professor Clay, an Assyriologist, in 1923 argued that scholars were _wrong_ in assuming the Hebrew Shabbat or Sabbath was related to and derived from the Mesopotamian shapattu (Emphasis mine in CAPITALS): <BR> <BR>"For years it was held that the Hebrew Sabbath was borrowed from Babylonia; that it had its roots in the Babylonian shapattu or shabattu, to which we have been told we owe the blessings of that day; for "the Sabbath-rest, was essentially of Babylonian origin." It is even held that "the word Sabbath is Babylonian indeed." <BR> <BR>This view has been accepted by many scholars...Let us here inquire upon what basis does the assertion rest that the Hebrew Sabbath is of Babylonian origin. <BR> <BR><a href="http://www.bibleorigins.net/ShabbatShapattu.html" target="_blank">http://www.bibleorigins.net/ShabbatShapattu.html</a><!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>
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