Month of April, in the Year of Grace, 2018

"And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." (Luke 21:28)

The Revolt in Heaven

Is there a way to get to know, what happened before the creation of mankind? And of the earth, or rather, life on earth?

I was thinking of this some time ago, and since neither the Bible, nor the Book of Enoch tells anything about it (apart from the fall of Lucifer in Isa. 14 and Ez. 28, which of course is valuable enough), and after some time, got the thought, that the only ones able to tell us about this "before the Beginning" time, would be the angels.

So, do we have any records from angels talking, or telling humanity about this? Yes we actually do. Now someone might think, or say, this is dangerous. We shouldn't use such sources. The answer to that is, that we may, as long as lead by the Holy Spirit. If he wants us to know, or fetch something from souces other than his own, he will lead and guide us to do that.

He has obviously done that before, as quite a lot of the Bible contains storys that have parallels in Mesopotamian and Ugaritic literature. Both the Biblical and the non-biblical sources got their information from some common, true reality, and history, in mankind's distant past.

The way for us to know, and judge, if what we read in such non-biblical sources, is, as said, the witness of the Holy Spirit, and the line up with the Word of God. If those two qualifications are met, then we will have confirmation that that particular source, is, at least of some value, and that we are allowed to take part of it.

Much could be said about what the Bible hints about what happened, in heaven, before the Beginning, or before the creation of mankind. As in Job 38, where the angels of God shouts of joy watching the foundation of the earth. Why did they shout for joy? Was it because something sad had happened before? Were they waiting for this to happen? Perhaps. And then go to Ephesians 3, and read what Paul says, that God wanted his manyfold wisdom to be known to the angelic princes in the heavenlies, and that this was his intention for the ages of the world. So, this speeks also of something having happened before our creation, something bad, as God had the need to show some angels his wisdom, as if it was questioned, by them.

There are some ancient texts, as those about Tiamat, that are quite wellknown, that speaks about a chaotic state, before the creation, but this article is about another, less known text, which is called "The Revolt in Heaven".

It is an Assyrian poem, which really "smacks" like a Biblical text, and, to me, has the witness of the Spirit, to be true, to be describing something that really took place in heaven, before the creation of mankind. The reader should judge, in the Spirit, and by the Word, (both are required, not just one of them), for himself, but after having presented the Assyrian text, along with the English translators' comments, I will show what is the astonishing connection to the Bible, and the scriptural proof that qualifies it to be a real record, a memory from the distant, heavenly, pre-earth past. I think you will be quite amazed.

- Records of the past: being English translations of the Ancient monuments of Egypt and western Asia, published under the sanction of the Society of Biblical Archaeology (1873) - https://archive.org/details/recordsofthepast07unknuoft (View as text)
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THE REVOLT IN HEAVEN.
TRANSLATED BY H. FOX TALBOT, F.R.S.

THIS curious narrative is found on a cuneiform tablet in the British Museum. The original TEXT is published in Plate 42 of Delitzsch's work, Assyrische Lesestucke. I gave a translation of it in the Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, Vol. IV., pp. 349-362. This tablet describes the revolt of the gods or angels against their Creator. It seems to have been preceded by an account of the perfect harmony which existed in heaven previously. And here I would call to mind a noble passage in Job, chap, xxxviii., which deserves particular attention, since it is not derived from the Mosaic narrative but from some independent source, namely, that when God laid the foundations of the world, "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." By "the sons of God" in this passage are to be understood the angels. In the beginning, therefore, according to this sacred author, all was joy and harmony and loyalty to God. But this state of union and happiness was not to last. At some unknown time, but before the creation of man, some of the angels ceased to worship their Creator: thoughts of pride and ingratitude arose in their hearts, they revolted from God, and were by his just decree expelled from heaven. These were the angels of whom it is said in the Book of Jude that "they kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation." [1] The opinions of the Fathers and of other religious writers on this mysterous subject it were useless to examine, since they admit that nothing can be certainly known about it. The opinion that one third of the heavenly host revolted from their

[1] Jude 6.

Creator is founded on Rev. xii. 3, where it is said: "And there appeared a dragon in heaven, having seven heads ..... and his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them to the earth. And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels. And prevailed not: neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out he was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him."

The Revelation of St. John was written in the first century, but some of the imagery employed may have been far more ancient, and for that reason more impressive to the religious mind of the age.

The war between Michael and the dragon bears much resemblance to the combat of Bel and the dragon recounted on a Chaldean tablet. [1] And it is not unworthy of remark that the Chaldean dragon had seven heads, like that spoken of in the Revelation. [2]

At the creation harmony had prevailed in heaven. All the sons of God, says Job, shouted for joy. What

[1] See G. Smith, p. 100 of his Chaldean Genesis.
[2] See 2 R 19, col. ii. 14, and my Assyrian Glossary, No. 108.

caused the termination of this blissful state? We are not informed, and it would be in vain to conjecture. But the Babylonians have preserved to us a remarkable tradition, which is found in the tablet of p. 42, and has not, I believe, been hitherto understood. It is unlike anything in the Bible or in the sacred histories of other countries. While the host of heaven were assembled and were all engaged in singing hymns of praise to the Creator, suddenly some evil spirit gave the signal of revolt. The hymns ceased in one part of the assembly, which burst forth into loud curses and imprecations on their Creator. In his wrath he sounded a loud blast of the trumpet and drove them from his presence never to return.

THE REVOLT IN HEAVEN.

[The first four lines are broken. They related, no doubt, that a festival of praise and thanksgiving was being held in heaven, when this rebellion took place.]

5 THE Divine Being spoke three times, the commencement of a psalm.
6 The god of holy songs, Lord of religion and worship
7 seated a thousand singers and musicians: and established a choral band
8 who to his hymn were to respond in multitudes .....
9 With a loud cry of contempt they broke up his holy song
10 spoiling, confusing, confounding, his hymn of praise.
11 The god of the bright crown [1] with a wish to summon his adherents
12 sounded a trumpet blast which would wake the dead,
13 which to those rebel angels prohibited return,
14 he stopped their service, and sent them to the gods who were his enemies. [2]
15 In their room he created mankind. [3]
16 The first who received life, dwelt along with him.
17 May he give them strength, never to neglect his word,
18 following the serpent's voice, whom his hands had made.
19 And may the god of divine speech [4] expel from his five thousand [5] that wicked thousand
20 who in the midst of his heavenly song, had shouted evil blasphemies!
21 The god ASHUR, who had seen the malice of those gods who deserted their allegiance
22 to raise a rebellion, refused to go forth with them.

[The remainder of the tablet (9 or 10 lines more) is too much broken for translation.]

[1] The Assyrian scribe annotates in the margin that the same god is meant throughout, under all these different epithets.
[2] They were in future to serve the powers of evil.
[3] It will be observed that line 15 says that mankind were created to fill up the void in creation which the ungrateful rebellion of the angels had caused. A friend has supplied me with some striking evidence that the mediaeval church also held that opinion, though it was never elevated to the rank of an authorised doctrine.
[4] See note 1. This is another epithet.
[5] The total number of the gods is, I believe, elsewhere given as five thousand.
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So, now, how is this poem, about an angelic revolt in heaven, when a group of celestial beings refused to sing praises to the highest God, and were condemned, and then told that God would create mankind to replace them, in heaven - related to the Bible?

It turns out, there is a book in the N.T. that seems to correlate to this, and to speak of its fulfillment. Open the Book of Hebrews, and with the above poem in mind, read from the start. To me, it seems very obvious that the writer had this poem in his memory, or some other similar source or tradition, or knowledge. He seems to be refering directly to it, in for example, verse 6:

"And let all the angels of God worship him".

Then Hebrews speaks about the creation of the earth, and all the time with a background of the angels, almost as if he is proclaiming to them, along with us.

Then continuing in the second chapter:

"For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak." (verse 5).

He's telling it in their face, provoking, and victoriously.

And so, the direct point to which I alluded earlier:

"For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church [should be congregation, ecclesia] will I sing praise unto thee.
And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me." (Hebr. 2:10-13)

This is the Son of God, the Divine Angel of the Lord, who was present in heaven when that revolt took place, where God promised to create mankind as a replacement for those angels who did not want to sing in the congregation praises unto the Creator.

It is as if he is saying: "Here I am, with the new band of singers, my Father, to bring you glory!" And he is not only saying it, but singing it.

And then, the writer of Hebrews, concludes that part, in chapter 3:1, calling his holy brethren, "partakers of the heavenly calling" - surely refering to THAT heavenly calling.

In chapter 9:23 there is also mentioned a cleansing of heaven, which also may allude to this revolt.

What we learn, thus, from this, is that before the creation of life on earth, and of mankind, there took place at least two revolts, perhaps many more, of which we know very little. The first one, at least the first one being mentioned, is the sin of Lucifer, in the heavenly Eden, also before the creation of mankind (the Devil did not fall in sin after humanity, but before humanity, of course, so that fall cannot have taken place in the earthly Paradise.) And then, other angels, perhaps tempted by him, fell into rebellious thoughts, and couldn't bring themselves to sing praises anymore (recognize moments of rebellion, or disobedience, in your own life?).

A comment on something the translator wrote concerning the letter of Jude, that this rebellion is what he refered to when he wrote about angels who "left their own habitation" (Jude v. 6).

No, these angels who refused to sing, did not leave their own habitation. They were expelled from it. And where should they have gone, when the foundation of the earth was not yet laid? The angels that Jude writes about, are from a later rebellion, taking place, as is obvious from 2 Peter, Enoch, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, in the days of Jared, told about in Gen. 6.

The translator then mentions the war in Heaven between Michael and his angels, and the Dragon and his angels, first comparing it to the myth about Bel (which means Lord) and
a dragon (which was Tiamat if I'm not remembering wrong), which is interesting, but only as some kind of repeat, and not as a parallel - because, in Rev. 12, the dragon with his tail "drew the third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them to the earth."

Again, this cannot depict the revolt in heaven, or some succeding event or development, because to where did he draw them? To the earth. There was no earth, at least it had no foundation, what ever that means, when the heavenly rebellions took place. The old, medieval idea, that Rev. 12 speaks of a third of the angels rebelling with the devil in heaven, thus is not quite true. There were rebellions, before the creation of mankind, but how many that took part in them, we do not know. That "third" in Rev. 12, is, I believe, those who have taken part in the angelic incursions on earth, during mankind's history, as is revealed in the depiction of the dragon having seven heads with seven crowns, which symbolizes the seven unlawful in God's sight, empires, that have risen against God's chosen people on earth.

Lastly, in the poem it was said, that the revolting angels, or gods (ili, compare with the hebrew lhm/elohim, same word), were expelled from the heavenly congregation, to another band of heavenly beings, to "the gods who were his enemies". So there we have yet an earlier rebellion, in heaven, spoken of here, by that angel who revealed this to the Assyrian scribe.

I think, and am convinced, by both these scriptural evidences, and the witness of the Holy Spirit, that there have taken place many rebellions, in the heavens, and many restitutions, and even creations, before the one we are in now. Look at the sky. It is old, very, very old. Most of what you see in the telescopes doesn't even exist any more. When we look into the heavens, we look back in time, thousands, millions of years.

What if what we are looking at, is a celestial graveyard? What if the present universe is so old, that it is nearly dying? That what we see, the nebulas, the many exploded stars, are destroyed worlds, where angelic beings once lived, and now their worlds are gone, and they, or many of them, are awaiting the new creation, the new heaven and the new earth, that God has promised to us?

If so, they would have had manyfold reasons to "shout and sing of joy", at the foundation of this world. If the writer of Hebrews, and Paul and other writers knew about and were aware of these ancient rebellions in the heavens, it seems very logic what they wrote. This gives a wider perspective, which, the more one study the subject, becomes more and more clear. This is what Jesus is going to sing about, in heaven, when he, and we, who are his brethren, and co-singers, are to sing the fulfillment of "God's manyfold wisdom, which he purposed for the ages", and laid out, before the heavenly host's eyes.
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NOTES

From British Museum

Someone may now say that that text is included in Enuma Elish, the Babylonian Creation Epic, and has there been translated completely differently, in a way that does not support the interpretation the text is given in Talbot's translation.

To that it can be said, that, firstly, it is, as far as I have found, not fully proven, or provable, that this text really belongs to or is part of Enuma Elish. They only think so, because it seems to fit in between the tablets where the other texts are. The clay tablets are so badly damaged, that translators and interpreters have to guess, to a certain part, what they are telling about. And then preconceptions easily enter, the interpreter's belief or lack of belief, etc. I believe and experience in the Spirit, that Talbot was lead by the Holy Spirit and had revelation, when he made his translation. His text feels as if it is in accordance with the word of God, and fills out some gaps so that we get more revelation, still according to Scripture, we are given more light, our knowledge increases.

If you read Enuma Elish as a whole, with this text included, in the latter interpretation, it does not give much at all. However, it also here appears that an uprising occurred in heaven before the creation of the world, or the foundation, and the preparation of the solar system.

Should we insert this event somewhere in the Biblical timeline, then it will be in its first verse, between "In the beginning God created the heavens" - and so a rebellion did occur, a revolt (or several, what do we know), whereupon a decision was made, of a new world, a new breeding - and so the continuation of Genesis 1:1 follows: "and the earth."

This is thus not about a gap between verses 1 and two, but about an earlier stage, before our world existed - for God decided about this, as we saw, before the ages began (the Greek in Ephesians 3:11 actually says this, literally: kata prothesin ton aionon, ie "according to the purpose of the ages," and then we understand that if you have a purpose for these, then you have it BEFORE their origin, as is also evidenced by Ephesians 1:4, where it says that we were chosen in him before the foundation of the world, ie somewhere in the course of events/courses of events between the creation of the heavens --- and the earth.

And therefore, as said, because God wanted to make his manifold wisdom known for the creations of heaven before the creation of the earth and humanity, we understand that something has happened before that, and this is unambiguous, can not be denied, which caused a new creation.

Thus, a revolt in heaven, among the angels of God, just as Talbot's translation shows. For, and it is surely also clear, that if the entire angelic creation had lived in complete harmony with its Creator, there had been no need for him to make his wisdom known to them. They all had known it, to the fullest.

Should you thus make a synopsis, ie a summary of all the texts of the Bible chronologically, much of the Ephesians would come into the "gap" of Genesis 1:1, after the creation of the heavens but before the creation of the earth (or at least before its foundation, but we may assume that it is the same as its creation).
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That the seventh tablet was not part of the Enuma Elish poem initially, is confirmed here by Leonard William King, in the same book where his new translation of the text Talbot more correctly (according to the testimony of the Spirit) interpreted, is included:

"This portion of the poem is proved by the Assyrian commentary, R. 366, etc., as well as by fragments of parallel, but not duplicate, texts, to have been an independent composition which had at one time no connection with the series Enuma elish."

Another interesting detail in his introduction to his translation, is this:

"... it must be pointed out that the Babylonian version of man's creation is related from the point of view of the gods, not from that of man."

Which reinforces what I wrote earlier, that some of these texts have come to humanity directly from the descended angels and thus are portrayed from their perspective, yet including a lot of the truth of what happened, and as such we can retrieve information from, if we just understand the perspective, and the angle.

(The book is "The Seven Tablets of Creation," L. W. King, 1902.)
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I also include the following pages from the above mentioned translation (and with an interlinear) by Talbot, in the Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology (1876):

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Learn more about the Book of Enoch, in

BOOK OF ENOCH INTERLINEAR

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Jesus

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