AMONGST the most ancient legends of Babylonia are to be found those of the sacred tree and the cherubim.
The early seals afford rude illustrations of these legends, and, as art developed, the forms of the cherubim assumed a most impressive character, and for many centuries adorned mighty palaces. Man, bull, lion, and eagle―four elements― “are found in Assyrian Kiribu,” and are so artistically rendered “as to create a figure of harmonious forms, in which nothing shocks the taste, and the expression of which is noble, majestic, and natural.” This may be regarded as evidence of the thorough way in which the spirit of the legends of the cherubim had taken hold of the people, and had for centuries indwelt Babylonia.
Returning to the sacred tree, or Tree of Life. This was said to be hidden in the confines of the world. The road to it “was rough, unknown, beset with dangers, and no one of those who had ventured upon it had ever returned.” Gilgames (supposed to be the Nimrod of Scripture), the hero of the legend, declares he will visit the gods and learn “how to become immortal.” This Gilgames had learned the secrets of the beginning of things. “He had even made known to men what had taken place before the deluge.” In due course he arrives near his destination, and finds “the gate guarded day and night by supernatural beings.” These are “the scorpion men, of whom the stature extends upwards as far as the supports of Heaven, and of whom the breasts descend as low as Hades,” and whose “splendor confounds and overturns the mountains.”
Here we have in legend form a notion of the cherubim who were placed in the Garden of Eden, supernatural power and splendor being inherent to them.
In due course one tree which especially excites the hero’s wonder is reached. “As soon as he sees it he runs towards it. Its fruits are so many precious stones, its boughs are splendid to look upon, for the branches are weighed down with lapis, and their fruits are superb.”
But the water of Death encircles this Tree of Life, and Gilgames cannot reach it save by the help of the gods.
Here lies a great truth! The life is lost. The way to life is now by death! It is not unfrequently the case that a great fact is to be found in an environment of fable.
The sacred tree, or Tree of Life, is portrayed frequently on cylinders. Its position was localized in the legends close to the city Eridu. “In Eridu a dark pine grew, in an illustrious place it was planted . . . its seat was the central place of the earth.” The flaming sword which turned every way and guarded the Tree of Life is also alluded to. The mighty Merodach thus speaks: “The sun of fifty faces, the lofty weapon of my divinity, I bear ... My mighty weapon, which like an orb smites in a circle . . . the great sword, the falchion of my divinity . . .”
Such are the thoughts of the earliest inhabitants of this earth after the flood. And now, when the world is old, these recently-found old-world thoughts are full of significance.