Credible Theories
One history · chapter 2 of 11

The War Above: The War in Heaven in Babylon, Greece and Revelation

Before humans · story date: unknown ages

A thought experiment

This series asks what history looks like if the old texts are records, not myths. Each claim rests on a quoted text. It is a reading, not an established fact.

The beings the texts call gods, sons of God, Anunnaki, and Titans are not the ultimate creator. They are a powerful older people who answer to a higher authority, meet in council, and fight among themselves.

A war breaks out in the heavens. Babylon remembers Marduk splitting Tiamat "like a flat fish" to make the sky and the earth from her body. Greece remembers the Titans losing and being locked beneath the earth. Revelation remembers a dragon who dragged down "the third part of the stars." Every version ends the same way: the losing side is thrown down to Earth and imprisoned in it.

What the texts say

Enuma Elish IV · King 1902He split her up like a flat fish into two halves; One half of her he stablished as a covering for heaven.
Psalm 82:1 · KJVGod standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods.
Revelation 12:4, 9 · KJVHis tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth.
Hesiod, Theogony 717–725The Titans are shut in Tartarus, as far below the earth as the sky is above it.
Job 38:7 · KJVWhen the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. They were there when Earth was made.

Questions people ask about The war above

How did Marduk defeat Tiamat?

In the Babylonian Enuma Elish, Marduk splits Tiamat's body 'like a flat fish into two halves' and makes one half a covering for heaven, building the sky and the earth from her body. The quote is from L. W. King's 1902 translation.

What happened to the Titans?

In Hesiod's Theogony, the defeated Titans are shut in Tartarus, as far below the earth as the sky is above it. This chapter lines that up with Babylon's war and with Revelation, where the losing side is thrown down.

What does Revelation 12 say about a third of the stars?

Revelation 12:4 says the dragon's 'tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth.' This chapter reads it as one more memory of a war in heaven whose losers were thrown down to Earth.

Sources in this chapter

  1. Enuma Elish IV · King 1902
  2. Psalm 82:1 · KJV · full passage
  3. Revelation 12:4, 9 · KJV · full passage
  4. Hesiod, Theogony 717–725 · full passage
  5. Job 38:7 · KJV

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