The first pantheon with a multitude of gods, which was also a source for the 'belief systems of the book' of the time was in Sumer. Here, the top place of the pantheon belonged the king-god, who was the head of the council of gods (This concept will show itself in the Sabian belief system as "rabb-el erbab", in the so called monotheistic "lord of hosts" and as the supreme council).
In the forefront of this council there were the four "creator" gods - An, Enlil, Enki and Ninhursag, and seven most eminent gods who were the "determiners of destinies", and then there were fifty "great gods".
All the supreme entities in Sumer have acted as they pleased. In order to know what a supreme overseer thought about a certain action, one had to go to the temple, make a sacrifice, pray and go to sleep (Many cultures kept this practice of praying and going to sleep, hoping to dream, which will be an indicator as to whether a certain action or an event would be beneficial or harmful).
Sumerian universe was called An-Ki (Sky-Earth). They called the sea surrounding the land Apsu-Abzu. Ki (Earth) was floating freely on this sea. The unseen canopy underneath the sea was considered to be an "opposite-sky" which covered the nether-world (hell) called kur. Lil, which is air, breath, spirit or wind was the third component. The Sumerian thinkers felt the need to explain the source of these cosmic components and to establish a lineage among them. The following are their conclusions:
- There should have been a beginning.
- The first thing that existed in the beginning was the endless primeval "mother-ocean" (Remember the concepts of the primeval sea in the "beginning"?).
- Sumerian thinkers have invented from this "mother-ocean" a first-cause, a "first-mover." (This is the origin of the concept of the prime mover-first cause in the "belief systems of the book").
- This "sea" (apsu-abzu), the first-cause, gave birth to the universe.
- An-Ki (sky-Earth god) was born.
- An-Ki has created the sky and the Earth.
- Enlil has separated the sky and Earth. Sky and Earth brought into being other gods.
