Who were the Anunnaki?

So who were the Anunnaki? The name itself means seed of princes or offspring of An (the sky god)

The Anunnaki (Sumerian: 𒀭𒀀𒉣𒈾, also transcribed as Anunaki, Annunaki, Anunna, Ananaki and other variations) are a group of deities of the ancient Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians and Babylonians. In the earliest Sumerian writings about them, which come from the Post-Akkadian period, the Anunnaki are deities in the pantheon, descendants of An (the god of the heavens) and Ki (the goddess of earth), and their primary function was to decree the fates of humanity.

The oldest of the Anunnaki was Enlil, the god of air and chief god of the Sumerian pantheon. The Sumerians believed that, until Enlil was born, heaven and earth were inseparable. Then, Enlil split heaven and earth in two and carried away the earth while his father An carried away the sky.

The oldest known writings about these deities goes back to about 2100 bce ,so about the time of Noah.The well known Assyrian goddess Ishtar came from Inanna which was from the Anunnaki.Also Nanna was from the Anunnaki also know by the name Suen which was the Mesopotamian moon god that Islam rose from and why the crescent moon is an Islamic symbol.I address this in another article I did on Islam and it’s true roots.

Virtually every major deity in the Sumerian pantheon was regarded as the patron of a specific city and was expected to protect that city’s interests. The deity was believed to permanently reside within that city’s temple One text mentions as many as fifty Anunnaki associated with the city of Eridu. In Inanna’s Descent into the Netherworld, there are only seven Anunnaki, who reside within the Underworld and serve as judges. Inanna stands trial before them for her attempt to take over the Underworld;^[ they deem her guilty of hubris and condemn her to death.^[33]

Major deities in Sumerian mythology were associated with specific celestial bodies. Inanna was believed to be the planet Venus. Utu was believed to be the sun.Nanna was the moon. An was identified with all the stars of the equatorial sky, Enlil with those of the northern sky, and Enki with those of the southern sky.The path of Enlil’s celestial orbit was a continuous, symmetrical circle around the north celestial pole, but those of An and Enki were believed to intersect at various points.

Later on in Akkadian tradition the Anunnaki were ascribed to the underworld.

However, other texts seem to place the Anunnaki as gods of the underworld. This is the case in the Epic of Gilgamesh, in which the Anunnaki are described as judges of the dead. The idea is echoed by the Sumerian myth Descent of Inanna to the Underworld, in which the goddess Inanna crosses into the realm of the dead, seeking to overthrow her sister, the queen of the dead. The Anunnaki step forward to judge her for her audacity.

To date, archaeologists have not uncovered any indication that the Anunnaki were worshiped collectively. Rather, each of the gods had an individual cult, and different cities had temples dedicated to individual deities as a city patron.

Who do I think the Anunnaki were?

Here is Genesis 6.2

ב וַיִּרְא֤וּ בְנֵי־הָֽאֱלֹהִים֙ אֶת־בְּנ֣וֹת הָֽאָדָ֔ם כִּ֥י טֹבֹ֖ת הֵ֑נָּה וַיִּקְח֤וּ לָהֶם֙ נָשִׁ֔ים מִכֹּ֖ל אֲשֶׁ֥ר בָּחָֽרו

And the children of God saw the daughters of humankind and that they were good to look upon ,and they took for them wives from all to which they chose.

And a bit later in Genesis we know that from these perverse marriages came giants ,super men!

Here is Genesis 6.4

הַנְּפִלִ֞ים הָי֣וּ בָאָ֘רֶץ֘ בַּיָּמִ֣ים הָהֵם֒ וְגַ֣ם אַֽחֲרֵי־כֵ֗ן אֲשֶׁ֨ר יָבֹ֜אוּ בְּנֵ֤י הָֽאֱלֹהִים֙ אֶל־בְּנ֣וֹת הָֽאָדָ֔ם וְיָֽלְד֖וּ לָהֶ֑ם הֵ֧מָּה הַגִּבֹּרִ֛ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר מֵֽעוֹלָ֖ם אַנְשֵׁ֥י הַשֵּֽׁם:

Fallen ones were on the earth in those days and also after that:When the children of God came to the daughters of human men and born to them ,men of great might the ancient men ,the ones of renown.

The giant who were part man and angel were killed in the flood but here are two things.The seed or DNA of the nefilim (giants or fallen ones) survived the flood likely through Noah’s wife or one of Noah’s childrens wives.We know giants were encountered in Canaan during the conquest after the Exodus.And even the account of David killing the giant with the sling shot.Let us get back to Anunnaki.It is a common belief the the pagan pantheon came from the great men ,the men of great reputation or giants.

Were the Anunnaki the first manifestation of the worship of the giants of pre flood times.An ,the father of the Anunnaki was the first version of the father sky god which other pagan cultures adapted.Such as the proto Iranian “Dzeush pater” (father sky god) which the Greeks called Zeus and the Romans Jupiter and the Akkadians Marduk.From these came lesser created gods from the uncreated higher pantheon. All pagan cultures seemed to have chief gods and lesser gods in the way that the Annunaki were the offspring of An.

In the the story of Gilgamesh ,Gilgamesh said that the Annunaki were the judges of the underworld.Interestingly there was a deuterocanonical book discovered in the Dead Sea scrolls called the book of giants where Gilgamesh was indentified as one of the pre flood giants.

Were the Anunnaki the memory of the giants killed in the flood that pagans worshipped?

Were the Anunnaki the angels themselves who mated with human women creating the giants?

It does seem that the pagan pantheon came from the Genesis 6 rebellion but were they the angels or the giants or both?

Based on etymology I would say the Anunnaki were the angels if you understand that Anunnaki were the sons of An in the same way that Genesis talked of the benei Elohim ,the sons or children of God.

I would say a combination of both ,after the Noachian flood and man again rebelled at Babel and worshiped idol gods.And that a pantheon developed with a father type god that created other lesser gods to be worshiped.The An and Anunnaki pantheon was the first set of gods that Sumer or also Kengir which was the first post deluvian culture worshiped.

Another perspective is the Deuteronomy 32.8-9 idea that The highest God disinherited the nations and put them under demons and the Lords portion was his people the Jews.The next question would be were the Anunnaki worshiped before Babel but after the flood ,so were the Anunnaki the demonic gods that God later divided among the 70 nations to rule over them.Or were the Anunnaki the demonic gods the most High gave to the Sumerians?

In closing I can not say for sure the mystery of the Anunnaki but I do strongly suspect that the Anunnaki being the children of An had something to do with the children of God in Genesis 6.