Sargon of Akkad

Sargon of Akkad (c2300 BC) is history’s first recorded emperor. The beautiful copper head found at Nineveh, above, is thought to be him. The Assyrian king, Sargon, who is mentioned in the Bible, was named after him centuries later. 

Tribal ‘Big Men’ morphed into kings, controlling their respective city or state, but an emperor claimed the obedience of several areas and former kingdoms. It is the highest rank of human ruler we have. Sargon’s grandson, Naram-Sin, took the whole idea further and claimed to be a god on earth. I guess when you succeed your father and grandfather as emperors, there is really nowhere else to go, no rank to which you may aspire. So he claimed to be divine, depicting himself among the stars wearing a horned helmet, a Sumerian text explaining:

Because he had been able to preserve his city…that he be the god of that city, Akkad. And they built a temple for him…

Emperors throughout history have made these blasphemous claims. The Roman emperors assumed the status of deity and their later counterparts in Russia, the Tsars, fulfilled a semi-divine office. It was Henry VIII who declared England to be an empire, which need not therefore appeal to the Pope in matters secular or religious. While installing himself as ‘head’ of the church, he added the arches to the English crown, which it is still has, those symbols of imperial, rather than mere national, kingship. Although his ‘empire’ was rather small, being just England, Wales and a sliver of France, the later British Empire was the largest the world had seen. The Japanese Emperor was forced to confess his mere humanity when his nation fell to the allies in 1945.

We are always seeking to better ourselves and raise our status. For most of us, a nicer job or bigger home suffices, but for the very rich and the powerful, only godhood will do. The Christian, on the other hand, is prepared to lower his status and quash his ambition, that his Lord and Master, the cosmos’ true emperor, might better reign in his heart. The Lord Jesus, the King of kings and therefore emperor-general of all creation, is the only one who can legitimately claim to rule every one and every thing.

Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. (Rev. 1:5)

Image: By unknown author - Mallowan (1936): The Bronze Head of the Akkadian Period From Nineveh; Iraq Vol. 3 (1) pp.104–110, Public Domain.