Population Growth

Ancient Accounts of Mass Death Before the Flood

The Tanakh and New Covenant are sparce on details of Pre-Babel and Pre-Flood population, war, birth, and various abortion events. That said (and you have to take these with a critical eye this is not support of the writings) there are other ancient accounts that paint an image of massive births, population growth and a tradition of child sacrifices to maintain human perceived ideas of order and power.

The Babylonian Atrahasis Epic (c. 1800 BC)

The most explicit ancient account addressing pre-flood population and mass death is the Non-Biblical Babylonian Atrahasis Epic. In its writings the problem that arose and that necessitated various remedies was overpopulation. Mankind increased uncontrollably, and the methods of population control that were first attempted (drought, pestilence, famine) only solved the problem temporarily in their writing.

The narrative describes a sequence of divine interventions before the flood:

1. Plague — Enlil sends the suruppû plague to reduce human numbers
2. Drought — When plague fails, Enlil orders Adad to withhold rain for six years
3. Famine — Salted soil and blocked rivers cause starvation
4. The Flood — When all else fails, complete destruction is attempted

In Tablet II of the Non-Biblical Atra-hasis epic, the narrative shifts to the consequences of human proliferation following their creation in Tablet I. Over approximately 1,200 years, humanity multiplies extensively, filling the land and generating incessant noise likened to the clamor of a bellowing bull, which rises to disturb the sleep of Enlil, the chief god of the Sumerian pantheon.

The Sumerian King List

The Sumerian King List also contains a reference to the Flood. The Non-Biblical King List is a complex document, existing in a number of different editions. Probably first composed about 2100 BC and extant in an edition from about 1900 BC, the King List purports to record the kings and dynasties of Mesopotamia from the time when first “kingship descended from heaven” until the time of composition.

Non-Biblical Records of Post-Flood Population Control Measures

The Atrahasis records as permanent population control measures instituted after the flood:

When they discover that Atrahasis has survived, they make a plan to make sure that the noise will remain within limits: they invent childbirth, infant mortality, and celibacy.

The specific measures decreed by the god Enki:

“Furthermore, let there be a third group of people. (Let there be) fertile women and barren women. Let there be the ‘Eradicator’ (a name of Lamashtu) among the people and let her snatch the child from the lap of the mother. Establish ugbabtu-women, entu-women, and igisitu-women and let them be taboo and cut off childbearing.”

These include decreeing that one-third of women be barren from birth, establishing orders of priestesses (such as nugig and entum) vowed to celibacy and non-procreation, and introducing infant mortality where a demon (pulmonic or namtar) claims some newborns as “dead things” before they can contribute to population growth.

Child Sacrifice — Archaeological Evidence

Carthage (Phoenician/Canaanite Colony)

After decades of scholarship denying that the Carthaginians sacrificed their children, new research has found ‘overwhelming’ evidence that this ancient civilization really did carry out the practice.

Professors Lawrence Stager and Samuel Wolff wrote, “We estimate that as many as 20,000 urns may have been deposited there between 400 and 200 b.c. Clearly the deposits were not a casual or sporadic occurrence.” The urns contained bones of both male and female children of varying ages. Over 6,000 stelae were also uncovered, many of which contained religious messages.

Archaeological excavations throughout Carthage uncovered the remains of thousands of babies offered to Baʿal and his consort Tanit, together with dedicatory inscriptions, referring to the offering as a molekh, the very term the Bible uses.

Connection to Population Control

Some scholars have explicitly linked child sacrifice to population management:

According to Stager and Wolff, in 1984, there was a consensus among scholars that Carthaginian children were sacrificed by their parents, who would make a vow to kill the next child if the gods would grant them a favor: for instance that their shipment of goods was to arrive safely in a foreign port.

Ancient Birth Control Methods

Egyptian Methods (c. 1850 BC)

The Ebers Papyrus from 1550 BC and the Kahun Papyrus from 1850 BC have within them some of the earliest documented descriptions of birth control, the use of honey, acacia leaves and lint to be placed in the vagina to block sperm.

Starting around the 16th century BC, Egyptian and Mesopotamian women enlisted the help of acacia (a type of tree) in their contraception efforts. Women mixed unripe acacia fruit with honey and ground dates. They soaked a piece of cotton or other plant fiber in the paste and inserted it in their vagina, like a tampon. This method of birth control was more effective than you might think: Acacia gum ferments into lactic acid, which can act as a spermicide.

Silphium — The “Wonder Drug”

Silphium, a species of giant fennel native to north Africa, may have been used as an oral contraceptive in ancient Greece and the ancient Near East. The plant only grew on a small strip of land near the coastal city of Cyrene (located in modern-day Libya) and all attempts to cultivate it elsewhere resulted in failure.

The plant first appears in historical records dating from 7th century BC Egypt, where we know it was part of medicinal recipes for contraception and abortion, as well as remedies for anything from coughs and sore throats to leprosy treatments.

Biblical Reference

In [Genesis 38:9] there is a reference of withdrawal, or coitus interruptus, as a method of contraception when Onan “spills his seed” (ejaculates) on the ground so as to not father a child with his deceased brother’s wife Tamar.