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86 But what was supposed to have been the Last Encounter, the Sumerian sources reveal, was undone by a brotherly dis- pute. In the Bible, the god vowing to wipe Mankind off the face of the Earth is the very same one who then connives with Noah to nullify the decision. In the Mesopotamian origi- nal version, the events again unfold against the background of the Enlil-Enki rivalry. The divine "Cain" and "Abel" continued to be at loggerheads—except that the intended vic- tim was not one of them but the Being they had created. But if a new kind of Divine Encounter—the sexual one— had led to the near-demise of Mankind, it was yet another kind of Divine Encounter—a whispered one—that led to its salvation. DIVINE ENCOUNTERS