Babel and Bible (Chapter 7)

No Thumbnail Available
Authors
Thelle, Rannfrid I.
Advisors
Issue Date
2019
Type
Book chapter
Keywords
Enuma Elish , Deutsche Orient Gesellschaft , Babylonian creation myths , Flood narrative , Babylonian texts , Biblical creation narrative
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Citation
Thelle, R. (2019). Chapter 7 -- Babel and Bible. In: Discovering Babylon. London: Routledge, pp 122-141
Abstract

History writing also has its own history—historiography—and two of the debates that followed in the wake of new knowledge about ancient Babylon were that concerning the discovery of Mesopotamian creation myths (particularly following George Smith’s discovery of the “Flood tablet”) and the so-called Babel–Bible controversy in the wake of Friedrich Delitzsch’s lectures. In a nut-shell, these debates raised the question: had ancient Babylonia influenced the Bible and its thoughts, or did the Bible contain a unique revelation? Did the existence of Mesopotamian creation myths relativize the significance of the Bible? The debates led some participants off on an anti-Semitic track, and Delitzsch ended up denying the Jewish roots of Christianity. With the discovery of Babylon, the relationship between the Bible and Babel became more complicated.

Table of Contents
Description
Click on the DOI link to access the article (may not be free).
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Journal
Book Title
Series
PubMed ID
DOI
ISSN
EISSN