Hi Peg,
I agree that the Israelites had unique aspects. Some of them rather stark and surprising. On the other hand, every culture had its unique aspects and I don't think you can show that the Israelites were not influenced by their neighbours through highlighting the unique parts. While some may dispute some of your claims of uniqueness, since I don't think it important to establish the influences, I'll just jump right in with a little of my own evidence I gathered.
Creation of the world
Genesis 1:6-7, KJV writes:
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which [were] under the firmament from the waters which [were] above the firmament: and it was so.
Compared with Enuma Elish:
Enuma Elish writes:
He split her {Tiamat, the salty waters} like a shellfish into two parts.
Half of her he set up and ceiled it as sky,
Pulled down the bar and posted guards.
He bade them to allow not her waters to escape
In Enuma Elish, Marduk commands a wind that rushes over and into the waters (Tiamat) in order to slay her and from this he creates the world. Likewise Genesis 1 has the "wind of God" moving over the 'deep' and some suggest that the deep, tĕhowm is linked to the word Tiamat - but this is disputable. Various other passages in the Bible have a giant sea dragon monster including (Isaiah 51, Awake, awake! Clothe yourself with strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in days gone by, as in generations of old. Was it not you who cut Rahab to pieces, who pierced that monster through? NIV) being subdued by God, but why would God need to subdue such monsters? It is a clear allusion to the Marduk story of the battle with Tiamat.
Battle with Tiamat
Enuma Elish writes:
Then joined issue Tiamat and Marduk, wisest of gods,
They swayed in single combat, locked in battle.
The lord spread out his net to enfold her,
The Evil Wind, which followed behind, he let loose in her face.
When Tiamat opened her mouth to consume him,
He drove the Evil Wind that she close not her lips.
As the fierce winds charged her belly,
Her body was distended and her mouth was wide open.
He released the arrow, it tore her belly,
It cut through her insides, splitting the heart.
Having thus subdued her, he extinguished her life.
He cast down her carcass to stand upon it...
Let there be lights
Genesis 1:14-16, KJV writes:
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: [he made] the stars also.
Enuma Elish writes:
The Moon he caused to shine, entrusting the night to him.
He appointed him a creature of the night to signify the days:
"Monthly, without cease, form designs with a crown.
At the month's very start, rising over the land,
You shall have luminous horns to signify six days,
On the seventh day reaching a half-crown.
At full moon stand in opposition in mid-month.
When the sun overtakes you at the base of heaven,
Diminish your crown and retrogress in light."
Creation of Man
The Epic of Atrahasis writes:
Nintu mixed clay with his flesh and blood.
That same god and man were thoroughly mixed in the clay.
For the rest of the time they would hear the drum.
From the flesh of the god the spirit remained.
It would make the living know its sign.
[230] Lest he be allowed to be forgotten, the spirit remained.
After she had mixed the clay,
she summoned the Anunna, the great gods.
The Igigi, the great gods, spat upon the clay.
Genesis 2:7, KJV writes:
And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Loss of innocence, the fall
Genesis 2:17, KJV writes:
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
As we know, 'to know' is a euphemism for sex.
Genesis 3:4, KJV writes:
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
Serpents are phallic symbols and themselves are often symbols of fertility (they shed their skin and so renew themselves and have 'eternal youth'). So eve was tempted by a...symbolic cock, perhaps?
Sometimes 'eating' is seen as a sexual euphemism too, once the humans 'eat' of the tree of
sex knowledge of good and evil they become as gods
Genesis 3:22a writes:
And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil:
Where am I going with this?
Epic of Gilgamesh writes:
Shamhat unclutched her bosom, exposed her sex, and he took in her voluptuousness.
She was not restrained, but took his energy.
She spread out her robe and he lay upon her,
she performed for the primitive the task of womankind.
His lust groaned over her;
for six days and seven nights Enkidu stayed aroused,
and had intercourse with the harlot
until he was sated with her charms.
...
The harlot said to Enkidu:
"You are beautiful," Enkidu, you are become like a god.
Eternal Life
When Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh confronts his own mortality and goes hunting for a way out. He eventually hears about a plant that will give him eternal youth...some kind of 'Tree of Life'. He finally acquires this wonderful plant but unfortunately,
Epic of Gilgamesh writes:
A snake smelled the fragrance of the plant,
silently came up and carried off the plant.
(And that's how the snake gained its eternal youth).
Clearly the intended audience for the Genesis story was familiar with this story of the hunt for the plant of eternal life because
Genesis 3:22b-3:24 writes:
...and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
The flood
Just about everybody knows this stuff, but allow me to draw direct parallels
The Epic of Atrahasis writes:
Flee the house, build a boat,
forsake possessions, and save life.
The boat which you build...
Roof her over like the depth,
so that the sun shall not see inside her.
Let her be roofed over fore and aft.
The gear should be very strong,
the pitch should be firm, and so give the boat strength.
The Epic of Gilgamesh writes:
Tear down the house and build a boat!
Abandon wealth and seek living beings!
Make all living beings go up into the boat.
The boat which you are to build,
its dimensions must measure equal to each other:
its length must correspond to its width.
Roof it over like the Apsu.
Genesis 6:14, NIV writes:
So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.
Epic of Gilgamesh writes:
I fell to my knees and sat weeping,
tears streaming down the side of my nose.
I looked around for coastlines in the expanse of the sea,
and at twelve leagues there emerged a region (of land).
On Mt. Nimush the boat lodged firm,
Mt. Nimush held the boat, allowing no sway.
One day and a second Mt. Nimush held the boat, allowing
no sway.
A third day, a fourth, Mt. Nimush held the boat, allowing
no sway.
A fifth day, a sixth, Mt. Nimush held the boat, allowing
no sway.
Genesis 8:4, NIV writes:
And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.
Epic of Gilgamesh writes:
When a seventh day arrived
I sent forth a dove and released it.
The dove went off, but came back to me;
no perch was visible so it circled back to me.
I sent forth a swallow and released it.
The swallow went off, but came back to me;
no perch was visible so it circled back to me.
Genesis 8:7-9, KJV writes:
And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.
Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;
But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters [were] on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.
After this:
Epic of Gilgamesh writes:
Then I sent out everything in all directions and sacrificed
(a sheep).
I offered incense in front of the mountain-ziggurat.
Seven and seven cult vessels I put in place,
and (into the fire) underneath (or: into their bowls) I poured
reeds, cedar, and myrtle.
The gods smelled the savor,
the gods smelled the sweet savor,
and collected like flies over a (sheep) sacrifice.
And Noah:
Genesis 8:20-21a, KJV writes:
And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
And the LORD smelled a sweet savour;
Cloud surfing
Psalms 68:4, HNV writes:
Sing to God! Sing praises to his name! Extol him who rides on the clouds: To the LORD, his name! Rejoice before him!
Psalms 145:13 writes:
Thy kingdom [is] an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion [endureth] throughout all generations
The Baal cycle writes:
"Did I not tell Thee, O Prince Baal,
Nor declare, O Rider of Clouds?
'Lo, Thine enemies, O Baal,
Lo, Thine enemies wilt Thou smite
Lo, Thou wilt van quish Thy foes.
Thou wilt take Thine eternal kingdom;
Thine everlasting sovereignty!'"
The Laws
The Code of Hammurabi writes:
If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out....If he break another man's bone, his bone shall be broken. ... If a man knock out the teeth of his equal, his teeth shall be knocked out
I don't think I need to quote the Biblical equivalent here, given its fame. This is another case of 'same but different'. The Biblical equivalent is more 'equal rights' than the Code of Hammurabi, but it is clear that these forms influenced the format/structure of Israelite law making.
Lillith
Isaiah 34:14, HNV writes:
The wild animals of the desert shall meet with the wolves, and the wild goat shall cry to his fellow; yes, the Lilit shall settle there, and shall find her a place of rest.
Epic of Gilgamesh writes:
Then the Zu-bird flew into the mountains with its young,
while Lilith, petrified with fear, tore down her house and fled into the wilderness
Asherah
Asherah, a Canaanite goddess was worshipped by the Israelites too as a consort of Yahweh, "Queen of Heaven". William G. Dever, Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Archeology and Anthropology at the University of Arizona, writes that it seems to be the case that Monotheism was really only followed by the elite Israelites, whereas
Joe the gleaner would be plenty into folk religions. . The OT even confirms this to have been the case:
Jeremiah 7:18, NIV writes:
The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes of bread for the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke me to anger.
and
Jeremiah 44:17-19, NIV writes:
We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our fathers, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm.
But ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have had nothing and have been perishing by sword and famine."
The women added, "When we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did not our husbands know that we were making cakes like her image and pouring out drink offerings to her?"
Hopefully, that's a good enough start to at least present a fairly decent case that Israelite beliefs were influenced by their neighbours. There are other avenues of investigation, the forms of the Covenants and so on. But I'm happy with this as a start.
Edited by Modulous, : No reason given.
Edited by Modulous, : No reason given.
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