The Babylonian Genesis: The Story of Creation

Here is a complete translation of all the published cuneiform tablets of the various Babylonian creation stories, of both the Semitic Babylonian and the Sumerian material. Each creation account is preceded by a brief introduction dealing with the age and provenance of the tablets, the aim and purpose of the story, etc. Also included is a translation and discussion of two Babylonian creation versions written in Greek. The final chapter presents a detailed examination of the Babylonian creation accounts in their relation to our Old Testament literature.

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LibraryThing member _Zoe_

To say that this is not the most exciting book I've ever read would be a vast understatement; when I was only 30 pages from the end, I put it down for two weeks because I just didn't care enough to go on.

The premise sounds interesting enough: this is a collection of Babylonian creation stories in

translation, accompanied by "a detailed examination of the Babylonian creation accounts in their relation to our Old Testament literature". The creation stories themselves were certainly worth reading, if a bit repetitive and dry at times. But the comparison to the Old Testament was not at all what I had expected. I had mistakenly supposed that the focus would be on similarities between the Babylonian and Biblical accounts, and I find that unexpected connections between different cultures are always interesting to read about. Unfortunately, though, the emphasis here was mostly on differences. We would be presented with some details from the Babylonian story, followed by some details from the Biblical story, and told how the two were different. This was repeated several times, and it just didn't make for an engaging narrative.

There was some discussion at the end of structural similarities, but this had too much of a Christian emphasis to really appeal to me. One of the "problems" with the theory that the Bible might have been influenced by the Babylonian Enuma Elish was that this might contradict the doctrine of divine inspiration which "is, of course, indisputably taught in Scripture". So, Heidel explained how the concept divine inspiration could be understood in a way that would allow this influence. I'm just not concerning with reconciling history with the Bible; I wanted to know the historical facts on their own.

I don't mean to say that this is a bad book, just that I don't fit into its intended audience. If I had read the introduction rather than only the back cover before purchasing the book, I would have seen that it was intended for the "Old Testament scholar and the Christian minister". These are the people who might care most about preserving traditional views of the Bible in the light of fairly recently-discovered Near Eastern texts, and I'm just not one of them. Anyone who's interested more in the Near Eastern texts themselves can probably find a more appropriate and more recent book; this one is almost sixty years old. I don't know of any alternatives to recommend, but I can't recommend this one.

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LibraryThing member keylawk

The Old Testament is not an isolated body of literature. It has so many parallels in the literature of the nations surrounding Israel, that it is impossible to write scientifically about the Hebrews without including the history of their neighbors [v].
This book is intended for the OT scholar and

Christian minister [v]. There are no "linguistic" discussions. This is for those seeking to expound "Holy Writ".

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LibraryThing member deusvitae

A translation of the Babylonian creation epic Enuma Elish along with explanatory notes, additional creation stories found in Mesopotamia, and a thoroughgoing analysis of the comparison between the Babylonian stories and the Biblical story of creation.

The author provides a suprisingly robust defense

of the Biblical creation narrative as being quite distinct from Enuma elish, more different than alike, in contrast to the standard "scholarly" view of the Biblical story as derivative of and yet polemical against the Babylonian tale.

A good resource for the Babylonian creation story and in terms of the comparison and contrast with the Biblical creation narrative.

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