Below is from the slides presented by Dr. Joel Baden in Lecture 3 of his course at BSA titled The Hebrew Bible Exploring the Literature of Ancient Israel.
Slide 8
Wisdom of Amenemope (13th c. BCE)Do not move the markers on the borders of fields…nor
encroach on the boundaries of a widow.
Proverbs 23:10 Do not remove ancient boundary stones, Do not encroach upon the field of orphans.
Slide 9
Ugaritic Ritual Text (14th c. BCE) On the 13th of the month the king will wash himself clean
[and offer]…two rams… two birds…a ram, a jar of oil…a bull…an ewe as a burnt offering, and
as a peace offering, two ewes…full jars of grain and emmer…oil perfumed with
myrrh…honey, kidneys, and a dove…jars of wine, half a measure of flour.
Slide 10
Hittite Laws (17th c. BCE)If anyone injures a free man’s head, he shall provide medical care for him. In his place he shall provide a person to work on his estate until he recovers.
Exod 21:18-19 When men quarrel and one strikes the other…the assailant shall go unpunished, except that he must pay for his idleness and his cure.
Slide 11
Atra-Hasis (18th c. BCE) Flee the house, build a boat, forsake possessions and save life…
Slide 12
The Birth Legend of Sargon of Akkad (ca. 23rd c. BCE) My mother the high priestess conceived me, she bore me in secret. She placed me in a reed basket, she sealed my hatch with pitch. She left me to the river, whence I could not come up.
Slide 13
Gezer Calendar (10th c. BCE) Two months of ingathering.Two months of sowing. Two months of late planting. A month of flax harvest. A month of barley harvest. A month of harvesting and measuring. Two months of pruning. A month of summer fruit.
Slide 14
Bible/Babel
Slide 15
Enuma Elish I:3-6 Primeval Apsu was their progenitor, and matrix-Tiamat was she who bore them all; they were mingling their waters together, no cane brake was intertwined nor thicket matted close.
Gen 1:2…the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the waters…
Slide 16
Enuma Elish I:3-6 Primeval Apsu was their progenitor, and matrix-Tiamat was she who bore them all; they were mingling their waters together, no cane brake was intertwined nor thicket matted close.
Gen 1:2…the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep (T’hom) and a wind from God sweeping over the waters…
Slide 17
Enuma Elish IV:129 The Lord trampled upon the frame of Tiamat.
Isa 51:10It was you that dried up the Sea, the waters of the great deep (T’hom).
Slide 18
Enuma Elish IV:25-26 He commanded and at his word the constellation was destroyed, he commanded again and the constellation was created anew.
Gen 1:3 God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
Slide 19
Enuma Elish IV:137-38 He split her in two, like a fish for drying. Half of her he set up and made as a cover, heaven.
Gen 1:7-8 God made the expanse, and it separated the water which was below the expanse from the water which was above the expanse. And it was so. God called the expanse Heaven.
Slide 20
Enuma Elish V:1-2 He made the positions for the great gods, he established in constellations
the stars, their likenesses.
Gen 1:14 God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate day from night.”
Slide 21
Enuma Elish V:3-4He marked the year, described its boundaries, he set up twelve months of
three stars each.Gen 1:14“They shall serve as signs for the set times, the days and the
years.”
Slide 22
Enuma Elish VI:5-7I shall compact blood, I shall cause bones to be, I shall make stand a
human being, let “Man” be its name. I shall create humankind.Gen 1:26God said, “Let us
make man.”
Slide 23
Enuma Elish VI:9-10I shall artfully double the ways of the gods: let them be honored as one
but divided in twain.Gen 1:26God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”
