The Old Testament Myth Or Truth Essay

, Research Paper

The Old Testament is a compilation, and like every compilation it has a wide variety of contributors who have their individual influence upon the final work. Today, thanks to the rediscovery of (ancient) literature, it is possible to recognize that the Old Testament is in fact saturated with the popular lore of the Ancient Near East 1 I will enumerate the influences these cultures had on what we now know as the Old Testament.

Each culture that existed before and during the writing of the Old Testament lent their own specific myths and some myths that were common to all cultures such as the creation of the Earth. We see in the Bible that each of these cultures has given to it a myth of their own, whether the writers of the Bible use them as references or the basis to some of their tales is unknown; but one can see the parallels from the very beginning. First, one has to understand the people of the era of which we are talking about.

To get a clear picture of the way the Book of Genesis may have been formed, we must place it somewhere in time, and then define the cultures of that time. The influences must be explained, and then we may draw our conclusions. If we trace back to the first appearance of the Bible in written form, in its earliest translation, we arrive at approximately 450 B.C. Two texts, components of the Pentateuch referred to as AJ@ and @E@ texts, can be traced to around 650 B.C. The AJ@ texts refer to Yahweh texts, characterized by the use of the word AYahweh@ or ALord@ in accounts; the AE@ texts refer to Elohist texts, which use @Elohim@, in its references to God. But 650 B.C. isn’t our oldest reference to the AJ@ and AE@ texts; they can be traced, along with the other three strands of the Pentateuch, to at least 1000 B.C. However, our first compilation of these strands existed in 650 B.C. Here, with the AJ@ and AE@ texts, is where one can start to piece together the different coinciding stories of the Bible.

We have evidence of an Israelite tribe, the Benjamites, in Babylonian texts. The Benjamites were nomads on the frontier of its boundaries, and certainly came in contact with Babylonian ideas: culture, religion, and ethics. The early tribes of Israel were nomadic, taking with them the early traditions, according to external influences. The message remained constant, but the context would subtly change. In addition to the Benjamites in Mesopotamia, there were tribes of Israel in Egypt during the Egyptian Middle Kingdom period, which certainly exposed these people to Egyptian culture as well as Babylonian culture as a result of trade between the two kingdoms.

We can begin to understand the relationships with the father of the Hebrew people, Abraham. We can deduce when he lived, and find that he lived around 1900 B.C. in ancient Mesopotamia. If we take a look at his world and its culture, we may find the reasons behind certain references in Genesis, and the mythologies they resemble. The First Babylonian Dynasty had begun around 1950 B.C. and would last well into the late 16th century B.C. The Babylonians had just conquered a land previously under the control of the Assyrians, and before that, the Sumerians. Abraham had lived during a time of great prosperity and a remarkably advanced culture. He was initially believed to have come from the city of Ur, as given in the Bible as “…the Ur of Chaldees”. Earlier translations read, however, simply “…Land of the Chaldees”; later, it was deduced that Abraham had come from a city called Haran. AThe book of Genesis tells how Abraham…going up the Euphrates as far as Haran…@2 In any case, he lived in a thriving and prosperous world. Homes were comfortable, even luxurious. Copies of hymns were found next to mathematical tablets detailing formulae for extracting square and cube roots. The level of sophistication four thousand years ago is remarkable. There is Aa well known sculpture…showing two arms raised in prayer…@3 Through this and other pieces of artwork, one can deduce that it was a relatively stable and peaceful society; its art is characterized by the absence of any warlike activity.

Having placed Abraham and certain early Semites in this time, one can now examine the culture they would have known. In addition to Babylonian influence, look at the following taken from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, which can be traced back to 3000 B.C.: “I am Re.. I am the great god who came into being by himself…”4 Compare that to the familiar “I am who I am.” The similarities between the two are of secondary importance, however; through this we now begin to see the deviations between the Old Testament and other earlier texts.

It is no surprise, then, that there exists certain parallels between the Enuma Elish, the Babylonian view of the creation of the world, and the Book of Genesis, the first part of the Pentateuch section of the Bible. In fact, arguments may be made that other Near Eastern texts, particularly Sumerian, have had their influences upon Biblical texts. The extent of this ‘borrowing’, as it were, is not limited to the Bible; the Enuma Elish has its own roots in Sumerian mythology, predating it by nearly a thousand years. This epic of creation starts out Athat in the beginning, when there was neither heaven nor earth…@5 Notice that this is the same opening used in Genesis. This is where the similarities between the two texts begin.

The Babylo