The Pan-Babylonism Myth — General

Discussion

Bill T. Arnold & David B. Wiseberg, “Babel and Bibel un Bias. How Anti-Semitism Distorted Friedrich Delitzsch’s Scholarship,” Bible Review 18.1 (2002)

• How does the article title relate to pan-babylonism?
• From what did Delitzsch’s thinking derive?
  • Cuneiform has been deciphered
    • Bible copied from Babylonian sources
  • Heiser: “Extrapolating beyond the necessary”
  • Arian - Hitler’s Monster
  • Theosophist - human race from divine origin
  • Higher criticism - removed Moses entirely (JEDP)
  • Germany was the leading intellectual center

W.G. Lambert, “A new look at the Babylonian Background of Genesis,” The Journal of Theological Studies (1965): 287-300

A.R. Millard, “A New Babylonian ‘Genesis’ Story,” Tyndale Bulletin 18 (1967): 3-18

• If it doesn’t make sense within Mesopotamian, how does it make sense outside?
• They could have got access to the material
• How do we define “borrowing” and “dependence”?
  • In view of the strong similarities (at points) between the creation story of Genesis and Babylonian (and other ANE) material, as well as the clear differences (at points), how should we think about “borrowing” and “dependence” in regard to the biblical writers?
  • Plagiarism is a cultural convention
  • Common knowledge
  • Enūma Eliš attribute to Marduk deeds from other creation myths gods
  • Religious and theological competition

General Questions

Is “plagiarism” a coherent term to describe the similarities?

• On what does the coherence of this question turn or depend?
• Need to dip into other cultures and traditions to make the comparisons

Hurowitz (bonus!) …Leading to the key question

Egyptian

A.H. Sayce believed that the sequence of events described in gen. 1:1-13 was just like that of the Hermopolitan doctrine of creation:

• Framing the discussion
• Controlling the vocabulary