Amazon.com: The Babylonian Genesis: The Story of Creation: Alexander Heidel: Books

Product Description

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.

About the Author

Alexander Heidel was at the time of his death in 1955 on the research staff of the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago.

Product Details

Paperback: 153 pages
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 2 edition (September 15, 1963)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0226323994
ISBN-13: 978-0226323992
Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #304,321 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
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#57 in Books > History > Ancient > Assyria, Babylonia & Sumer

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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
OF ALL the Semitic inscriptions composed in cuneiform writing few have awakened as great a general interest as the epic known among the Babylonians and Assyrians as Enuma elish ("When above"), which takes its name from the opening words of the poem. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
tortuous serpent, holy incantation, seven tablets, fleeing serpent, captive gods, bilingual version, ingenious things, monster serpents, resting day, fifty names, divine blood, watery chaos, cuneiform texts

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Old Testament, New York, Ras Shamra, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, The Seven Tablets of Creation, Court of Assembly, New Haven, Book of Genesis, Gilgamesh Epic, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Lord God, Erich Ebeling, Hebrew Grammar, New Year, Persian Gulf, Red Sea, British Museum, First Babylonian Dynasty, The Babylonian Epic of Creation, The Origin of Biblical Traditions, Alexander Polyhistor, Altorientalische Texte, Das Buch Hiob, Douglas van Buren, George Smith

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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

Citations (learn more)

This book cites 17 books:

Sumerian Mythology by Samuel Noah Kramer on page 12, page 88, and page 118
The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man: An Essay of Speculative Thought in the Ancient Near East (Oriental Institute Essays) by Henri Frankfort on page 10, and page 115
Legends of Babylon and Egypt by Leonard W. King on page 71, and Back Matter
Seven Tablets of Creation (Luzac's Semitic Text and Translation Series, No 12 & 13) by Enuma Elish on page 2, and page 12
Legends of Babylon and Egypt in Relation to Hebrew Tradition by Leonard W. King on page 71, and Back Matter

See all 17 books this book cites

100 books cite this book:

Creation and the Persistence of Evil by Jon D. Levenson on 7 pages
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Mythos im Alten Testament: Bestimmung des Mythosbegriffs und Untersuchung der mythischen Elemente in den Psalmen (Beiheft zur Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft) (German Edition) by Claus Petersen on 4 pages
On the Book of Psalms: Exploring the Prayers of Ancient Israel by Nahum M. Sarna on 4 pages

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	74% buy the item featured on this page: The Babylonian Genesis: The Story of Creation 3.5 out of 5 stars (2) $12.60
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3.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)

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42 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good overview for the uninitiated., July 21, 1999

By	Jonathan Bailey (Lawton, OK USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The book is not intended for students of Akkadian as there is no cuneiform or transcripted Akkadian. Everything is in translation. The book centers around the Enuma Elish (the biggest creation account), but has many other smaller creation legends. There is a synopsis of the Elish as well as various theories about its dating, composition, etc. There is also a lengthy (58 page) article showing parallels to the Old Testament creation account. The author does a good job of being objective, but leans toward showing the uniqueness of the Genesis account and contrasts it quite a bit against the remaining semitic literature.

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23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Excellent translations marred by apologetics in the commentary, December 28, 2005

By	Rob (USA) - See all my reviews

On the one hand, this book contains readable, scholarly translations of various Mesopotamian myths- "Enuma Elish", "Adapa and the South Wind", "The Slaying of the Lion", and several others. While I don't know Akkadian, the translations appear to be very thorough. In places where the text is missing, this is indicated by a gap, rather than simply ignored or even "filled in" as it is in many of the more popular (read: for the layman) translations of these myths.

On the other hand, as the author himself writes in his introduction, the purpose of this book is not primarily for those interested in Assyriology, but for the use of "the Old Testament scholar and the Christian minister." This dissapointed me, as this is not mentioned at all on the back cover, and I was expecting a book that would be accessible to an amateur Assyriology enthusiast like myself; what I got was essentially a translation followed by a Christian apologetic. As someone who also happens to be interested in the Near Eastern background of Hebrew thought, I was well aware of the biblical myth of the Leviathan and its connection to the Marduk-Tiamat combat motif found throughout Ancient Near Eastern literature. In his commentary to the Enuma Elish however, the author often goes to ridiculous lengths in order to remove this story from the Bible- the various biblical passages that refer to Yahweh slaying the Leviathan in the context of Creation are not to be taken at face value, he says; rather, they are mere metaphors for the story of the crossing of the Red Sea. The evidence used to support this point is typical apologetic wordplay and hocus-pocus: the author posits that because Egypt is identified poetically with the Leviathan in one instance, we should extend this poetic interpretation to ALL mentions of the Leviathan. In the instances where the Leviathan's status as a large animal cannot be denied even by the most acrobatic apologetics (as in Job 41), the author claims that it is a description of a crocodile, apparently interpreting the reference to it breathing fire as another "metaphor." The author refers to the opening chapters of Genesis as "free from all mythological references", and takes theological statements from the New Testament and retroactively assumes that the authors of the Old Testament shared the same theology. Sympathetic references to the doctrine of Biblical Inerrancy are found throughout the commentary, and the Babylonians' "crude" polytheism is constantly contrasted with the Bible's "philosophical" monotheism. In one instance where the author dares to suggest that the Bible is referencing a common superstition of the time (Job 3), he is quick to point out that this is Job (a non-Israelite) talking, not the Bible. He is apparently unable to entertain the idea that the Bible is a product of the world it was written in. Maybe this was considered a respectable academic position in the '40s, but not now.

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