Israel and Babylon

Description

Friedrich Delitzsch's famous "Babel and Bible" lecture of 1902 argued that many Old Testament writings, including the stories of the Creation and the Deluge, were borrowings from more ancient Babylonian tales. These claims provoked much heated discussion throughout the world of biblical studies in Europe and North America, including this response by the noted Old Testament scholar and pioneer of form criticism Hermann Gunkel. Originally published in 1903, this searing critique of Delitzsch provides an alternative analysis of the relationship between ancient Israel and Babylon. In K.C. Hanson's revised edition, Gunkel's original work is freshly translated, and includes a new foreword, notes, bibliographies and indexes. The new translation is a result of Hanson's enduring interest in Gunkel's writing and the deficits in the original translation, most notably the misconstrued meanings of some German idioms and the addition of the previous translator's personal views. Although Hanson is careful to place Gunkel's work in the context of the historical debate, Israel and Babylon remains an important contribution to the literature on the relationship of Mesopotamia and ancient Israel, and this new version will be invaluable to students and scholars in the field of Mesopotamian and biblical studies.