Language:
English
Year of publication:
2020
Titel der Quelle:
Studies in Ancient Persia and the Achaemenid Period
Angaben zur Quelle:
(2020) 158-174
Keywords:
Nabonidus,
;
Bible. Comparative studies
;
Assyro-Babylonian literature Relation to the Bible
;
Cylinder seals
Abstract:
Until the nineteenth century, historical understanding of the Near East was limited to two main sources: the Bible (mainly the Old Testament) and the classical sources (Greek and Roman). After the remarkable archaeological discoveries of the nineteenth century and the decipherment of cuneiform scripts, more textual evidence came to light, which unlike the Bible and classical sources contained first-hand evidence. The increasing number of new texts containing a huge amount of information quickly exceeded the number of previous sources. This sudden expansion of ancient historical knowledge led to a rewriting of the history of the Ancient Near East using the newly found sources. The scholars who translated the texts were astonished to find parallels with the Old Testament stories in the tablets. This was particularly so after George Smith (1840-76) identified the story of the Flood amongst the newly found cuneiform documents. It confirmed the idea of such a connection and brought the sources to the attention of the scholarly world and to the general public. The so-called Epic of Creation tablet, with surprising similarities to some parts of Genesis, was another example that drew more attention to the Biblical link with these texts. The newly found sources were apparently much older than the Old Testament, which created even more excitement amongst the public and scholars about a possible connection.
DOI:
10.2307/j.ctv10vm0td.11
URL:
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