Comparing Groups

Hebrew Bible Ancient Near East

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Explore the connections between the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near East in an interactive visualization.

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290 Connections Found

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Genesis

Genesis 1:2 / Enuma Elish I Genesis 1:3 / The Memphite Theology Genesis 1:6 / Enuma Elish IV Genesis 1:6 / Song of the Hoe Genesis 1:14 / Enuma Elish V Genesis 1:21 / Enuma Elish IV Genesis 1:26 / The Creation of the King Genesis 1:28 / Atrahasis Genesis 1:30 / Great Hymn to the Aten Genesis 1:31 / The Memphite Theology Genesis 2:2 / The Baal Cycle Genesis 2:2 / Enuma Elish VI Genesis 2:7 / Atrahasis Genesis 2:7 / Eridu Genesis Genesis 2:7 / Epic of Gilgamesh I Genesis 2:8 / Epic of Gilgamesh V Genesis 2:15 / Atrahasis Genesis 3:1 / Coffin Texts Spell 714 Genesis 3:14 / Epic of Gilgamesh XI Genesis 3:14 / Book of Overthrowing Apophis Genesis 3:14 / Pyramid Texts Spell 204 Genesis 3:22 / Epic of Gilgamesh I Genesis 3:22 / Adapa and the South Wind Genesis 4:2 / Sumerian King List 1:6 Genesis 4:22 / KTU 1.1 Genesis 5:1 / Sumerian King List 1:1 Genesis 5:21 / Sumerian King List 1:8 Genesis 5:24 / Adapa and the South Wind 4 Genesis 5:28 / Sumerian King List 1:9 Genesis 6:2 / KTU 1.23:88 Genesis 6:13 / Eridu Genesis Genesis 6:13 / Atrahasis Genesis 6:14 / Atrahasis Genesis 6:14 / Epic of Gilgamesh XI Genesis 7:1 / Epic of Gilgamesh XI Genesis 7:1 / Atrahasis Genesis 7:3 / Eridu Genesis Genesis 7:8 / Atrahasis Genesis 7:10 / Eridu Genesis Genesis 7:10 / Atrahasis Genesis 7:11 / Epic of Gilgamesh VI Genesis 7:16 / Atrahasis Genesis 7:17 / Sumerian King List 1:11 Genesis 7:19 / The Sargon Geography Genesis 8:4 / Epic of Gilgamesh XI Genesis 8:7 / Epic of Gilgamesh XI Genesis 8:9 / The Sargon Geography Genesis 8:21 / Epic of Gilgamesh XI Genesis 8:21 / Atrahasis Genesis 9:13 / Enuma Elish VI Genesis 9:13 / Atrahasis Genesis 9:15 / Epic of Gilgamesh XI Genesis 10:5 / The Baal Cycle Genesis 11:1 / Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta Genesis 11:4 / Summa Alu 1 Genesis 14:19 / KAI 26.iii Genesis 15:2 / Legend of Keret Genesis 16:2 / Code of Hammurabi Genesis 18:10 / Legend of Keret Genesis 25:25 / Epic of Gilgamesh I Genesis 27:4 / Legend of Keret Genesis 28:12 / Legend of Keret Genesis 49:25 / KTU 1.17 Genesis 49:25 / KTU 1.23 Genesis 49:25 / Legend of Keret Genesis 49:25 / Legend of Keret Genesis 49:25 / Kuntillet Ajrud Inscriptions

Ancient Near Eastern Literature and the Hebrew Bible

Classical and Near Eastern parallels have been used to illuminate the biblical text for as long as there have been biblical studies. Already according to Philo Judaeus, writing in Greek and living in the shadow of the great Greek library of Alexandria in the first half century of the Common Era, Abraham "becomes a speculative philosopher," a role-model for the sect of Jewish ascetics that he described as Therapeutae. Nine centuries later, Saadiah Gaon, likewise born in Egypt but living in the equally stimulating atmosphere of Abbasid Baghdad, freely employed his knowledge of Arabic to solve cruces of Biblical Hebrew. But it again took almost another millennium before biblical names, words, and themes, were to be juxtaposed, not just to those of the contemporary world, but to those long lost to sight and mind in the buried cities of the past.

... the combination of an intertextual and a contextual approach to biblical literature holds out the promise that this millennial corpus will continue to yield new meanings on all levels: the meaning that it holds for ourselves in our own contemporary context, the meanings it has held for readers, worshippers, artists and others in the two millennia and more since the close of the canon; the meaning that it held for its own authors and the audiences of their times; and finally the meanings that it held when it was part of an earlier literary corpus.
Hallo, William W. The Context of Scripture: Canonical Compositions from the Biblical World (pp. xxv-xxviii) Brill, 2003

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