[Rob112586]

I’m very interested in Sumerian mythology, especially considering a decent amount of Babylonian and Judaic/Christian mythology descends from it. And in the surviving Sumerian texts and stone seals, the God(s) created “Atom/Adom” from clay as the first perfect human in the image of the God(s). I wonder if this was the basis for the Torrah’s creation story.

Also, the Epic of Gilgamesh shares many parralels with the Noah’s Ark story.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Years ago a friend of mine, Edith Black, who was then a graduate student in ancient Near Eastern languages at Berkeley, told me that Sumeerian and Babnylonian stories, the Epic of Gilgamesh, etc. were in fact source materials for the related accounts in the Torah, specifically in thr fst 11 chapters of Genesis, BUT this is not a matter of mere lytranscribing into a different language and cultural context, but a subversive retelling.

For instance, in other Middle astern literature, the Tower of Babel was a glorious achievement; the Hebrews re-tell the story as a satire, almost as a farce, showing the futility of Babylonian "greatness."

The Creation account in Genesis resembles that of othr Middle Eastern literature, except that all of the stages of creation are emphatically described as "good" and "very good," culminating in the creation of Adam -- a peak moment, when Adam is described as being the "image and likeness" of God, and his wife Eve being of identical nature ("bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh") and a "suitable helper," conveying a kind of "matching" quality or symmetry.

The upshot was, if you compare the texts and isolate the differences or contrasts, at every point it's the contrasts which convey the message the Torah is designed to convey.

If you want to know more about this, you might try contacting her through Catholics for the Common Good: as I remember, she's on the steering committee.