This is a steal, folks - especially if you can work in Akkadian. But even if not, Andrew George's magisterial work on the Gilgamesh Epic is a must. It's the most current scholarship on the original cuneiform text. The file features tablet transcriptions,...
Genesis
Historical Adam and Genetic Adam and Eve: Update
In light of the discussion on this blog some time ago about recent research in human genetics and the historical Adam, I thought readers might find two recent items on "genetic Adam and Eve" of interest. "Genetic" Adam and Eve Could Have Been Contemporaries?...
The Errancy and Inerrancy Problem Illustrated: The Case of Genesis 48:21-22
I was recently received a question about inerrancy from a student in my MEMRA institute. Readers here know I've spent a lot of time on that subject (see the archived page). My short answer was that the difficulty in talking about inerrancy and errancy is defining what...
Genesis 1 and Creationism
I'll be presenting this topic in church next month, so this powerpoint video is a warm-up of sorts. It's one the *real* issue in Genesis 1 with respect to the "timing" of creation: the clause structure. You probably just yawned, I know. But a majority of you asked...
Serpent and Eve PaleoBabble FollowUp
Some of you may have noticed that there has been recent discussion on this thread on the PaleoBabble site. Apparently someone who desperately wants to say the serpent and Eve had sex to (not sure) defend Zecharia Sitchin or some sort of sexual activity between...
Does Hebrew bara’ Mean “to Spatially Separate” Instead of “Create”?
That's the contention of Dr. Ellen van Wolde. The problems in translation and interpretation in Genesis 1:1-3 are well known to Hebraists, but it's rare for any of them to claim that the Bible teaches that God did *not* create matter, which Dr. van Wolde claims as a...
Nimrod Mythology
Spend any time on the internet (especially Christian sites) and you're bound to run into a pile of PaleoBabble about Nimrod, a character mentioned only in Genesis 10:8-9; 1 Chron. 1:10 (repeats Genesis 10:8); and Micah 5:6 (reference to the "land of Nimrod"). Here are...
Why Sodom and Gomorrah are Not Located at Tall al-Hamman
Todd Bolen at the Bible Places blog begins his post on this issue this way: "The proposal that Sodom has been found on the northeastern side of the Dead Sea has been around for a decade or so, but with the publication of an article by Steven Collins this month it...
Syriac E-Sources
If there are any out there who like Syriac, this is pretty cool. I'm actually not one of them. I actually suggested that it be removed from my graduate program in favor of Akkadian and more Ugaritic. The reason is that languages and literature pre-dating or...