Date of Award
2002
Document Type
Honors Thesis (Colby Access Only)
Department
Colby College. Religious Studies Dept.
Advisor(s)
(unknown)
Abstract
The history of Israel is intrinsically entwined with the histories of its neighboring countries: Abraham came from Dr, Sarah from Haran, and Moses from Egypt Israel as a country politically, religiously and culturally interacted with: the Hittites, the Edomites, the Moabites, the Philistines, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Persians as well as many other cultures. As a result, Israel although very concerned with the purity of its ethnic line and religion, shared many similarities in its literature with the writings of these neighbors. The creation story, the deluge story, the exposure of the infant Moses, and attempts at monotheism, as well as many other aspects of the Hebrew Bible find parallels in the histories, legends and myths of Israel's neighbors. Discrepancies reflecting the individual identities of these various cultures exist as well, such as Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem according to Sennacherib's annals of 701 B.C. versus the Biblical account in 2nd Kings.
Keywords
Israelites, Near Eastern Texts, Hebrew Bible
Recommended Citation
Stephanson, Ashley, "A study of ancient Near Eastern texts in relation to the Hebrew Bible" (2002). Honors Theses. Paper 540.https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/honorstheses/540
Copyright
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