Near Eastern Mythology

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Near Eastern Mythology
The Near East — Mesopotamia, Syria and Palestine — has often been called the cradle of civilisation; and between 3000 BC and 500 BC, its peoples, notably the Sumerians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Canaan-ites and the Jews, developed a rich and interconnected series of beliefs.
The Mesopotamians and Canaanites worshipped many gods, the Jews only one. But there are close resemblances between, for example, the Mesopotamian god Enlil and the Canaanite Baal: both were champions of Order against Chaos. And the famous Mesopotamian hero Gilgamesh encountered the story of a flood very similar to the Flood in Genesis
Professor John Gray recounts these separate traditions and explores the links between them. He seeks out the historical facts behind... Tovább

Fülszöveg

m\ vii'
11 r' r'l


yMi'lVi!''':.
II
- ''I'l ¦¦ I I '' ll I
I I''/ ' '
r , V' ' i- i.
ll' 1,'i -Ir-
I
i i'i ^
¦ 'i I !i i'.
h r , ;
ii!'- V i'V'/v' '(!in''
,'ir" I'rii i;'', ) i,,
11
Near Eastern Mythology
The Near East — Mesopotamia, Syria and Palestine — has often been called the cradle of civilisation; and between 3000 BC and 500 BC, its peoples, notably the Sumerians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Canaan-ites and the Jews, developed a rich and interconnected series of beliefs.
The Mesopotamians and Canaanites worshipped many gods, the Jews only one. But there are close resemblances between, for example, the Mesopotamian god Enlil and the Canaanite Baal: both were champions of Order against Chaos. And the famous Mesopotamian hero Gilgamesh encountered the story of a flood very similar to the Flood in Genesis
Professor John Gray recounts these separate traditions and explores the links between them. He seeks out the historical facts behind well-known stories such as the exploits of Samson and the dehverance of the Israelites from Egypt, and he traces the developing relationship of the human and divine kings in these different cultures.
John Gray was born at Kelso, Roxburghshire, in 1913. He took his M.A., B.D., and Ph.D. degrees at Edinburgh University and was awarded the honorary degree of D.D. by the University of St Andrews in 1979. From 1936 to 1937 he visited the Near East as Blackie Travelling Fellow of Edinburgh University. From 1939 to 1941 he served as Colonial Chaplain and Chaplain to the Palestine Police. He returned to Scotland to become a Minister of the Church of Scotland in the Isle of Arran. In 1947 he became Assistant Lecturer and subsequently Lecturer in Semitic Languages and Literature in the University of Manchester In 1952 he became Lecturer in Hebrew and Bibhcal Criticism at the University of Aberdeen, and was appointed Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages in 1962 and retired in 1980. He has five children and lives near Kelso.
Professor Gray has also written The Keret Text in the Literature of Ras Shamra (1955), The Legacy of Canaan (1957), Archaeology and the Old Testament World (1962), / and II Kings (1964), The Canaanites (1964), Joshua, Judges and Ruth (1967), History of Jerusalem (1969) and The Biblical Doarine of the Reign of God (1979).
Front cover illustration: Phoenician ivory head, possibly of Ishtar from Nimrud. Iraq Museum, Baghdad. Photograph: Hirmer Verlag, Munich.
Back cover illustration: The Tree of Life motif from the royal graves at Ur. British Museum, London. Photograph: Michael Holford, Loughton. Vissza