Introducing the Thesis Series: Genesis and Gilgamesh, Sargon and Moses
Part 0: An Introduction to Assyriology and Biblical Scholarship, and a Brief Problem Statement
Intriguing Texts, a Past Shrouded in Mystery
In Genesis 6-9, we meet Noah, a patriarch who survived the great Flood sent by God, by building the ark, according to God’s commandment, to house his family and all the various animals of the earth. Towards the end of the Epic of Gilgamesh, on the eleventh tablet, we hear about Utnapishtim, an ancient, immortalized man, who survived the great Flood sent by the gods, by building a grand boat with instructions from Ea, the god of Wisdom, and bringing with him his family, various craftsmen, precious metals, and animals of the earth.
In Exodus 1-2, we hear about Moses’ birth in Egypt to anonymous Levite parents, who must let him go due to the pharaoh’s orders to kill every newborn Hebrew boy. He is set upon the Nile in a pitched reed basket, discovered by the Pharao’s daughter, fetched by her servants, and raised by midwives before being adopted into the royal palace, eventually being chosen by God to lead his people out of Egypt, to freedom and greatness. In the Sargon Legend, we encounter Sargon, ancient king of Akkad, and hear of his birth to an unknown father and an anonymous high priestess, forbidden from bearing child. His mother sets him on the Euphrates in a pitched reed basket, and he is discovered by a gardener, raised in court, eventually being favoured by the goddess Ishtar, becoming a great king, and performing legendary deeds throughout his life.
Why are these texts examples so similar? This is the first part in a serialized version my master’s thesis, with which I graduated the Religious Roots of Europe programme, a collaborative Master’s between Copenhagen, Lund, and Oslo Universities, in June 2024. In this thesis series, Over the Deep and the Face of the Waters: A Recontextualization of the Study of Literary Parallels, Ancient Scholarship, and Conceptual Autonomies, I try to give an answer to the above question.
For the uninitiated reader, Assyriology refers very broadly to the study of ancient Mesopotamian (modern-day Iraq, more or less) history, and both Akkadian, Sumerian, as well as other ancient Near Eastern languages: Rather confusingly, the term can cover studies otherwise known as “Sumerology” and “Hittitology”, to mention a few, but even though it refers to the Assyrians, specifically, the study of Assyriology broadly refers to all of the above. Meanwhile “Biblical scholarship” is meant here to encompass Jewish studies, Rabbinic studies, Christian studies, Ecclesiology, and many other genres of historical-religious studies in the Hebrew Bible and the Gospels, as well as other associated literature, and their surrounding religious traditions.
As a closer look will reveal, not all is as it seems with our texts. Parallels between Biblical and ancient Mesopotamian literature have been noted and commented on since the decipherment of cuneiform back in the mid-late 1800s, both in religious communities, popular culture, and in academia. Yet the relationship between the disciplines that study these literary traditions, the various Biblical scholarships, and Assyriology, has been marked by strain, reservation, ideology, trauma, and even death and war. In this series, I show a way to re-approach these intriguing parallels, attempting to navigate the mistakes of past scholarship.
Each text has its own value, context, and autonomy, and we cannot simply rely on one to explain the other. I encourage a comparative approach which takes this realization seriously, while also taking seriously the parallels between the texts, as they can hardly be considered entirely coincidental. What I hope to show with this series, using the parallels in Genesis-Gilgamesh and Sargon-Moses as examples, is a more constructive way forward between the diverse disciplines of Assyriology and Biblical scholarship, and a suggestion for much closer collaboration and intimacy with each other’s methodologies, languages, and texts.
The series dives into the strained relationship between Assyriology and Biblical scholarship(s). I do so both to pinpoint what has made the relationship strained in the past, problems that persist to this day, and ways which we (Assyriologists, Biblical scholars, and the broad public, that is) can move forward in understanding the parallels between Biblical and Cuneiform literature together.
You can find all parts of this series (from 1-5) right here on my Substack!
Thank you for your time, I highly appreciate it!
This is very interesting!