How Mesopotamian Myths Shaped the Hebrew Bible with Joshua Bowen

What Mesopotamian texts influenced the Hebrew Bible? Dr. Joshua Bowen from Digital Hammurabi joins us to compare ancient Near Eastern literature—including the Atrahasis, the Code of Hammurabi, and other Mesopotamian myths—with the biblical text. We explore textual dependence, shared motifs, internal tensions, and what these parallels reveal about the Bible’s development.

📺 Check out Digital Hammurabi on YouTube

👉 Dr. Bowen helps us explore:

– How to think about textual dependence

– What kinds of Mesopotamian texts influenced the Bible

– What questions you should ask about the Bible's use of other texts

🔗 Resources & Links

– ETCSL (The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature)

– ORACC (Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus)

– Learn to Read Ancient Hebrew: An Introduction for Complete Beginnersby Joshua Bowen

– Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literatureby Benjamin Foster (for Akkadian literature)

– The Harps that Once...: Sumerian Poetry in Translation Paperback by Thorkild Jacobsen

– The Literature of Ancient Sumer

– Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others by Stephanie Dalley

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🎙️ Credits

Guest: Dr. Joshua Bowen

Hosted by Dr. Jordan Jones

Edited by Mary Kathryn Lichty

The Bible & Archaeology podcast is made with support from Amanda Stone

Bible & Archaeology is a University of Iowa production. The views and opinions expressed on Bible & Archaeology belong solely to the individuals who share them. They do not represent the positions of the University of Iowa or the State of Iowa.