The Bible Was Not Stolen from the Babylonians

02The History Channel,  famous for airing stories from Ancient Alien Theorists who surmise man was created with alien DNA, also likes to share its revised history of the  Bible and Christianity in general – much of which is ridiculous.  I especially “enjoyed” one show (whose title I can not recall) that claimed  the bible’s creation story was simply stolen from the Babylonians and Assyrians.

That particular myth goes back to 1902, when  German scholar Friedrich Delitzsch  gave a lecture to the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft in Berlin  entitled “Babel und Bibel” (“Babylon and Bible”), in which he alleged that much  of the material in Genesis was merely borrowed from Babylonian mythology,  reworked by unknown Hebrew authors during the Babylonian Exile. So began what  has become a scholarly tradition, repeated ad infinitum to  this day, that the Genesis creation story, for example, was merely adapted from  the Babylonian Enuma Elish

In truth, the Enuma Elish, often misnamed the Babylonian Creation story, is extant in 7 tablets, the greater part from the Great Library of Assurbaanipal in Nineveh.  Since much of the tablets are fragmentary, the interpretation of them remain incomplete.

For your amusement I offer a general outline of the Babylonian creation story:

Apsu, the freshwater ocean male deity, mates with Ti’amat, the saltwater ocean  goddess, yielding offspring which are a host of lesser deities representing  various aspects of nature.   Apsu becomes irritated with their noise and  resolves to destroy them, but he fails, and is killed by Ea the god of wisdom, who in turn fathers the god Marduk.  Ti’amat then becomes enraged and gives birth to a host of dragons to fight Marduk.  Not intimated by Ti’amat’s threats, he gathers the other gods in a great banquet and they resolve to war with Ti’amat. 

A great war erupts, from which Marduk emerges victorious by  killing Ti’amat. He first splits Ti’amat’s skull open with his mace, and then  splits her whole body. The upper half he makes into the sky; the lower half into  the earth. From this chaos comes order: the sun, moon, and stars appear, and the  calendar is formed.

Yep, sure sounds like the Book of Genesis to me. 

The Bible has been under constant  attack by scientific and philosophical skeptics of all sorts, some even professing to be Christian. Most question  Moses and his authorship of the Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy).   Seminary courses, theology books, introductions to the Pentateuch and the secular media have promoted the man-made lie  that Moses did not write these books even though he is credited with the Torah in numerous places throughout the Old Testament:  Exodus 17:14, 24:4 and 34:27; Numbers 33:1-2; Deuteronomy 31:9-11; Joshua 1:8 and 8:31-32; 1Kings 2:3, 11Kings 14:6, Ezra 6:18; Nehemiah 13:1; Daniel 9:11-13; Proverbs 1:7 and Malachi 4:4.

In the New Testament, Christ told the leper (Matt: 8:14) to show himself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a testimony.  In Mark 12:26 Christ asked “have you not read in the book of Moses. . .”.   Christ said in Luke 16:3l “if they hear not Moses and the prophets. . .”.  And in Luke 24:44 Christ again  mentions the writings of Moses and the prophets.  In John 5:45 Christ referenced the book of Deuteronomy “there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom you trust.”  In John 7:22 Christ said that Moses gave you circumcision. . .”

Mose was raised and educated in the Egyptian court and was an eyewitness to the events recorded in Exodus to Deuteronomy, which contain many references  to Egyptian names of places, people, and gods, as well as Egyptian words, idioms, and cultural factors. And, as a prophet of God, he was the appropriate recipient of the written records or oral traditions of the patriarchs from Adam to his own day, which the Holy Spirit could use to guide Moses to write the inerrant text of Genesis. There is no other ancient Hebrew who was more qualified than Moses to write the Pentateuch.

I would also like to note that Moses, while raised in the Egyptian court, always knew he was Hebrew as did Pharaoh and his daughter.  And, Moses did not marry an Ethiopian woman – he married a daughter of Medan, a child of Abraham and his second wife Keturah, both Hebrew.

Liberal Bible scholars (Scripture Lawyers) love to  base their theories on evidence from the Biblical text, most of which is non-existent, while evading Biblical evidence that refutes their theories. They use a  “pick and choose” approach to studying the Bible, which is hardly honest scholarship in pursuit of truth.

There is abundant biblical and extra-biblical evidence that Moses wrote the Pentateuch during the wilderness wanderings after the Israelites left  Egypt and before they entered the Promised Land (about 1445–1405 BC). Contrary to the liberal theologians and other skeptics, it was not written after Judea returned from exile in Babylon (ca. 500 BC).

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