A groundbreaking study of how Assyriology transformed biblical scholarship and how the Bible shaped the reception of Mesopotamia.Between George Smith's sensational flood lecture in 1872 and the publication of Mowinckel's Psalmenstudien in 1924, discoveries from Assyria and Babylonia revolutionized the study of the Old Testament. Rannfrid L. Thelle traces this formative period, showing how Western fascination with Mesopotamia was driven by its perceived biblical connections, and how these encounters redefined both disciplines.
Through detailed case studies of major figures and controversies, Wellhausen's Prolegomena, Gunkel's Schöpfung und Chaos, Delitzsch's Babel-Bible lectures, and debates over Panbabylonism, Thelle explores how Assyriological knowledge challenged traditional views of creation, prophecy, and Israel's history. Richly documented and analytically sharp, this book illuminates the intellectual drama of an era when comparative study of myth, cosmology, and ritual reshaped biblical scholarship.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Preface
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Part I: Introductory forays
1. Approaching the subject
2. "First Contact": The Chaldean Account of Genesis
Part II: Assyria, Assyriology, and the history of ancient Israel
3. Assyriology in the 1870s and 80s and early responses in biblical studies
4. Julius Wellhausen and the history of Israel: on its own terms or in context?
Part III: Mesopotamian cosmology, myth, and Israelite religion
5. Beyond source criticism and history writing: biblical studies and Assyriology in the 1890s
6. Hermann Gunkel: the transformation of Babylonian myth in biblical traditions
7. The Primacy of Babylon: trends in Assyriology in the 1890s to 1910s
8. Babel and Bible in the German public square: Friedrich Delitzsch's lectures
9. Israel and Babylonia: the place of revelation in Assyriology and theology
Part IV: Assyriology in specific Old Testament fields
10. Creation and flood in commentaries on Genesis
11. Mesopotamian ritual and ancient Israelite ritual practice: Mowinckel's Psalmenstudien
12. The prophets of Duhm, Assyria, and comparative studies
Part V: Concluding ruminations
Index
