Biblical Hebrew Forum

[irene riegner <iriegner AT concentric.net>]

Thus far the discussion has centered on the DH and the biblical
text, specifically Gen1-11.

However, Israel and Judah were part of the ancient Near Eastern
cultural milieu and ancient Near Eastern writing traditons.  So
it is also important to ask:  Is there evidence of something
similar to the DH in non-Israelite / non-Judahite writings---a
writing that was compiled from different sources?

Apparantly, the Gilgamesh epic shows evidence of  such
compilation.  Various Gilgamesh traditions from  the Sumerian
Gilgamesh were woven into the earlist Babylonian version.  The
Utnapshtim was an insertion from a separate flood tradition woven
into the Gilgamesh tradition.  Anyway, there are 4? versions, 5?
versions spanning c. 1500 years.  J. Tigay did an analysis of the
additions to the epic and the changes over this span of time.

Of coursse, this doesn't prove that Gen 1-11 was composed from
several sources.  What this does show is that this "montage"
technique was an acceptable style of narrative writing in the
ANE.

i. riegner