Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jonathan D. Safren" <yonsaf AT beitberl.beitberl.ac.il>]

Niels Peter Lemche wrote:

> And why should Genesis 1 be contemporary with the composition of Enuma
> Elish. That's is mistaking the terminus a quo for the terminus ad quem. We
> know of evidence that says that Enuma Elish was still in active use during
> the Akitu festival in Neo-Babylonian times. I do not know for how long. It
> may have been produced in the Old Babylonian Period or in the Middle
> Babylonian period (assyriologists on the list may know the status
> quaestionis better than I do), so you have a time span lasting for probably
> more than a thousand years. How can you say that Genesis 1 belongs to the
> early part of this span of years?

[JDSafren] On this point I agree with Nils. The Verse "The triple cord shall 
not be
broken", appearing in  the late book of Ecclasiastes (I forget where) comes 
from one
of the Gilgamesh lays datiing perhaps to the late 3rd millennium BCE and 
preceding the
OB Gilgamesh Epic. On this, Aaron Shaffer wrote an article back in 1962 
(again I
forget where).
Sincerely,
Jonathan D. Safren
Dept. of Biblical Studies
Beit Berl College
44905 Beit Berl Post Office
Israel