Translation of recipes of gods for the ancient myths of Iraq to the Book of Genesis in the Bible

Authors

  • Ali Soudad Jaafar

Keywords:

Humanities, history, ancient history

Abstract

The Jew religion had been deeply affected by the idolatrous Babylonian rituals. It had not been aberrant until they had occurred in the times of writing the Old Testament after loosing of the religious tablets in the Babylonian Captivity. That time had been the representative of the initial stages of Jew religion. The oneness of God had remained dominant although these times had witnessed periods of polytheism among many Jews as in the deity of the Calf by the Samaritan during the days of the prophet Moses. The Jew Religion had been a kind of a mixture taken from Babylonian, Egyptian and Canaanite religious rituals. After being captivated, the general tendency of the Jew Religion had been towards materializing, likening and polytheism. This had been apparent in all the historical stages of the Jews. This tendency could be understood as a result of being affected by religious Babylonian thought. The issue of whether the deity is for one god or more had not been so deep in their beliefs since the materialistic and pragmatic method of life had been more important for the Jews. Judaism pays more attention for secular matters than to the matters of faith. The faith in the unseen and metaphysical issues has not been the main focus for this religion since it only focuses on the present materialistic reality. Historically speaking, the social life of the Jews had been drastically affected by the religious teachings taken from the rituals. These rituals had been put by the rabbis who were affected by the polytheistic religious thought. It is well-known fact that most of the ancient world’s myths are but stories about gods, and the main theme of its events is about their attributes and their supernatural deeds. Some of the scholars believe that the myths are a kind of spiritual achievements and the writers of these myths have been gifted persons with deep insights whereas some other scholars believe that the myths are closely connected with the religious rituals and therefore they are only fabulous stories used to interpret the nature of the universe and the destiny of Man and his beliefs. The writers of the Old Testament had been affected by those myths and they had put the myths in the books of the Old Testament through the Old Testament translating them from the texts of the Ancient Near East in the Mesopotamia. The books of the Old Testament included many myths and fabulous stories in addition to very important historical information concerning the civilization of Mesopotamia. Those written texts had drastically affected the Jews myths, stories and knowledge; therefore, they had included them in the Old Testament. The Jews had been also affected by the Mesopotamian literature and this effect had been reflected in the development of their religion and in their literature. As a result, Judaism cannot be understood unless the religions and civilizations of the Near East had been taken into consideration. This is apparent in the fact that the god had been given several names taken from different peoples they had been closely living with them. As a result, their beliefs might be seen as a heavenly religion or polytheistic one.

 

Published

2022-11-14