1981 Divine Aspirations in Atrahasis and in Genesis 1–11. Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 93.Parunak, H. van D.1983 Tran

n Rad, G.1962 Old Testament Theology. New York: Harper & Row.1972
Genesis: A Commentary, rev. ed. (Old Testament Library). Philadelphia: Westminster.Weiss, M.1984 The Bible from Within: The Method of Total Interpretation. Jerusalem: Magnes.Wenham, G.J.1988 Genesis: An Authorship Study and Current Pentateuchal Criticism. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 42: 3–18.Footnotesa. toledot is the Hebrew word for “generations.”­Ed.1. The best introductions to these Mesopotamian stories are still Heidel 1949 and 1963. See also Speiser’s translations of “The Creation Epic” (“Enuma elish”) and “The Epic of Gilgamesh” (1969:60–99) and the most recent translations by Dalley (1991: 109–20 [“Gilgamesh” XI]; 233–74 [“Enuma elish”]).2. See also Dalley 1991: 9–35.3. For a critical edition of the text, see Jacobsen 1939: 69ff.4. See Miller 1994: 144–46 for the appropriateness of the label “Eridu Genesis.”5. For other examples, see Livingstone 1986, chap. 4, “Works in Standard Babylonian explaining state rituals in terms of myths.” Note also C.H. Gordon’s view that the genealogies of Genesis which are usually attributed to P, “should not be detached from the narrative,” as indicated by Homeric epic (1965: 284). 6. Oden (1981:197–98) gives “a fairly comprehensive list” of studies in “Atra-Hasis” and its relevance to the Old Testament.7. He summarizes three views of the “noise” of humans, on pp. 206–207:a. G. Pettinato: the noise of their rebellious activity. Human rebellion consisted of not submitting to the divinely established order, and this lack of submission made the gods, particularly Enlil, restless.b. A.D. Kilmer, also Moran: behind the noise made by humans lay simply the problem of too many humans. In other words, the epic deals with the problem of overpopulation.c. Von Soden: the crime that occasioned the Flood was not simply human rebellion, as Pettinato argued, but more precisely the human tendency to reach ever higher to approach ever closer to the gods.8. E.g., Greenberg 1983:18–27; Weiss 1984.9. Cf. Clines 1994.10. Eg., Clark 1971: 205–206.11. In Thompson’s terminology, it is “an expanded genealogical narrative” (1987: 83).12. eg., Anderson 1994.13. Wenham 1988:13. Wenham notes here the observations made by Y.T. Radday et al. (1985).14. Later, however, in his commentary on Genesis, he ends his discussion of the Biblical primeval history with 12:9 as a “transitional paragraph” like 6:5–8 (1972:165).



In Search of Mt. Sinai
This article was first published in the June 2007 ABR E-Newsletter.Surprisingly, the location of Mt. Sinai, one of the most significant places in the Bible, is not known with any degree of certainty. Over the years some two dozen sites have been proposed, none of which meets the Biblical requirements. The site favored by most scholars is Gebel Musa (Mountain of Moses), or one of several nearby mountains, in the high-mountain region of southern Sinai.This problem is of utmost importance, since finding the correct location of Mt. Sinai is at the heart of the question of the historicity of the Exodus account. Scholars today largely discount the Biblical account of the sojourn in Egypt, Exodus and wilderness wanderings as fictional. They reach this conclusion because they say there is no concrete evidence that Israel ever was in Egypt or the Sinai.The identification of Gebel Musa as Mt. Sinai is a Christian tradition originating in the fourth century. We have no preserved Jewish tradition for the location of Mt. Sinai. Thus, there is a gap of 1800 years between the receiving of the law on Mt. Sinai (1446 BC) and the beginning of the Christian tradition. What is more, there is no documentation in any Christian source as to why this particular mountain was chosen.The only Jewish tradition we have concerning Mt. Sinai is that it is a low mountain (Babylonian Talmud and BaMidbar Rabbah). Gebel Musa, on the other hand, is very high (7,497 ft.). There are a number of other difficulties with a southern Sinai location for Mt. Sinai. To begin with, it is in the opposite direction from the Promised Land! Moreover, it is much too far from Midian (east of the Gulf of Aqaba) for Moses to have been shepherding Jethro's flocks there (Exod. 3:1). A third difficulty is that Mt. Sinai (also called Mt. Horeb) was located in the territory of Edom (Deut. 33:2, Judges 5:4; Hab. 3:3), which did not extend south of the north shore of the Gulf of Aqaba (Crew 2002). The most serious objection to the traditional location, however, is that it is too far from Kadesh Barnea for
the Israelites with their livestock (Exod. 13:38) to have made the journey in 11 days (Deut. 1:2; Wood 2000: 99).The Bible gives detailed information as to the stopping places of the Israelites on their way to, and after they left, Mt. Sinai, including travel times. But very few of the stopping places can be identified with confidence. It is possible, however, to determine the general area of Mt. Sinai from the Biblical data.When Moses journeyed from Midian to Egypt in obedience to God (Exod.4:19–20), he would have traveled by way of the Trans-Sinai Highway, which goes from the northern shore of the Gulf of Aqaba across the Sinai Peninsula to the northern end of the Gulf of Suez. Back in Egypt, God appeared to Aaron and commanded him, "Go into the desert to meet Moses" (Exod. 4:27a). Aaron likewise would have traversed this same road since it was the most direct route from Egypt to Midian. And where did Aaron meet Moses? "So he met Moses at the Mountain of God and kissed him" (Exod. learn english