Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
discove ies
that unlock the
Bible
Bible A V I S U A L E X P E R I E N C E
Douglas Connelly
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08 09 10 11 12 • 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The Hebrews Are Coming! (Amarna Letters) . . . 20 Herod: Murderer, Dreamer, King. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
@ A snapshot in
stone of the Persian
king, Xerxes, the royal
husband of Esther.
Xerxes ruled a a vast
empire that stretched from
India to Ethiopia.
SSLAVE TAG
This Roman slave tag was
attached to an iron collar and
asks that the slave be returned
to his owner. Runaway slaves
(like Onesimus in Paul’s letter
to Philemon) were routinely
collared to prevent further escape
attempts. Persistent runaways
were branded on the foreheads—
an F for fugitivus (fugitive).
The Babylonian
Flood Story
You’ve heard the story of Noah and the ark since you were a child, but what if you found another
flood story from another culture and in an ancient language? George Smith, a British explorer and lan-
guage specialist, found just such a story — and it caused a worldwide sensation. Smith was in the British
Museum sifting through clay tablets recovered from the library of the Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal,
when he came across an incredible p g He found himself translating a flood story very much like
passage.
the biblical account of Noah and the flood. He was so excited that he raised money
to return to Nin
Nineveh in order to find the rest of the tablets — and amazingly
he did!
The B Babylonian flood story is told on the eleventh tablet of a
muc longer poem called the Epic of Gilgamesh. You can read
much
t whole poem online or checked out from your local li-
the
b
brary. Gilgamesh apparently was a real king in the ancient
l
land of Sumer (2700 – 2500 BC). Legends grew up around
this heroic king and eventually the story became one of
the culture’s great epics. Does this Babylonian epic give
u a better account of the flood than the Bible? No way!
us
Th Babylonian version is simply a corrupted memory of
The
the actual flood, and that account is preserved accurately in
Gene 6 – 9.
Genesis
10
Black Sea
n
Se
of Uruk in the land of the
a
Sumerians. Gilgamesh learned
Haran
the flood story as he traveled Nineveh P
ARAM E
R
Ti
through the underworld and g
S
M
ris
talked with the survivors of that Sea ES
R.
Eu ph
IA
an Mari ra
O
ne sR
P
te
EGYPT
$ The mountains of Ararat ARABIA
where the Bible says Noah’s ark Pe
rs
ia
eventually came to rest — and n
G
ul
where explorers have searched
Re
f
d
wooden ark.
CAPTION Text
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