Essay: The Study of the Near Eastern Cultures

Moses lived in Midian, he a was a simple man , shepherd in Midian now he was given a  task by God ,which he had to fulfill, Mosses  was called by God and given the task, this is in parallel to Bible as God always calls people. The stories of Jesus in the Gospels are based on the Gilgamesh Epic, and the passion of Christ was based on Marduk, these stories are parallel to the Near Eastern stories. In Babylonian culture a mythical man named Adapa is found, which is similar to the story of the fallen man Adam of the Biblical literature.

Both Adam and Adapa had gained knowledge of power that was divine and this knowledge caused Adapa to break the wings of the wind and, Adam and Eve were tempted by this knowledge, to become like God, knowing about good and evil, by eating from the forbidden fruit, both were punished for disobeying .Adapa fell very sick and suffered from diseases, Adam was to toil and see Eve suffer the pain of child birth. Sarna is the highest authority in interpretating the Bible according to History , he is biblical theologian, Sarna tries to explain the significance of Biblical text, in the light of historical background of the Near Eastern cultures, so that the readers and generations to come can easily understand the true divine ideas from the Bible, he writes in such away that young  people can understand clearly the main principles; there is one God, universe is ruled by God, there is on myth or story of God, no magic is involved in the worship of God and He governs and rules the world, this is mentioned in his book of Understanding Genisis. The main point is to understand and accept the truth about the plight of the Jews, the positive aspects is that the Jews did leave Egypt to free themselves from slavery. Thus, the study of the Near Eastern cultures helps us to find the differences and similarities to understand Bible.