Based upon his extensive research into Assyriology and other ancient Near Eastern domains, the author traces the many parallels between the Old Testament (and the Bible as a whole) and the ancient Near East, including creation and flood narratives, common literary and legal forms, and the reported acts of deities and the God of the Bible. Moving beyond a simple study of comparison and contrast, the author demonstrates that these parallels cannot be identified as cases of biblical dependence on ancient Near Eastern theology, nor are they just coincidences. Rather, he proposes that they represent "a shared theological structure of ideas in the ancient Near East, a structure that finds its most complete and true form in the Old and New Testaments."

203 pages, Paperback