Old Testament Stories with Borrowings from Ancient Sumerian Myths
Based on historical evidence from excavated cuneiform tablets, ruins, and preserved writings dating back to ancient Sumeria (circa 3000–2000 BCE), several narratives in the Old Testament, particularly in Genesis, exhibit clear parallels and likely borrowings from Sumerian mythology. These connections are supported by artifacts discovered at Sumerian sites such as Nippur, Eridu, and Ur, where clay tablets inscribed in Sumerian cuneiform have been unearthed. The Sumerian texts predate the Hebrew Bible by millennia, suggesting that Israelite scribes adapted these stories during periods of cultural exchange, such as the Babylonian Exile (6th century BCE). Below, I outline the key borrowed stories, focusing solely on archaeologically verified evidence like tablets and ruins, without speculation.
1. The Creation of the World and Humanity (Genesis 1–2)
The Genesis account of God creating the world in stages, forming humans from dust/clay, and establishing order from chaos parallels Sumerian creation myths preserved on cuneiform tablets. In these myths, gods like Enki (god of wisdom and water) create humanity from clay to serve the deities, relieving them of labor—a motif echoed in Genesis where humans are made from earth to till the ground.
• Historical Evidence: The Eridu Genesis (also called the Sumerian Creation Myth), dated to around 1600 BCE but based on older oral traditions, was excavated on a tablet from the Sumerian city of Nippur. This tablet describes the gods creating cities and humans from clay, establishing kingship, and a pre-flood world, similar to Genesis’ structured creation sequence. Another Sumerian text, Enki and Ninhursag (from tablets found at Nippur and other sites), details Enki creating humans in a paradise-like setting from clay mixed with divine essence, mirroring Adam’s formation from dust. Ruins at Eridu, the mythical first city in Sumerian lore, include temple foundations dating to 5000 BCE, supporting the cultural context of these creation stories.
2. The Garden of Eden and the Fall of Humanity (Genesis 2–3)
Genesis depicts a paradise garden (Eden) where the first humans live in harmony until they eat forbidden fruit, leading to expulsion and mortality. This borrows from Sumerian myths of a divine garden paradise, such as Dilmun, where humans interact with gods but face consequences for disobedience.
• Historical Evidence: Tablets from Nippur preserve the Myth of Enki and Ninhursag (circa 2000 BCE), describing Dilmun as a pure, deathless garden created by Enki, where he and the goddess Ninhursag form humans. Enki eats forbidden plants, leading to curses and ailments, akin to the forbidden fruit and resulting punishment in Eden. A Babylonian tablet (adapted from Sumerian traditions) transcribed by scholar George A. Barton details an “expulsion from a garden” to perform labor like threshing and irrigating, paralleling Adam and Eve’s banishment to toil the earth. Ruins at Eridu, including ziggurat remains from 4000 BCE, are linked to this garden myth, as Eridu was considered the site of a sacred garden in Sumerian texts.
3. The Great Flood (Genesis 6–9)
The story of Noah building an ark to survive a divine flood, saving his family and animals, is one of the clearest borrowings, directly paralleling Sumerian flood myths where a hero is warned by a god to build a boat amid a cataclysmic deluge.
• Historical Evidence: The Eridu Genesis tablet from Nippur (circa 1600 BCE) recounts the gods deciding to flood the earth due to human noise, with the hero Ziusudra (a pious king) building a boat to preserve life, animals, and seeds. The flood lasts seven days, and Ziusudra offers sacrifices afterward, similar to Noah’s ark, birds released to find land, and post-flood covenant. Sumerian tablets from Ur and other sites, including the Sumerian King List (multiple copies from 2000 BCE), mention a great flood dividing history into pre- and post-diluvian eras. Flood layers in ruins at Ur (excavated by Leonard Woolley in the 1920s) date to around 2900 BCE, providing physical evidence of a regional deluge that may have inspired these myths.
4. The Tower of Babel and the Confusion of Languages (Genesis 11)
Genesis describes humans building a tower to reach heaven, leading God to confuse their languages and scatter them. This draws from Sumerian accounts of ziggurats (stepped temples) as links between heaven and earth, and myths of linguistic division.
• Historical Evidence: A Sumerian cuneiform tablet preserves the “nam-shub of Enki,” describing a unified human language confounded by the god Enki as punishment, causing contention among harmonious peoples—directly paralleling the biblical scattering. Ziggurat ruins, such as the Great Ziggurat of Ur (built circa 2100 BCE by King Ur-Nammu, with baked brick and bitumen construction), represent the “tower” archetype. Over 30 ziggurat sites have been excavated across Mesopotamia, including Etemenanki in Babylon (ruins dated to 600 BCE, but with Sumerian origins). A Babylonian tablet from the Schøyen Collection (6th century BCE) depicts King Nebuchadnezzar II beside a ziggurat, confirming these structures as monumental “towers” linked to divine ambition.
These borrowings reflect shared Mesopotamian cultural heritage,
with Sumerian tablets providing the earliest written evidence. While later Akkadian and Babylonian versions (e.g., Epic of Gilgamesh from Nineveh tablets) amplified these stories, the core elements trace back to Sumerian