Before Genesis: What the Old Testament Borrowed from Mesopotamian Stories (vIDEO)

Welcome to the home of Episode 190 of the Misquoting Jesus Podcast with Bart Ehrman.  Below, you can watch the entire episode, read its description, and see links to related resources.

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episode description

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In this episode, Bart Ehrman and Megan Lewis explore the ancient cultural world that existed long before the biblical texts were written and discuss how those civilizations shaped the Old Testament. Lewis explains that the Hebrew Bible emerged within a much older Near Eastern context, particularly the civilizations of Mesopotamia, where cities, writing, literature, and complex religious traditions had already existed for thousands of years.

The conversation examines how stories found in Genesis relate to earlier Mesopotamian traditions, especially flood narratives such as those preserved in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Lewis emphasizes that biblical authors were not simply “copying” older stories. Instead, they adapted and reshaped familiar traditions to express distinctly Israelite theological ideas. The episode also explores similarities between biblical law and Mesopotamian legal collections, showing how comparison can reveal what makes each tradition unique.

A major theme is the political world surrounding ancient Israel. Lewis introduces the “Great Powers Club” of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, the Hittites, and Mitanni, arguing that Israel was often a small state navigating much larger regional powers. The discussion also challenges common assumptions about Israelite religion, highlighting scholarly evidence that early Israelites may have shared many religious and cultural practices with neighboring peoples before later biblical authors promoted a more exclusive form of Yahweh worship.

Key questions answered include: How old are the civilizations that influenced the Bible? How did Mesopotamian myths shape Genesis? Was ancient Israel culturally distinct from its neighbors? And how does historical evidence compare with biblical narratives such as the Exodus and conquest traditions?

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