Prof. Bernard Batto Publishes In The Beginning: Essays on Creation Motifs in the Ancient Near East and the Bible

August 22, 2013

Bernard F. Batto, professor emeritus of religious studies at DePauw University, is the author of In The Beginning: Essays on Creation Motifs in the Ancient Near East and the Bible. Part of the Siphrut Literature and Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures series, the book has just been published by Eisenbrauns.

A synopsis states, "Bernard F. Batto spent the bulk of his career examining the ancient Near Eastern context of the Hebrew Bible, with particular interest in the influence of the surrounding cultures on the biblical creation stories. This collection gathers six of his most important previously published essays and adds two new contributions. Among the essays, Batto identifies various creation motifs prevalent in the ancient Near East and investigates the reflexes of these motifs in Genesis 1-11 and other biblical accounts of the primeval period. He demonstrates how the biblical writers adapted and responded to the creation ideas of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Ugarit, and elsewhere."

Learn more, and order the book, at Amazon.com.

Dr. Batto, who taught at DePauw from 1987 until his retirement in 2006, previously authored Slaying the Dragon: Mythmaking in the Biblical Tradition and David and Zion: Biblical Studies in Honor of J. J. M. Roberts.

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