Israel and Babylon

Franz Delitzschs lectures in 1902 and 1903 set off the Babel-Bible controversy which rocked Europe and North America. In this searing critique of Delitzsch Gunkel provides his own analysis of the relationship between ancient Israel and Babylon. In this edition Gunkels original work is newly translated with a new Foreword notes bibliographies and indexes. Hansons new translation and edition of Gunkels classic response to the Delitzschs views of the Babel-Bible controversy is a welcome addition to the growing work on the relationship of Mesopotamia and Israel in antiquity. The new edition of Gunkels work places in historical context the sometimes overly strong reaction against Delitzsch headed in part by Gunkel. Hanson has provided scholars a great service in this edition as he has composed an excellent Foreword which contains a contemporary evaluation of Delitzschs claims as well as a solid review of the comparative method used today to investigate Mesopotamian and Israelite connections. Hanson deserves thanks from those of us in the field of Mesopotamian and Biblical studies. --Mark W. Chavalas University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Hermann Gunkel was one of the greats of modern Biblical scholarship . . . Written in the context of the famous Babel-Bible debate of the beginning of the twentieth century this book in a lively even passionate way raises some important questions about how to compare cultures and assess their relationships to each other--questions that have not lost their value more than a century later. We must be grateful therefore to K.C. Hanson for bringing Gunkels book back into print in a revised translation with helpful introduction notes and up-dated bibliography. --Peter Machinist Harvard Divinity School Hermann Gunkel (1862-1932) was Professor of Old Testament at the universities in Berlin Giessen and Halle Germany. Among his major works in English are Genesis Introduction to the Psalms and Creation and Chaos in the Primeval Era and the Eschaton. K. C. Hanson editor and translator is editor in chief at Wipf and Stock Publishing. He is the co-author of Palestine in the Time of Jesus 2nd ed. (with Douglas E. Oakman).