Introduction

 

For many people, the Old Testament can feel like it comes from a world entirely of its own: a world of patriarchs, prophets, kings, covenants, miracles and commandments. It is often read as though its stories appeared separately from the cultures around it. But historically, ancient Israel and Judah were never isolated.

The people who produced, preserved and edited these writings lived in one of the most connected regions of the ancient world. They lived alongside Canaanite city-states, traded with Egypt, encountered Assyrian armies, experienced Babylonian exile and later lived under Persian rule. Their languages, religious practices, political systems and everyday lives were shaped by constant contact with neighbouring peoples.

This was a world where stories travelled. Merchants, soldiers, diplomats, prisoners, scribes and migrants moved between cities and kingdoms. Kings exchanged letters. Temples kept records. Scribes copied laws, prayers, royal inscriptions, myths and wisdom sayings. A story told in Sumer or Babylon could survive for centuries, be translated into another language and later appear in a different form in another culture.

This background raises an important question: were Old Testament stories, laws and beliefs copied from older civilisations?

The answer is more complicated than a simple yes or no. There are certainly cases where biblical texts closely resemble older Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Canaanite material. The flood story in Genesis, for example, has striking parallels with earlier Mesopotamian flood traditions. Some laws in Exodus resemble legal collections from Babylon and other parts of the ancient Near East. Proverbs also contains passages that appear closely related to Egyptian wisdom literature.

However, similarity does not always mean direct copying. Two cultures may share a common story because they inherited it from an older tradition. They may also have developed similar ideas because they faced similar questions: Why do people die? Why do floods happen? What makes a ruler just? How should society deal with violence, theft, marriage and family life?

In other cases, biblical writers may have deliberately taken familiar ideas and reshaped them. Rather than repeating older myths, they may have used them to make a different theological point. For example, Mesopotamian creation stories often describe gods fighting one another before the world is formed. Genesis, by contrast, presents one God creating through speech and command. The chaotic waters are not divine rivals. They are simply part of creation and are fully under God’s control.

This suggests that biblical writers were not passive borrowers. They were interpreters, editors and theologians. They worked with stories, images and ideas that people in the ancient world already knew, but they gave them new meaning. At times, they adopted familiar literary forms. At other times, they challenged the beliefs behind them.

It is therefore not helpful to imagine the Old Testament as either completely isolated or merely copied from surrounding cultures. A more accurate way to understand it is to see it as a collection of Israelite and Judean writings produced in conversation with the wider Ancient Near Eastern world.

The Old Testament reflects the languages, customs, fears, hopes and religious debates of its time. But it also shows a community trying to define itself: Who is our God? Why are we here? What does justice look like? Why do suffering and disaster happen? And what does it mean to remain faithful in a world ruled by powerful empires?

That is what makes the comparison with older civilisations so interesting. The similarities show that Israel was part of its world. The differences show how its writers tried to tell a distinctive story within that world.