Plagiarism (PHEPH)

Donald Morgan errancy@freethought.tamu.edu
Sun, 10 Dec 95 17:45 CST (00818660700, 199512102242.OAA05417@olympic)

Anyone who doubts that the Israelites (or Hebrews, as they came to be known) sometimes plagiarized stories that already existed from others before them who in turn had sometimes plagiarized from others before them, etc., ought to read: "The Noah's Ark Nonsense" by Howard Teeple, published by and (probably) still available from the Religion and Ethics Institute, Evanston, Illinois.

In a nutshell, the migration of the Flood story can be traced from its earliest known occurrence, travelling from culture to culture with nomads and/or invaders, and eventually finding its way into the Bible. Each culture adapted the story to make it reflect their own god(s) and heroes and their own god's or gods' alleged reasons for the flood, yet many details remained relatively unchanged.

Anyone who doubts that this kind of plagiarism provided the basis for many other biblical stories should read: "Hebrew Myths, The Book of Genesis" by Robert Graves & Raphael Patai "The Sargon Legend" by Brian Lewis "The Sources of the Doctrines of the Fall & Original Sin" by F.R.

Tennant "The Babylonian Genesis" by Alexander Heidel "The Gilgamesh Epic & O.T. Parallels" by Alexander Heidel

Don

Noah and his three sons built, by hand, a 450' wooden boat -- the likes of which have never been seen since -- some 2000 years before any such boat-building skills were known. This is truly an incredible story. - Rev. Donald Morgan