Research Notes

I've done a lot of research in the past few years of the origins of the Bible and Christianity and things. A handful of Teaching Company lecture series, some Wikipedia, the Book of Enoch, assorted other things. (I blame Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash for starting this, with all of its ancient Mesopotamian mythos.)

Originally, I started out this morning by going over some Wiki entries on labyrinths and yew trees that I'd looked at yesterday, thinking those would be the topics of conversation. Buuuut that didn't really last, Mark went a little more into his studies than I'd planned. (This happens eeeevery time he talks. Convenient character flaw.) I did some double-checking before I wrote these passages out; a lot of this information lives in fragmented form in my head. I know the flood story variant is in Gilgamesh, but it had slipped my mind that even that description was borrowed from an earlier source. I knew the opening of Genesis paralleled the Enûma Eliš, but, having learned this from an audio lecture, I had NO frickin' clue how to spell it. (Ay-noo-mah AY-leesh.) So, this chapter brought to you by Wikipedia, Professor Amy-Jill Levine's course on the Old Testament, my mom who gave me a copy of Gilgamesh (and Star Trek TNG for causing this), aaand a little more Wikipedia.