THE PAGAN ORIGINS OF BIBLICAL MORALITY

(Or - Where did Moses really get those commandments from?)

*[The numbers inside () are footnote references.]

"Do not return evil to your adversary;

Requite with kindness the one who does evil to you,

Maintain justice for your enemy,

Be friendly to your enemy."

So says a 3rd millennium BCE text, "Counsels of Wisdom," (1) a sort of Ann Landers column from the Mesopotamian (Iraqi) land of Akkad. If it sounds familiar, read Matt. 5:38-41 ( "... if any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also ..."), Matt. 5:44 ("Love your enemies,"), Luke 6:27-30, and in a similar vein Lev. 19:18. Any similarities between the pagan and later Biblical passages are probably no coincidence.

One of the most pervasive claims of the Judeo-Christian tradition is that morality comes from the Biblical god and belongs only to Jews and/or Christians. It's like a mantra for some religious fundamentalists.

The very phrase "Judeo-Christian morality" explicitly takes credit for modern moral concepts, implying that non-believers are essentially incapable of moral virtue. (2) Jewish scripture has Moses introducing morality into a pagan, immoral world when he purportedly brought the 10 commandments and a long list of other laws down off Mt. Sinai. (3) Christians add Jesus as the final arbiter of moral issues.

I hope this sampling of parallels between Biblical and Bronze Age, pre-Biblical literature - by no means comprehensive - will show that claim is a myth. The Bible's moral ideas, both those that modern society still accepts and those it has rejected, are the products of pre-Biblical societies, which stressed virtue in an abstract sense and offered practical advice on everyday ethics.

The Iron Age Bible (1st millennium BCE,) is but an anthology of older beliefs and attitudes. There is no single collection of Bronze Age (3rd and 2nd millenniums BCE) moral principles, but the concerns of pre-Biblical peoples are scattered throughout their literature.

I use the term morality in its broader senses, for a society's general principles of right and wrong touching a variety of human affairs, such as our concepts of legal justice or ethics in human relations.

The passage from "Counsels of Wisdom" urged people to forgo vengefulness over offenses, preventing the kind of endless, tit-for-tat feuds that have bloodied many lands. As a Mesopotamian proverb warns with practical simplicity: "You go and take the field of the enemy; the enemy comes and takes your field." (4) And from Egypt: "A blow is repaid by its like, To every action there is a response." (5)

It didn't require a god to instill the `turn the other cheek' idea in people, only a pragmatic observation of human nature and a desire to maintain peace in the land.

For those who felt themselves too wronged to forgive, ancient societies offered legal methods of revenge, the same as we do today. We abjure violence and theft as immoral, and punish in various ways those who violate our moral standards, both criminal and civil. Law is ultimately an expression of moral ideas, and conflicts over changes in law often embody conflicting moral values (consider the disputes over abortion, censorship and the death penalty.)

So note these declarations from ancient Egypt.

Powerful viziers were urged:

"See equally the man you know and the man you don't know, the man who is near you and the man who is far away." (6)

An Early Bronze Age pharaoh (3rd millennium BCE) told his son, Prince Merikare:

"Make no difference between a man of position and a commoner; but engage for yourself a man because of what he does ... Act justly, that you may endure on earth. Quieten him who weeps; do not dispossess the widow; do not deprive a man of his father's property. Do not put down high officials from their offices. Avoid punishing wrongfully." (7)

A 3rd millennium BCE nobleman proclaims on his tomb:

"I gave bread to the hungry and clothing to him who had no clothes. I never made a judgment between two litigants in such a way that I allowed a man to be deprived of his father's inheritance." (8)

And from another tomb text:

"I judged between two so as to content them,

I rescued the weak from one stronger than he,

As much as was in my power." (9)

A New Kingdom Egyptian (2nd millennium BCE) hymn, copied by students as a text in school, says:

"Amen-Re who first was king,

The god of earliest time,

The vizier of the poor.

He does not take bribes from the guilty ..." (10)

Jewish scripture proclaims in Deut. 10:17 that:

"God, who is not partial and takes no bribe."

From Late Bronze Age Canaan, "The Legend of King Keret" describes an ailing king reprimanded by his son for failing to fulfill his royal duties. Among a Canaanite king's obligations:

"Thou dost not judge the case of the widow

Nor adjudicate the cause of the broken in spirit

Nor drive away those who oppress the poor

Before thee thou dost not feed the fatherless

Nor behind thy back the widow." (11)

In the Canaanite "Tale of Aqhat," a passage suggests a similar moral concern when King Daniel "decides the case of the widow, he judges the suit of the orphan." (12)

Deut. 10:18 says of the Jewish god that:

"He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow."

We've got mean-spirited politicians today who would be considered too barbaric to rule a Canaanite society. Note that the Egyptian nobleman also proclaimed his charity. The Egyptian and Canaanite moral proclamations appear centuries before the Bible expresses similar attitudes. (13)

The Sumerian King Shulgi boasts in the 3rd millennium BCE:

"Like my heroship, like my might,

I am accomplished in wisdom,

I vie with (wisdom's) true word,

I love justice,

do not love evil,

I hate the evil word." (14)

Compare this to Rom. 12:9: "Hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good."

A later Sumerian king, Ur-Nammu of the Third Dynasty of the city of Ur, stated his basic principles at the beginning of a code of laws in the 21st century:

"The orphan was not given over to the rich man; the widow was not given over to the powerful man; the man of one shekel was not given over to the man of one mina." (That is, the rich were not allowed to abuse the poor.) (15)

An Early Bronze Age Sumerian hymn to the goddess Inanna/Ishtar pronounces:

"You render a cruel judgment against the evildoer;

You destroy the wicked.

You look with kindly eyes on the straightforward;

You give that one your blessing." (16)

Finally, in the Hittite empire of Late Bronze Age Anatolia, local officials were under the following imperial orders:

"He must not decide [the case in hand] in favor of his superior; he must not decide it in favor of his brother, his wife, or his friend; no one shall be shown any favor. He must not make a just case unjust; he must not make an unjust case just. Whatever is right, that he shall do." (17)

Did ancient peoples uphold these ideals in real life?

Piles of ancient legal records have been recovered. Some show that incidents of favoritism, bribery and malfeasance were known.

A 15th-14th century BCE Mesopotamian town complains to a king about a gang of corrupt officials (including the mayor) committing various acts of theft, assault and battery, adultery (or rape), and kidnapping. One gangster, apparently a lawyer, is even accused of taking payments to represent people in legal matters, and then skipping out on his duties. The result of this complaint (or indictment) is unknown, but the mere fact that people filed it indicates they must have had some expectation of justice. (18)

Bronze Age records show civil or criminal trials with a familiar format: Witnesses testify after taking an oath of truthfulness, sworn upon a god of justice, and panels of judges render decisions. For example, an infantryman is fined for assaulting a citizen. (19) And judges debate the guilt or innocence of a woman who failed to turn in her husband's killers, ultimately condemning her to execution along with them. (20) Once a slave girl even won a lawsuit against her owner over the question of whom the slave may marry. (21) (Not all ancient societies were as liberal in giving rights to slaves, though.)

Although Bronze Age laws discriminated against women in some ways (including often severe restrictions on married women), women generally seem to have stood equally in court with men and to have had equal rights in economic matters, and generally stood higher in law than in later Iron Age societies. (22)

The potpourri of recovered Bronze Age legal and economic documents shows societies that lived in reasonable expectation of justice in courts. Furthermore, people must have been confident enough in each other's good characters generally to be willing to engage in sometimes complex financial and mercantile operations - backing up verbal commitments with contracts and contract law to enforce agreements and settle disputes.

Honesty was a prized trait, as documents indicate. None of the great Bronze Age civilizations could have carried out systemic commerce in networks stretching hundreds of miles, year after year, unless their citizens expected certain minimum standards of moral conduct from each other. (23)

Some Bronze Age ideas would be generally condemned today on moral grounds. Societies accepted slavery, a social class structure and related legal inequities, the gradual restriction of women's rights, and human sacrifice in at least some proven cases.

Passages in the scriptures also speak approvingly of slavery (24) and the oppression of women (25), although they also sometimes offers a spirit of egalitarianism that many today may find more appealing than the aristocratic assumptions of Bronze Age societies.

But even as Israelites reined in their would-be nobility, they practiced human sacrifice extensively in the apparent belief that their gods (Yahweh, most likely) demanded it. (26) The repeated condemnations of human sacrifice in the Bible are welcome, but also the strongest proof of its frequent practice, which in other cultures is often alluded to only in a mythological context. (A Hittite text is a rare exception.) (27)

Whether the Israelites - and their Phoenician cousins and possibly their Canaanite ancestors - were the primary practitioners of human sacrifice in the ancient world or merely discussed it more is uncertain. The pre-Biblical literature of the Near East doesn't talk much about it - although archaeology offers evidence for the practice in some cultures - so the Israelites may have repudiated the killing of their firstborn sons long after the Egyptians and Mesopotamians had done so. (28)

As noted earlier about the Canaanites, charity was extolled in Bronze Age societies. Two Old Kingdom Egyptian tomb texts state:

"I gave bread to the hungry, clothing [to the naked] ..." (29)

One text asks that the nobleman be honored by Osiris - the judge of the dead - and enter the Egyptian heaven. (30)

A 1,000 years later, in Chapter 125 of the Egyptian "Book of the Dead," the deceased spirit seeking heaven must proclaim to Osiris:

"I have given bread to the hungry,

Water to the thirsty,

Clothing to the naked ..." (31)

A contemporary prayer to the Egyptian high god Amen used as a school text says he is one "Who gives bread to him who has none." (32)

And in Mesopotamia's "Counsels of Wisdom": "Give food to eat, beer to drink, Grant what is requested, provide for and treat with honor. At this one's god takes pleasure. It is pleasing to Shamash, who will repay him with favor. Do good things, be kind all your days." (33)

Compare these to Matt. 25:35-40, in which the Christian god, on judgment day, announces to the righteous: "I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink ... I was naked and you clothed me ... As you did it to one of the least of these my brethern, you did it to me." Those who failed these duties are purportedly denied heaven by both the Egyptian and Christian gods.

The spirit of the Christian "Beatitudes" (Matt. 5:5-11, Luke 6:20-22) is distinctly Egyptian. The list of virtues is a condensed set of characteristics extolled in more-verbose Egyptian texts.

For instance, the 3rd millennium BCE "Instruction of Ptahhotep" (34) offers long accounts of good conduct. Egyptologist Miriam Lichtheim (35) comments: "The cardinal virtues are self-control, moderation, kindness, generosity, and truthfulness tempered by discretion. These virtues are to be practiced alike toward all people. No martial virtues are mentioned. The ideal man is a man of peace."

"Ptahhotep" includes such advice as: "Don't be proud of your knowledge, Consult the ignorant and the wise;" and "If you are mighty, gain respect through knowledge, And through gentleness of speech;" and "If you are a man who leads, Who controls the affairs of many, Seek out every beneficent deed;" and "He who hears is beloved of god, He whom god hates does not hear. The heart makes of its owner a hearer or non-hearer, Man's heart is his life-prosperity-health!" and ""Don't vex the heart of one who is burdened ... As illwill comes from opposition, So goodwill increases love."

A thousand years later, "The Instruction of Amenemope" urges: "Pause before a foe, bend before an attacker;" and "Guard your tongue from harmful speech, Then you will be loved by others;" and "Do not set your heart on wealth." (36)

The Beatitude virtues of meekness, peacemaking, poverty in spirit, righteousness and purity of heart exalt a decidedly Bronze Age attitude.

The Luke version of the Beatitudes is followed by accounts of reversals of fortune (6:24-26) in which the rich are overturned, the well-fed are hungry, the happy are sad. This offers an intriguing parallel to "Ptahhotep" in which the well-fed, the rich and the `profit-seeking' (greedy, happy?) get their comeuppance. The Egyptian text concludes: "People's schemes do not prevail, God's command is what prevails ..." (37) If Jesus existed, he seems to have spent a lot of time reading antiquarian Egyptian scrolls.

The Old Testament's most famous expression of morality is the 10 commandments.

It's also blatant plagiarism, a kind of Reader's Digest Condensed Version of Bronze Age ideas.

Presumably Moses, if he existed, was taught the scribal arts along with other Egyptian noble offspring at Pharaoh's court.

Which means he probably would have known the moral statement found in chapter 125 of the "Book of the Dead," which has the deceased soul denying to Osiris that it committed 34 particular sins.

This confession includes such statements as: "I have not blasphemed a god ... I have not robbed the poor ... I have not killed ... I have not copulated or defiled myself (which also has been translated as "I have not committed adultery") ..." (38)

The confession then appeals to 42 individual Egyptian gods, saying the deceased has not robbed, killed, cheated, lied, etc.

Moses might also have encountered the `wisdom sayings' of the scribe Amenemope (2nd millennium BCE). This collection of warnings, divided into 30 chapters, is presumably what Proverbs 22:20 refers to, so Amenemope's work probably was known in Iron Age Israel.

Among Amenemope's advice:

"Do not cheat a man (through) pen on scroll,

The god abhors it,

Do not bear witness with false words,

So as to brush aside a man by your tongue." (39)

And "Do not covet a poor man's goods,

nor hunger for his bread." (40)

The "Instruction of Any" (2nd millennium BCE) commands: "Double the food your mother gave you, support her as she supported you." (41)

It's a reasonable assumption these Late Bronze Age passages represent what the Egyptians believed their gods abhorred. So the Egyptians practiced Mosaic commandments 3 and 5-10 long before the Israelites may have passed Mt. Sinai. Indeed the entire 10 commandments are a variation in style on the "Book of the Dead" text, reduced to a form which can be conveniently recalled by illiterate nomads counting off on their fingers. The "I have nots" were reversed into "Thou shalt nots."

A 13th century BCE Moses might even have encountered older texts, such as the 22nd or 21st century BCE statement of the official Merer:

"I never lied to any person - an abomination to (the god) Anubis." (42)

And the "Instruction to King Merikare" included such advice as:

"... Not righteous is one who says, `I wish I had';

"... Speak truth in your house;

"... Do not kill, it does not serve you." (43)

The Egyptians weren't the only possible source for this plagiarism. The Assyrians had a religious ritual for driving out pesky `demons' of illness. The exorcist `doctor' asked the sufferer the following litany of questions:

"Has he (the sick person) offended a god?

Or slighted a goddess?

Has he shown contempt to his father and mother?

Or set little store by his elder sister?

Has he said `It is' instead of `It is not' (and vice versa)?

Has he given wrong weight?

Has he broken into his neighbor's house?

Has he approached too near to his neighbor's wife?

Has he shed his neighbor's blood?" (44)

These and other ancient wisdom texts often are mixtures, to modern eyes, of piety and pragmatism. The reader is usually urged to do good because the gods command it and will punish those who commit sins. (45)

Bronze Age societies ascribed moral features to their gods. An Egyptian hymn says "Amen who knows compassion." (46) The Babylonians said of their high god Marduk: "Whose heart is merciful, whose mind forgiving." (47) The Canaanite supreme god El (probably the Yahweh of the Bible) is described as "kindly" and "benign" or "merciful." (48) The goddess Ishtar "pays heed to compassion and friendliness." (49) And the sun god Shamash was the god of justice, by whom litigants swore oaths.

But the ancients also presented many concerns as simple common sense - don't dispute with an angry man; don't argue with your superiors; don't defraud your employer, because he won't hire you again; don't kill because it does not serve you.

The Merikare text advises the listener: "Don't be evil, kindness is good, make your memorial last through love of you." (50) This is similar to the mixed reasoning found in various religions: `Do good because it's right, and because if you do wrong, some god will punish you horribly.' Only, the Egyptians often put the argument in a positive vein: People will remember you (and provide vital sacrifices for your soul after death) if you're good.

Some didn't present moral arguments at all. Another Egyptian, Tjetji, simply states:

"I did not follow after evil, for which men are hated. I am one who loves what is good, who hates what is evil." (51)

Occasionally the scribes added psychological insights to their arguments. The "Amenemope" commandment not to covet a poor man's goods is followed by the idea:

"He who makes gain by lying oaths,

His heart is misled by his belly;

Where there is fraud success is feeble,

The bad spoils the good." (52)

The Mesopotamians had a proverb of similar attitude:

"Deal not badly with a matter, then no sorrow will fall into your heart. Do no evil, then you will not clutch a lasting sorrow." (53)

It's not only modern people who are afflicted by guilty consciences, it seems.

Deliberate plagiarism wasn't necessary for the Biblical story of the 10 commandments to arise.

As I've shown, Egyptian literature from as early as the third millennium BCE shows a moralistic strain.

Miriam Lichtheim comments that the Egyptians believed immortality depended in part upon magic; "But a good moral character, a life lived in harmony with the divine order, was equally essential ... The catalogue of virtues (left by nobles) was both a serious commitment to ethical values and a magical means for winning entry into the beyond." (54)

Further, she says of the "Instruction" literature: "At all times it was inspired by the optimistic belief in the teachability and perfectibility of man; and it was the repository of the nation's distilled wisdom." (55)

Egyptian texts urged readers to moderation, kindness and truthfulness while cautioning against vices such as greed, lust and gossip. These ideas surely diffused to other societies outside Egypt, particularly to Canaan - long occupied by Egypt - where educated people would have read Egyptian texts.

As Professor John Gray says of the Canaanites: "From the emphasis on the king's duty of justice, and indeed charity, to the underprivileged and defenseless, and in the ideal of hospitality and decency in the list of filial duties just quoted, we cannot deny that the Canaanites had a social conscience. This is further indicated by the provisions made in legal texts from the palace of Ras Shamra (in Syria) for women, who are notoriously underprivileged in Oriental society. In the social legislation of Israel in the Book of the Covenant (Ex. 20.22-23.22) and in Deuteronomy 12-26 much Canaanite law is probably incorporated ..." (56)

More generally in the Middle East, "Responsibility, morality, law, order and ethics were all practised beyond the frontiers of Israel while the accepted norms of human behavior which in both letter and spirit were in accordance with Israel's divine code of laws were also current elsewhere," says historian Dr. Werner Keller, in a comparison of the Bible with pre-Biblical literature. (57)

"Once again the Bible is proved right, that is to say insofar as it transmits in its legal texts, the essence of which consists of the Ten Commandments, a striking piece of cultural and moral history from the Ancient East which can be substantiated by parallels. The consequence of this renders it difficult for us today to maintain the earlier claim that the Biblical code of laws was unique." (58)

By the time the various scriptures were written down, these ideas were part and parcel of common beliefs. Their Egyptian origins would be as unknown to most Jews and Christians as are the writings of those European philosophers who prepared the ground for our own Declaration of Independence and Constitution, yet probably could not be named by the average American.

It should be noted that, despite the Israelites' claim to have swept Canaan with fire and sword, massacring the natives, the evidence suggests that the Israelites were the Canaanites for all practical purposes (59), at least in their customs and many religious practices, which included polytheistic worship of the Canaanite gods. It should not be surprising that the Canaanites' moral ideas also were held by the Israelites. Biblical morality is Egyptian/Canaanite morality for practical purposes, with a dose of Mesopotamian ideas for good measure.

It was easy for Biblical writers to ascribe the 10 commandments and other moral precepts to their own god, ignorant of their true source. Similarly, today, most people are told only that various Biblical moral ideas came from the Biblical god, and remain unaware of the older African and Asiatic cultures' parallel moral ideas.

The belief in the Judeo-Christian origin of morality has had visible effects. Many people seem to assume morality is a rare virtue and clearly believe that unless you happen to belong to the correct religion, political party and nationality - and racial or ethnic background, for some bigots - you don't stand a chance of being moral.

Also, our concept of progress leads us to the feeling that modern society has discovered moral principles unknown to earlier people: Mercy and justice are modern ideas, just discovered yesterday.

The ancient texts show instead that morality was a common concern of many cultures. The moral ideas of the first civilizations in Africa and Asia permeate our culture today. Unless you believe in the gods of Egypt and Sumer, you must conclude that morality is a human creation, perhaps a vital prelude to civilization itself.

FOOTNOTES TO `MORALITY'

1) The Ancient Near East (TANE, hereafter), vol. I, p. 146.

3) A recent example: a letter in the March 11, 1991, `Newsweek' is typical of Christian attitudes, claiming "What is uniquely Christian is Jesus' commandment to `love your enemies' ... etc."

3) For example, Lev. 18:24-30, and Deut. 29 and 30 by implication, especially 29:29.

4) TANE, vol. I, p. 244, `Proverbs from Mesopotamia.'

5) "Ancient Egyptian Literature" (AEL, hereafter), vol. I, p. 105, `Instruction to King Merikare.'

6) "Pharaoh's People," p. 73.

7) "Pharaoh's People," p. 73, also AEL, vol. I, p. 100.

8) "Pharaoh's People," p. 73.

9) AEL, vol. I, p. 17, `Inscription of Nefer-seshem-re.'

10) AEL, vol. II, p. 111.

11) "Forgotten Scripts," p. 198.

12) "The Canaanites," p. 108, also TANE, vol. I, p. 121.

13) Similar ideas found in Ex. 22:22, Ex. 23:1-8, Lev. 19:15; "Economic Structures of the Ancient Near East", p. 22, cites other Bronze Age examples.

14) TANE, vol. II, `The King of the Road,' p. 132.

15) "Civilization Before Greece and Rome," 1989, by H.W.F. Saggs, page 162.

16) "Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth," p. 103.

17) "The Empire Builders," p. 16.

18) "Forgotten Scripts," p. 194-195.

19) TANE, vol. II, p. 77.

20) TANE, vol. II, p. 70.

21) `Syria' monograph from "Cambridge Ancient History" (CAH hereafter) chapter 10, 1969, p. 24.

22) Discussed variously in "The Sumerians," p. 100-102; `Syria' monograph CAH, "The Hittites - People of a Thousand Gods" p. 113, "The Canaanites," p. 118; The legal status of women in ancient Near Eastern societies was a mixture of rights and restrictions, and historians still debate their exact status. One comprehensive discussion is "The Creation of Patriarchy" by Gerda Lerner, Oxford University Press, 1986, which examines both Bronze Age and later Israelite laws and customs, focusing on how the status of women gradually was reduced in society and law.

23) "Economic Structures of the Ancient Near East" generally, with examples on pages 12, 32, 34, 163.

24) Instances in Ex. 21:2-7, 21:20-21; Lev. 25:44-46.

25) Ex. 21:7-9; Lev. 12:1-5; Num. 5:29, 30:2-15; and Numbers counts only males for the census, Num. 1:2, 3:40.

26) Ex. 22:29; 2 Kings 16:3, 17:17, 21:6, 23:10; Isa. 30:33; Jer. 7:31, 32:35; Ezek. 20:25-26, 31; Mic. 6:6-7; Judges 11:30-39 - Jephthath's story may be mythical, to explain the origin of an annual ritual, see "The Canaanites" p. 133.

27) "The Hittites," by O.R. Gurney, Penguin Books, 1990, p. 126: A man was sacrified and his corpse used in a magic ritual to purify the army after a defeat.

28) "Asherah and the Cult of Yahweh in Israel," "The Canaanites," and "Human Sacrifice" offer varying perspectives on sacrificial beliefs and practices in ancient societies. "The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son," Jon D. Levenson, 1993, analyzes the Israelite belief that the first-born son belonged to El/Yahweh and had to be surrendered, either as a sacrifice or in some other fashion, and how that belief survived in literary forms after actual sacrifices ended.

29) AEL, vol. I, pages 17, `Nefer-seshem-re,' and 24, `The Autobiography of Harkhuf.'

30) AEL, vol. I, p. 24, `Harkhuf.'

31) AEL, vol. II, p. 128.

32) AEL, vol. II, p. 112.

33) TANE, vol. II, p. 146.

34) AEL, vol. I, p. 61.

35) AEL, vol. I, p. 62.

36) AEL, vol. II, pages 150, 153 and 152.

37) AEL, vol. I, pages 64-65.

38) AEL, vol. II, p. 124.

39) AEL, vol. II, p. 155.

40) AEL, vol. II, p. 154.

41) AEL, vol. II, p. 141.

42) AEL, vol. I, p. 87.

43) AEL, vol. I, p. 100.

44) "The Bible as History," p. 140.

45) TANE, vol. II, p. 204; `The Curse of Agade,' TANE, vol. II, p. 204; and the `Plague Prayers' of Mursilis I, from "The Hittites - People of a Thousand Gods," pages 230-231, for examples.

46) AEL, vol. II, p. 112.

47) TANE, vol. II, p. 148, `I Will Praise the Lord of Wisdom.'

48) TANE, vol. I, p. 110, `Poems About Baal and Anath;' and "The Canaanites," p. 115.

49) TANE, vol. I, p. 232 `Hymn to Ishtar.'

50) AEL, vol. I, p. 99.

51) AEL, vol. I, p. 92.

52) AEL, vol. II, p. 155.

53) TANE, vol. I, p. 244 `Proverbs from Mesopotamia.'

54) AEL, vol. I, Introduction, p. 4.

55) AEL, vol. I, Introduction, p. 6.

56) "The Canaanites," p. 118.

57) "The Bible as History," p. 141.

60) "The Bible as History," p. 141.

61) Num. 31, Deut. 20:10-17; see "Out of the Desert," William H. Stiebing, Jr., Prometheus Press, 1989, for a skeptical view of the Conquest story; "Who Were the Israelites," by Gosta W. Ahlstrom, 1986, who argues that the Biblical history of Israel is highly misleading; and "The Canaanites" and "Asherah and the Cult of Yahweh in Israel" for discussions of Israelite and Canaanite customs and religions, among various books on these subjects.

BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR `MORALITY' ARTICLE

"Bible", Revised Standard Version, 1962.

Davies, Nigel, "Human Sacrifice in History and Today," Dorset Press, 1981.

Gordon, Cyrus H., "Forgotten Scripts," Basic Books, Inc., 1982.

Gray, John, "The Canaanites," Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., 1964.

James, T.G.H., "Pharaoh's People," University of Chicago Press, 1984.

Keller, Werner, "The Bible as History," 2nd Revised Edition, William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1981.

Lehmann, Johann, "The Hittites - People of a Thousand Gods."

Lichtheim, Miriam, "Ancient Egyptian Literature," volumes I and II, University of California Press, 1973, 1976.

Olyan, Saul M., "Asherah and the Cult of Yahweh in Israel, Scholars Press, 1988.

Pritchard, James B., "The Ancient Near East" volumes I and II, Princeton University Press, 1958.

Silver, Morris, "Economic Structures of the Ancient Near East," Barnes & Noble Books, 1986.

Wolkstein, Diane, and Samuel Noah Kramer, "Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth," Harper & Row, Publishers, 1983.

Woolley, C. Leonard, "The Sumerians," W.W. Norton & Company, 1965.

Hicks, Jim, "The Empire Builders," Time-Life Books, 1974.

"The Cambridge Ancient History," vol. III, part 2, 1969.

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