The Flood Myth

Download or read book The Flood Myth written by Alan Dundes and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1988 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Flood Myths of Early China written by Mark Edward Lewis and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Early Chinese ideas about the construction of an ordered human space received narrative form in a set of stories dealing with the rescue of the world and its inhabitants from a universal flood. This book demonstrates how early Chinese stories of the re-creation of the world from a watery chaos provided principles underlying such fundamental units as the state, lineage, the married couple, and even the human body. These myths also supplied a charter for the major political and social institutions of Warring States (481–221 BC) and early imperial (220 BC–AD 220) China. In some versions of the tales, the flood was triggered by rebellion, while other versions linked the taming of the flood with the creation of the institution of a lineage, and still others linked the taming to the process in which the divided principles of the masculine and the feminine were joined in the married couple to produce an ordered household. While availing themselves of earlier stories and of central religious rituals of the period, these myths transformed earlier divinities or animal spirits into rulers or ministers and provided both etiologies and legitimation for the emerging political and social institutions that culminated in the creation of a unitary empire.

Download or read book The Great Flood written by Sir James George Frazer and published by . This book was released on 2013-01-31 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sir James G. Frazer (1854-1941), the famed author of The Golden Bough, examines the prevalence of flood myths around the world to identify the folkloric origins of the widespread belief that the world was once submerged beneath the waters while only a few humans survived. Writing in the introduction to this remarkable volume, Frazer explains his goal: "My purpose is to discover how the narratives arose, and how they came to be so widespread over the earth; with the question of their truth or falsehood I am not primarily concerned, though of course it cannot be ignored in considering the problem of their origin." Frazer sought no simple answer; indeed, he concluded that flood myths have a range of origins, including both independent developments and diffusion from a common source. Today, Frazer's collection of world flood myths remains one of the most comprehensive ever assembled and a treasury of information for students of comparative mythology. About the Book The Great Flood grew out of Frazer's 1916 Huxley Lecture at the Royal Anthropological Institute and was published as the fourth chapter of Frazer's Folk-lore in the Old Testament (1918). This edition reprints the complete text of The Great Flood along with an abridged selection of the original notes.

Download or read book The Ark Before Noah written by Irving Finkel and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2014-03-25 with total page 446 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The recent translation of a Babylonian tablet launches a groundbreaking investigation into one of the most famous stories in the world, challenging the way we look at ancient history. Since the Victorian period, it has been understood that the story of Noah, iconic in the Book of Genesis, and a central motif in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, derives from a much older story that existed centuries before in ancient Babylon. But the relationship between the Babylonian and biblical traditions was shrouded in mystery. Then, in 2009, Irving Finkel, a curator at the British Museum and a world authority on ancient Mesopotamia, found himself playing detective when a member of the public arrived at the museum with an intriguing cuneiform tablet from a family collection. Not only did the tablet reveal a new version of the Babylonian Flood Story; the ancient poet described the size and completely unexpected shape of the ark, and gave detailed boat building specifications. Decoding this ancient message wedge by cuneiform wedge, Dr. Finkel discovered where the Babylonians believed the ark came to rest and developed a new explanation of how the old story ultimately found its way into the Bible. In The Ark Before Noah, Dr. Finkel takes us on an adventurous voyage of discovery, opening the door to an enthralling world of ancient voices and new meanings.

Download or read book Noah's Ark and the Ziusudra Epic written by Robert M. Best and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Real Story of the Flood written by Paul L. Maier and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this picture book, scholar and author Paul L. Maier explains the Great Flood in a unique way. No myth or romanticized version, but the true story of mankind's second chance and our loving God's promise to preserve us for all time. Paul L. Maier wrote the Gold Medallion Book Award winner for children, The Very First Christmas, and three other Gold Medallion finalists, The Very First Easter and The Very First Christians, and Martin Luther. Dr. Maier lectures widely, appears frequently in national radio, television, and newspaper interviews, and has received numerous awards. Maier is the Russell H. Seibert Professor of Ancient History at Western Michigan University.

Download or read book The Rocks Don't Lie: A Geologist Investigates Noah's Flood written by David R. Montgomery and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2012-08-27 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How the mystery of the Bible's greatest story shaped geology: a MacArthur Fellow presents a surprising perspective on Noah's Flood. In Tibet, geologist David R. Montgomery heard a local story about a great flood that bore a striking similarity to Noah’s Flood. Intrigued, Montgomery began investigating the world’s flood stories and—drawing from historic works by theologians, natural philosophers, and scientists—discovered the counterintuitive role Noah’s Flood played in the development of both geology and creationism. Steno, the grandfather of geology, even invoked the Flood in laying geology’s founding principles based on his observations of northern Italian landscapes. Centuries later, the founders of modern creationism based their irrational view of a global flood on a perceptive critique of geology. With an explorer’s eye and a refreshing approach to both faith and science, Montgomery takes readers on a journey across landscapes and cultures. In the process we discover the illusive nature of truth, whether viewed through the lens of science or religion, and how it changed through history and continues changing, even today.