Foreword by Peter Machinist
Hermann Gunkel's groundbreaking Schopfung und Chaos, originally published in German in 1895, is here translated in its entirety into English for the first time. Even though available only in German, this work by Gunkel has had a profound influence on modern biblical scholarship.
Discovering a number of parallels between the biblical creation accounts and a Babylonian creation account, the Enuma Elish, Gunkel argues that ancient Babylonian traditions shaped the Hebrew people's perceptions both of God's creative activity at the beginning of...

Franz Delitzsch's lectures in 1902 and 1903 set off the Babel-Bible controversy, which rocked Europe and North America. In this searing critique of Delitzsch, Gunkel provides his own analysis of the relationship between ancient Israel and Babylon. In this edition, Gunkel's original work is newly translated, with a new Foreword, notes, bibliographies, and indexes. ""Hanson's new translation and edition of Gunkel's classic response to the Delitzsch's views of the Babel-Bible controversy is a welcome addition to the growing work on the relationship of Mesopotamia and Israel in antiquity. The new...

The name Hermann Gunkel is as familiar to biblical scholars as their own. Gunkel founded a school, fathered form-critical research, and taught most of the giants of the last generation. . . from the Introduction This little book, the first by Hermann Gunkel, shattered the reigning images of the New Testament idea of the Spirit. Gunkels argument not only revolutionized the theology of his time but has continued to be foundational for most subsequent studies on the subject. As he did in so much of his work, Gunkel not only explores the milieu of the New Testament but also demonstrates the...

This looks at the Biblical book of Genesis. From the intro: "ARE the narratives of Genesis history or legend? For the modern historian this is no longer an open question; nevertheless it is important to get a clear notion of the bases of this modern position. The writing of history is not an innate endowment of the human mind; it arose in the course of human history and at a definite stage of development. Uncivilised races do not write history; they are incapable of reproducing their experiences objectively, and have no interest in leaving to posterity an authentic account of the events of...

""Elijah, Yahweh, and Baal is a masterpiece presented with authority by a twentieth-century accomplished and unsurpassed exegete. It is now translated by a disciple, whose elegant rendition sounds as if Hermann Gunkel had originally written himself the book in English."" --Andre LaCocque, The Chicago Theological Seminary, Chicago, IL ""Written a century ago for a church audience eager to learn how the best scholarship of the day could illuminate one of the Bible's most absorbing stories, this little book shows Gunkel at the height of his powers of critical perspicuity, explanatory finesse,...