Tsumura's Creation and Destruction

I recently finished Tsumura’s Creation and Destruction. I don’t think I have seen that much Akkadian and Ugaritic, along with Sumerian, in a book in a good while! The book is basically an expansion of his 1989 book on Genesis 1 & 2, now including several Psalms and Habakkuk in his evaluation.

I found his arguments for Genesis convincing, but once he moved into the other realms, less so. His arguments are solid, almost watertight. But, I was reminded of a paper I did in Ugaritic for Dennis Pardee; I was looking for concrete borrowings in the mythological writings of Ugarit, the Hittites (including the Kumarbi cycle), and Akkadian. I was unable to find anything concrete that I could hang a strong argument on. But, as Dennis told me after reading the paper, there is no doubt something was going on. That’s how I felt after reading the book. Direct borrowing? Probably not. But there was “something going on” there. To Tsumura’s credit, he acknowledges that there are some borrowed motifs, but I wonder if maybe he hasn’t minimized them in his attempt to slay the Chaoskampf monster.

Even with that caveat, the book is worth the read, just be ready to wade through a good bit of Hebrew, Ugaritic, Akkadian, as well as a bit of Sumerian if you want to critique his arguments in detail.

Hmm, I donated this book as a prize for an undergraduate paper on Genesis! Maybe it is a bit too much for an undergrad? What do you think?

Creation and Destruction
A Reappraisal of the Chaoskampf Theory in the Old Testament

by David Toshio Tsumura
Eisenbrauns, 2005
xviii + 214 pages, English
Cloth
ISBN: 1575061066
List Price: $35.00
Your Price: $31.50
www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~I~TSUCREATI