Question

1. explain one example of “cultural continuity” shared by mesopotamians and the ancient israelites. (5 pts each) you may skip 1 question (no extra points for not skipping) 16. point out a detail in the genesis 1 creation story that shows the faithful exiles that their god is greater than marduk (explain it). 17. in the passage above, what power is associated with the lord? the voice of the lord is powerful; the voice of the lord is over the waters; the god of glory thunders, the lord, over mighty waters. 18. the behistun inscription made it possible to decipher akkadian (mesopotamian) because it was (circle one) trilingual bilingual monolingual

Explanation:

1. One example of "cultural continuity" could be the shared flood - story motif. Both Mesopotamians (e.g., the Epic of Gilgamesh flood story) and the ancient Israelites (Noah's Ark in Genesis) have flood narratives, showing a shared cultural element over time and across groups.
2. In the Genesis 1 creation story, God creates light on the first day before creating the sun, moon, and stars on the fourth day. This shows that God's power is greater than natural celestial bodies, demonstrating the faithfulness of the Exiles to a God who is not dependent on physical phenomena.
3. In the passage, the power associated with the LORD is the power to control the waters. The text says "the voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD, over mighty waters", indicating that the LORD has sovereignty over the powerful and often - unpredictable element of water.
4. The Behistun Inscription was trilingual (Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian - Akkadian). This trilingual nature made it possible to decipher Akkadian because linguists could use the known languages (Old Persian and Elamite) to compare and understand the Akkadian text through the principle of parallelism in the inscriptions.

Answer:

1. The shared flood - story motif between Mesopotamians and ancient Israelites.
2. God creating light before the sun, moon, and stars in Genesis 1.
3. The power to control the waters.
4. trilingual