The Common Background of Greek and Hebrew Civilizations

The dramatic discoveries at Ugarit and other sites in the Eastern Mediterranean have led Dr. Gordon to the conclusion that the Greek and Hebrew civilizations are parallel structures built on the same foundation. For centuries scholars have been trying to account for parallels between Greek literature and the Bible in the face of a general assumption that ancient Israel and Greece were quite unrelated cultures. Dr. Gordon, in this book, presents abundant evidence that they both drew on a common East Mediterranean heritage of the second millennium B.C. He shows how recent discoveries of certain Egyptian and cuneiform texts provide missing links and, particularly, how the revelations of the literature of Ugarit have helped to bridge the gap. Drawing on his vast knowledge of archaeology, linguistics, and the literature of the ancient Near East, he suggests how these two civilizations probably arose, the lines of transmission, and the cross-currents of other cultures contributing to these two major developments. “Professor Gordon has made himself at home in both the Semitic and Indo-European compartments of philology. This makes it possible for him to do things and to see things that are beyond a single-compartment scholar’s horizon.” — Arnold Toynbee, The [London] Observer “An important book. . . . It provides all who are interested in Homer or the Bible with a great deal of material, an attractive thesis, and an alluring prospect of further research.” — Times [London] Literary Supplement