Has anyone studied the supposed parallels between the stories of Moses and that of "Sargon the Great" ?
Any thoughts?
Sargon vs. Moses
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_darin-houston
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Sargon vs. Moses
Last edited by Guest on Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm, edited 0 times in total.
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Reason:
I have only read of the similarities in the birth stories of Sargon and Moses. While anyone familiar with the biblical story would certainly be reminded of Moses when reading the Sargon story, the similarities do not strike me as requiring any theory of literary interdependence between the two.
The points of similarity seem to be that both came from parents associated with the priesthood of their respective peoples, both were placed in a river (Sargon, in the Euphrates; Moses, in the Nile) in a watertight basket, bith were rescued from the river downstream and raised by the ones who found them, and both became important leaders of their people.
While this may seem, initially, like an impressive list of similarities, the only assumption we would have to make about in order to see the similarities as coincidental would be that, in all of history, the leaders of two separate nations, in separate eras, had been sent adrift by their mothers, and later found and raised by foster guardians. That a bay would be set adrift is an unusual thing, but may not have been unique to only one important person in history—especially in view of the many times in history when children of the ruling class were sought and purged by a rising new regime.
The differences between the two stories seem more striking than the similarities. Sargon did not know who his father was, while his mother was a priestess; both of Moses' parents were known and were slaves under Pharaoh. Sargon was found by a relatively unimportant man, who raised him to be a gardener; Moses was found and adopted by Egyptian royalty, and was (apparently) raised to be powerful in the Egyptian government.
If, as some may conclude, the story of Moses borrowed from the Sargon narrative, it did not follow it very closely.
The points of similarity seem to be that both came from parents associated with the priesthood of their respective peoples, both were placed in a river (Sargon, in the Euphrates; Moses, in the Nile) in a watertight basket, bith were rescued from the river downstream and raised by the ones who found them, and both became important leaders of their people.
While this may seem, initially, like an impressive list of similarities, the only assumption we would have to make about in order to see the similarities as coincidental would be that, in all of history, the leaders of two separate nations, in separate eras, had been sent adrift by their mothers, and later found and raised by foster guardians. That a bay would be set adrift is an unusual thing, but may not have been unique to only one important person in history—especially in view of the many times in history when children of the ruling class were sought and purged by a rising new regime.
The differences between the two stories seem more striking than the similarities. Sargon did not know who his father was, while his mother was a priestess; both of Moses' parents were known and were slaves under Pharaoh. Sargon was found by a relatively unimportant man, who raised him to be a gardener; Moses was found and adopted by Egyptian royalty, and was (apparently) raised to be powerful in the Egyptian government.
If, as some may conclude, the story of Moses borrowed from the Sargon narrative, it did not follow it very closely.
Last edited by Guest on Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm, edited 0 times in total.
Reason:
Reason:
In Jesus,
Steve
Steve