The Ark Before Noah

The Ark Before Noah

By Irving Finkel
Unabridged
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“Engaging and informative…Finkel is an enthusiast and shows evident delight in bringing this find to the wider public.”

Wall Street Journal

Since the Victorian period, it has been understood that the story of Noah, iconic in the Book of Genesis, and a central motif in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, derives from a much older story that existed centuries before in ancient Babylon. But the relationship between the Babylonian and biblical traditions was shrouded in mystery. Then, in 2009, Irving Finkel, a curator at the British Museum and a world authority on ancient Mesopotamia, found himself playing detective when a member of the public arrived at the museum with an intriguing cuneiform tablet from a family collection. Not only did the tablet reveal a new version of the Babylonian Flood Story; the ancient poet described the size and completely unexpected shape of the ark, and gave detailed boat building specifications. Decoding this ancient message wedge by cuneiform wedge, Dr. Finkel discovered where the Babylonians believed the ark came to rest and developed a new explanation of how the old story ultimately found its way into the Bible. In The Ark Before Noah, Dr. Finkel takes us on an adventurous voyage of discovery, opening the door to an enthralling world of ancient voices and new meanings.

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  1. Emily
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    Could I be an Assyriologist

    Perhaps the only criticism I could level at this delightful book of popular scholarship is that its title is far too modest. Really, it is far more than a historical reconstruction of the transmission of the flood myth (complete with animals marching into a boat "two by two" . . . or was it "two by two with some seven by seven"). The author gives vital, and fascinating, historical background into the world of cuneiform script. He clearly loves the career he has made for himself in reading "clay tablets." So much so that it is hard to read the book (and I've listened to it twice now) without desperately wishing one had chosen Assyriology as one's field of study instead of what I actually chose.

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