‘Let your name be …’: The change of the names of Israel’s ancestors in light of the Atra-ḫasīs myth

Nathan Wasserman; Yigal Bloch

doi:10.1177/03090892241304413

‘Let your name be …’: The change of the names of Israel’s ancestors in light of the Atra-ḫasīs myth

Nathan Wasserman^*, Yigal Bloch

^*Corresponding author for this work

Institute of Archaeology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The divine act of changing the names of Abraham, Sarah, and Jacob in the book of Genesis is paralleled by hitherto unnoticed similar cases of renaming specific protagonists in the Babylonian epic of Atra-ḫasīs: the goddess Mami/Bēlet-ilī and the Flood hero Ziusudra/Ūta-napištim. A careful comparison of these instances of name changing reveals striking thematic parallels and important ideological differences.

Original language	English
Journal	Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/03090892241304413
State	Accepted/In press - 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025.

Keywords

Atra-ḫasīs
Bēlet(-kala)-ilī
Flood
Genesis
Mami
Mesopotamian literature
personal name
Ziusudra
Ūta-napištim

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10.1177/03090892241304413

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‘Let your name be …’: The change of the names of Israel’s ancestors in light of the Atra-ḫasīs myth

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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