Did the flood really occur?

[Justtristo]

Really? We all have responsibilities. I work full time helping 14 year old girls tell their Christian parents they're pregnant, and them help them find safe places to live when their parents kick them out. I have 3 kids, I do volunteer work, I try to dance a couple times a week, I do a cycle class 5 days a week, I am in school, always writing papers, essays, etc... I read, I masturbate, and we all have responsibilities. I still manage to find some time to contribute to the forum. You have Jesus in your life, I don't, so you think that he would help you find time for everything. Maybe you should pray on it. In the meantime, save us the cop-out's and just admit you got nothing.

I have to say you are far more of a hero than Jesus Christ ever was, just for the balancing all those commitments in my life.

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Two generations of the Jewish elite were forced to reside in Babylon. When they returned to Israel in 538 BC with the backing of the Persian King Cyrus the Great they brought the Mesopotamian mythology they had been taught with them.

Even this is propaganda, Pap. There's a fine book called "The View From Nebo" by Amy Dockser Marcus who details a number of archaeological finds. One concerns cunieform records from the period when the Judahites were in Babylon. As she notes on page 174:

The Book of Chronicles states that the deportees from Judah were servants in Babylon, but, in fact that wasn't the case for most of the exiles. Instead, they obtained land from the state and were considered the king's tenants. Fathers were able to bequeath the land to their sons. Most positions in the empire were open to Jews. Some were engaged in crafts and commerce, others absorbed into huge state projects that were paid salaries from the state treasury. Former Judeans even got posts in the imperial administration and rose to senior positions. A huge bureaucracy was needed to run such a far-flung empire. Educated, literate exiles like the ones from Judah were quickly integrated into the civil service.

I'm not sure what it is about Jews that they love to portray themselves as slaves but it does seem to be a hangup with them. Perhaps Summer can chime in with some explanation for this constant kvetching they do?

Interesting quote there Min, the late development of a Jewish identity would be mirrored in the quite late development of true monotheism among the Israelites (which is likely during the exile and just after it). I am familiar with Israel Finkelstein's argument about monotheism emerging during the reign of King Josiah.

However I would argue the religious reforms that occurred then were a move towards just worshipping Yahweh alone, while still recognizing the existence of other gods. Because there is a lot of material in the old testament which alludes to the existence of more than one god, phrases like "above all gods" etc and also the word Elohim literally means gods.