Old Testament Folk Lore

I've mentioned here many time how helpful it would be if Sunday School classes for children would include comparisons of stories in the Bible with stories in other religions. Children would learn the Bible stories are nearly identical to the stories children in other religions have learned for centuries. In that way children could feel a bond with others elsewhere in the world and elsewhere in time.

In his book, Folklore in the Old Testament (1975) Sir James George Frazer devotes over 100 pages to folk tales about floods. In countless societies there have been myths about world wide floods. I was near Rapid City, SD, a few years ago at a Native American museum and noticed a narrative about the Chief who had started the tribe which operated the facility. The museum is on a high hill in a flat valley. The folk lore of the tribe tells that the first chief arrived at the hill during the great flood that left him as the only person left alive. He started the tribe and all peoples of the world are descendants of him.

I cannot say I know where all the flood stories came from, but I suspect it was from this. All ancient people, everywhere in the world, had to have access to water. So they camped or lived in caves beside lakes or rivers. During the rainy season there were floods, water as far as the natives could see. So far as they knew, the entire world was nothing but water. And, humans being sort of programmed into spirits, ghosts and gods this got worked into their history and their version of reality. Folklorists refer to all the flood stories as "The Great Deluge."

Ancient historian Berossus wrote three books about Babylonian history. Babylonia was in its hay day about 1800 BCE. Berossus' writing claims to have been based on documents he possessed about 300 BCE. In his writing, Berossus tells a flood story that is almost identical to that in the Bible.