Thanks for the link. I began a study of ancient texts more then 35 years ago. Sumerian texts about 12 years ago.. So many cultures, so many texts, so many parallels.. The trick is to find the common denominator..

Thanks Kyle,

Lynda

PS An author who ranks high, in my mind, is the late Samuel Noah Kramer.. He doesn't proselytize, just translates the text and let's the reader decide.
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Snip of a lonnnnnnggggg article with many references

THE BORROWED LEGENDS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

The oldest part of the Bible, Genesis Chapters 1 through 6, which deal with the antediluvian period, was not written down in its present form much earlier than 800 BC. On the other hand, most of the Sumerian stories and legends were composed and published about 2500 BC or not long afterwards. The cuneiform tablet versions reported events that took place before the Deluge as well as activities just after the event.

The uniqueness of the events of the Old Testament comes under critical scrutiny since there is nothing here that cannot be found in the ancient myths and literature of Mesopotamia and the land of Canaan. If the activities of Abraham can be dated to about 2100 BC, and his antecedents are in Mesopotamia, then all the events of the Old Testament which took place before Abraham and the Deluge must have had their origin among the indigenous people.

What is not often perceived is that the Jews had at their disposal a vast store of creation and other myths wholly unknown to us, from which they borrowed selectively. For instance, we know that the Eden of the Bible was located in the river delta region of Mesopotamia, and that the story of the creation of Adam is a Sumerian account. The story of the Ark, the Deluge and Noah came from Sumerian accounts. In fact, the story of the Deluge was not limited to the Middle East but was universally known.

There are also Ugaritic (northern Canaan) parallels to the Hebrew Bible. The story of Daniel was taken from a north Canaan poem dated as far back as 1500 BC. The Ugarit Epic of Keret deals with the capture of a bride of King Keret by a distant king. It later became the Helen of Troy motif. But more importantly, it is the source of the stories of Genesis 12 and 20 where twice Abraham had to get his wife Sarah back from the hands of other kings.

The story of Job comes from a Babylonian poem about a virtuous man named Tabu-utul-bel who was sorely afflicted for some inscrutable reason and tormented by the gods.

The story of Jonah has many origins and apparently was universal, for Hercules was swallowed by a whale at precisely the same place, Joppa. Persian legends tell of their hero Jamahyd who was devoured by a sea monster that later vomited him out safely upon the shore. A similar tale appears in India in the epic classic Samedev Bhatta where Saktedeva was swallowed by a fish and later escapes.

The story of Samson is so strange and foreign to Hebrew lore as to indicate that it was borrowed in toto from Canaanite mythology; in fact, his name is derived from Shamash, the Canaanite sun god who ruled Lebanon.

[Comment: As we know, Shamash equals Prince Utu of the Planet Nibiru, the same "god" as the Greek Sun-God Apollo. Prince Utu was in charge of the Sinai Spaceport and its satellite airport at Baalbek, Lebanon, under the command of Nibiruan Airfleet Commander Princess-Royal Inanna, the sister and secret lover of Prince Utu. See Lord Hellespontiacus.]

There are so many parallels that there is no question of contemporary borrowing by the Hebrews. How then did this influence penetrate the Bible so completely?

Sometime during the Second Millennium BC, the Babylonian script, language, and literature permeated the lands west of Mesopotamia. Babylonian had become the diplomatic language of the Middle East so that correspondence between princes of Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine with their Egyptian overlords were carried out in Babylonia.

[Comment: This statement is corroborated by the research of Dr. Velikovsky. One might think of Babylonian as the "English of the Ancient World."]

Therefore, in order to learn the writing and language of the Babylonians, it is necessary for these peoples to study their literature and for this purpose texts were required. Among the tablets discovered at Tel-Amarna in Egypt were copies, in the form of school exercises, of the Babylonian stories of Ereshkigal, the Queen of the Underworld, and the story of Adapa, the mortal who was misled into refusing the food and water of immortality. So it is not unreasonable to assume that many of the Sumerians and Babylonian traditions, such as the stories of Creation and the Deluge, were known also to the Hebrews, or at least to their leaders.

When he left Ur in the valley of Mesopotamia, Abraham presumably brought these Sumerian traditions with him. His father Terah was a high priest in the government of Ur and would certainly have had an intimate knowledge of Sumerian culture.

It is therefore manifest that Sumerian tales of the gods of heaven and earth, the creation of Man, and the Deluge were the fountainhead from which nations of the ancient world drew their knowledge and beliefs.

https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/serpents_dragons/boulay04e.htm