The Ark before Noah. Decoding the Story of the Flood by Irving Finkel

Excellent book! Finkel is a curator at the British museum, Assyriologist, and expert in cuneiform tablets. This book explains how Mesopotamian clay tables were discovered and interpreted, revealing ancient stories such as the famous Flood Story, previously thought to be an original story from the Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. 

It turns out that the Flood Story origins are in ancient Sumeria. Initially, it was transmitted orally until the establishment of cuneiform writing in the 2nd millennium BC, when multiple copies and versions were made. As centuries passed and other cultures appeared in the area, the tablets were translated and slightly adapted from Sumerian to Akkadian in both their Assyrian and Babylonian versions. The whole history is fascinating. 

Finkel also discusses the connections between the cuneiform stories and the Hebrew bible. So, the Flood and the Ark story has its equivalent in the Genesis. The Legend of Sargon (an Akkadian king) resembles very much the story of baby Moses. And the Great Ages of Man, a list of Mesopotamian kings has its equivalent in the bible. 

After a thorough and super interesting analysis, Finkle explains that these similarities can be explained by the absorption of Babylonian beliefs and culture by the Judeans during the Babylonian exile from 597 BC. As the Judeans needed to keep their identity intact, they decided they needed their own written history. For that, they adapted some of their own writings, keeping the parts that were convenient and mixed them with adapted sections of Babylonian stories. Finkel explains that the assimilation was likely as both judeans and babylonians spoke Aramaic, and that the mentioned cuneiform stories were part of the school curriculum as demonstrated in various clay tablets. 

To end a quote: "... it can be argued that the Babylonian exile, far from being the disaster it is usually judged, was ultimately the process that forged what became modern Judaism."