Mesopotamian Civilization and the Origins of the New Testament

Robin Baker is Emeritus Professor of Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Winchester and a Fellow of University College London. He is the author of Hollow Men, Strange Women:  Riddles, Code and Otherness in the Book of Judges.

• 1. The Religious Landscape of the Near East at the Turn of the Era; 2. Channels of Transmission; 3. New Testament Epistemology: A Reappraisal; 4. Kingship; 5. Ninurta, Nimrod, Abimelech and Christ: A Case Study of Mediated Influence; 6. Marduk, Ištar and Nabû and New Testament Christology; 7. Blood-Lines, Omens and Festivals; 8. Conclusions on the New Testament's Mesopotamian Legacy.

'This book … repays careful reading page after page. It showcases the author's substantial learning which spans multiple Ancient Near Eastern cultures as well as broad scholarship on both biblical Testaments … Baker has sufficiently demonstrated, with considerable detail and erudition, that significant light may be shed on the New Testament writings through looking eastward from Jerusalem, and not merely to the West.' Ian Boxall, New Directions