The Old World Scriptures Myths and Sacred Texts from the Dawn of Civilization

This volume brings together the oldest surviving sacred texts in human history-restored, translated, and presented in a single scholarly edition. Drawn from the literary and theological traditions of Sumer, Akkad, Babylonia, Egypt, and Ugarit, these writings reflect the original cosmologies, divine narratives, and mythic frameworks that shaped ancient religious consciousness long before the rise of covenantal scripture. Most were written between 2000 and 1100 BCE, though some of the traditions they preserve are thought to reach back much earlier.

What distinguishes this collection is not only the range of sources, but the method of restoration. Each text has been carefully reconstructed through triangulation across multiple ancient sources. Where lines are broken or missing, parallels from related traditions have been cautiously used to restore coherence-always without theological revision or modern overlay.

Included in this volume are:

• Enuma Elish (Babylonian cosmic kingship and creation)

• The Eridu Genesis (Sumerian flood and descent of kingship)

• Atrahasis (creation of humanity, divine unrest, and the flood)

• The Myth of Adapa (divine knowledge, mortality, and cosmic limitation)

• The Sumerian King List (antediluvian memory and sacred kingship)

• Enki and Ninhursag (fertility, healing, and mythic geography)

• The Descent of Inanna (death, rebirth, and the feminine underworld)

• Lugal-e (divine war and restoration)

• The Baal Cycle (Ugaritic divine combat and storm theology)

• The Memphite Theology (Egyptian cosmogony through divine speech)

• The Legend of Aqhat (justice, mortality, and lost legacy)

• The Epic of Keret (divine kingship and covenantal failure)

• The Instruction of Amenemope (wisdom and ethics from the Egyptian court tradition)

These texts are not offered as literary curiosities, but as primary religious documents-original theological works that predate and inform later canonical traditions. For scholars, students, and seekers of the world's earliest sacred traditions, this volume offers an unprecedented restoration of the original scriptural voices of the ancient world.