Alexander Heidel

Alexander Heidel (1907–1955) was an Assyriologist and biblical scholar, and a Member of the Research Staff of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

He studied in Brazil and later at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis before receiving his PhD from the University of Chicago.

On its publication it was reviewed in the Journal of the American Oriental Society as "a sober and lucid translation of the epic in the most completely restored form available to date.

Chapter 1 outlines the discovery of the Enuma Elish, its purpose, date, source and structure, followed by a literal translation; chapter 2 gives translations of the other Babylonian and Mesopotamian creation accounts as known at the time; chapter 3 treats the accounts of Babylonian creation stories preserved in Classical texts (Berossus and Damascius); and chapter 4 compares the Babylonian creation stories with those contained in Genesis.

Many of his arguments stressing the uniqueness of the Genesis creation story have been overturned by later scholarship, but at the time of its publication the book was a milestone in introducing the wider public to the parallels between Mesopotamian and Hebrew mythology.