A Historical Timeline Itis quite common to hear people claim that the Israelites copied form the Babylonians or some other ancient culture they had contact with in their history. Usually such comments are mad by those who subscribe to the copenhagen school of biblical thought or claim they are centerists , who are merely trying to find the truth orare promoting their own agenda. There are a couple of problems with that point of view: 1.  The israelites have no reputation of being copyists.  This is an important fact for it would seem that someone somewhere would have recorded this act by the israelites.  In fact, why didn't the Babylonian records reflect such a trait in the people they enslaved? One woul dhavethought that to cement their superiority over the captured people, the Babylonians would have recorded these type of actions and provide proof for the falseness of the Israelite beliefs. Since there are none and the Babylonians do NOT point this out, we can conclude that the Israelites did not copy the Old Testament from that society or any other. In fact, the reverse is true.  Dr. Robert Veenker in his contribution, Syro-Mesopotamia,  to the book, Mesopotamia & the Bible edited by Drs. Chavalas & Younger Jr. has stated that "The scribes of the Old Babylonian period were zealous copyists and went to great lengths to preserve the literature that came downto them from the past, especially the archives of the 3rd dynasty oat Ur." (pg. 163) 2. There is a belief that the Sumerians were the first civilization and that all future myths and stories were based upon their writings.  This assumes that the oldest written is the original and dismisses completely what the Bible says about the origins of all people and civilizations. We know from the Bible that the Sumerians were NOT the first civilization, though they may have been the first to develope as a world power but that was AFTER the disporia at Babel. It is interesting to note that while many secular scholars and archaeologists reject Noah's flood, the Sumerians place it (or their version of it) right in the middle of their king's list, at the proper place in the geneology that compares with the Biblical version.  So one must ask, where did they get the idea for a flood? and Why did they know where to place it in history?  If there was no flood, then there would be no reason to place it in their historical records. We know that the length of their kings' reigns(for the most part) are exaggerated, which provides us the clues we need to prove their version of the flood is an altered version of the real event thus even though their tablets reflect an older age than the written Biblical record, we know they are not writing the original story. How do we know this, well the timeline to follow provides the answer. 1. In the Beginning--creation.  Adam and Eve were made and given life and we know that they had conversations with God thus they would know the truth about what took place. 2.  The Fall-- after this event, children were born and if they were like allother parents, they would teach their children their history and talk about what God had done in the beginning.  Most likely, they probably taught them to keep the children on God's path not evil's. 3. The Murder-- After cain killed Abel, he talked with God and it was not a big deal.  Cain was used to the idea of God and it seemed not surprised that God would talk to him.  Cain had a knowledge of God and we know by Lamech's declaration that that knowledge was passed down to his future descendants. 4. A New Child-- With the birth of Seth, we have a new line from which righteous people were born into which God used to preserve the truth of the past and His deeds.  We know that Enoch walked with God thus he possessed the truth and we know he passed that truth down because Noah was a preacher of righteousness (from Peter).  It should be noted that only 4 to 8 of Seth's descendants made it onto the ark, which gives you a clue as to how corrupt the world had become. 5. The Flood -- Here Noah and his sons had at least a year to record or implant in their memories all that they knew of the pre-flood civilization they had just been separated from.  We do not know if they wrote things down or recorded them by memorization because we do not know how advanced that civilization was or what tools they had available for writing. The important thing here is that these 8 people knew exactly what transpired prior to the destruction. 6. Post-Flood-- The 8 survivors started to have families, probably only six of them.  Since the 8 lived to great ages it would not be surprising if they passed down all that they knew to the succeeding generations so that by the time of Babel, all th epeople of that one world society knew the truth or had heard it from their parents or grand-parents.  7. Post-Babel-- Here we have the dividing of the one world civilization into many yet what is important here is that God changed the language not the people's memories.  They still had the ideas of how to build great structures, how to cook, hunt or grow food and so on  PLUS they still had their history in their minds. One needs to be remembered and added tothe equation is that as people got further away from Noah and the flood, the got further away from the truth and that the devil was still working in the hearts and minds of the people.  The flood did not destroy him or his hatred or his ability to decieve God's creation and blind their minds to the truth.  Thus as these civilizations grew and they strayed from God their memories of the true events also changed to reflect their new culture and beliefs. In Conclusion--  Thus by the time the Sumerians rose up and became a powerful nation, the truth had changed.  They still knew of their past or they would not have been able to write their king's list as they did nor include the flood but they no longer possessed the truth and wrote such things according to what they now believed.  The Sumerians (in general) did not stick with God so why would they have the truth in their records? They would record their cultural beliefs not what really took place. Then, as a side note, one of the realities that arises which contradicts the idea that the Israelites copied form the Surmeians or other ancient civilizations is that we only have 1 copy of the ancient myth written by the Sumerians.  This lone tablet does not support an original concept theory.  It is one tablet and we do not know if the Sumerian people had written other accounts with variations or even the actual truth of the events of the past. To say that the Israelites copied is a closed-minded conclusion not supported by history or facts and is an idea or theory based upon very scant evidence without corroborration.  The mere possession of an ancient tablet reciting an event similar to the Biblical record is not anything but one's person view of his past and any other idea cannot be built upon this lone writing.  The historical timeline puts into perspective how the truth was transmitted down through the ages and places the Sumerians (and other societies) as recorders not originators of the ideas found in the past and we can see that there is an unbroken line for the truth to be transmitted down to Abraham onto Moses and into the Old Testament.  The Israelites did not copy the scriptures, they did not have that reputation. Most likely the Babylonians copied form the Israelites because that was who they were, copyists. It should be noted that all those who say the Israelites copied do not have any physical evidence to support their claims.  They use conjecture based upon what they did not find, or re-dated to fit their ideas, or have dismissed because the evidence found doesn't fit their theories.  Not one shred of evidence. Those who support this idea of the Israleites copying can be ignored, for they have no foundation in fact or science.