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“Historical, sociological, literary, linguistic, archeological and other techniques must be brought to bear when they are applicable to the material at hand.”

Cyrus H. Gordon

Introduction
The Common Background of Greek and Hebrew Civilizations (1965 [1962])

“Solomon was a 'copper king', and all along that Araba, on both sides, we found many copper mines and smelting stations, all attributable to Solomon and his immediate successors.”

Cyrus H. Gordon

Source: Adventures in the Nearest East (1957), Ch.1 Exploring Edom and Moab

“Aristocrats (among Hebrews and Greeks) often had harems that included women of common or even servile origin, as well as well-born aristocratic ladies. Normally, the successors would be chosen from the sons born by ladies; but on occasion those born by servile or common wives achieved the ascendency. In the latter case, tradition could dwell on the phenomenon as "worthy of saga."”

Cyrus H. Gordon

Source: The Common Background of Greek and Hebrew Civilizations (1965 [1962]), Ch.VIII Further Observations on the Bible

“The Sabbath, perhaps the most important labour legislation next to the abolition of slavery, is a Hebrew institution.”

Cyrus H. Gordon

Introduction
Adventures in the Nearest East (1957)

“The competent archeologist can date pottery much as some of us can date cars or dresses of our own century.”

Cyrus H. Gordon

Source: Adventures in the Nearest East (1957), Ch.1 Exploring Edom and Moab

“Traders (like the Phoenicians) carried their methods as well as their wares to Europe by ship.”

Cyrus H. Gordon

Introduction
Adventures in the Nearest East (1957)

“The most important document at Ugarit for both Biblical and Homeric studies is the Epic of Kret. It anticipates the Helen-of-Troy motif in the Iliad and Genesis, thus bridging the gap between the two literatures.”

Cyrus H. Gordon

Source: The Common Background of Greek and Hebrew Civilizations (1965 [1962]), Ch.VIII Further Observations on the Bible

“The nomadic Semite… roves as a herdsman, partaking of Allah's hospitality.”

Cyrus H. Gordon

Source: Adventures in the Nearest East (1957), Ch.1 Exploring Edom and Moab

“The [Judaic] Patriarchs are depicted as Arameans as long as they remained in their native lands.”

Cyrus H. Gordon

Source: The Common Background of Greek and Hebrew Civilizations (1965 [1962]), Ch.VIII Further Observations on the Bible

“Prior to 1952, when M. Ventris first published his decipherment of the 'Linear B' tablets from Crete and Greece, showing that they were Greek, everyone assumed that Hebrew was recorded in writing before Greek. But now… we are reading Linear B Greek texts, written before the birth of Abraham”

Cyrus H. Gordon

let alone before the date of any known Hebrew text
Introduction
Adventures in the Nearest East (1957)

“Heroic epic and saga (Indic as well as Greek and Hebrew, etc.) combine action with genealogy. This is necessary because the action is performed by aristocrats who require genealogies.”

Cyrus H. Gordon

Source: The Common Background of Greek and Hebrew Civilizations (1965 [1962]), Ch.VIII Further Observations on the Bible

“The priestly guilds were highly mobile, with the result that cultic practices crossed ethnic lines over wide areas.”

Cyrus H. Gordon

Introduction
The Common Background of Greek and Hebrew Civilizations (1965 [1962])

“When a new religion supplants an old religion, the gods of the old often survive as the demons of the new.”

Cyrus H. Gordon

Source: The Common Background of Greek and Hebrew Civilizations (1965 [1962]), Ch.VII Further Observations on Homer

“Archeological discoveries at sites like Ugarit prevent us from regarding Greece as the hermetically sealed Olympian miracle, or Israel as the vacuum-packed miracle from Sinai.”

Cyrus H. Gordon

Introduction
The Common Background of Greek and Hebrew Civilizations (1965 [1962])

“Despite the polytheism of the East Mediterranean nations, monotheistic trends were always present even in such crass polytheisms such as we find in Homer and in Egyptian literature.”

Cyrus H. Gordon

Source: The Common Background of Greek and Hebrew Civilizations (1965 [1962]), Ch.VII Further Observations on Homer

“When Zeus' son Sarpedon meets his fate, Zeus expresses grief for his dead son by causing blood to rain (Iliad 16: 459-461). In Egypt, the function of rain is replaced by the Nile which fructifies the soil. Accordingly, the Biblical Plague of Blood (Exodus 7: 19-25) is the Egyptian equivalent of the bloody rainfall in the Iliad.”

Cyrus H. Gordon

Source: The Common Background of Greek and Hebrew Civilizations (1965 [1962]), Ch.VII Further Observations on Homer

“The Samaritans (whose beginnings were pre-Josianic) have a Pentateuch quite similar to the familiar Jewish Pentateuch. …our Pentateuchal text was fairly well established before the rift between the Samaritans and Judeans.”

Cyrus H. Gordon

Source: The Common Background of Greek and Hebrew Civilizations (1965 [1962]), Ch.VIII Further Observations on the Bible

“Out of the Armana Age synthesis emerged the earliest traditions of Israel and Greece.”

Cyrus H. Gordon

Introduction
The Common Background of Greek and Hebrew Civilizations (1965 [1962])

“It would be foolhardy to swell the pages of this book with an exhaustive list of Greco-Hebrew differences. Everyone knows that Homer is very different from the Bible.”

Cyrus H. Gordon

Introduction
The Common Background of Greek and Hebrew Civilizations (1965 [1962])

“I hope that the reader will not regard the contents of this book as an escape from the present world but rather as a key part of it.”

Cyrus H. Gordon

Introduction
Adventures in the Nearest East (1957)