The Jewish covenants are very similar to the Hittite treaties, and parts of Deut are very like parts of VTE. And the Assyrian treaty tradition seems to derive from the Hittite. The problem seems to be that people/scholars assume the Bible must be from the Jewish people and the (literate, well organized) Jewish people are not before the destruction of the Northern Kingdom, or going back to Omri, or early in the 1st m, to David, Solomon. However, it may well be that the Exodus recalls the Hyksos-- hundreds of years of Canaanite immigration and settlement in the NE Nile Delta, starting out and continuing well but then turning bad, ultimately posing a threat to Egypt, hostilities and a relatively abrupt exit back to Canaan for the Hyksos rulers and some their people. In 2nd m. "proto-Israel" is a mouse between two cats, the Egyptian New Kingdom, and the Hittite Empire. This was a period when the little states between the two millstones were subjected to vassalage by Egyptians or Hittites (Amarna correspondence). As a result they would have known a lot about the Hittite treaty-covenant form. Then there was the invasions of the Sea Peoples, the Hittite Empire is completely destroyed and the Egyptians pull back letting loose their empire, going back to Egyptian proper. As the historical fog of the Sea Peoples lifted, with the cats, Egypt and Hittites, for the most part gone/much diminished, the mouse little Israel can flex its muscles and reveal its identity. That Deut resembles the VTE does not preclude it also looking in structure/form like the Hittite treaties. It has Hittite features that are not well explained by Assyrian influence. As for religion, I never assume scripture is divinely inspired, and, if God intervened in history, historians would be out of work, except perhaps in the style of Homer. But I would very much like to know when the Bible was written. Also, where does the story of Adam and Eve come from? Ideas about a universal need for foundation myths and national identity building never impressed me. As for literacy rates, way back in 2,300 BCE, men and women were writing plenty. I do not care when the Bible was written or began as an oral tradition. However, there are lots of things in the Bible that distinctly show or seem to show 2nd m. influence-- like the flood story from ancient Babylon, the Exodus story from the Hyksos, and Hittite influence on (some of) the covenants. On the other hand, there may be parts of the Bible that are remarkably late, like perhaps the Joseph story. I don't know, but the idea that 2nd m. influence would do terrible violence to a venerable scholarly consensus of how the Bible came about, does not impress me as a tragedy.
The Jewish covenants are very similar to the Hittite treaties, and parts of Deut are very like parts of VTE. And the Assyrian treaty tradition seems to derive from the Hittite. The problem seems to be that people/scholars assume the Bible must be from the Jewish people and the (literate, well organized) Jewish people are not before the destruction of the Northern Kingdom, or going back to Omri, or early in the 1st m, to David, Solomon. However, it may well be that the Exodus recalls the Hyksos-- hundreds of years of Canaanite immigration and settlement in the NE Nile Delta, starting out and continuing well but then turning bad, ultimately posing a threat to Egypt, hostilities and a relatively abrupt exit back to Canaan for the Hyksos rulers and some their people. In 2nd m. "proto-Israel" is a mouse between two cats, the Egyptian New Kingdom, and the Hittite Empire. This was a period when the little states between the two millstones were subjected to vassalage by Egyptians or Hittites (Amarna correspondence). As a result they would have known a lot about the Hittite treaty-covenant form. Then there was the invasions of the Sea Peoples, the Hittite Empire is completely destroyed and the Egyptians pull back letting loose their empire, going back to Egyptian proper. As the historical fog of the Sea Peoples lifted, with the cats, Egypt and Hittites, for the most part gone/much diminished, the mouse little Israel can flex its muscles and reveal its identity. That Deut resembles the VTE does not preclude it also looking in structure/form like the Hittite treaties. It has Hittite features that are not well explained by Assyrian influence. As for religion, I never assume scripture is divinely inspired, and, if God intervened in history, historians would be out of work, except perhaps in the style of Homer. But I would very much like to know when the Bible was written. Also, where does the story of Adam and Eve come from? Ideas about a universal need for foundation myths and national identity building never impressed me. As for literacy rates, way back in 2,300 BCE, men and women were writing plenty. I do not care when the Bible was written or began as an oral tradition. However, there are lots of things in the Bible that distinctly show or seem to show 2nd m. influence-- like the flood story from ancient Babylon, the Exodus story from the Hyksos, and Hittite influence on (some of) the covenants. On the other hand, there may be parts of the Bible that are remarkably late, like perhaps the Joseph story. I don't know, but the idea that 2nd m. influence would do terrible violence to a venerable scholarly consensus of how the Bible came about, does not impress me as a tragedy.