German Old Testament scholar Gunkel (1862-1932) took part in the controversy at the beginning of the 20th century over the influence of Babylon on Judaism by criticizing the work of Freidrich Kelitzsch (1850-1922) who argued for a strong connection between the two cultures. The controversy still rages, and Hanson presents a new translation to keep the ideas afloat. He provides indexes of ancient documents, ancient names, and authors. No information is provided for the German publication; this translation was published in 2009 by Cascade Books. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)