Just watched video from http://brucegore.com/VideoPlay2.aspx
Was interesting but not as good as the videos on Enuma Elish and The Epic of Gilgamesh.
Some interesting points.
When looking on map I saw the main cities along the fertile crescent: Allepo, Damascus, Haran, Ninevah, Babylon.
In ancient covenants each party would walk between animals that had been cut in two. They were saying that the gods could do this to them if they broke there covenant. In Genesis 15 the LORD makes a torch pass between the animals that have been cut in two. So here God is making a one-way promise. (Abraham did not go through the pieces.)
Old great dyansties:
Sumer (ends about 2316 bc)
Akkadian (ends about 2193 bc)
Ur (ends about 2004 bc)
Isin (ends about 1924 bc) – no centralised authority
Old Babylon (ends about 1595) – Hamurabi famous king with law. Comes at least 200 years before Moses.
2 mountains at Shechem Gerizim and Ebal. Priests stand on Gerizim and call out blessings. Then priests stand on Ebal and call out curses if disobedience. Deuteronomy 11:29 When the Lord your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings, and on Mount Ebal the curses.