Response to Josh Henry

According to Josh, the authors were aiming to please the gods by writing a book. However, based on my scant knowledge of the time period, I would say it is much more likely that the authors would have used more traditional methods such as ritual sacrifice to appease the gods. I would agree with Josh’s argument, but there were so many other ways that the ancient Mesopotamians used to settle down the gods that I doubt writing would even come to their minds. I agree with the second half of his argument more because I believe that as an author, I would try to direct people in the right direction more than I would try to do the action myself. This leads me to believe that the authors were doing as Josh said in the second half of his post. They were telling the people to be more respectful of the gods in order to prevent angering the gods. The authors themselves were not writing the book in order to please the gods directly, but rather they were encouraging others to do so. While I believe that Josh presents a valid argument, I feel as though it is much more likely the authors were wise-men who wanted the people to listen to them rather than commoners who wanted to please the gods by writing a book about their glory.