the folk heritage of German and other peoples, as did the brothers Grimm with their collections of fairy tales and stories from the Middle Ages and later. Against such a background, especially in Germany, Old Testament scholarship began to show an interest in folkloristic categories. The name of Hermann Gunkel stands out in this regard. Gunkel compared the mythologies of Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Hittite religion to determine to what extent the Hebrew religion had been influenced by the cultures