Irving Finkel theorizes that the Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh was not destroyed but systematically looted by conquering Babylonians and Elamites, with the remaining fragments being primarily duplicates and broken items.

Irving Finkel believes the conventional theory that pictographic writing preceded phonetic writing is likely wrong and that the archaeological evidence is misleading.

Irving Finkel believes the Hebrew Bible was compiled during the Babylonian exile and that its authors incorporated and recycled Babylonian myths, such as the flood story, for their own theological purposes.