Windows to the Ancient World of the Hebrew Bible

Essays in Honor of Samuel Greengus

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This honorary volume of scholarly essays celebrates Dr. Samuel Greengus, Julian Morgenstern Professor of Bible and Near Eastern Literature and Professor of Semitic Languages at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, esteemed teacher and mentor.

The contributions are varied in scope, including studies of biblical texts and. . . (more)

Material Culture Matters

Essays on the Archaeology of the Southern Levant in Honor of Seymour Gitin

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Dr. Seymour Gitin is completing his tenure as Director and Dorot Professor at the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem. Much of his long career has been spent helping young scholars expand their contacts and hone their skills. This volume is a collection of articles by some of the many developing scholars and Albright fellows with whom Sy has shared his time and knowledge. Their appreciation. . . (more)

Exploring the Longue Durée

Essays in Honor of Lawrence E. Stager

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Fifty scholars who represent a wide range of nationalities and specialties—archaeologists, biblical scholars, philologists, and historians—have contributed essays in honor of Lawrence E. Stager, the Dorot Professor of the Archaeology of Israel and Director of the Semitic Museum at Harvard University, on the occasion of his 65th birthday. Various academic generations are represented: among the contributors to this volume are Professor Stager’s former students and some of his own teachers, as well as a diverse group of his many friends and. . . (more)

Seeking Out the Wisdom of the Ancients

Essays Offered to Honor Michael V. Fox on the Occasion of His Sixty-Fifth Birthday

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Michael V. Fox, long-time professor in the Dept. of Hebrew and Semitic Studies at the University of Wisconsin—Madison, is known both for his scholarship and his teaching. As the editors of this volume in his honor note, the care and sensitivity of his reading of the Hebrew text are well known, and he lavishes equal attention on his own writing, to the benefit of all who read his work. The rigor that he brought to his own work he also inflicted on his students, and they. . . (more)

Harlot or Holy Woman?

A Study of Hebrew Qedešah

Phyllis A. Bird

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Harlot or Holy Woman? presents an exhaustive study of qedešah, a Hebrew word meaning “consecrated woman” but rendered “prostitute” or “sacred prostitute” in Bible translations. Reexamining biblical and extrabiblical texts, Phyllis A. Bird questions how qedešah came to be associated with prostitution and offers an alternative explanation of the term, one that suggests a wider participation for women as religious specialists in Israel’s early cultic practice.

Bird’s study reviews all the texts from classical antiquity cited as sources for an. . . (more)

Fault, Responsibility, and Administrative Law in Late Babylonian Legal Texts

F. Rachel Magdalene, Cornelia Wunsch, and Bruce Wells

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This book presents a reassessment of the governmental systems of the Late Babylonian period—specifically those of the Neo-Babylonian and early Persian Empires—and provides evidence demonstrating that these are among the first to have developed an early form of administrative law.

The present study revolves around a particular expression that, in its most common form, reads ḫīṭu ša šarri išaddad and can be translated as “he will be guilty (of an offense) against the king.” The authors analyze. . . (more)

Cuneiform Texts from the Folios of W. G. Lambert, Part One

Edited by A. R. George and Junko Taniguchi

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W. G. Lambert’s line drawings of cuneiform tablets from the British Museum, together with his meticulous editions of their contents, form a contribution to Assyriology unrivaled in his generation. Upon his death in 2011, Lambert bequeathed his academic legacy to A. R. George, who discovered among its contents approximately 1,400 unpublished pencil drawings. He and Junko Taniguchi took over the task of converting the drawings into images suitable for publication.

The first of two planned volumes, this book features drawings of 329 cuneiform tablets found in Lambert’s academic papers. Written by Babylonian and Assyrian scribes between. . . (more)

Judging the Judges

Judging the Judges

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The book of Judges is full of characters of ambivalent moral integrity and acts of dubious propriety, such as Jael’s murder of Sisera and the sacrifice of Jephthah’s daughter. And yet the terse narrative and the reticent narrator frequently leave the ethical character of these actions in doubt. In order to avoid reading contemporary worldviews and ethics into this ancient text, Mary L. Conway applies a blend of narrative and functional linguistic theories to her analysis of the stories of the six major judges in an effort to more accurately identify the unifying ideological stance of the book.

Using an interdisciplinary approach that employs the concepts of narrative perspective alongside appraisal theory, Conway evaluates. . . (more)

Baal, St. George, and Khidr

A Study of the Historical Geography of the Levant

Robert D. Miller II

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In Western tradition, St. George is known as the dragon slayer. In the Middle East, he is called Khidr (“Green One”), and in addition to being a dragon slayer, he is also somehow the prophet Elijah. In this book, Robert D. Miller II untangles these complicated connections and reveals how, especially in his Middle Eastern guise, St. George is a reincarnation of the Canaanite storm god Baal, another “Green One” who in Ugaritic texts slays dragons. Combining art history, theology, and archeology, this multidisciplinary study demystifies the identity of . . . (more)

An Introduction to Akkadian Literature

Contexts and Content

Alan Lenzi

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This book initiates the reader into the study of Akkadian literature from ancient Babylonia and Assyria. With this one relatively short volume, the novice reader will develop the literary competence necessary to read and interpret Akkadian texts in translation and will gain a broad familiarity with the major genres and compositions in the language.

The first part of the book presents introductory discussions of major critical issues, organized under four key rubrics: tablets, scribes, compositions, and. . . (more)

The Southern Levant under Assyrian Domination

Hope for a Tender Sprig