Non-Semitic Loanwords in the Hebrew Bible

A Lexicon of Language Contact

Benjamin J. Noonan

In this volume, Noonan identifies all the Hebrew Bible’s foreign loanwords and presents them in the form of an annotated lexicon. An appendix to the book analyzes words commonly proposed to be non-Semitic that are, in fact, Semitic, along with the reason for considering them as such. Noonan’s study enriches our understanding of the lexical semantics of the Hebrew Bible’s non-Semitic terminology, which leads to better translation and. . . (more)

The Dragon, the Mountain, and the Nations

An Old Testament Myth, Its Origins, and Its Afterlives

Robert D. Miller II

The dragon-slaying myth has a hoary ancestry, extending back long before its appearance in the Hebrew Bible, and a vast range, spanning as far as India and perhaps even Japan. This book is a chronicle of its trajectories and permutations. The target of this study is the biblical myth. This target, however, is itself a fluid tradition, responding to and reworking extrabiblical myths and reworking its own myths. In this study, Robert Miller examines the dragon and. . . (more)

The Southern Levant under Assyrian Domination

Edited by Shawn Zelig Aster and Avraham Faust

With its unique geographic diversity and abundant archaeological and textual data, the southern Levant is an excellent “laboratory” for studying how Assyrian domination operated. This collection of essays explains how Neo-Assyrian rule influenced the demographics, economy, and culture of the region.

A systematic study of Assyrian rule in the west that integrates archaeological and textual perspectives and reconsiders the. . . (more)

An Introduction to Akkadian Literature

Contexts and Content

By Alan Lenzi

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 audiences. Here, the reader will find descriptions of the tablets used as. . . (more)

Bearing Yhwh’s Name at Sinai

A Reexamination of the Name Command of the Decalogue

Carmen Joy Imes

The Name Command (NC) is usually interpreted as a prohibition against speaking Yhwh’s name in a particular context: false oaths, wrongful pronunciation, irreverent worship, magical practices, cursing, false teaching, and the like. However, the NC lacks the contextual specification needed to support the command as speech related. Taking seriously the narrative context at Sinai and the closest lexical parallels, a different picture emerges—one animated by concrete rituals and their associated metaphorical concepts. The unique phrase ns' shm is one of several expressions arising from the conceptual metaphor, election as branding, that finds analogies in high-priest regalia as well as in various ways of claiming. . . (more)

New Horizons in the Study of the Early Bronze III and Early Bronze IV of the Levant

Edited by Suzanne Richard

The “radiocarbon revolution” has profoundly altered traditional historical frameworks in the Near East. Addressing the ramifications of the new, higher radiometric (14C) chronology, as well as the impact of new excavations and expanded data sets on third-millennium BCE studies, this volume brings together twenty-three essays covering a diverse array of topics, such as urbanism, heterarchy, nomadism, ruralism, terminology, and cultural continuity/discontinuity. . . (more)

From Mari to Jerusalem and Back

Assyriological and Biblical Studies in Honor of Jack Murad Sasson

Edited by Annalisa Azzoni, Alexandra Kleinerman, Douglas A. Knight, and David I. Owen

Jack Murad Sasson, distinguished scholar of the ancient Near East, has enjoyed a long career studying the cultures, languages, and literatures of that consequential region. His many books and articles span a seemingly endless array of topics and materials. Foremost are his in-depth analyses of the Syrian city of Mari and its remarkable heritage. Of comparable importance are. . . (more)

Ramat Raḥel IV

The Renewed Excavations of the Tel Aviv–Heidelberg Expedition (2005–2010): Stratigraphy and Architecture

Oded Lipschits, Manfred Oeming, and Yuval Godot

This is the first of a three-volume final report on the Tel Aviv–Heidelberg Renewed Excavations at Ramat Raḥel, 2005–2010. It presents the stratigraphy and architecture of the excavation areas, including portions of the palatial compound, the subterranean columbarium complex, and the Late Roman cemetery; site formation of the tell; twentieth-century fortifications at the site; and the. . . (more)

Numayra

Excavations at the Early Bronze Age Townsite in Jordan, 1977–1983

Meredith S. Chesson, R. Thomas Schaub, and Walter E. Rast

The emergence of ancient urbanism has long held the interest of archaeologists attempting to understand the origins of inequality and its links to early urban life. This volume presents the results of archeological research at the Early Bronze Age sites of Numayra and Ras an-Numayra, conducted to investigate the rise of Early Bronze Age urban society, with a distinctive focus on links between environmental and social systems.. . . (more)

The Southern Levant under Assyrian Domination

Edited by Shawn Zelig Aster and Avraham Faust

Bearing Yhwh’s Name at Sinai

A Reexamination of the Name Command of the Decalogue

Carmen Joy Imes