Ancient Texts For The Study Of The Hebrew Bible: A Guide To The Background Literature

[Full Review]

This volume fills an important gap in the existing resources for understanding the Hebrew Bible in its ancient Near Eastern context. We have important compendia of a wide range of relevant ancient Near Eastern texts, including the venerable but dated Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (ANET) and the more recent three-volume The Context of Scripture (COS), both of which usually include introductions to the specific texts they contain, but these treatments are all too brief. Similarly, one can find anthologies of texts from specific locations that contain fuller discussion of the literature of a specific region. Now this work combines the best of both approaches by providing solid discussions of a wide range of ancient Near Eastern literature relevant to the Hebrew Bible, organized both by genre and by geographic regions. The book’s introduction provides a theoretical basis for what follows with a clear discussion of the comparative analysis of genres. Chapter 1 then considers the archives and libraries of ancient texts discovered in Syria-Palestine, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia, and Persia. After an orientation to the issues of language, writing, literacy, and textual canonicity, Sparks discusses the location, language, material, types of literature, and date of each find. [Full Review]