Readings from the Ancient Near East: Primary Sources for Old Testament Study

Readings from the Ancient Near East: Primary Sources for Old Testament Study. By Bill T. Arnold and Bryan E. Beyer. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002, 240 pp., $21.99.

Arnold and Beyer's Readings from the Ancient Near East is the promised supplemental volume to their Encountering the Old Testament (JETS 45 [2002] 513-15). This latest in Baker's ongoing Encountering Biblical Studies collects 91 of the most significant of the primary source documents from the extra-biblical material into one handy volume.

These are selections from the standard collections (ANET, Roth, Beyerlin, Coogan, Kramer, Grayson, etc.), not new translations. But the arrangement of the pieces in canonical order rather than by category, language, or literary type is perhaps more useful for the intended audience. There are eighteen subsections arranged in four parts: Part 1 Pentateuch including (1) Creation and Flood accounts, (2) Babel, (3) Ancestral Customs, (4) Epic Literature, (5) Covenants and Treaties, (6) Law Codes, and (7) Cultic Texts; Part 2 Historical Books including (8) Royal Records from Mesopotamia, (9) Chronicles and Other Historiographie Lists, (10) Non-Hebrew Monumental Inscriptions, (11) Letters, (12) Other Hebrew Inscriptions; Part 3 Poetic Books including (13) Wisdom Literature, (14) Love Poems, (15) Hymns and Prayers; and Part 4 Prophetic Books including (16) Prophecies, Visions, and Apocalyptic, (17) Divination and Incantation Texts, and (18) Lamentations.

Most of the standard texts are included-Enuma Elish, Atra-khasis, the Baal Cycle, Merikare, Gilgamesh, Sinuhe, Aqhat, Hammurabi's Code, Inscriptions from Tiglathpileser I and III, Shalmaneser's Black Obelisk, Sargon, Sennacherib, Cyrus, the Merneptah Stele, letters from El-Amarna, Lachish and Arad, the Gezer Calendar, the Siloam Tunnel Inscription, the Babylonian Theodicy, Ptahhotep, Merikare, Man and His God, Amenemope, the Hymn to Aten, as well as numerous other pieces drawn from less available collections.

The selections, for the most part, are reproduced in full, with a brief introduction to each one indicating its place in the historical and geographical contexts. These are useful, but I would like to see some explanatory notes like those in Thomas's Documents from Old Testament Times included in any future editions. These texts are difficult enough for undergraduates. They need all the help the teacher and textbook can provide.

The book includes an outline map of the ancient Near East identifying the peoples and the major sites. There are also about 20 photographs that do not reproduce very well on the soft paper. A dozen of these are pictures of the tablets or other artifacts. The balance are primarily of sites.

This new volume nicely complements their previous book.

G. Lloyd Carr

Gordon College, Wenham, MA

Copyright Evangelical Theological Society Dec 2003
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