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

by Kenton L. Sparks

The Hebrew Bible represents no mere collection of books but a stunning array of literary genres. To fully illuminate the history and culture of the Old Testament, it is necessary to compare these ancient writings to similar texts written concurrently by Israel’s neighbors. Beginning with an overview of the important literary archives of the ancient Near East, Sparks provides exhaustive references to the ancient literary counterparts to the Hebrew Bible’s major genres. Surveying the ancient writings found throughout Egypt, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and Palestine, Sparks provides a brief summary of each text discussed, translating brief portions and linking them to literarily similar biblical passages. Exploring over 30 genres—wisdom, hymns, love poetry, rituals, prophecy, apocalyptic, novella, epic legend, myth, genealogy, history, law, treaty, epigraphic materials, and others—it offers an exemplary guide to the fertile literary environment from which the canonical writings sprung. Rich with bibliographic material, this invaluable catalog enables the reader to locate not only the published texts in their original ancient languages but to find suitable English translations and commentary bearing on these ancient texts. A number of helpful indexes round out this outstanding resource. Providing students with a thorough introduction to the literature of the ancient Near East—and time-pressed scholars with an admirably up-to-date research tool—it will become a syllabus standard for a myriad of courses. "For generations, specialists have begged for a book that would convey the literary richness of the Ancient Near East to students of the Bible and of the Classics. Kent Sparks’ handy reference guide is now here to fill that elegant in presentation, judicious in contents, with precise summaries of opinions, and helpful bibliographically." —Jack M. Sasson, Vanderbilt University "Students and scholars of every level will save days of catalog and preparation time for any one project just by having this ready to hand." —Daniel Fleming, New York University

Genres: Religion, Theology, Old Testament

514 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2005

Reviews

[Josh Fisher]

Surprisingly accessible/readible for a book that is one third bibliographic content. Then again, my understanding of what makes for readability may be extremely skewed. What can I say, I love a good ancient text!

[Felicity Chen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Readable! Divided into chapters based on genre. Usually pretty short sections, like a couple of paragraphs per text, but a good number of texts per chapter. Each section is followed by a small bibliography for that specific text, then there’s a fuller one at the end of each chapter.