Customer Reviews

Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament with Supplement

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Prichard's ANET is a standard reference for those examining the cultural setting of the Bible. It contains translations of many important inscriptions which shed light on otherwise mysterious Bible customs.

Generally regarded as a scholarly work, it's worth checking out for the layperson as well. Some of the jargon may be a little tricky, but there's no substitute for original source material, which makes up the majority of the book. Besides, some of the stories are just a plain old (very old) good read.

Included are such things as the Epic of Gilgamesh (containing our oldest Flood parallels), the Nuzi Texts (which help us understand the life of Jacob, among others), and various of the ancient law codes which have parallels to the biblical code.

Tremendously useful for study!

Pritchard's contributions to Near Eastern studies can not be praised enough. Here we have many surviving text translated well and supplemented by commentary on social and historical background. Well worth the money and time for the serious scholar.

This is a book that needs to be on the shelf of anyone seriously studying the ancient Near East, with or without an interest in Biblical archaeology. It collects an enormous variety of ancient texts and inscriptions, trying to give the current "gold-standard" translations (with extensive footnoting discussing ambiguities, variants, and so on, and tying it in closely to all of the original literature on which the book is based). Some of the texts are things you can find in many sources, like the Epic of Gilgamesh or some of the Egyptian hymns; but this book collects an extraordinary range of things that you would normally need a giant research library to find, such as early Palestinian ostraka, a wide selection of Egyptian and Akkadian oracles and prophecies, and even a Sumerian lullaby. (!!)

This is the essential compendium of source material for anyone interested in studying early history in the Levant.

First published in 1950, ANET has not yet been surpassed in its breathtaking scope of translations of Sumerian, Egyptian, Babylonian (Akkadian), Assyrian, Hittite, and Ugaritic written material. Despite the title, this collection is certainly not limited to material pertaining to the Bible, but includes literature, poems, philosophical material, legal documents, treaties, spells, hymns, historical documents, and more. Some well-known entries include the Akkadian creation fable Enuma elish, the Sumerian Gilgamesh fragments, "Inanna's Descent into the Underworld", and the Code of Hammurabi.

The translations are scholarly and tend toward strictly-literal rather than literary. Owing the nature of the source material many texts are riddled with lacunae. Introductions and explanatory notes are useful but some familiarity with the history and context of these pieces definitely helps.

Some collections have been better-translated by now (i.e. Jacobson's Sumerian translations surpass Kramer's pioneering work included here), but there's simply nothing else like it. This is not the only book on ancient near-eastern literature that I would want, but I would never wish to be without it either.

If you like studying the Old Testament (Hebrew Scripture), this book will provide translations of original source documents discovered by modern archeology that help us understand the late Bronze and early Iron Ages in Mesopotamia, Egypt and Palestine. Worth a look at the library if only for all the references to wandering 'apiru or habiru as possible predecessors to the Hebrews. For a shorter and much less expensive alternative that presents the most relevant of these original source documents as direct context for Scripture, try Nahum Sarna's Understanding Genesis. For those who want the real thing and the whole enchildada, this is the one.

The preeminent reference work for any study of the ancient Egyptians, Sumerians, Babylonians, or Hittites. It is expensive, but for such a high-quality work it is well worth the money.