The Bible and the Ancient Near East

Previous editions of this book have been entitled: • Introduction to Old Testament Times (1953) • The World of the Old Testament (1958) • The Ancient Near East (1965) The stories collected in the Hebrew Bible provide for many an essential and original vision of a moral and coherent universe. It is thus surprising to learn that these stories were not simply the product of a single culture, of Hebrew poets, prophets, and priests; they had strange and diverse origins in the various civilizations of the ancient Near East. Recent archaeological and linguistic research shows that these civilizations—among them Egyptian, Persian, Greek, and Hebrew—shared many common legends and even characters. Furthermore, each season of archaeological work brings new discoveries that allow us to fill in gaps in our knowledge, of both Israel in particular and the ancient Near East in general. Among the most notable of the recent discoveries have been the first extrabiblical references to the house of David, found in an inscription on a stela at Dan. This and other exciting discoveries animate this thorough revision of Cyrus Gordon’s classic text, The Ancient Near East. Professors Gordon and Rendshurg bring their combined expertise on the Bible and the ancient Near East to produce a comprehensive and cohesive account of Israelite history, literature, arR1 theology against a backdrop of ancient civilization. In preparing this volume the authors have sought to understand the Bible on its own terms hy situating it in the world of the ancient Near Lust. By concentrating on what the language and literature of the Bible meant to contemporary hearers, Gordon ahd Rendsburg reveal undetected subtleties in the familiar narratives of the Bible. Cyrus H. Gordon is professor emeritus of Mediterranean studies at Brandeis University. He is best known for his work Evidence for the Minoan Language, which marked his discovery that the Minoan Linear A Tablet was inscribed with a language with Semitic roots. Gary A. Rendsburg is professor of Near Eastern studies at Cornell University. He has written extensively on the origins of mythology and poetry in the Hebrew Bible, including Genesis and Psalms.