Who was Hammurapi, and what role did his famous "law code" serve in ancient Babylonian society? Who was the mysterious Merodach-baladan, and why did the appearance of his emissaries in Jerusalem so upset Isaiah? Who was Nebuchadnezzar II, and why did he tear down the Solomonic temple and drag the people of God into exile? In short, who were the Babylonians? This engaging and informative introduction to the best of current scholarship on the Babylonians and their role in biblical history answers these and other significant questions. The Babylonians were important not only because of their many historical contacts with ancient Israel but because they and their predecessors, the Sumerians, established the philosophical and social infrastructure for most of Western Asia for nearly two millennia. Beginning and advanced students as well as biblical scholars and interested nonspecialists will read this introduction to the history and culture of the Babylonians with interest and profit.
Author(s): Bill T. Arnold
Publisher: Brill Academic Publishers
Year: 2005
Language: English
Pages: 148
PREFACE......Page 7
ABBREVIATIONS......Page 9
1.1. The Stage: The Geography of Babylonia......Page 13
1.2. The Players: Ethnicity and the Identity of the Babylonians......Page 18
1.3. Significance of the Babylonians for History and Biblical Studies......Page 21
1.4. Sources for the Study of the Babylonians......Page 24
2.1. The First Historical Periods of Babylonia......Page 29
2.2. The First Empires of Babylonia......Page 34
2.2.1. Old Akkadian Period......Page 35
2.2.2. Neo-Sumerian Period......Page 39
2.3. The City of Babylon......Page 44
3.1. Arrival of the Amorites in Mesopotamia......Page 47
3.2. The Isin-Larsa Period and the Rise of Babylon......Page 50
3.3. Hammurapi's Empire......Page 52
3.4. Hammurapi's Dynasty......Page 58
3.5. Old Babylonian Literature, Culture, and Legacy......Page 59
4.1. The Fall of Babylon......Page 73
4.2. The Kassite Dynasty......Page 74
4.3. The Age of Internationalism......Page 78
4.4. Cultural Developments in Kassite Babylonia......Page 80
5.1. "Sea Peoples" and the Collapse of Bronze Age Culture......Page 87
5.2. "Babylonia for the Babylonians"......Page 90
5.3. Cultural Features of the Early Neo-Babylonian Period......Page 93
6.1. Chaldeans, Arameans, and the Emergence of a New Babylonia......Page 99
6.2. Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar: Innovations and Legacy......Page 103
6.3. Nebuchadnezzar's Successors......Page 111
FOR FURTHER READING......Page 119
NOTES......Page 125
INDEX OF BIBLICAL REFERENCES......Page 149
INDEX OF MODERN AUTHORITIES......Page 151
INDEX OF SUBJECTS......Page 155
