Author: Stanislav Segert
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520342100
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 252
Book Description
In 1929, the first cuneiform tablet, inscribed with previously unknown signs, was found during archeological excavations at Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit) in northern Syria. Since then a special discipline, sometimes called Ugaritology, has arisen. The impact of the Ugaritic language and of the many texts written in it has been felt in the study of Semitic languages and literatures, in the history of the ancient Near East, and especially in research devoted to the Hebrew Bible. In fact, knowledge of Ugaritic has become a standard prerequisite for the scientific study of the Old Testament. The Ugaritic texts, written in the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries B. c., represent the oldest complex of connected texts in any West Semitic language now available (1984). Their language is of critical importance for comparative Semitic linguistics and is uniquely important to the critical study of Biblical Hebrew. Ugaritic, which was spoken in a northwestern corner of the larger Canaanite linguistic area, cannot be considered a direct ancestor of Biblical Hebrew, but its conservative character can help in the reconstruction of the older stages of Hebrew phonology, word formation, and inflection. These systems were later-that is, during the period in which the biblical texts were actually written-complicated by phonological and other changes. The Ugaritic texts are remarkable, however, for more than just their antiquity and their linguistic witness. They present a remarkably vigorous and mature literature, one containing both epic cycles and shorter poems. The poetic structure of Ugaritic is noteworthy, among other reasons, for its use of the "parallelism of members" that also characterizes such ancient and archaizing poems in the Hebrew Bible as the Song of Deborah (in Judges 5), the Song of the Sea (in Exodus 15), Psalms 29, 68, and 82, and Habakkuk 3. Textual sources and their rendering The basic source for the study of Ugaritic is a corpus of texts written in an alphabetic cuneiform script unknown before 1929; this script represents consonants fully and exactly but gives only limited and equivocal indication of vowels. Our knowledge of the Ugaritic language is supple-mented by evidence from Akkadian texts found at Ugarit and containing many Ugaritic words, especially names written in the syllabic cuneiform script. Scholars reconstructing the lost language of Ugarit draw, finally, on a wide variety of comparative linguistic data, data from texts not found at Ugarit, as well as from living languages. Evidence from Phoenician, Hebrew, Amorite, Aramaic, Arabic, Akkadian, Ethiopic, and recently also Eblaitic, can be applied to good effect. For the student, as well as for the research scholar, it is important that the various sources of U garitic be distinguished in modern transliteration or transcription. Since many of the texts found at Ugarit are fragmentary or physically damaged, it is well for students to be clear about what portion of a text that they are reading actually survives and what portion is a modern attempt to fill in the blanks. While the selected texts in section 8 reflect the state of preservation in detail, in the other sections of the grammar standardized forms are presented, based on all available evidence.
A Basic Grammar of Ugaritic Language
Author: Stanislav Segert
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520342100
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 252
Book Description
In 1929, the first cuneiform tablet, inscribed with previously unknown signs, was found during archeological excavations at Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit) in northern Syria. Since then a special discipline, sometimes called Ugaritology, has arisen. The impact of the Ugaritic language and of the many texts written in it has been felt in the study of Semitic languages and literatures, in the history of the ancient Near East, and especially in research devoted to the Hebrew Bible. In fact, knowledge of Ugaritic has become a standard prerequisite for the scientific study of the Old Testament. The Ugaritic texts, written in the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries B. c., represent the oldest complex of connected texts in any West Semitic language now available (1984). Their language is of critical importance for comparative Semitic linguistics and is uniquely important to the critical study of Biblical Hebrew. Ugaritic, which was spoken in a northwestern corner of the larger Canaanite linguistic area, cannot be considered a direct ancestor of Biblical Hebrew, but its conservative character can help in the reconstruction of the older stages of Hebrew phonology, word formation, and inflection. These systems were later-that is, during the period in which the biblical texts were actually written-complicated by phonological and other changes. The Ugaritic texts are remarkable, however, for more than just their antiquity and their linguistic witness. They present a remarkably vigorous and mature literature, one containing both epic cycles and shorter poems. The poetic structure of Ugaritic is noteworthy, among other reasons, for its use of the "parallelism of members" that also characterizes such ancient and archaizing poems in the Hebrew Bible as the Song of Deborah (in Judges 5), the Song of the Sea (in Exodus 15), Psalms 29, 68, and 82, and Habakkuk 3. Textual sources and their rendering The basic source for the study of Ugaritic is a corpus of texts written in an alphabetic cuneiform script unknown before 1929; this script represents consonants fully and exactly but gives only limited and equivocal indication of vowels. Our knowledge of the Ugaritic language is supple-mented by evidence from Akkadian texts found at Ugarit and containing many Ugaritic words, especially names written in the syllabic cuneiform script. Scholars reconstructing the lost language of Ugarit draw, finally, on a wide variety of comparative linguistic data, data from texts not found at Ugarit, as well as from living languages. Evidence from Phoenician, Hebrew, Amorite, Aramaic, Arabic, Akkadian, Ethiopic, and recently also Eblaitic, can be applied to good effect. For the student, as well as for the research scholar, it is important that the various sources of U garitic be distinguished in modern transliteration or transcription. Since many of the texts found at Ugarit are fragmentary or physically damaged, it is well for students to be clear about what portion of a text that they are reading actually survives and what portion is a modern attempt to fill in the blanks. While the selected texts in section 8 reflect the state of preservation in detail, in the other sections of the grammar standardized forms are presented, based on all available evidence.
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520342100
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 252
Book Description
In 1929, the first cuneiform tablet, inscribed with previously unknown signs, was found during archeological excavations at Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit) in northern Syria. Since then a special discipline, sometimes called Ugaritology, has arisen. The impact of the Ugaritic language and of the many texts written in it has been felt in the study of Semitic languages and literatures, in the history of the ancient Near East, and especially in research devoted to the Hebrew Bible. In fact, knowledge of Ugaritic has become a standard prerequisite for the scientific study of the Old Testament. The Ugaritic texts, written in the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries B. c., represent the oldest complex of connected texts in any West Semitic language now available (1984). Their language is of critical importance for comparative Semitic linguistics and is uniquely important to the critical study of Biblical Hebrew. Ugaritic, which was spoken in a northwestern corner of the larger Canaanite linguistic area, cannot be considered a direct ancestor of Biblical Hebrew, but its conservative character can help in the reconstruction of the older stages of Hebrew phonology, word formation, and inflection. These systems were later-that is, during the period in which the biblical texts were actually written-complicated by phonological and other changes. The Ugaritic texts are remarkable, however, for more than just their antiquity and their linguistic witness. They present a remarkably vigorous and mature literature, one containing both epic cycles and shorter poems. The poetic structure of Ugaritic is noteworthy, among other reasons, for its use of the "parallelism of members" that also characterizes such ancient and archaizing poems in the Hebrew Bible as the Song of Deborah (in Judges 5), the Song of the Sea (in Exodus 15), Psalms 29, 68, and 82, and Habakkuk 3. Textual sources and their rendering The basic source for the study of Ugaritic is a corpus of texts written in an alphabetic cuneiform script unknown before 1929; this script represents consonants fully and exactly but gives only limited and equivocal indication of vowels. Our knowledge of the Ugaritic language is supple-mented by evidence from Akkadian texts found at Ugarit and containing many Ugaritic words, especially names written in the syllabic cuneiform script. Scholars reconstructing the lost language of Ugarit draw, finally, on a wide variety of comparative linguistic data, data from texts not found at Ugarit, as well as from living languages. Evidence from Phoenician, Hebrew, Amorite, Aramaic, Arabic, Akkadian, Ethiopic, and recently also Eblaitic, can be applied to good effect. For the student, as well as for the research scholar, it is important that the various sources of U garitic be distinguished in modern transliteration or transcription. Since many of the texts found at Ugarit are fragmentary or physically damaged, it is well for students to be clear about what portion of a text that they are reading actually survives and what portion is a modern attempt to fill in the blanks. While the selected texts in section 8 reflect the state of preservation in detail, in the other sections of the grammar standardized forms are presented, based on all available evidence.
Divine Epithets in the Ugaritic Alphabetic Texts
Author: Aïcha Rahmouni
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004157697
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 481
Book Description
This study of the divine epithets in the Ugaritic alphabetic cuneiform texts from Ras Shamra and Ras Ibn Hani provides a new and comprehensive analysis of the epithets of the individual Ugaritic deities.
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004157697
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 481
Book Description
This study of the divine epithets in the Ugaritic alphabetic cuneiform texts from Ras Shamra and Ras Ibn Hani provides a new and comprehensive analysis of the epithets of the individual Ugaritic deities.
Changes in Sacred Texts and Traditions
Author: Martti Nissinen
Publisher: SBL Press
ISBN: 1628375736
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 609
Book Description
This volume presents the work of the international, interdisciplinary research project Changes in Sacred Texts and Traditions (CSTT), whose members focused on cultural, ideological, and material changes in the period when the sacred traditions of the Hebrew Bible were created, transmitted, and transformed. Specialists in the textual study of the Hebrew and Greek Bibles, archaeology, Assyriology, and history, working across their fields of expertise, trace how changes occurred in biblical and ancient Near Eastern texts and traditions. Contributors Tero Alstola, Anneli Aejmelaeus , Rick Bonnie, Francis Borchardt, George J. Brooke, Cynthia Edenburg, Sebastian Fink, Izaak J. deHulster , Patrik Jansson, Jutta Jokiranta, Tuukka Kauhanen, Gina Konstantopoulos, Lauri Laine, Michael C. Legaspi, Christoph Levin, Ville Mäkipelto, Reinhard Müller, Martti Nissinen, Jessi Orpana, Juha Pakkala, Dalit Rom-Shiloni, Christian Seppänen, Jason M. Silverman, Saana Svärd, Timo Tekoniemi, Hanna Tervanotko, Joanna Töyräänvuori, and Miika Tucker demonstrate that rigorous yet respectful debate results in a nuanced and complex understanding of how ancient texts developed.
Publisher: SBL Press
ISBN: 1628375736
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 609
Book Description
This volume presents the work of the international, interdisciplinary research project Changes in Sacred Texts and Traditions (CSTT), whose members focused on cultural, ideological, and material changes in the period when the sacred traditions of the Hebrew Bible were created, transmitted, and transformed. Specialists in the textual study of the Hebrew and Greek Bibles, archaeology, Assyriology, and history, working across their fields of expertise, trace how changes occurred in biblical and ancient Near Eastern texts and traditions. Contributors Tero Alstola, Anneli Aejmelaeus , Rick Bonnie, Francis Borchardt, George J. Brooke, Cynthia Edenburg, Sebastian Fink, Izaak J. deHulster , Patrik Jansson, Jutta Jokiranta, Tuukka Kauhanen, Gina Konstantopoulos, Lauri Laine, Michael C. Legaspi, Christoph Levin, Ville Mäkipelto, Reinhard Müller, Martti Nissinen, Jessi Orpana, Juha Pakkala, Dalit Rom-Shiloni, Christian Seppänen, Jason M. Silverman, Saana Svärd, Timo Tekoniemi, Hanna Tervanotko, Joanna Töyräänvuori, and Miika Tucker demonstrate that rigorous yet respectful debate results in a nuanced and complex understanding of how ancient texts developed.
Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament, Second Edition
Author: Robert W. Rogers
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1597523070
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 629
Book Description
'The first major collection of cuneiform texts in English' Despite its age, this volume still has a major contribution to make. Unlike other collections, Rogers's volume includes the transliterated Akkadian for each text. This provides an invaluable access to the original texts without having a library that includes every volume of the original publications. A further asset is the collection of forty-eight excellent photographs and line-drawings. Included here are tablets, prisms, cylinders, seals, boundary stones, and bas reliefs. The bibliography is composed of two parts. The first includes the entries from Rogers's ÒList of Books Quoted or Mentioned,Ó but with numerous corrections and supplying much missing data. The second part is an updated list, organized by major cuneiform languages: Diverse Collections, Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, Hurrian, Eblaite, and Ugaritic. This will direct the reader to the wealth of primary documents that is now our privilege to read.
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1597523070
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 629
Book Description
'The first major collection of cuneiform texts in English' Despite its age, this volume still has a major contribution to make. Unlike other collections, Rogers's volume includes the transliterated Akkadian for each text. This provides an invaluable access to the original texts without having a library that includes every volume of the original publications. A further asset is the collection of forty-eight excellent photographs and line-drawings. Included here are tablets, prisms, cylinders, seals, boundary stones, and bas reliefs. The bibliography is composed of two parts. The first includes the entries from Rogers's ÒList of Books Quoted or Mentioned,Ó but with numerous corrections and supplying much missing data. The second part is an updated list, organized by major cuneiform languages: Diverse Collections, Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, Hurrian, Eblaite, and Ugaritic. This will direct the reader to the wealth of primary documents that is now our privilege to read.
The Ugaritic Baal Cycle
Author: Mark S. Smith
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004153489
Category : Baal (Canaanite deity)
Languages : en
Pages : 905
Book Description
The Ugaritic Baal Cycle, Volume II provides a new edition, translation and commentary on the third and fourth tablets of the Baal Cycle, the most important religious text found at Ugarit.
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004153489
Category : Baal (Canaanite deity)
Languages : en
Pages : 905
Book Description
The Ugaritic Baal Cycle, Volume II provides a new edition, translation and commentary on the third and fourth tablets of the Baal Cycle, the most important religious text found at Ugarit.
The Akkadian of Ugarit
Author: John Huehnergard
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004385843
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 497
Book Description
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004385843
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 497
Book Description
The Isaianic Denkschrift and a Socio-Cultural Crisis in Yehud
Author: Alexander V. Prokhorov
Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
ISBN: 3647540447
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
This study of the Isaianic Denkschrift (Isaiah 6:1-9:6) is both a traditional and an innovative one. It defends the integrity of the Denkschrift, yet on grounds wholly other than those outlined by the early proponents of the unity of the composition. The present work is founded on an inquiry into the ideological matrix of the composition on one hand and, on the other, on the understanding of the activity of mantic (prophetic) figures in the Near East during the early first millennium BCE that has emerged in recent scholarship. The presentation of Yahweh as a royal character in the Denkschrift is interpreted as an integral part of the symbolic universe promoted by the composition. Several levels of social discourse of the Denkschrift are identified: the author(s) is simultaneously engaged in the creation of Judaean autonomous cultural identity, in polemical activity with the rival Yahwist community (the North, or Samaria) and in the safeguarding of the privileged position of the former Babylonian exiles among the community of Jerusalem and Judah. Two interrelated hypotheses are developed in the book: regarding the historical milieu in which the Denkschrift was composed and regarding the place of the composition in the formation of First Isaiah. As for the first, Prokhorov proposes that the early second-temple community of Yehud matches the profile of a society whose problems the Denkschrift is addressing and reflecting. As for the second, the author maintains the view that the Denkschrift marks one of the final stages of the creation of First Isaiah whose original nucleus consisted of the Hezekiah narrative (now found in chapters 36-39 of Isaiah), which, in turn, modified the respective Deuteronomistic material.
Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
ISBN: 3647540447
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
This study of the Isaianic Denkschrift (Isaiah 6:1-9:6) is both a traditional and an innovative one. It defends the integrity of the Denkschrift, yet on grounds wholly other than those outlined by the early proponents of the unity of the composition. The present work is founded on an inquiry into the ideological matrix of the composition on one hand and, on the other, on the understanding of the activity of mantic (prophetic) figures in the Near East during the early first millennium BCE that has emerged in recent scholarship. The presentation of Yahweh as a royal character in the Denkschrift is interpreted as an integral part of the symbolic universe promoted by the composition. Several levels of social discourse of the Denkschrift are identified: the author(s) is simultaneously engaged in the creation of Judaean autonomous cultural identity, in polemical activity with the rival Yahwist community (the North, or Samaria) and in the safeguarding of the privileged position of the former Babylonian exiles among the community of Jerusalem and Judah. Two interrelated hypotheses are developed in the book: regarding the historical milieu in which the Denkschrift was composed and regarding the place of the composition in the formation of First Isaiah. As for the first, Prokhorov proposes that the early second-temple community of Yehud matches the profile of a society whose problems the Denkschrift is addressing and reflecting. As for the second, the author maintains the view that the Denkschrift marks one of the final stages of the creation of First Isaiah whose original nucleus consisted of the Hezekiah narrative (now found in chapters 36-39 of Isaiah), which, in turn, modified the respective Deuteronomistic material.
Jaredites & Manassites
Author: Robert F. Smith
Publisher: Deep Forest Green Books
ISBN: 1736176137
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 216
Book Description
This book explores the literate and advanced cultures of two very separate groups in the Book of Mormon, (1) the Jaredites described in the book of Ether, and (2) the members of tribal Manasseh who dominate the remainder of the Book of Mormon. The first group flourished during the millennia before the arrival of the second group in a nearby area, and became extinct as a civilization not long after the arrival of that second group. Within the New World, only one complex culture arose which was literate, built great cities, and had a large population, namely the Olmec of southern Mexico -- the "mother culture" of the five subsequent advanced cultures of Mesoamerica. This book demonstrates how the Mesopotamian Jaredites brought with them a Sumero-Akkadian culture to the New World. The linguistics of Sumero-Akkadian are not only found systematically within the Jaredite onomasticon, but a comparison of Sumero-Akkadian with reconstructed ancient Olmec (Proto-Mixe-Zoque) strongly suggests the ultimate origin of that people in Mesopotamia at least 5 thousand years ago. In the second section of the book, an offshoot of tribal Manasseh (Clan Lehi) demonstrates its pervasive influence through an onomasticon almost exclusively showing derivation from Manassite names known from the Bible and archeology, and which are collocated geographically with each other and with a set of names known biblically to be associated with transjordanian tribes and southern areas, such as Midian (where Clan Lehi first goes to make good its escape from Judah).
Publisher: Deep Forest Green Books
ISBN: 1736176137
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 216
Book Description
This book explores the literate and advanced cultures of two very separate groups in the Book of Mormon, (1) the Jaredites described in the book of Ether, and (2) the members of tribal Manasseh who dominate the remainder of the Book of Mormon. The first group flourished during the millennia before the arrival of the second group in a nearby area, and became extinct as a civilization not long after the arrival of that second group. Within the New World, only one complex culture arose which was literate, built great cities, and had a large population, namely the Olmec of southern Mexico -- the "mother culture" of the five subsequent advanced cultures of Mesoamerica. This book demonstrates how the Mesopotamian Jaredites brought with them a Sumero-Akkadian culture to the New World. The linguistics of Sumero-Akkadian are not only found systematically within the Jaredite onomasticon, but a comparison of Sumero-Akkadian with reconstructed ancient Olmec (Proto-Mixe-Zoque) strongly suggests the ultimate origin of that people in Mesopotamia at least 5 thousand years ago. In the second section of the book, an offshoot of tribal Manasseh (Clan Lehi) demonstrates its pervasive influence through an onomasticon almost exclusively showing derivation from Manassite names known from the Bible and archeology, and which are collocated geographically with each other and with a set of names known biblically to be associated with transjordanian tribes and southern areas, such as Midian (where Clan Lehi first goes to make good its escape from Judah).
A Biblical Theology of Gerassapience
Author: Joel A. A. Ajayi
Publisher: Peter Lang
ISBN: 9781433107856
Category : Bibles
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Book Description
Ancient cultures, such as that of the Hebrews, commonly associated wisdom with advanced years. In A Biblical Theology of Gerassapience the author investigates the validity of this correlation through an eclectic approach - including linguistic semantic, tradition-historical, and socio-anthropological methods - to pertinent biblical and extra-biblical texts. There are significant variations in the estimation of gerassapience (or «old-age wisdom») in each period of ancient Israel's life - that is, in pre-monarchical, monarchical, and post-monarchical Israel. Throughout this study, appropriate cross-cultural parallels are drawn from the cultures of ancient Israel's neighbors and of modern societies, such as the West African Yoruba tribe. The overall results are bi-dimensional. On the one hand, there are semantic elements of gerassapience, such as the elusiveness of «wisdom» and the mild fluidity of «old age». Both terms have strong contextual affinity with minimal exceptions. Thus, the attribution of wisdom to old age is evident but not absolute in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). On the other hand, gerassapience is depicted as primarily didactic, through direct and indirect instructions and counsels of the elderly, fostering the saging fear-of-Yahweh legacies. On the whole, socio-anthropocentric tendencies of gerassapience (that is, of making old age a repertoire of wisdom) are checked by theological warrants of theosapience (Yahwistic wisdom). Therefore, in the Hebrew Bible, the fear of Yahweh is also the beginning of growing old and wise.
Publisher: Peter Lang
ISBN: 9781433107856
Category : Bibles
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Book Description
Ancient cultures, such as that of the Hebrews, commonly associated wisdom with advanced years. In A Biblical Theology of Gerassapience the author investigates the validity of this correlation through an eclectic approach - including linguistic semantic, tradition-historical, and socio-anthropological methods - to pertinent biblical and extra-biblical texts. There are significant variations in the estimation of gerassapience (or «old-age wisdom») in each period of ancient Israel's life - that is, in pre-monarchical, monarchical, and post-monarchical Israel. Throughout this study, appropriate cross-cultural parallels are drawn from the cultures of ancient Israel's neighbors and of modern societies, such as the West African Yoruba tribe. The overall results are bi-dimensional. On the one hand, there are semantic elements of gerassapience, such as the elusiveness of «wisdom» and the mild fluidity of «old age». Both terms have strong contextual affinity with minimal exceptions. Thus, the attribution of wisdom to old age is evident but not absolute in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). On the other hand, gerassapience is depicted as primarily didactic, through direct and indirect instructions and counsels of the elderly, fostering the saging fear-of-Yahweh legacies. On the whole, socio-anthropocentric tendencies of gerassapience (that is, of making old age a repertoire of wisdom) are checked by theological warrants of theosapience (Yahwistic wisdom). Therefore, in the Hebrew Bible, the fear of Yahweh is also the beginning of growing old and wise.
The Song of the Sea
Author: Brian D. Russell
Publisher: Peter Lang
ISBN: 9780820488097
Category : Bibles
Languages : en
Pages : 236
Book Description
Original Scholarly Monograph
Publisher: Peter Lang
ISBN: 9780820488097
Category : Bibles
Languages : en
Pages : 236
Book Description
Original Scholarly Monograph