Hidden Riches: A Sourcebook for the Comparative Study of the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near East

by Christopher B. Hays

Publisher:

Westminster John Knox

, 2014

Overview

This study considers the historical, cultural, and literary significance of some of the most important Ancient Near East (ANE) texts that illuminate the Hebrew Bible. Christopher B. Hays provides primary texts from the Ancient Near East with a comparison to literature of the Hebrew Bible to demonstrate how Israel’s Scriptures not only draw from these ancient contexts but also reshape them in a unique way. Hays offers a brief introduction to comparative studies, then lays out examples from various literary genres that shed light on particular biblical texts. Texts about ANE law collections, treaties, theological histories, prophecies, ritual texts, oracles, prayers, hymns, laments, edicts, and instructions are compared to corresponding literature in the Pentateuch, Prophets, and Writings of the Hebrew Bible. The book includes summaries and reflection questions to help instructors and students identify key points for comparison. By considering the literary and historical context of other literature, students will come away with a better understanding of the historical, literary, and theological depth of the Hebrew Bible.

Contents

Top Highlights

“Enuma Elish features prominently in the Babylonian akitu festival (see chap. 8). The akitu festival as a whole seems to have revolved around vanquishing chaos and restoring order at the beginning of each new year,²⁰ so the story of Ea and Marduk’s defeat of the chaos monsters and subsequent establishment of the heavens and earth would have been one of its central myths.” (Page 63)

“If the creation account in Genesis 1 dates to the period around the Babylonian exile (see below), then the circumstances of its composition were somewhat similar: the Jerusalem temple had been destroyed and its vessels stolen (2 Kgs. 25), and theology and worship continued to be disputed in the exilic and postexilic periods.²² Worshipers of both Marduk and Yhwh had to assert their theological visions anew.” (Pages 63–64)

“the flood appears to be only one of the early attempts by God to deal with human wrongdoing” (Page 94)

“A global flood such that ‘all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered’ (Gen. 7:19) would require water at a depth of almost 30,000 feet. For this amount of rain to fall in forty days and forty nights would require rainfall of about thirty feet per hour.²⁶ The hardest rainfall ever recorded was one foot in an hour;²⁷ more to the point, thirty feet per hour would sink any ship. Such a storm is not only impossible, it is unimaginable.” (Page 86)

“Casuistic laws (or case laws) introduce a situation (‘If a man accuses another man …’) and prescribe a course of action in response.” (Page 139)

Product Details

• Title: Hidden Riches: A Sourcebook for the Comparative Study of the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near East
• Author: Christopher B. Hays
• Edition: First edition
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox
• Print Publication Date: 2014
• Logos Release Date: 2019
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Middle Eastern literature › Relation to the Old Testament; Bible. O.T. › Comparative studies; Bible. O.T. › Criticism, interpretation, etc; Bible. O.T. › Extra-canonical parallels
• ISBNs: 9780664237011, 0664237010
• Resource ID: LLS:HIDDENRICHES
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-10-09T22:47:12Z

About Christopher B. Hays

Christopher B. Hays is D. Wilson Moore Associate Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary, USA.