Good Primary Source Material

books:


	• Readings from the Ancient Near East: Primary Sources for Old Testament Study (Encountering Biblical Studies) Baker Academic, 2002 - 240 pages average customer review:based on 4 reviews view larger image
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very good

This book is very comparable to "The Old Testament Parallels" by Matthews and Benjamin. Either one will enable you to compare Old Testament stories to comparable mythical stories of the Near East. "Readings from the Ancient Near East" is, however, much better organized. Parallels are organized by subject (creation, flood, laws, etc) rather than by the books of the Bible. This makes it much easier to find exactly what you want to read. These stories would benefit from commentary much more so than their Biblical counterparts. But this book was written to provide primary sources, not commentary on those sources. And no attempt is made to tell you what the connections are between these texts and their Biblical parallels. These scholars are very evangelical, but don't attempt to argue that the Bible versions are historical and their parralels not historical. All such decisions are left up to you the reader. A couple reviewers have indicated that this book is a bit dull, but this all depends on how interested you are in mythology and comparative religious studies. I am and I like the book. You might not.

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Good but boring

This book is kinda boring, i wish there was some sort of way that the ane texts would have some sort of commentary and if it has some more connection with the bibical writings, a correlation between the two would be more benefical to the biblical reader.

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Good Primary Source Material

This book is good for doing research in Ancient Near Eastern relgions and culture. Not much is given in terms of connection with biblical material, but it's not meant to be. It's a collection of very diverse primary sources that put the Tanakh (Old Testament) into its greater context - Ancient Near Eastern culture. I would recommend it for anyone doing research in that area. Its not as bulky, robust, and expensive as some other source collections, but it still offers a nice array of materials for a good price.

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Essential to a proper understanding of the Old Testament is a knowledge of the political, historical, and theological environment of the ancient Near East. While there is an abundance of material explaining this environment, primary source texts are often unavailable or inaccessible to the beginning Old Testament student. This volume in the Encountering Biblical Studies series fills that void. Readings from the Ancient Near East takes the student through a wide variety of primary source texts from the ancient Near East that illuminate every book of the Old Testament. It is the companion volume to Encountering the Old Testament, coauthored by Bill Arnold and Bryan Beyer. The editors have compiled this volume with the beginning Old Testament student in mind. The selections are intended to move a learner with little or no knowledge of the ancient Near East to a basic understanding of its significant texts and authors. Texts spanning more than two thousand years include Sumerian creation accounts, epic literature from Mesopotamia, cultic ritual texts from Egypt, and prophetic references from Syria. Readings from the Ancient Near East will surely become a standard text for professors, students, pastors, Sunday school teachers, and serious lay readers.

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