''Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament'' edited by
James B. Pritchard (1st ed. 1950, 2nd ed.1955, 3rd ed. 1969) is an anthology of important historical, legal, mythological, liturgical, and secular texts from the
ancient Near East
The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia (modern Iraq, southeast Turkey, southwest Iran and northeastern Syria), ancient Egypt, ancient Iran (Ela ...
. In spite of the name, the included texts have broad coverage and do not necessarily relate to the
Old Testament
The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...
.
William W. Hallo, writing in the ''
Journal of the American Oriental Society
The ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'' is a quarterly academic journal published by the American Oriental Society since 1843.
Publication
The book was published by Princeton University Press
Princeton University Press is an independent Academic publishing, publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large.
The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, ...
, Princeton, New Jersey, in 1950. A second edition, corrected and enlarged, appeared in 1955. A third further enlarged edition appeared in 1969.
Contents
I. Myths, Epics and Legends: Egyptian (John A. Wilson); Sumerian (S. N. Kramer); Akkadian (E. A. Speiser); Hittite (Albrecht Goetze); Ugaritic
Ugaritic () is an extinct Northwest Semitic language, classified by some as a dialect of the Amorite language and so the only known Amorite dialect preserved in writing. It is known through the Ugaritic texts discovered by French archaeolog ...
(H. L. Ginsberg)
*Egyptian
*** The Memphite Theology of Creation
***The Deliverance of Mankind of Destruction
***The Story of Sinahue
***The Story of Two Brothers
***The Journey of Wen-Amon to Phoenicia
***The Tradition of Seven Lean Years in Egypt
**Mesopotamian
***A Sumerian Myth- The Deluge
***The Akkadian Creation Epic
***The Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh
The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia, and is regarded as the earliest surviving notable literature and the second oldest religious text, after the Pyramid Texts. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins wit ...
***An Akkadian Cosmological Incantation: The Worm and the Toothache
***Adapa (Akkadian)
***Descent of Ishtar to the Nether World (Akkadian)
*** The Legend of Sargon (Akkadian)
** Hittite
***The Telepinus
Telipinu was the last king of the Hittites Old Kingdom, living in 16th century BC, reigned c. 1525-1500 BC in middle chronology. At the beginning of his reign, the Hittite Empire had contracted to its core territories, having long since lost all ...
Myth
**Ugaritic
***Poem about Baal
Baal (), or Baal,; phn, , baʿl; hbo, , baʿal, ). ( ''baʿal'') was a title and honorific meaning "owner", " lord" in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levant during antiquity. From its use among people, it came to be applied ...
and Anath
Anat (, ), Anatu, classically Anath (; uga, 𐎓𐎐𐎚 ''ʿnt''; he, עֲנָת ''ʿĂnāṯ''; ; el, Αναθ, translit=Anath; Egyptian: '' ꜥntjt'') was a goddess associated with warfare and hunting, best known from the Ugaritic texts. ...
***The Tale of Aqhat
II. Legal Texts: Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...
and Asia Minor
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...
; Egyptian and Hittite Treaties; Hittite Instructions (Albrecht Goetze); Documents from the Practice of Law
** Laws of Eshnunna
**The Code of Hammurabi
**Mesopotamian Legal Documents
**Aramaic Papyri from Elephantine
III. Historical Texts: Egyptian (John A. Wilson); Babylonia
Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state ...
n and Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the As ...
n (A. Leo Oppenheim); Hittite (Albrecht Goetze); Palestinian
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
Inscriptions (W. F. Albright)
*Egyptian
**The Expulsion of the Hyksos
**Asiatic Campaign of Thut-mose III
**The Campaign of Seti I in North Palestine
**The Report of a Frontier Official
**A Syrian Interregnum
**The War Against the Peoples of the Sea
**The Meggido Ivories
**The Campaign of Sheshonk
*Assyrian & Babylonian
**Ashurnasirpal II
Ashur-nasir-pal II ( transliteration: ''Aššur-nāṣir-apli'', meaning "Ashur is guardian of the heir") was king of Assyria from 883 to 859 BC.
Ashurnasirpal II succeeded his father, Tukulti-Ninurta II, in 883 BC. During his reign he embarke ...
(883-859): Expedition to Lebanon
**Adad-nirari III
Adad-nirari III (also Adad-narari) was a King of Assyria from 811 to 783 BC. Note that this assumes that the longer version of the Assyrian Eponym List, which has an additional eponym for Adad-nirari III, is the correct one. For the shorter eponym ...
(810-783): The Fight against the Aramaean Coalition
**Tiglath-pileser III
Tiglath-Pileser III (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , meaning "my trust belongs to the son of Ešarra"), was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 745 BC to his death in 727. One of the most prominent and historically significant Assyrian kings, Ti ...
(744-727): The Campaigns Against Syria and Palestine
**Sargon II
Sargon II (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , meaning "the faithful king" or "the legitimate king") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 722 BC to his death in battle in 705. Probably the son of Tiglath-Pileser III (745–727), Sargon is genera ...
(721-705): The Fall of Samaria
**Sennacherib
Sennacherib (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: or , meaning "Sin (mythology), Sîn has replaced the brothers") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from the death of his father Sargon II in 705BC to his own death in 681BC. The second king of the ...
(704-681): The Siege of Jerusalem
**Esarhaddon
Esarhaddon, also spelled Essarhaddon, Assarhaddon and Ashurhaddon (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , also , meaning "Ashur has given me a brother"; Biblical Hebrew: ''ʾĒsar-Ḥaddōn'') was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from the death of his ...
(680-669): The Syro-Palestinian Campaign
** Receipt of Tribute from Palestine
*Historiographic
** The Fall of Ninevah
** The Fall of Jerusalem
** The Fall of Babylon
**Nebuchadnezzar II
Nebuchadnezzar II ( Babylonian cuneiform: ''Nabû-kudurri-uṣur'', meaning " Nabu, watch over my heir"; Biblical Hebrew: ''Nəḇūḵaḏneʾṣṣar''), also spelled Nebuchadrezzar II, was the second king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruli ...
(605-562)
** Cyrus (557-529)
Also:
#Rituals, Incantations and Descriptions of Festivals: Egyptian (John A. Wilson); Akkadian (A. Sachs); Hittite (Albrecht Goetze)
#Hymns and Prayers: Egyptian (John A. Wilson); Sumerian (S. N. Kramer); Sumero-Akkadian (Ferris J. Stephens); Hittite (Albrecht Goetze)
#Didactic and Wisdom Literature: Fables and Didactic Tales; Proverbs and Precepts; Observations on Life and the World Order; Oracles and Prophecies
#Lamentations: A Sumerian Lamentation (S. N. Kramer)
#Secular Songs and Poems: Egyptian (John A. Wilson)
#Letters: Egyptian (John A. Wilson); Sumerian (S. N. Kramer); Akkadian (W. F. Albright); Aramaic
The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated i ...
(H. L. Ginsberg)
#Miscellaneous Texts: Egyptian (John A. Wilson); Sumerian Love Song (S. N. Kramer); Hittite Omen (Albrecht Goetze); Canaanite and Aramaic Inscriptions (Franz Rosenthal); South-Arabian Inscriptions (A. Jamme)
Translators and annotators
* W. F. Albright, Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consiste ...
* H. L. Ginsberg, Jewish Theological Seminary
*Albrecht Goetze
Albrecht Ernst Rudolf Goetze (January 11, 1897 – August 15, 1971) was a German- American Hittitologist.
Goetze was born in Leipzig, Germany in 1897. His father, Rudolf Goetze, was a psychiatrist. He began studies in Munich in 1915, but left t ...
, Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
*A. Jamme
A is the first letter of the Latin and English alphabet.
A may also refer to:
Science and technology Quantities and units
* ''a'', a measure for the attraction between particles in the Van der Waals equation
* ''A'' value, a measure o ...
, Society of White Fathers of Africa
* S. N. Kramer, University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...
* Theophile J. Meek, University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institu ...
* A. Leo Oppenheim,