By Charles Halton on Wednesday, 5 November 2008 at 3:15 pm
My Eisenbrauns SBL order came in today; here’s what I got with a few cursory reflections:
This is an English version of Ahituv’s Hebrew edition, Handbook of Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions. I have the Hebrew version, but I also ordered the English one because he made some changes as well as I thought this book might be handy for classes later on. It is a very convenient one-volume edition that includes photographs, square script reproductions of the inscriptions–both pointed and unpointed, and short commentary.
This is a beautifully produced volume that presents omen texts in hand copies (65 plates), transcription, German translation, and comments. This is the first of a projected 16 volume series that will publish the “literary” texts of the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Heessel’s volume only includes the terrestrial (everyday occurances), teralogical (so-called monstruous births from animals), physiognomic (assessment of a persons character from outward appearances, particularly from facial features), and oneiromantic (dreams) omens. Jeanette C. Fincke will produce the astrological omen volume. The hand copies are beautifully drawn and reproduced at a 2:1 ratio.
Nice, accessible compilation of Akkadian inscriptions in English translation that relate to ancient Israel. I only wish that it included Akkadian transcriptions as well, but it is intended to be an introductory text and it would work well as a reader for a class on the history of ancient Israel. It includes introductions, commentary, and short bibliography for the texts.
I’ve been using the library’s edition but I decided to go ahead and by it. I’m pretty interested in ANE prophecy, especially at Mari. He translates a lot of the Mari texts into Hebrew and its pretty fun to see how he renders from Akkadian to Hebrew.
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Category: Akkadian Language,All,Book Reviews
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