Mesopotamia and the Bible: Comparative Explorations

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Summary: Some Essays on Mesopotamia and the Bible.
Review: _Mesopotamia and the Bible_ is a collection of recent essays on the relationship between the two named subjects. Coeditor Mark Chavalas begins with an essay on the history of Assyriology and biblical studies. The various approaches of scholars has ranged from Malul who took an "inventorial" approach to comparisons... to G Rawlinson who felt that Assyriology had become "uncom-
fortably close to the Holy Text" (page 27)... to Delitsch who argued that ancient Israelite civilization was in fact derived from Babylonia.

Chavalas' essay is followed by two essays on methodology. S Holloway writes of three sometimes overlapping Assyrias: biblical Assyria, classical Assyria, and historical Assyria. Averbeck writes that some of the problems of comparing historiography may be resolved if attention is paid to S Talmon's principle of noting the integral relationship between a text and its society before comparing that text with another text from another society; the two may not have similar uses by their respective societies.

Among the following essays, M Chavalas surveys archaeological digs in Syria and some of the results from them. R Veenker provides an overview of the Old Babylonian period and includes Mari, Syria, Hammurabi's Babylon, and the advent of the Kassites. And perhaps the most thought-provoking essay is D Fleming's wherein he finds a *cultural link* between ancient Israel and Emar by comparing biblical religious practice with the zukru ritual of Emar.

W Pitard points out some of the similarities and differences between biblical Israel and Ugarit/the Ugarit texts. In particular Pitard argues that the comparisons between concepts of life and death at Ugarit and Israel have been overrated. Pitard points out that one really would not expect a custom to remain the same over a thousand miles or a thousand years ... or even less, of course.

W Schniedewind writes that the Arameans were not an ethnic group but a social class from the same geographic region. This he derives from the earliest texts which mention Aram. It is a locale and the people who inhabited it were Arameans. They were diverse peoples from across the Euphrates who had pastoral nomadism as a cultural bond. One is quickly reminded of Deut 26.5.

Coeditor L Younger continues his studies of Assyria and the fall of Samaria. This essay includes information on the rations apportioned to Samarian deportees by the Assyrians.

Most of the essays in this volume are very informative. The essays are written by leading scholars and usually the topic is one upon which they have spent a great deal of study. However the reader would be well advised to know that more than one essay is poorly written. Though the writers are experts in their fields, they write by shifting through lateral thoughts with no central thesis in focus.