The Ugaritic Texts and the Origins of West-Semitic Literary Composition

The Ugaritic Texts and the Origins of West-Semitic Literary Composition PDF Author: Dennis Pardee
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780191754104
Category : Bible
Languages : en
Pages : 149

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Book Description
The discovery and decryption of Ugaritic cuneiform tablets in the 1920s has given scholars an insight into the development of alphabetic writing and the origins of biblical poetry. In this book, Dennis Pardee describes the origins of the cuneiform alphabetic writing system developed in Ugarit some time before 1250 BC.

The Ugaritic Texts and the Origins of West-Semitic Literary Composition

The Ugaritic Texts and the Origins of West-Semitic Literary Composition PDF Author: Dennis Pardee
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780191754104
Category : Bible
Languages : en
Pages : 149

Get Book Here

Book Description
The discovery and decryption of Ugaritic cuneiform tablets in the 1920s has given scholars an insight into the development of alphabetic writing and the origins of biblical poetry. In this book, Dennis Pardee describes the origins of the cuneiform alphabetic writing system developed in Ugarit some time before 1250 BC.

The Semitic Languages

The Semitic Languages PDF Author: Stefan Weninger
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110251582
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 1298

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Book Description
The handbook The Semitic Languages offers a comprehensive reference tool for Semitic Linguistics in its broad sense. It is not restricted to comparative Grammar, although it covers also comparative aspects, including classification. By comprising a chapter on typology and sections with sociolinguistic focus and language contact, the conception of the book aims at a rather complete, unbiased description of the state of the art in Semitics. Articles on individual languages and dialects give basic facts as location, numbers of speakers, scripts, numbers of extant texts and their nature, attestation where appropriate, and salient features of the grammar and lexicon of the respective variety. The handbook is the most comprehensive treatment of the Semitic language family since many decades.

A Grammar of the Ugaritic Language

A Grammar of the Ugaritic Language PDF Author: Daniel Sivan
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781589832855
Category : Ugaritic language
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"Ugaritic, discovered in 1929, is a Northwest Semitic language documented on clay tablets (about 1,250 texts) and dated from the period between the fourteenth and the twelfth centuries B.C.E. The documents are of various types: literary, administrative, lexicological. Numerous Ugaritic tablets contain portions of a poetic cycle pertaining to the Ugaritic pantheon. Another group of texts, the administrative documents, sheds light on the organization of Ugarit, thus contributing greatly to our understanding of the history and culture of the biblical and Northwest Semitic world." --BOOK JACKET.

On Biblical Poetry

On Biblical Poetry PDF Author: F.W. Dobbs-Allsopp
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190463538
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 466

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Book Description
On Biblical Poetry takes a fresh look at the nature of biblical Hebrew poetry beyond its currently best-known feature, parallelism. F.W. Dobbs-Allsopp argues that biblical poetry is in most respects just like any other verse tradition, and therefore biblical poems should be read and interpreted like other poems, using the same critical tools and with the same kinds of guiding assumptions in place. He offers a series of programmatic essays on major facets of biblical verse, each aspiring to alter currently regnant conceptualizations in the field and to show that attention to aspects of prosody--rhythm, lineation, and the like--allied with close reading can yield interesting, valuable, and even pleasurable interpretations. What distinguishes the verse of the Bible, says Dobbs-Allsopp, is its historicity and cultural specificity, those peculiar encrustations and encumbrances that typify all human artifacts. Both the literary and the historical, then, are in view throughout. The concluding essay elaborates a close reading of Psalm 133. This chapter enacts the final movement to the set of literary and historical arguments mounted throughout the volume--an example of the holistic staging which, Dobbs-Allsopp argues, is much needed in the field of Biblical Studies.

The Semantics of Word Division in Northwest Semitic Writing Systems

The Semantics of Word Division in Northwest Semitic Writing Systems PDF Author: Robert S.D. Crellin
Publisher: Oxbow Books
ISBN: 178925678X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Much focus in research on alphabetic writing systems has been on correspondences between graphemes and phonemes. The present study sets out to complement these by examining the linguistic denotation of markers of word division in several ancient Northwest Semitic (NWS) writing systems, namely, Ugaritic, Phoenician, Moabite, and Hebrew, as well as alphabetic Greek. While in Modern European languages words on the page are separated on the basis of morphosyntax, I argue that in most NWS writing systems words are divided on the basis of prosody: ‘words’ are units which must be pronounced together with a single primary accent or stress, or as a single phrase. After an introduction providing the necessary theoretical groundwork, Part I considers word division in Phoenician inscriptions. I show that word division at the levels of both the prosodic word and of the prosodic phrase may be found in Phoenician, and that the distributions match those of prosodic words and prosodic phrases in Tiberian Hebrew. The latter is a source where, unlike the rest of the material considered, the prosody is well represented. In Part II, word division in Ugaritic alphabetic cuneiform is analyzed. Here two-word division strategies are identified, corresponding broadly to two genres of text: viz, literary, and administrative documents. Word division in the orthography of literary and of some other texts separates prosodic words. By contrast, in many administrative (and some other) documents, words are separated on the basis of morphosyntax, anticipating later word division strategies in Europe by several centuries. Part III considers word division in the consonantal text of the Masoretic tradition of Biblical Hebrew. Here word division is found to mark out ‘minimal prosodic words’. I show that this word division orthography is also found in early Moabite and Hebrew inscriptions. Word division in alphabetic Greek inscriptions is the topic of Part IV. Whilst it is agreed that word division marks out prosodic words, the precise relationship of these units to the pitch accent and the rhythm of the language is not so clear, and consequently this issue is addressed in detail. Finally, the Epilogue considers the societal context of word division in each of the writing systems examined, to attempt to discern the rationales for the prosodic word division strategies adopted. Contexts of and Relations between Early Writing Systems (CREWS) is a project funded by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. 677758), and based in the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge.

Ve-’Ed Ya‘aleh (Gen 2

Ve-’Ed Ya‘aleh (Gen 2 PDF Author: Peter Machinist
Publisher: SBL Press
ISBN: 0884144844
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 740

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Book Description
Sixty-six colleagues, friends, and former students of Edward L. Greenstein present essays honoring him upon his retirement. Throughout Greenstein's half-century career he demonstrated expertise in a host of areas astonishing in its breadth and depth, and each of the essays in these two volumes focuses on an area of particular interest to him. Volume 1 includes essays on ancient Near Eastern studies, Biblical Hebrew and Northwest Semitic languages, and biblical law and narrative. Volume 2 includes essays on biblical wisdom and poetry, biblical reception and exegesis, and postmodern readings of the Bible.

Life and Mortality in Ugaritic

Life and Mortality in Ugaritic PDF Author: Matthew McAffee
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 1646020367
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
While topics such as death, funerary cult, and the netherworld have received considerable scholarly attention in the context of the Ugaritic textual corpus, the related concept of life has been relatively neglected. Life and Mortality in Ugaritic takes as its premise that one cannot grasp the significance of mwt (“to die”) without first having wrestled with the concept of ḥyy (“to live”). In this book, Matthew McAffee takes a lexical approach to the study of life and death in the Ugaritic textual corpus. He identifies and analyzes the Ugaritic terms most commonly used to talk about life and mortality in order to construct a more representative framework of the ancient perspective on these topics, and he concludes by synthesizing the results of this lexical study into a broader literary discussion that considers, among other things, the implications for our understanding of the first-millennium Katumuwa stele from Zincirli. McAffee’s study complements previous scholarly work in this area, which has tended to rely on conceptual and theoretical treatment of mortality, and advances the discussion by providing a more focused lexical analysis of the Ugaritic terms in question. It will be of interest to Semitic scholars and those who study Ugaritic in particular, in addition to students of the culture of the ancient Levant.

The Origin and Character of God

The Origin and Character of God PDF Author: Theodore J. Lewis
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190072563
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 1097

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Book Description
Few topics are as broad or as daunting as the God of Israel, that deity of the world's three monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, who has been worshiped over millennia. In the Hebrew Bible, God is characterized variously as militant, beneficent, inscrutable, loving, and judicious. Who is this divinity that has been represented as masculine and feminine, mythic and real, transcendent and intimate? The Origin and Character of God is Theodore J. Lewis's monumental study of the vast subject that is the God of Israel. In it, he explores questions of historical origin, how God was characterized in literature, and how he was represented in archaeology and iconography. He also brings us into the lived reality of religious experience. Using the window of divinity to peer into the varieties of religious experience in ancient Israel, Lewis explores the royal use of religion for power, prestige, and control; the intimacy of family and household religion; priestly prerogatives and cultic status; prophetic challenges to injustice; and the pondering of theodicy by poetic sages. A volume that is encyclopedic in scope but accessible in tone and was honored with all three of the major awards in the field in three seperate disciplines (American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR) 2020 Frank Moore Cross Award, 2021 American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion, 2021 Biblical Archaeology Society Biennial Publication Award for the Best Book Relating to the Hebrew Bible), The Origin and Character of God is an essential addition to the growing scholarship of one of humanity's most enduring concepts.

CyberResearch on the Ancient Near East and Neighboring Regions

CyberResearch on the Ancient Near East and Neighboring Regions PDF Author: Vanessa Bigot Juloux
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004375082
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 486

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Book Description
CyberResearch on the Ancient Near East and Neighboring Regions is now available on PaperHive! PaperHive is a new free web service that offers a platform to authors and readers to collaborate and discuss, using already published research. Please visit the platform to join the conversation. CyberResearch on the Ancient Near East and Neighboring Regions provides case studies on archaeology, objects, cuneiform texts, and online publishing, digital archiving, and preservation. Eleven chapters present a rich array of material, spanning the fifth through the first millennium BCE, from Anatolia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Iran. Customized cyber- and general glossaries support readers who lack either a technical background or familiarity with the ancient cultures. Edited by Vanessa Bigot Juloux, Amy Rebecca Gansell, and Alessandro Di Ludovico, this volume is dedicated to broadening the understanding and accessibility of digital humanities tools, methodologies, and results to Ancient Near Eastern Studies. Ultimately, this book provides a model for introducing cyber-studies to the mainstream of humanities research.

Pharaoh's Land and Beyond

Pharaoh's Land and Beyond PDF Author: Pearce Paul Creasman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190229098
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
The concept of pharaonic Egypt as a unified, homogeneous, and isolated cultural entity is misleading. Ancient Egypt was a rich tapestry of social, religious, technological, and economic interconnections among numerous cultures from disparate lands. In fifteen chapters divided into five thematic groups, Pharaoh's Land and Beyond uniquely examines Egypt's relationship with its wider world. The first section details the geographical contexts of interconnections by examining ancient Egyptian exploration, maritime routes, and overland passages. In the next section, chapters address the human principals of association: peoples, with the attendant difficulties of differentiating ethnic identities from the record; diplomatic actors, with their complex balances and presentations of power; and the military, with its evolving role in pharaonic expansion. Natural events, from droughts and floods to illness and epidemics, also played significant roles in this ancient world, as examined in the third section. The final two sections explore the physical manifestations of interconnections between pharaonic Egypt and its neighbors, first in the form of material objects and second, in the powerful exchange of ideas. Whether through diffusion and borrowing of knowledge and technology, through the flow of words by script and literature, or through exchanges in the religious sphere, the pharaonic Egypt that we know today was constantly changing--and changing the cultures around it. This illustrious work represents the first synthesis of these cultural relationships, unbounded by time, geography, or mode.