The book concerns the inscription written on wall plaster discovered in 1967 at Deir cAlla in the Jordan Valley, and published in 1976. Using new data and the discussions about the text available to date, it deals with six different aspects of study of the text, namely the archaeological context, the palaeography, the general interpretation as well as the interpretation of several separate passages, the language used, and its relation to Old Testament studies.

The book concerns the inscription written on wall plaster discovered in 1967 at Deir cAlla in the Jordan Valley, and published in 1976. Using new data and the discussions about the text available to date, it deals with six different aspects of study of the text, namely the archaeological context, the palaeography, the general interpretation as well as the interpretation of several separate passages, the language used, and its relation to Old Testament studies.

The Hebrew Bible portrays King Manasseh and child sacrifice as the most reprehensible person and the most objectionable practice within the story of 'Israel'. This monograph suggests that historically, neither were as deviant as the Hebrew Bible appears to insist. Through careful historical reconstruction, it is argued that Manasseh was one of Judah's most successful monarchs, and child sacrifice played a central role in ancient Judahite religious practice. The biblical writers, motivated by ideological concerns, have thus deliberately distorted the truth about Manasseh and child sacrifice.

This volume deals with the pagan prophet Balaam who figures in the book of Numbers. By the very nature of his stature as a non-Israelite, pagan prophet, the figure of Balaam raises important questions with regard to the nature of prophecy and the relation between the Israelite God and the pagan nations. The conflicting stories and potent oracles of Balaam in Numbers 22-24 and other parts of the Jewish Scriptures prompted extensive reflection on this ambiguous figure. Thus the leading perspective developed in this volume is the often simultaneous praise and criticism of Balaam as a prestigious pagan prophet throughout ancient Judaism, early Christianity and the early Koranic commentaries. The papers are clustered in four sections which deal with (1) Balaam in the Old Testament and the Ancient Near East, and comparable figures in Ancient Greece; (2) Balaam in Ancient Judaism; (3) Balaam in the New Testament & Early Christianity; and (4) Balaam in the Koran and early Koranic commentaries. The reception of this enigmatic figure can be characterized as the simultaneous praise and criticism of a pagan prophet. The book is particularly useful as it also contains Émile Puech’s newly reconstructed text, translation and commentary of the first combination of the Deir ‘Alla inscriptions which contain an excerpt of the book of the historical Balaam. Combined with the other papers, the volume pictures a fascinating continuum between paganism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

This volume of essays draws together specialists in the field to explain, illustrate and analyze this religious diversity in Ancient Israel.

In the politico-religious history of the Deuteronomists, past, present and future mingle in an often inextricable way. Long obsolete traditions, which had been unacceptable to the Davidic dynasty, were rediscovered and adapted to the aims of the Deuteronomists. Personages of the past were condemned and blackened in the light of the new ideology, whereas others were glorified and embellished as heroes of faith because their ideas suited the historians. This inevitably raises the question whether the Bible can be trusted as a source book for writing a history of Israel. Apparently not, say scholars like T.L. Thompson, P.R. Davies and N.P. Lemche. In this volume a number of authors take up this challenge, stating that the radical rejection of the biblical testimony in favour of a history based mainly on archaeology is ill-advised. Several contributions to this volume draw instructive parallels between the process of re-writing the history of South Africa and the work of the Deuteronomists.

This book suggests a regional paradigm for understanding the development of the traditions about Egypt and the exodus in the Hebrew Bible. It offers fresh readings of the golden calf stories in 1 Kgs 12:25-33 and Exod 32, the Balaam oracles in Num 22-24, and the Song of the Sea in Exod 15:1b-18 and from these paints a picture of the differing traditions about Egypt that circulated in Cisjordan Israel, Transjordan Israel, and Judah in the 8th century B.C.E. and earlier. In the north, an exodus from Egypt was celebrated in the Bethel calf cult as a journey of Israelites from Egypt to Cisjordan, without a detour eastward to Sinai. This exodus was envisioned in military terms as suggested by the nature of the polemic in Exod 32, and the attribution of the exodus to the warrior Yahweh, Israel’s own deity. In the east, a tradition of deliverance from Egypt was celebrated, rather than the idea of a journey, and it was credited to El. In the south, Egypt was recognized as a major enemy, whom Yahweh had defeated, but the traditions there were not formulated in terms of an exodus. While acknowledging the reshaping of these traditions in response to the exile, Images of Egypt argues that they originated in the pre-exilic period and relate to Syro-Palestinian history as it is otherwise known.

Through sustained analysis of texts and visual sources, this volume traces the checkered career of Neo-Assyrian religious interaction with subject polities of Western Asia through both punitive measures and calculated diplomatic patronage.

The year 2005 marked the 90th anniversary of the birth of Igor Diakonoff (1915-1999). A classical Semitist in educational background, Diakonoff was most influential in his principal field of research--Assyriology. However, Diakonoff was also broadly interested in various aspects of ancient Near Eastern studies, notably Mesopotamian history, Semitic and Afroasiatic linguistics, and biblical studies. Although not major domains of Diakonoff's scholarship, Biblical Hebrew and the ancient Near Eastern background of the Old Testament were areas of expertise that made him one of the leading figures of biblical studies in Russia. For several decades Diakonoff was a "live bridge" between ancient Near Eastern and Semitic scholars working in Russia and the international scholarly community. Fittingly, this volume of Babel & Bibel in memory of Diakonoff contains essays, short notes, and reviews by scholars from the Russian and international scholarly community on topics in ancient Near Eastern, Semitic and Afroasiatic, and Old Testament studies. The contributors include A. Archi, G. F. del Monte, G. del Olmo Lete, J.-M. Durand, B. R. Foster, P. Franzaroli, S. Loesov, J. Marzahn, J. Pasquali, W. Sommerfeld, K. Markina, N. Roudik, M. P. Streck, M. V. Tonietti, W. R. Garr, K. Jongeling, M. Seleznev, V. Blazek, M. Bulakh, T. Frolova, J. Huehnergard, R. M. Kerr, L. Kogan, A. Militarev, J. Sanmartin, G. Takacs, A. Zaborski, N. V. Koslova, S. Loesov, and L. M. Dreyer.

Lester Grabbe here distills his wide body of work on the subject of prophecy. The volume considers prophecy in different cultural contexts across ancient Israel and surrounding areas. Beginning with a consideration of prophecy in the Hebrew Bible, Grabbe then looks at it as phenomenon in the ancient near east, including Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Levant. From this background in the immediate context of ancient Israel, Grabbe then widens the cultural lens to consider prophecy in more global environments, including Africa and the Americas, and recent examples of pseudo-biblical prophets such as Joseph Smith. In the final part of the book Grabbe then analyses these different prophetic types and forms, looking at the continuing traditions of prophecy alongside their ancient roots.