List Books » Stories in Scripture and Inscriptions: Comparative Studies on Narratives in Northwest Semitic Inscriptions and the Hebrew Bible
Authors: Simon B. Parker
ISBN-13: 9780195116205, ISBN-10: 0195116208
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Date Published: November 1997
Edition: (Non-applicable)
Boston University
This book compares a variety of biblical narratives with the stories found in several Northwest Semitic inscriptions from the ancient kingdom of Judah and its contemporary Syro-Palestinian neighbors. In genre, language, and cultural context, these epigraphic stories are closer to biblical narratives than any other ancient Near Eastern narrative corpus. For the first time, Parker analyzes and appreciates these stories as narratives and sets them beside comparable biblical stories. He illuminates the narrative character and techniques of both epigraphic and biblical stories and in many cases reveals their original social context and purpose. In some cases, he is able to shed light on the question of the sources and composition of the larger work in which most of the biblical stories appear, the Deuteronomistic history. Against the claim that the genius of biblical prose narrative derives from the monotheism of the authors, he shows that the presence or absence of a divine role in each type of story is consistent throughout both biblical and epigraphic examples, and that, when present, the role of the deity is essentially the same both inside and outside the Bible, inside and outside Israel.
Abbreviations | ||
1 | Introduction: Reading Biblical and Other Ancient Near Eastern Narratives | 3 |
Approaches to Biblical Narratives | 3 | |
Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Narratives | 6 | |
Oral Storytelling in Ancient Israel and Judah | 8 | |
The Stories Treated in This Book | 11 | |
2 | Petitionary Narratives | 13 |
The Mesad Hashavyahu Inscription | 15 | |
Petitionary Narratives in the Bible | 18 | |
3 | The Story of the Siloam Tunnel | 36 |
The Siloam Tunnel Inscription | 37 | |
Stories of the Siloam Tunnel in the Bible | 39 | |
4 | Stories of Military Campaigns | 43 |
Stories of Military Campaigns in Inscriptions | 44 | |
Stories of Military Campaigns in the Bible | 60 | |
5 | Stories of Appeals for Military Intervention | 76 |
Stories of Appeals for Military Intervention in Inscriptions | 78 | |
Stories of Appeals for Military Intervention in the Bible | 89 | |
6 | Stories of Miraculous Deliverance from a Siege | 105 |
The Inscription of Zakkur | 106 | |
Stories of Miraculous Deliverance from a Siege in the Bible | 112 | |
7 | Conclusion: The Roles of the Stories and the Role of the Deity | 131 |
The Literary Character of the Stories | 131 | |
The Transmission of the Stories | 135 | |
The Role of the Deity in the Stories | 137 | |
Notes | 143 | |
Bibliography | 171 | |
Index of Ancient Sources | 183 | |
General Index | 190 |