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Useful Books about the History and Culture of the Ancient Near East
GENERAL Boecker, Hans Jochen. Law and the Administration of Justice in the Old Testament and Ancient East. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg, 1980. This study is aimed at a college or masters level reader. While it is not very conservative, it only occasionally supports left wing perspectives. The book's value is that it compares legal material in the Bible with similar legal traditions across the ancient Near East. This sheds useful light on how legal traditions in Scripture would have been understood by people in that time period. Finegan, Jack. Archaeological History of the Ancient Middle East. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1979. This is a useful summary of the history of the Near East, although it is a little dated now. It is a mainstream though pretty conservative. It is written at a masters level. Finegan, Jack. Handbook of Biblical Chronology. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1998. This is a reprint of a 1961 original. It is a mainstream but pretty conservative study that is quite useful. It is aimed at a college or masters level. PALESTINE AND SYRIA Craigie, Peter C. Ugarit and the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1983. This paperback gives a brief introduction to the excavation of Ras Shamra (which is ancient Ugarit). It looks at the culture and literature of the city. Curtis, Adrian. Cities of the Biblical World: Ugarit (Ras Shamra). Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1985. This is a good brief study of the history and archaeology of Ras Shamra. It is a mainstream study, written at a masters level. Katzenstein, H. Jacob. The History of Tyre: From the Beginning of the Second Millenium B.C.E. until the Fall of the Neo-Babylonain Empire in 538 B.C.E. Jerusalem: Schocken Institute for Jewish Research, 1973. This is a mainstream book written by a fine Jewish scholar. It is well worth reading. It is written at a masters or doctoral level. Matthews, Victor H. and Benjamin, Don C. Social World of Ancient Israel 1250-587 BCE. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1993. This is a generally conservative study, and it is written at a college or masters level. It suggests insights into the Old Testament from its cultural setting. Pfeiffer, Charles F. and Vos, Howard F. The Wycliffe Historical Geography of Bible Lands. Chicago: Moody, 1967. While somewhat dated, this is still a useful reference book. It is conservative, and it is written on a college level. Thompson, Henry O. Mekal: The God of Beth-Shan. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1970. This is a mainstream study that is still quite interesting. It was written at a masters or doctoral level. Unger, Merrill F. Israel and the Aramaeans of Damascus. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1957. This is an older paperback aimed at a college or masters level reader. The author is conservative, and it is useful summary of Israel's relationship with the Aramaeans to their north. EGYPT Currid, John D. Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1997. Currid is a conservative scholar. His book is written at a college or masters level. It explores Egyptian insights into the Biblical text. Currid's study is useful, although he does presuppose a 19th Dynasty exodus date, and that limits the number of parallels that he can recognize. Frankfort, Henri. Ancient Egyptian Religion: An Interpretation. New York: Harper & Row, 1948. This is an older mainstream study, but it is still a useful summary of Egyptian theology. Greenwood, Ned. The Sinai: A Physical Geography. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997. This book is written at a college level. It does not suggest a theological perspective, although it assumes an old earth. The book gives a lot of useful information about the physical environment of the Sinai Peninsula. Hornung, Erik. The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999. This is a useful mainstream study of Egyptian underworld theology. Kitchen, K. A. Suppiluliuma and the Amarna Pharaohs. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1962. This is a conservative discussion by the best contemporary conservative Egyptologist. However, Kitchen is committed to a 19th Dynasty exodus chronology. By that chronology, the Amarna letters were written well before the exodus. By an 18th Dynasty chronology, the Amarna Letters were written roughly a generation after Joshua led Israel into the land, and some of them reflect Israel's struggle for control of Canaan (while others do not). haw, Ian. The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. This is a mainstream study, and it has no use for the idea that Israel was in Egypt. It also works from the "low" Chronology. Events in Egypt are much easier to correlate with the Biblical text when the older "high" chronology is used. With those limitations, it is a valuable summary of Egyptian history. It is written at a masters level. Wilson, John A. The Culture of Ancient Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956. This is an older mainsteam study of Egyptian history, but it is still valuable. MESOPOTAMIA AND PERSIA Magdalene, F. Rachel. On the Scales of Righteousness: Neo-Babylonian Trial Law and the Book of Job. Providence, RI: Brown Judaic Studies, 2007. This is not a particularly conservative study, but it is very valuable. It looks at legal terms in Mesopotamia and discusses where those terms appear in the book of Job. This is important because the covenant lawsuit motif is basic to Job's theology. For a discussion of this motif, see Yahweh's Song. Yamauchi, Edwin M. Foes from the Northern Frontier: Invading Hordes from the Russian Steppes. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1982. This is a rather brief conservative study of the northern invaders who attacked Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine in Jeremiah's day. It is written at a college level, and it is well worth reading. Yamauchi, Edwin M. Persia and the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1996. This is an outstanding conservative historical study of the Persian period and its relationship to the biblical account. It is written at a masters or doctoral level. |
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Copyright © 2009 Dr. Rodger Dalman
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