Mesopotamia and the Bible: Comparative Explorations.

• Author: Snell, Daniel C.
• Position: Book Review

Mesopotamia and the Bible: Comparative Explorations. Edited by MARK W. CHAVALAS and K. LAWSON YOUNGER, JR. Grand Rapids, Mich.: BAKER ACADEMIC, 2002. Pp. 395. $29.99 (paper).

The editors of this collection have gathered essays by experts to address what people interested in the Bible might want to know about Mesopotamia. This will prove a very useful bibliographic guide for those wishing to delve more deeply into various topics, and yet some essays seem to be addressing different audiences from the one envisioned in the title and in the majority of the pieces. Those with a chronological or geographical focus seem to work better, especially Richard Hess on Alalakh, Daniel Fleming on Emar, and Wayne Pitard on Ugarit.

I am struck by the fact that Chavalas's essay on a century of tension between Assyriology and Biblical studies shows not so much tension as mutual ignorance. Although there have been famous brouhahas, Assyriologists have sometimes fled Biblical studies fearing a lack of rigor, and Biblicists can be overwhelmed with the philological detail. The actual situation is reflected in a couple of bibliographic studies that show that Biblicists write books while Assyriologists write articles, and few of either ilk read, or at least quote, the others (M. Yitzhaki, JCS 38 [1986]: 81-93, and ZAW 99 [1987]: 232-48). Given increased specialization, such a situation is not surprising, but it is to be deplored since each side has something to learn from the other.

In a bibliographic study, Steven Holloway unravels how the nineteenth century thought about Sargon II and Tiglath-pilesar III, and Richard Averbeck explores the problems Gudea of Lagash had in finding out what the god wanted, unlike the ready revelation in the Bible. He concludes with a lightly annotated list of temple-building parallels with 1 Kings, indicating that a larger study might really be done on these issues.

Chavalas begins the geographical surveys with consideration of Syria and northern Mesopotamia to the end of the Third Millennium, especially Ebla, pointing out that Ebla incantations have no counterpart in Mesopotamia farther to the southeast. Ronald Veenker surveys what is known about the Old Babylonian period--quite a lot really--though can we defend his idea that Ammisaduqa's edict was intended "to prevent excessive accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few individuals"? Its goals seem more limited: to forgive some uncollected taxes and to try to abolish, at least...