Stories in Scripture and Inscriptions: Comparative Studies on Narratives in Northwest Semitic Inscriptions and the Hebrew Bible

PARKER, Simon B

ISBN 10: 0195116208 / ISBN 13: 9780195116205

Published by Oxford University Press, 1997

About this Item

Tips of top corners slightly bumped. Robust packaging. Tracking is always added to USA orders. It can be added to other overseas orders on request. Used books are exempt from USA tariffs. 1st edition. No ownership marks. Size: x, 195pp.

Seller Inventory # ZZ5128

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Stories in Scripture and Inscriptions: Comparative Studies on Narratives in Northwest Semitic Inscriptions and the Hebrew Bible
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication Date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195116208
• ISBN 13: 9780195116205
• Binding: Binding sound, text unmarked
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good+
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good+
• Signed: No ownership marks
• Seller catalogs:
  • Biblical: Old Testament Studies

About this title

Synopsis

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.

About the Author

Simon Parker is at Boston University.