Jeffrey H. Tigay

Yochanan Muffs

Baruch J. Schwartz

Chaim Cohen

Victor Avigdor Hurowitz

Avi M. Hurvitz

This magnificent volume is a compilation of the writings of friends, colleagues, and former students in tribute to Shalom Paul, Professor Emeritus and former Chair of the Bible Department at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. More than 60 essayists contribute new ideas in the areas of research most loved by Prof. Paul, such as biblical literature and criticism, prophecy, comparative exegesis and linguistics, ancient Near Eastern historical and cultural milieus, and biblical and Mesopotamian law. Contributors include scholars of renown such as Adele Berlin, Frank Moore Cross, William G. Dever, Michael V. Fox, William W. Hallo, Sara Japhet, André Lemaire, Carol Meyers, Jacob Milgrom, Elisha Qimron, Gary A. Rendsburg, Jack M. Sasson, Shemaryahu Talmon, Emanuel Tov, James C. VanderKam, Joan Goodnick Westenholz, and Ziony Zevit.

Studies in the Bible, Ancient Near Eastern Literature, and Postbiblical Judaism Presented to Shalom M. Paul on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday

Birkat Shalom

Modern critical scholarship has concluded that the books of the Hebrew Bible have not reached us in their original form but are the products of lengthy evolution. Many of these books are thought to combine the works of more than one author or age and to have undergone considerable revision. Tigay and the other contributors use comparisons of various texts from ancient Mesopotamia and post-exilic Israel. Such comparisons show that the sort of development of biblical literature that nineteenth-century critics were led to postulate from close study of the texts alone is characteristic of many ancient Near Eastern texts. 'Empirical Models for Biblical Criticism' is of value to scholars interested in the Old Testament, as well as religion, theology, Jewish studies, Near Eastern studies, and comparative literature.

Empirical Models for Biblical Criticism

The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the world's oldest known epics: it predates Homer by several centuries and is recognized as seminal to the cultural history of the Ancient Near East. Interpretation and decipherment of the story of Gilgamesh--fragmentary and contradictory as its several variants are--has been a monumental scholarly task, spanning more than a century. In this volume, Jeffrey H. Tigay traces the development of the composition of the Gilgamesh Epic over nearly two millennia and through the several languages in which it has been transmitted. The result is a study both comprehensive in breadth and impressive in methodology. The author breaks from his scholarly predecessors in relying on documented textual evidence rather than on critical analysis and hypotheses.

The Evolution of the Gilgamesh Epic

Special Features- Aims to show how The Gilgamesh Epic developed from its earliest to its latest form- Systematic, step-by-step tracking of the stylistic, thematic, structural, and theological changes in The Gilgamesh Epic- Relation of changes to factors (geographical, political, religious, literary) that may have prompted them- Attempts to identify the sources (biographical, historical, literary, folkloric) of the epic's themes, and to suggest what may have been intended by use of these themes- Extensive bibliography- Indices

Jeffrey H. Tigay

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