Exegesis starts with the delimitation of the pericope to be interpreted. Yet the principles for selecting passages which form the part of departure for the exegete are seldom made explicit and if one compares various commentaries and Bible translations, it soon becomes apparent that this lack of methodical transparency gives rise to a lot of confusion and dissent.
In this work the authors make use of text divisions found in ancient Hebrew, Greek and Syriac manuscripts of Isaiah 40-55 (Deutero-Isaiah). For the first time the poetic structure of the text is based on controllable evidence...

Discoveries in sites revealing the ancient cultures of the Near East and Greece have contributed much to a better understanding of the Old Testament. As new finds constantly add new information, this precious evidence has to be (re)evaluated time and again. In this volume members of the Society for Old Testament Study in the United Kingdom and Ireland as well as members of the Oudtestamentisch Werkgezelschap' in the Netherlands and Belgium join forces to undertake this demanding task. Egyptian, Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Neo-Hittite, Aramaic and Greek texts are inspected in order to...

In this book the authors develop an intriguing theory about the Canaanite origin of the biblical traditions concerning the origin of the cosmos and the creation of humankind. Adam, Eve, and the Devil tells a new story about human beginnings and at the same time proposes a fresh start for biblical research into primordial traditions. A number of clay tablets from Ugarit, dating from the late thirteenth century BCE, throw new light, Korpel and de Moor argue, on the background of the first chapters of Genesis and the myth of Adam. In these tablets, El, the creator deity, and his wife Asherah...