This volume presents a group of articles that deal with connections between ancient Babylonian, Iranian and Jewish communities in Mesopotamia under Neo-Babylonian, Achaemenid, and Sasanian rule. The studies, written by leading scholars in the fields of Assyriology, Iranian studies and Jewish studies, examine various modes of cultural connections between these societies, such as historical, social, legal, and exegetical intersections. The various Mesopotamian connections, often neglected in the study of ancient Judaism, are the focus of this truly interdisciplinary collection.

In The Exegetical Terminology of Akkadian Commentaries Uri Gabbay offers the first detailed study of the well-developed set of technical terms found in ancient Mesopotamian commentaries. Understanding the hermeneutical function of these terms is essential for reconstructing the ancient Mesopotamian exegetical tradition. Using the exegetical terminology attested in the large corpus of Akkadian commentaries from the first millennium BCE, the book addresses the hermeneutics of the commentaries, investigates the scholastic environment in which they were composed, and considers the...