The Context of Scripture. Volume 3: Archival Documents from the Biblical World.

The Context of Scripture. Volume 3: Archival Documents from the Biblical World. Edited by William W. Hallo and K. Lawson Younger Jr. Leiden: Brill, 2002. xvvii and 403 pages. Cloth. $129.00.

This third volume brings to completion a replacement for Ancient Near East Texts Relating to the Old Testament (ANET), the previous standard translation of Egyptian, Hittite, Syro-Palestinian, Mesopotamian and other ancient documents thought to be parallel to or to shed light on the meaning of the Hebrew Bible itself.

This volume begins with essays on Hebrew and Egyptian military texts, Hittite and Israelite cultural parallels, the "contextual method," the impact of Assyriology on biblical studies, and Sumer and the Bible. But its main value lies in the fresh translations of ancient documents that fill out the rest of the volume.

One of the principal finds in ancient archives has been letters, and these are richly represented in this collection. There are only four of these in Hebrew, but the forty-two from Ugarit, Israel's Syrian neighbor, show the kind of communication that was going on in the royal court and among commoners about the time Israel entered its land. The 14th-century Amarna letters are from Palestinian and other rulers that report to the Pharaoh what is going on in their territory and/or their need for government aid. Letters from the Jewish community at Elephantine in Egypt discuss the Passover and the need to rebuild their temple. One Assyrian letter describes--a little obscurely--the murder of Sennacherib. A Sumerian letter from a feisty housewife defends herself against charges of waste and mismanagement.

But other documents were also dug out of the ruined archives by archaeologists. Some are contracts about slavery, loans, manumissions, the purchase of beer, or marriage agreements. There are court cases, too--the conspiracy in the harem against Ramesses III, a lawsuit about a Syrian slave, a slandered bride, and a trial for adultery. In the latter case the wife was charged with breaking into a man's granary and opening his pots of sesame oil in addition to her unfaithfulness. Some accounts describe tithing at Ugarit or an Assyrian wine list. There is even a will from Alalakh.

A center column on each page lists possible parallel passages in the Bible, and nineteen pages at the end list all the biblical references cited in this three-volume work.

While these documents may not have the glamour of the Babylonian creation or flood stories, they tell us very much about daily life, also daily religious life. The editors and contributors deserve our profound thanks.