From Mari to Jerusalem and Back

Assyriological and Biblical Studies in Honor of Jack Murad Sasson

Annalisa Azzoni, Alexandra Kleinerman, Douglas A. Knight, David I. Owen

• Publisher: Eisenbrauns
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781646023455
• Edition: 0
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

Jack Murad Sasson, distinguished scholar of the ancient Near East, has enjoyed a long career studying the cultures, languages, and literatures of that consequential region. His many books and articles span a seemingly endless array of topics and materials. Foremost are his in-depth analyses of the Syrian city of Mari and its remarkable heritage. Of comparable importance are his definitive studies of the Hebrew Bible, in particular his commentaries on the books of Judges, Ruth, and Jonah. In addition, the encyclopedic four-volume set he initiated and edited, Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, stands out as an exceptional contribution to peers, students, and the general public.

To honor him and his scholarly achievements, thirty-five of his longtime colleagues and friends have collaborated to produce this volume of essays on such diverse cultures as Sumer, Babylonia, Assyria, the Amorites, Egypt, Ebla, the Hurrians, the Hittites, Ugarit, the Arameans, Canaan, and Israel. The studies in this volume display the richness of these cultures—their literary legacies, languages, political and social histories, material remains, religions and rituals, and history of ideas—as well as their reception in modern times. The volume is both a contribution to the evolving study of the ancient Near East and also a fitting tribute to Jack Sasson, whose friendship and scholarship we have long cherished and esteemed.

Table of contents

• COVER front
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Contributors
• Abbreviations
• Publications of Jack M. Sasson
• Part I: Assyriological Studies
• Chapter 1: Kamiš at Ebla
• Chapter 2: “Not Tonight, Josephine!” Women at War in Third-Millennium BCE Syria?
• Chapter 3: L’élection du P. Scheil au Collège de France en 1905
• Chapter 4: Royal Hunt among the Semites, West and East: Fertility and Kingship in Myth and Ritual
• Chapter 5: Heurs et malheurs de la vie conjugale en Mésopotamie: La séparation de corps dans quelques sources cunéiformes
• Chapter 6: “Si ce n’est toi, c’est donc ton frère …”
• Chapter 7: Albrecht Goetze: Three Mid-Century Reflections on Cuneiform Studies and Linguistics
• Chapter 8: A New Manuscript of Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld
• Chapter 9: Prière à Itûr-Mêr pour le salut de Zimrî-Lîm
• Chapter 10: Royal Women Sages in Aramaic Literature: The Unnamed Queen in Daniel 5 and Saritrah in the “Revolt of Babylon”
• Chapter 11: The Beginning of the Sumerian Epic “Gilgameš and the Bull of Heaven” and Its Possible Historical-Political Background
• Chapter 12: À propos d’une défaite de Mari et d’une négociation diplomatique
• Chapter 13: Paul Haupt: Between Two Worlds
• Chapter 14: Sumerian Literature at the Crossroads
• Chapter 15: Contributions to the Dossier of Princess
• Chapter 16: The Sitting Moon and the Goats of Gilead: A Rare Akkadian Astronomical Term and a Hapax in Song of Songs
• Chapter 17: Old Babylonian Bread Offerings
• Chapter 18: Ilumma-ila Unveiled
• Chapter 19: “Talking to Doors”: Paraklausithyron in Akkadian Literature
• Chapter 20: Die Klausel á mu-ú/ug-a-šè in altbabylonischen Miet- und Feldpachtverträgen aus Nippur, Isin und unbekannter Herku ft: Politische Motive für die Stilisierung von Rechtsurkunden?
• Chapter 21: Hurritische Beschwörungen mit Bezugnahme auf Ursprungsmythen
• Chapter 22: Un enfant à Alep
• Part II: Biblical Studies
• Chapter 23: Translating Biblical Dialogue
• Chapter 24: Job and Not
• Chapter 25: The Earliest Israel: Territorial History in the Highlands of Canaan
• Chapter 26: The Name Yhwȝ as a People: Reconsidering the Amorite Evidence
• Chapter 27: Joshua and Anomie: Retrojection, Projection, and Recovery
• Chapter 28: The Plague of Darkness and the Creation of Light: A Reading of Psalm 105:26–36 from the Notion of Calamities in Chinese Perspective
• Chapter 29: The Oracular Insertion in Zechariah 4: Another Look at the Evidence of Akkadian Royal Building Inscriptions
• Chapter 30: Myth, Poetry, and Cosmic Construction in Job 38:4–18
• Chapter 31: A Mosaic for Miriam