Gzella Holger (ed.). Languages From the World of the Bible

Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2012. — xvi + 256 p. — ISBN: 978-1-934078-61-7, e-ISBN: 978-1-934078-63-1.The original edition of this book appeared in German (Sprachen aus der Welt des Alten Testaments) in 2009. Scholarship increasingly emphasizes the considerable linguistic and cultural diversity of the environment in which the biblical texts originated over time. Both the neighbouring civilizations in the immediate vicinity of ancient Israel, and the Near Eastern world empires, have contributed to shaping the biblical world, although in different respects and during successive periods. Whereas literary and administrative traditions in particular have undergone many influences from the more remote cultures of Mesopotamia and Egypt (which are well known even to the point of exhaustion), the Hebrew language took on its shape and evolved first and foremost in a matrix of closely related tongues in Syria-Palestine. This region also maintained early contacts with the Arabian Peninsula, was incorporated into the Persian Empire, and eventually became part of the Greco-Roman Near East. It is, however, the alphabetic script that unites the languages of Syria-Palestine, Arabia, Persia, and Greece. Their investigation belongs to various academic fields but often does not surface, at least not at a regular rate, in university curricula. Among the plethora of current methods and research interests in biblical exegesis and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, philology no longer occupies the principal place. Nonetheless, a thorough knowledge of the primary sources in their original forms remains the most important point of departure for all further concerns. The present volume aims at furnishing concise yet fresh and up-to-date overviews of the most pertinent varieties of the languages in question (Ugaritic, Phoenician, Ancient Hebrew, the languages of Transjordan, Old and Imperial Aramaic, Old South Arabian, Old Persian and Greek) without merely repeating what has been said elsewhere. It also addresses their interaction within a clear historical framework while at the same time maintaining a reasonably sharp focus.