An updated and corrected edition of a classic work, with new material. This book is an up-to-date translation and commentary on the Ugaritic texts. Of interest and importance for a general readership, as well as students and specialists in biblical, classical and religious studies. As well as being intrinsically fascinating, the Ugaritic texts have long been recognized as basic background material for Old Testament study. Ugaritic deities, myths, religious terminology, poetic techniques and general vocabulary are widely encountered by the attentive reader of the Hebrew Bible. The present edition offers an up-to-date translation and commentary based on scrutiny of the original tablets and the most recent academic discussion. While addressing the needs of accurate translation it also attempts to take seriously demands for a readable English version.

In 1929, a remarkable discovery was made by archaeologists at Ras Shamra in syria; beneath the soils of a small hill, they discovered the remains and libraries of the ancient city of Ugarit, which had been destroyed by barbarian invaders shortly after 1200BC. This book tells the story of that discovery and describes the life and civilization of the ancient city of Ugarit. In addition to updating the story with more recent archeological finds, this study recounts and assesses the extraordinary impact that the rediscovery has had on the last 50 years of the Old Testament studies. Written in a non-technical fashion, Ugarit and the Old Testament should be of interest to all readers of the Bible, particularly students and pastors concerned with the impact of contemporary archaeological discoveries on Old Testament studies.

Pertaining to Aqhat, also called the Danel Epic, or The Tale of Aqhat, is a collection of three tablets recovered from archaeological digs in the 1920s and 1930s at the ruins of Ugarit, a bronze-age city in northwest Syria, at the foot of the mountain Jebel Aqra on the modern Syrian-Turkish border. They date to Late-Bronze Era, specifically estimated to sometime around 1350 BC based on the mention of The Legend of King Keret on the colophon of the Tablet containing section 1. They tell part of the story of an ancient Canaanite king or judge named Danel, and his son Aqhat. The Ugaritic Danel is accepted as being the Danel that the anent Israelite prophet Ezekiel mentioned along with Noah and Job, suggesting all three have roots in the ancient religions of Canaan. Only part of the story of Danel and Aqhat has been found, on three tablets, all of which are broken, leaving a fragmentary story which is, unfortunately, is missing its ending. Danel is spelled as Dnỉl in Ugaritic, which is similar to the later Aramaic spelling of Dny'l, and essentially identical to the Hebrew name of Dn'l. The Greeks translated both the name of the ancient saga that Ezekiel mentioned, and the later Israelite prophet from after the time of Ezekiel as Daniêl at the Library of Alexandria, which has resulted in the Ugaritic king's name being rendered as Daniel in some translations. The three sections of text that survive on the tablets are all damaged, and were originally published in the order they were translated, but not the order that the story takes place in. As the texts are about Danel, the translations were named after him, resulting in the names 1 Danel, 2 Danel, and 3 Danel. However, while Danel may have been the protagonist, the original name of the story in the texts was Pertaining to Aqhat in Ugaritic, as the story was about Aqhat. This has resulted in the texts also being dubbed 1 Aqhat, 2 Aqhat, and 3 Aqhat, however, they were still not in the correct order, and so the revised translation in Hittite Myths and Instructions (1950) reordered them as Aqhat A (2 Danel/Aqhat), Aqhat B (3 Danel/Aqhat), and Aqhat C (1 Danel/Aqhat). This order has generally been followed ever since, and is the order followed here, however, the three sections of the texts are simply called sections 1, 2, and 3.

Highly respected linguist John Huehnergard brings his command of and vast knowledge in the field of comparative Semitic linguistics to this introductory grammar. Every aspect of the grammar is enriched by his broad understanding, while maintaining an unexcelled directness and order to the learning of the fundamental grammar of Ugaritic. Designed for students already familiar with Biblical Hebrew, this grammar contains the information necessary to help them become proficient in Ugaritic, and includes exercises to assist in learning basic grammar before commencing work with the actual Ugaritic texts. It is set apart from other gram¬mar books by its immense understanding of comparative Semitic grammar, and the concise and accurate manner in which Huehnergard presents the information. Special Features: - A glossary of all Ugaritic words used in the grammar - An appendix by Ugaritologist John Ellison on the scribal formation of the Ugaritic abecedaries - A number of full-color photographs of Ugaritic tablets - Keys to the exercises - Bibliographic information and indexes

The Shapira scrolls, also known as the Shapira manuscript or Moabite Deuteronomy, are a collection of leather strips supposedly discovered in the Arnon Valley of modern Jordan in the 1860s. While they were initially accepted as authentic by the Jewish antiquities dealer Moses Shapira, they were later discredited as forgeries by German and British biblical scholars. Since the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls in the 1940s, there have been several scholars who have called into question the claims that the leather strips were a forgery, however, their whereabouts is unknown, and therefore no modern analysis of the leather strips is possible. Several reasons were given for the initial claims that the strips were a forgery, including the script, language, and content. The script is a form of Phoenician, similar to the Moabite script of the 800s BC, however, the language includes Imperial Aramaic terms not used until the Persian era, several centuries later. The content is not a match for any surviving translation of Deuteronomy, however, it does include many parallel statements. Some of the statements are somewhat heretical, however, they do seem similar to the beliefs of the Hasidian and Tobian sects reported to have been living in the region under Greek rule between 330 and 240 BC. Moses Shapira had previously been involved in the discovery and authentication of both authentic and fraudulent artifacts for the museums and universities of Europe, including five scrolls inscribed on leather sold in 1870, that were later assumed to be forgeries in 1884 and have subsequently disappeared. His biggest ‘swindle’ was thousands of fake Moabite artifacts labeled as Moabitica, which were apparently dug up at a site in the Arnon Valley of modern Jordan. These artifacts included stone heads, and clay vessels inscribed with Moabite text, and were dug up by both Shapira’s workers and German scholars, who later assumed Shapira’s people hid the artifacts there for them to find. The Altes Museum in Berlin bought the largest collection of these artifacts, at 1700, however, there were additional sales to other institutions and individuals across Europe, and the total number of artifacts is unknown.

The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor is the earliest known surviving story of a shipwrecked sailor, and as such is the forerunner of many stories of nautical adventure encountering strange magical creatures, from Homer's Odyssey to Sinbad the Sailor. In a broader sense, it is generally considered the oldest piece of Egyptian fiction to survive to the present. Only one copy has been found to date, a single papyrus manuscript that resides at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, and is designated pHermitage 1115. The exact origin of the papyrus was not properly documented at the time, which was common for early Egyptologists, however, it was most likely recovered in Vladimir Golenishchev's 1884-85 expedition to the Wadi Hammamat, which was the major trade route between the Nile in southern Egypt and the port of El Qoseir on the Red Sea. The papyrus does appear to be complete, however, the story is not. It begins abruptly and ends abruptly, and suggests that it was excised from an older text. The story begins as a ship's captain is returning home from Nubia, on a failed mission of some kind, and then segues to the narrator telling the disinterested captain of a time when was shipwrecked on an island near Punt. It ends as abruptly as it begins, but the scribe confirms that this is the end of the story. Based on the content, it appears that the point of the papyrus was to copy the section of text dealing with the island and the 'Lord of Punt,' which was copied from a longer text in which the captain returned from his failed mission in Nubia, and told the king a story his crewman had told him to make up for the fact that he had nothing to report, but also downplayed the fantastic story by making it clear that it was his boring crewman's story, and not his. The reason for the extraction of the story, was probably because at the time, in the early Middle Kingdom era, the Egyptians were re-exploring their world, and trying to find the lands their ancestors had been trading with. This short work of probable fiction was, nevertheless, about the fabled land of Punt, which the Middle Kingdom reopened trade with during the 11ᵗʰ dynasty. Under the 11ᵗʰ dynasty's Mentuhotep III, an officer named Hannu reopened trade with Punt, however, it is unknown if he personally sailed there or simply organized the expedition. The most probable time for Imenyas pen-Imeny to have excised the story was before that first mission of Hannu, when the Egyptians were scouring their records for information on Punt. The fact that it was abandoned in the Wadi Hammamat, the route taken from the capital at Thebes to the Red Sea port of El Qoseir, seems to be a pretty strong indicator that the navigator did not see any value in the text, and did not even bother carrying it all the way to the harbor.

The Prayer of Manasseh was found in some copies of the Septuagint, but not all. It is believed to have been added in the 2nd-century BC, which is why it is not found in all copies. The 5th-century Codex Alexandrinus includes the Prayer of Manasseh as one of the 14 Odes, appearing directly after Psalms, however, it often appears at different positions within Bibles, and is treated as a separate work by many Christian denominations. The Prayer of Manasseh is unusual in that it is written by one of the 'evil' kings of Judea, who restored Baalism, and restored the statue of Ba'al to King Solomon's Temple. It is a prayer dedicated to 'the Lord' which is a direct translation of the title Ba'al, and may, therefore, be seen as a Baalist prayer. This is something that has concerned Jews and Christians throughout history, which is why it is not universally considered canon by either Jews or Christians. The author of the Septuagint's 2nd Paralipomenon (Masoretic Diḇrê Hayyāmîm) attempted to resolve the question of Manasseh's prayer by adding a story of his repentance and return to worshiping the Lord (Masoretic Yahweh) after being imprisoned by the King of Assyria, however, that story is not viewed as possible by many, as it would have meant that Judea was conquered by the Assyrians, who then incarcerated the Judean King in Nineveh. There are no records of this, however, Manasseh is mentioned as the King of Judea in the Assyrian records, and the two nations appear to have had cordial relations. The fact that the author of 2nd Paralipomenon felt he needed to explain the existence of the Prayer of Manasseh, proves it was in use by Jews at the time, although, it may not be the Prayer that ended up in the Septuagint. Fragments of a Hebrew Prayer of Manasseh have been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, however, not enough of them survives to determine how much the two Prayers originally deviated.

The Amarna Letters are a collection of clay tablets found in the ruins of El Amarna, Egypt, in the 1880s. The city of El Amarna was built by the Pharaoh Akhenaten, during his religious reforms in the 1340s BC, but was then abandoned after he died and Egypt reverted to worshiping the old gods. These letters provide a unique glimpse into a period of Egyptian history, that the Egyptians themselves attempted to erase. After Akhenaten's heir Tutankhamen died, his successor Ay was only able to hold the throne for a few years before Horemheb seized it, and attempted to reunite the Egyptians by erasing all records of Akhenaten's reforms, which included erasing Akhenaten's name from almost every record in Egypt. By this period, El Amarna appears to have already been mostly abandoned, and therefore Egyptologists were able to reconstruct the strange story of Akhenaten's reign, in the middle of the New Kingdom era. The Amarna letters were recovered from the royal archives in El Amarna, where they appear to have been archived after having been translated for the royal court. The letters are inscribed on clay tablets in Cuneiform, the dominant form of writing in Mesopotamia, Canaan, and the neighboring cultures in Anatolia and Cyprus at the time. The shape of the Cuneiform logograms used is Akkadian, the parent form of the later Neo-Babylonian, Neo-Assyrian, and Ugaritic forms of Cuneiform, however, the language used in the Letters is not pure Akkadian. The Letters are between various members of the Egyptian royal court, and many different cities and nations across the Middle East, including Babylon, Assyria, Mitanni, and Cyprus, and therefore the language within the Letters is not consistent. Within the letters from Canaanite cities, all of which were subject to Egypt at the time, several transliterated names are also used, which appears to be a direct precursor to the later development of Ugaritic Cuneiform by 1200 BC, which was an abjad similar to the Canaanite script that was developed by 1000 BC, however, used Cuneiform logograms instead of alphabet-like letters. The surviving letters were mostly about trade and diplomacy, however, do include a great deal of information about what was happening in the Middle East at the time. In particular, they demonstrate how limited Egypt's actual control of its Canaanite holdings was, where the governors of cities were constantly requesting military help to defend themselves against each other, the marauding Habirus, and the Hittite-backed Amorites in northern Canaan. The Amarna Letters were written during the mid-1330s BC, during the reigns of the Pharaohs Amenhotep III and Akhenaten, although it is not always clear when in their respective reigns the letters were written, or even which pharaoh was on the throne at the time.

The Wisdom of Amenemope (also called the Wisdom of Amenemopet, Instruction of Amenemope, or Instructions of Amenemopet) is an ancient Egyptian text that has mostly survived to the present, dating to sometime between 1550 and 1350 BC. Egyptian wisdom literature served as an inspiration for several ancient Israelite books, including the Deuteronomy, Psalms, Proverbs, and the Wisdom of Joshua ben Sira. The most significant influence of Amenemope on the Israelite texts is found in the book of Proverbs, which appears to be directly influenced by Amenemope. The Wisdom of Amenemope was lost for over 2000 years, however, in the late 1800s, several copies were found by Egyptologists both on papyrus and tablets. The various copies all dated to the 21st through 27th dynasties of Egypt, circa 1170 to 500 BC, meaning the Wisdom of Amenemope was in circulation for over 600 years before being lost. It is not clear when exactly it was lost, but it was no longer in circulation by the time the Septuagint was translated at the Library of Alexandria circa 250 BC, and there is no evidence the Library ever acquired a copy of it. If the biblical story of Solomon is essentially accurate, then his Egyptian wife would have almost certainly given him a copy of the Wisdom of Amenemope, as it carried the name of her father. This was not the Amenemope that wrote the Wisdom of Amenemope, however, it still would have made a good present to a barbarian king she would no doubt want to Egyptianize. The influence of Solomon's wives over his beliefs is a central aspect of his story within the biblical narrative, with the Levites that wrote the surviving versions of the books of Kingdoms (Samuel and Kings) ultimately describing the downfall of the unified kingdom of Israel (Judea and Samaria) as being because of his actions. Yet, he was described as building the first temple in Jerusalem, and so continued to be revered by the Levites. Whether Solomon existed or not, the Book of Proverbs was compiled by someone who ascribed it to him. This person drew on many ancient sources but clearly had a copy of the Wisdom of Amenemope in his possession. The fact that the author of Proverbs translated texts directly from Amenemope is not in doubt, and almost all major Christian denominations have recognized the preeminence of the Wisdom of Amenemope in the compilation of Proverbs.