Bible, Assyriology, Ancient Near East

Mainstream historians, without exception, consider that co-regencies never existed among Assyrian dynasties, because according to an ideological dogma “the king never shares power, even with his Crown Prince”, but at the same time, paradoxically, the biblical chronology of Thiele with its 9 fanciful co- regencies is accepted with blind faith. It should be emphasized that this widespread belief is completely contradicted by an accurate chronological analysis. Thus Sennacherib and Tiglath-pileser III, two famous Assyrian kings quoted in the Bible, played a crucial role in Israel during their co-regencies. Sennacherib's campaign to Judah, with the siege of Lachish and Jerusalem and the Battle of Eltekeh, occurred in 712 BCE during the 10th campaign of Sargon II (722-705) and the 3rd campaign of Sennacherib his coregent (715-705), which agrees exactly with the biblical account states that all these events occurred during the 14th year of Judean King Hezekiah (726-697) also dated 712 BCE (2Ki 18:13-17, 19:9; 2Ch 32:9- 10; Is 20:1, 36:1, 37:9). Similarly the Israelite king Menahem (771-760) had to pay a tribute (in 765 BCE) to an Assyrian king Pul (2Ki 15:19-20). The Assyrian word “pulu” means “the heir (ie Crown Prince)”, which is found in the name of Tiglath-pil-eser (2Ki 15:29). King Pul(as) reigned 36 years according to Josephus (Jewish Antiquities IX: 283-287) that exactly matches the Assyrian king (coregent) known by his Aramaic name Bar-Ga’yah “Son of Majesty” who reigned from 782 to 746 BCE.
Gérard Gertoux, University of Lyon 2, in: Oxford Postgraduate Conference in Assyriology 2015 (https://oxfordassyriology.wordpress.com/gerard-gertoux-university-of-lyon-2/)

Two of the most prominent members of Ištar’s male cult attendants were the assinnu and the kurgarrû. It is generally assumed by scholars that, although males, these persons bore clear feminine attributes, as did other members of this goddess’s cult. However, several indications seem to challenge this view. Based on several texts presented and analyzed in the article, it is suggested that though the assinnu was indeed an effeminate figure, the kurgarrû was characterized as a militant, masculine one. It is further proposed, that these two figures formed a mirror-image of each other, the reason being their mutual performance in the cult of Ištar. In terms of gender attributes, Ištar’s nature consisted of both masculine and feminine aspects. Therefore, the combined traits of the effeminate assinnu and masculine kurgarrû, who frequently cooperated in cultic rites, represented the whole of their patron goddess and the complete spectrum of her gender image.

“Chronology is the backbone of history” is usually taught in schools but in the same time the first fall of Babylon is currently fixed today (2016) either in 1595 BCE or in 1651, 1531, 1499 depending on historians! In Egyptology the situation is still worse because each Egyptologist has his own chronology (+/- 20 years)! Such a difference in timeline prevents one from reaching the historical truth. It is for this reason that from Herodotus, the “father of history” (in fact the father of scientific and chronological inquiry), Greek historians gradually established a system of scientific dating in order to write a universal history. Many astronomical phenomena (observed and described by Babylonian astrologers), which are well identified such as eclipses, enable anyone today (with at least an undergraduate level) to synchronize these ancient dating systems and anchor them on absolute dates. As incredible as it may seem this is still not done (among the hundreds of thousands of theses in history there is none which focuses on chronology, except the one of Isaac Newton in 1728 entitled: Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended). The purpose of the present brochure is to give the chronologies of the main ancient civilizations (Egyptian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Sumerian, Hittite, Mitannian, Israelite, etc.) with their synchronisms as well as all absolute dating based on astronomical events (which have been precisely dated in a calendar) like eclipses, solar or lunar, and some Sothic risings.
GLASSTREE 2016 https://glasstree.com/shop/catalog/absolute-chronology-of-the-ancient-world-from-1533-bce-to-140-ce_514/

This volume examines how gender relations were regulated in ancient Near Eastern and biblical law. The textual corpus examined includes the various pertinent law collections, royal decrees and instructions from Mesopotamia and Hatti, and the three biblical legal collections.

Law and Gender in the Ancient Near East and the Hebrew Bible offers an invaluable resource for anyone working on Near Eastern society and culture, and gender in the ancient world more broadly.

Hermann Gunkel’s cosmos and chaos analysis addressed the Mesopotamian origins of Genesis 1. My preliminary analysis here will focus on geographic motifs in Gen 2:4b–25 based on Gunkel’s Genesis commentary as part of a larger study of primeval J. The term J is used here in the traditional post-Wellhausen sense. Primeval refers to the texts in Genesis 2–11 that are traditionally assigned to the J author, covering the garden, Cain and Abel, the deluge, the Table of Nations, and the Tower of Babel.

In this paper I suggest that the mutilation of the woman's palm in Deuteronomy 25:11-12 is intended as a form of "instrumental talion," or punishment of the offending organ, based on related traditions in Middle Assyrian law. Moreover, the various scholarly claims that this law prescribed the genital shaving of the guilty woman , or that  female circumcision was symbolised, appear  less plausible in view of the evidence examined.

This authoritative volume brings together a team of world-class scholars to cover the full range of Old Testament backgrounds studies in a concise, up-to-date, and comprehensive manner. With expertise in various subdisciplines of Old Testament backgrounds, the authors illuminate the cultural, social, and historical contexts of the world behind the Old Testament. They introduce readers to a wide range of background materials, covering history, geography, archaeology, and ancient Near Eastern textual and iconographic studies.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, little was known of the
ancient Near East except for what was preserved in the Bible and
classical literature. By the end of that century, an amazing transformation had occurred: the basic outline of ancient Near Eastern history was now understood and the material culture of the region was recognizable to the general public. This three-volume study explores the various ways by which non-specialists would have encountered ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Holy Land and how they derived and constructed meaning from those discoveries. McGeough challenges the simplistic view that the experience of the ancient Near East was solely a matter of ‘othering’ and shows how different people claimed the Near East as their own space and how connections were drawn between the ancient and contemporary worlds.

Volume I traces how the study of the ancient Near East developed
into a professional discipline and how interpretative frameworks were gradually standardized throughout the nineteenth century. Some of the best-sellers of the period were accounts of the early explorers of the region and, beginning with the Napoleonic expedition, the book examines how ancient Near Eastern discoveries were communicated to the public. It looks at how archaeological reporting was shaped in this period and how the study of the ancient Near East was employed to understand issues of progress and decline and was referenced in the political and social satire of the period. It also documents the growth of middle-class tourism to the region and considers how the changing experiences of travel influenced Near Eastern studies. Throughout, the book observes how the ancient Near East mirrored and subverted British society and played a role in European and North American thinking about their places in a larger global and historical perspective.

This paper clarifies the ancient Hebrew linguistic distinctions between the penalties of capital punishment, and live human substitution, which appear in the Covenant Code. Such  differentiations are  significant for the legal history of lex talionis (the law of retaliation), where interpretations of the talionic “life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth,” formulation among Jewish exegetes (from late antiquity until the present day) are characterized by the insistence that this represented financial compensation. In addition, it will be shown that these penalties were not unique to the laws preserved biblical scribes, but reflected broader juridical concerns present in earlier Assyrian and Babylonian legal traditions.

Gegenwartig wird der Begriff »Re-fonn« in der Politik flir die unterschiedlichs ten Programme im Bildungs-, Wirtschafts-, Banken-, Sozial-, Gesellschafts-, Staats-, Wahrungs-, Gerichts-und Strafrechtsbereich benutzt, wobei konkurrierende Gruppen ih re Programme als innovativ, aktuell, modem, fortschrittlich, geplant, gutbegriindet und problemlosend vorstellen.

The River and the City
On their Origins and Semantics in Sumerian.

Great rivers are a 'temen' part of the history, offering important advantages to a developing civilization. They provide water to irrigate the fields, and a basic food, the fish. They offer probably the most ancient method of transport. Thus, the River gives life to the City. The sign id2 'river, canal,' is written A.LAGABxHAL, literally 'water distribution enclosure,' near the idea 'irrigate, canal.' LAK-194 gives lum 'brook', near idea 'river,' but it has many other meanings. Might a single word, lum 'river,' cover such semantic range? The answer is here.
Looking for graphic-semantic continuity from pictographic to OS and later periods, it comes up the possibility of seeming discontinuity in the bond of original pictograph or developed sign and its value/meaning. That might have been increased by signs rebus/phonetic use. The wide spread homonymy would be the main actor in occurrences of such discontinuity. Also, differences in the frequency of homonyms may have dictated changes, thus switching the less frequent homonym to another, semantically related sign, or modifying it.
Following such view, it is analyzed Urim5 graphic etymology, especially the origins of ŠEŠ, its relation to PAP, NU, how šeš might have meant 'brother,' relation to Nanna/Sin and moon, AB meanings, homonymy, and related words. Also, the meanings of Urim5, urun 'exalted,' and uri3 'guard, protect,' together with its classical meaning Ur 'the City' are analyzed as related to 'wall' and 'bridge', essential elements of a city. This paper reaches the conclusion that Urim5 ŠEŠ.AB graphic etymology is a 'Flag/Sign of Temple/Father/God,' and it means the nearby phrases: the Exalted 'Sign/Place of Temple/Father/God,' also analyzed as possible origins of the terms city, cité, Stadt, etc. The paper tries reaching to a comprehensive picture of the words related to, and components writing the toponym of UR in the 21-st century BCE.

Der wegen seiner späten antisemitischen Ausfälle umstrittene Assyriologe Friedrich Delitzsch hat sich sein Leben lang auch der philologischen, vor allem lexikographischen  Erforschung des hebräischen Bibeltextes gewidmet. Seine Arbeit an einem schon 1883 erstmals angekündigten, jedoch niemals erschienen "Hebräisch-aramäischen Wörterbuch zum Alten testament" lässt sich über 40 jahre hinweg verfolgen, bis sich die Spur des allem Anschein nach abgeschlossenen Manuskripts in den Wirren nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg verliert.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, little was known
of the ancient Near East except for what was preserved in the
Bible and classical literature. By the end of the nineteenth century,
an amazing transformation had occurred: the basic outline
of ancient Near Eastern history was understood and the
material culture of the region was recognizable to the general
public. This three-volume study explores the various ways that
non-specialists would have encountered ancient Egypt,
Mesopotamia, and the Holy Land and how they derived and
constructed meaning from those discoveries. McGeough challenges the simplistic view that the experience of the ancient
Near East was solely a matter of ‘othering’ and shows how
different people claimed the Near East as their own space and
how connections were drawn between the ancient and
contemporary worlds.

Volume II examines the different ways that non-specialists
encountered the materiality of the ancient Near East over the
course of the nineteenth century. During this time, people collected artifacts while traveling in the region or paid to see the
collections that others brought back. The public experienced
the ancient world in museum exhibits that privileged ‘real’ artifacts
in a new context or in hyper-real displays (like the Crystal Palace) where whole buildings from the ancient Near East were reconstructed. Men and women dressed as biblical characters in travelling fairs or spent an evening unwrapping a mummy. Individuals bought Assyriological souvenirs and employed
Egyptian styles in their design, first in higher quality designer
products and later in novelty items. Egyptian temples provided the architectural inspiration for buildings in London and the ancient use of colour was a strong argument for reimagining Victorian style. The adoption of Egypt, especially, in the world’s-fair phenomenon linked the ancient Near East with a global future in which change was naturalized and consumers were taught not to be afraid of the transformations brought by the industrial age.