This blog provides links to open-access resources for the study of the Old and New Testaments as well as for the ANE, and, occasionally, for Classics. The source for the great majority of the posts is Chuck Jones's The Ancient World Online (http://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/).
The Assyrian and Babylonian chronicles
are historiographical texts from ancient Mesopotamia. Although they
contain references to the earliest times, they deal especially with the
second half of the second and the entire first millennium down to the
first century BCE (cf. this table).
Introduction
ABC 5: Chronicle Concerning the Early Years of Nebuchadnezzar II ("Jerusalem Chronicle")
On this page, you will find
links to translations of all known chronicles; they are meant as a
first introduction and for ready reference, but it is advisable not to
quote them without consulting a printed edition, because many readings
are still uncertain;
new editions of the chronicles of the Seleucid and Parthian period; several of them have not been published before.
The main editions are:
A.K. Grayson, Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles (1975 = ABC);
I. Finkel & R.J. van der Spek, Babylonian Chronicles of the Hellenistic Period (= BCHP).
The third of these books has not been published yet, but is being prepared by Irving Finkel of the British Museum (London) and Bert van der Spek of the Free University of Amsterdam (Holland).note
Their results are presented here for the first time, so you will also
find scholarly editions of the texts, which presuppose some knowledge of
the Akkadian language. This online-publication is intended to invite
suggestions for better readings, comments and interpretations (go here
to contact Van der Spek). Below, you will find an overview of
chronicles, more or less in their chronological order. For those who are
unfamiliar with the subject but are interested, the "reader's editions"
ought to be accessible. These are simplified translations. After
reading a bit about the conventions of publication, the "scholarly editions" ought to be accessible too.
In the table below, yellow indicates a text written in, pink stands for Assyrian, blue for Babylonian.
There are no scholarly editions of the non-BCHP-chronicles on this
page, nor will there ever be, because that would be a copyright
infringement. For the original (usually Akkadian) text and commentaries,
you must therefore consult Grayson's or Glassner's book. The
translations offered here are free adaptations from ABC and CM; the
spelling of personal names has been harmonized, variants have been
ignored, explanatory notes have been added, uncertain readings have not
been indicated. In short, these pages are no subsitute for ABC or CM.
This page was created in 2004; last modified on 25 August 2015.
I usually exclude Classics from this blog, but this resource may have applicability for those in Biblical Studies working with the comparative or sociological approaches, especially in the Second Temple and New Testament periods.
This
is a select list of early Christian and Jewish authors who have written
important commentaries, which have survived at least in part, on the
Genesis creation narratives.
Some have written commentaries devoted to the topic (listed next to the
author’s name) and some have included their Genesis comments in works
devoted to other topics.
Attached
to the author is a link to WorldCat.org, where editions of the works
are listed, both in the original languages and in translation, along
with secondary literature (books and articles). WorldCat also provides a
list of libraries that hold each book or article, and it will generate a
bibliography in a variety of standard formats.
This list was compiled with the help of “The Early Church’s Doctrine of Creation” at http://www.earlychurch.org.uk/creation.php. For a more complete list, see the published dissertation by Frank Egleston Robbins, The Hexaemeral Literature: A Study of the Greek and Latin Commentaries on Genesis (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1912), pages 93-104, which is now available in paperback by BiblioLife.
AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO. a) A Refutation of the Manichees; b) Unfinished Literal Commentary on Genesis; c) The Literal Meaning of Genesis. d) See also: Confessions.
This is one of the more substantial resources that are now open-access. The journal is the product of the Institute for Biblical Research (IBR; https://www.ibr-bbr.org/), which is comprised of scholars specializing in Biblical Studies.
