Oriental and Biblical Studies: Collected Writings of E. A. Speiser

E. A. Speiser

Published by University of Pennsylvania Press 1967

Oriental and Biblical Studies

Collected Writings of E. A. Speiser

E. A. Speiser
Edited by: J. J. Finkelstein and Moshe Greenberg

In the series Anniversary Collection

https://doi.org/10.9783/9781512818826

Overview
Contents

About this book

Rarely has mastery of a field been combined with such style and lucidity as in the writings of E. A. Speiser. For forty years before his death, in 1965, Dr. Speiser, the renowned author of the Anchor Bible Genesis, was a leading American orientalist. Speiser was at home in the modern as well as the ancient Near East and knew its many cultures intimately. His wide-ranging biblical studies are informed with a profound knowledge of Assyriology, and to both he brought the insights of a brilliant comparative linguist. Speiser's unique vision of the whole of ancient Near Eastern culture resulted in several classic syntheses that are included in these pages.

Collected in this volume are thirty-six of his now difficult-to-obtain articles. The reader will discover papers that deal not only with biblical studies and linguistics but also with the civilizations of Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine; with law and political science; and with intellectual and social progress in the ancient Near East.

"Speiser insisted on the simultaneous concentration upon analysis and synthesis; the first without the second he deemed sterile, the second without the first an empty playing with words. . . . [This insistence], so eloquently exemplified in his own work was . . . the most distinctive and certainly the most enduring part of his legacy as a teacher (from the Appreciation, by J. J. Finkelstein).

E. A. Speiser was born in Galicia in 1902. After his graduation from the College of Lemberg, Austria, in 1918, he came to the United States, arriving in 1920. He received his M.A. degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1923 and Ph.D. degree from Dropsie College, Philadelphia, in 1924. During World War II, Speiser was the chief of the Near East section, research and analysis branch of the Office of Strategic Services. Following the war, in 1947, Speiser was named chairman of the Department of Oriental Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1954 he became Abraham M. Ellis Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages and Literatures at the University. One year prior to his death, he was named University Professor of Oriental Studies, the highest honor that the University of Pennsylvania awards to distinguished faculty members.

Those familiar with one or another aspect of Speiser's contribution will find here a selection and arrangement designed to capture the underlying unity in approach that informed all of his work. And the nonspecialist cannot help but discover the broader, humanistic implications of oriental studies.

Author / Editor information

Speiser E. A. :

Moshe Greenberg is Abraham M. Ellis Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pennsylvania. Both were students and colleagues of E. A. Speiser.Finkelstein J. J. :

J. J. Finkelstein is William Laffan Professor of Assyriology and Babylonian Literature at Yale University. Greenberg Moshe :

Moshe Greenberg is Abraham M. Ellis Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pennsylvania. Both were students and colleagues of E. A. Speiser.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	1
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	5
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	9
List of Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
BIBLICAL STUDIES
ΈD in The Story of Creation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	19
The Rivers of Paradise Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	23
YDWN, Gen 6:3 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
In Search of Nimrod Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	41
Word Plays on the Creation Epic's Version of the Founding of Babylon Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
The Wife-Sister Motif in the Patriarchal Narratives Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	62
"Coming" and "Going" at the "City" Gate Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	83
"I Know Not the Day of My Death" Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	89
The Verb SHR in Genesis and Early Hebrew Movements Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
An Angelic "Curse": Exodus 14:20 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	106
Background and Function of the Biblical Nasi' Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
Leviticus and the Critics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
The Shibboleth Incident (Judges 12:6) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
Of Shoes and Shekels (I Samuel 12:3; 13:21) (1940) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
"People" and "Nation" of Israel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	160
Census and Ritual Expiation in Mari and Israel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	171
The Biblical Idea of History in its Common Near Eastern Setting (1957) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN HISTORY AND CULTURE
The Sumerian Problem Reviewed Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
Some Factors in the Collapse of Akkad Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	232
The Hurrian Participation in the Civilization of Mesopotamia, Syria and Palestine Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	244
The Idea of History in Ancient Mesopotamia (1955) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	270
Authority and Law in Mesopotamia (1954 ) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	313
The Name Phoinikes (1936) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	324
The muskênum (1958) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	332
The Case of the Obliging Servant Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	344
LINGUISTIC STUDIES
Secondary Developments in Semitic Phonology: An Application of the Principle of Sonority Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	369
Studies in Semitic Formatives Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	403
The Pitfalls of Polarity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	433
A Note on the Derivation of summa Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	455
The "Elative" in West-Semitic and Akkadian Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	465
The Terminative-Adverbial in Canaanite-Ugaritic and Akkadian* Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	494
The Durative Hithpa'el: A tan Form Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	506
PERSPECTIVES
Some Sources of Intellectual and Social Progress in the Ancient Near East¹ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	517
Early Law and Civilization Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	534
Religion and Government in the Ancient Near East Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	556
Oriental Studies and Society Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	573
BIBLIOGRAPHY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	589
E. A. Speiser: An Appreciation* Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	605

Language: English
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Copyright year: 1967
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 616
Keywords: History; Religion; Ancient Studies; Religious Studies

eBook

Published: January 9, 2018
ISBN: 9781512818826