Jehu’s Tribute

The findings of Assyriology have been applied to biblical studies ever since the former emerged as a scholarly discipline in the mid-nineteenth century. Today, the scholarly flow from Assyriology to biblical studies continues, yet rarely are the fruits of biblical scholarship brought to bear on the study of ancient Assyria and Babylon. The present volume aims to reverse this unidirectional trend.

Considering that the literature preserved in the Hebrew Bible is the product of a people who had significant contact with both Assyria and Babylonia, then surely the study of the Hebrew Bible has something to offer Assyriology. But what? The contributors approach this question from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including intellectual history, museology, and religious and political history. The authors also offer broad methodological considerations and more focused, text-based case studies. Written by leading scholars in the fields of Assyriology and Hebrew Bible, Jehu’s Tribute presents a fresh approach to the multifaceted relationship between Assyriology and biblical studies.

In addition to the volume editors, the contributors include Céline Debourse, Jessie DeGrado, Eckart Frahm, Shalom E. Holtz, Gina Konstantopoulos, Alan Lenzi, Alice Mandell, Dustin Nash, Beate Pongratz-Leisten, Seth L. Sanders, Anthony SooHoo, and Abraham Winitzer.

“From its inception as originally subsidiary to biblical studies, Assyriology has developed into a full-fledged and far-flung discipline that has offered much to its intellectual predecessor. In Jehu’s Tribute, a world-class set of scholars reverse that direction of influence, pursuing the gifts biblical studies may offer back to Assyriology. I know of nothing quite like this volume; it is a significant and singular achievement.”—Brent A. Strawn, D. Moody Smith Distinguished Professor of Old Testament and Professor of Law, Duke University

“Jehu’s Tribute seeks to overturn a long-standing methodological question by examining how Assyriology might benefit from biblical scholarship. The thirteen contributors comprise a diverse group of scholars, ranging from Assyriologists to biblical scholars and those who straddle both fields. This blend of varied approaches and perspectives results in a stimulating and thought-provoking collection, all unified by an original underlying concept.”—Yuval Levavi, coauthor of Late Babylonian Administrative and Legal Texts, Concerning Craftsmen, from the Eanna Archive

Jeffrey L. Cooley is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Boston College. He is the author of Poetic Astronomy in the Ancient Near East: The Reflexes of Celestial Science in Mesopotamian, Ugaritic, and Israelite Narrative, also published by Eisenbrauns.

Rannfrid I. Lasine Thelle is Associate Professor of Religion at Wichita State University. Her most recent book is Discovering Babylon.