Biblical and Oriental Studies (2 volumes)

About the Book

The collection and re-publication of Umberto Cassuto's articles has long been a desideratum, not only as a tribute to the memory of a great Jewish scholar, but as a valuable contribution to biblical scholarship. Cassuto wrote in many languages and published his articles in a variety of learned periodicals. Many, if not most of these essays are very difficult to obtain today and a number of sch...

About the Author

Umberto Moshe David Cassuto;, tr. Israel Abrahams ---

Prof. Cassuto, Umberto Moshe David (1885-1951), Bible scholar. Born in Florence, Italy, he studied there at the university and the Collegio Rabbinico. After graduating in humanities and receiving his rabbinic diploma, he took up teaching positions in both institutions.

(1885-1951), Bible scholar. Born in Florence, Italy, he studied there at the university and the Collegio Rabbinico. After graduating in humanities and receiving his rabbinic diploma, he took up teaching positions in both institutions. At this time his main research was on the history and literature of the Jews of Italy.

From 1914 to 1925 Cassuto was chief rabbi of Florence and then in 1925 became professor of Hebrew language and literature in the University of Florence and then took the chair of Hebrew at the University of Rome. Here he began to catalogue the Hebrew manuscripts in the Vatican but the 1938 anti-Semitic laws forced him out of his positions and he continued his academic career at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. He edited a Bible with Hebrew commentary that has remained an Israel school classic.

His interests focused on Bible exegesis in which he contested the documentary theory of Wellhausen on the origin of the Pentateuch, postulating its redaction to a school around the 10th century BCE. Cassuto also made important contributions to Ugaritic studies.
 

Prof. Israel Abrahams--English translator of Cassuto's works was an outstanding Hebrew scholar in his own right. Born March 30, 1903 in Vilna, Lithuania, he came to Cape Town, South Africa in 1937 and for more than thirty years--since August of that year until mid-1968--held the position of Chief Rabbi of that city. Upon retirement, he made aliyah and passed away in Jerusalem in October 1973.

 

Contents

Translator's Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v

Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii

The Sequence and Arrangement of the Biblical Sections . . . . . 1

The Beginning of Historiography among the Israelites . . . . . . 7

The Episode of the Sons of God and the Daughters of Man
(Genesis vi 1–4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

The Story of Tamar and Judah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

The Song of Moses (Deuteronomy Chapter xxxii 1–43) . . . . . 41

Deuteronomy Chapter xxxiii and the New Year in Ancient
Israel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Jerusalem in the Pentateuch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

The Prophet Hosea and the Books of the Pentateuch . . . . . . 79

The Second Chapter of the Book of Hosea . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

On the Formal and Stylistic Relationship between Deutero-
Isaiah and Other Biblical Writers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

The Prophecies of Jeremiah concerning the Gentiles . . . . . . 178

The Arrangement of the Book of Ezekiel . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Psalm lxviii . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

The Jewish Translation of the Bible into Latin and its Importance
for the Study of the Greek and Aramaic Versions . . 285

APPENDIX: The Book of Jonah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Plates I–III (Facsimile) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

Publications in which first appeared the writings collected in
this volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

VOLUME II

Foreword . . . . . V

Abbreviations . . . . . VII

Symbols for the Ugaritic Texts—Comparative Table IX

PART ONE: The Bible and Ancient Oriental Texts

Chapter iii of Habakkuk and the Ras Shamra Texts . 3

Biblical and Canaanite Literature . . 16

Parallel Words in Hebrew and Ugaritic . . 60

The Israelite Epic . . . . 69

PART Two: Ugaritic Texts

The Palace of Baal in Tablet II AB of Ras Shamra 113

Mot's Message to Baal in Tablet I* AB of Ras Shamra 140

The Death of Baal (Tablet I* AB of the Ras Shamra Texts) 146

Baal and Mot in the Ugaritic Texts . . 168

Asherah's Journey in the Ugaritic Texts (II AB iv 1–18) 178

Zeus Demarus in the Ugaritic Texts . . 188

Daniel and the Ears of Corn—An Episode from Tablet I D of Ras Shamra . . . . 193

Daniel and his Son in Tablet II D of Ras Shamra . 199

The Seven Wives of King Keret . . . 206

PART THREE: Other Ancient Texts

The Gezer Calendar and its Historical-Religious Value 211

The Lachish Ostraca . . . . 229

The God of the Jews of Elephantine . . 240

Publications in which first appeared the writings collected in this volume . . . . . 250

Index to volumes I and II . . . 252