Ancient Orient & Old Testament

by Kenneth A. Kitchen

Ancient Orient and Old Testament This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0877849072
• ISBN13: 9780877849070
• Release Date: January 1975
• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Length: 191 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.

Customer Reviews

AN EARLIER WORK BY A FAMOUS OLD TESTAMENT SCHOLAR

Kenneth A. Kitchen (born 1932) is an expert on Biblical History and the Egyptian Third Intermediate Period, who currently teaches/researches at the School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, at the University of Liverpool, England. In this 1966 book (see his The Bible in Its World: The Bible and Archaeology Today and On the Reliability of the Old Testament) for more recent treatments), he states in the Preface, "The following pages are intended to give some idea of the kind of contribution that Ancient Near Eastern studies can make to the study of the Old Testament, and towards a critical reassessment of problems and methods in the Old Testament field." He criticizes the JEPD documentary hypothesis on the grounds that "even the most ardent advocate of the documentary theory must admit that we have as yet no single scrap of external, objective (i.e., tangible) evidence for either the existence or the history of 'J', 'E', or any other alleged source-document.... It is the lack of really early manuscript-attestation which has permitted so much uncontrolled (because unverifiable) theorizing in Old Testament studies." He adds, "nowhere in the Ancient Orient is there anything which is definitely known to parallel the elaborate history of fragmentary composition and conflation of Hebrew literature (or marked by just such criteria) as the documentary hypothesis would postulate." He concludes on the note, "If some of the results reached here approximate to a traditional view or seem to agree with theological orthodoxy, then this is simply because the tradition in question or that orthodoxy are that much closer to the real facts than is commonly realized. While one must indeed never prefer mere orthodoxy to truth, it is also perverse to deny that orthodox views can be true."

ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN O.T. AND HISTORY

Dr. Kitchen does not need introductions: he is one the most respected British egyptologists of our times. This little book about the relationships existing between the facts narrated in the Old Testament and the history and archaeology of the Ancient Orient, is but another proof of his knowledge and of his amusing and readable way of writing and putting forward the subject-matter. Highly recommendable, both for the learned and for the newcomer!