Ancient Texts Relating to the Old Testament
Major representative examples of ancient Near Eastern non-Biblical documents that provide parallels to or shed light on various Old Testament passages
Title
Origin
Description
AMARNA LETTERS
Canaanite Akkadian
Fourteenth century BC
Hundreds of letters, written primarily by Canaanite scribes, illuminate social, political and religious relationships between Canaan and Egypt during the reigns of Amunhotep III and Akhenaten.
AMENEMOPE’S WISDOM
Egyptian
Late second millennium BC
Thirty chapters of wisdom instruction are similar to and provide the closest external parallels to OT Wisdom Literature.
ATRAHASIS EPIC
Akkadian
Early second millennium BC
A cosmological epic depicts creation and early human history, including the flood (cf. ).
BABYLONIAN THEODICY
Akkadian
Early first millennium BC
A sufferer and his friend dialogue with each other (cf. Job).
CYRUS CYLINDER
Akkadian
Sixth century BC
King Cyrus of Persia records the conquest of Babylon (cf. ; ) and boasts of his generous policies toward his new subjects and their gods.
Cyrus Cylinder, a cuneiform text that describes Cyrus’s (Persian ruler 559–530 BC) capture of Babylon in 539 BC. Cyrus allowed the Jews to return from Babylonia and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem (; ; ).
Kim Walton, courtesy of the British Museum
DEAD SEA SCROLLS
Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek
Third century BC to first century AD
Several hundred scrolls and fragments include the oldest copies of OT books and passages.
EBLA TABLETS
Sumerian, Eblaite
Mid-third millennium BC
Thousands of commercial, legal, literary and epistolary texts describe the cultural vitality and political power of a pre-patriarchal civilization in northern Syria.
ELEPHANTINE PAPYRI
Aramaic
Late fifth century BC
Contracts and letters document life among Jews who fled to southern Egypt after Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 BC.
ENUMA ELISH
Akkadian
Second millennium BC
Marduk, the Babylonian god of cosmic order, is elevated to the supreme position in the pantheon. The seven-tablet epic contains an account of creation (cf. ).
GEZER CALENDAR
Hebrew
Tenth century BC
A schoolboy from west-central Israel describes the seasons, crops and farming activity of the agricultural year.
Gezer Calendar—one of the earliest examples of Hebrew writing—highlights the agricultural seasons in Israel.
© 1995 Phoenix Data Systems
GILGAMESH EPIC
Akkadian
Early second millennium BC
Gilgamesh, ruler of Uruk, experiences numerous adventures, including a meeting with Utnapishtim, the only survivor of a great deluge (cf. ).
HAMMURAPI’S CODE
Akkadian
Eighteenth century BC
Together with similar law codes that preceded and followed it, the Code of Hammurapi exhibits close parallels to numerous passages in the Mosaic legislation of the OT.
HYMN TO THE ATEN
Egyptian
Fourteenth century BC
The poem praises the beneficence and universality of the sun in language somewhat similar to that used in .
ISHTAR’S DESCENT
Akkadian
First millennium BC
The goddess Ishtar temporarily descends to the netherworld, which is pictured in terms reminiscent of OT descriptions of Sheol.
JEHOIACHIN’S RATION DOCKETS
Akkadian
Early sixth century BC
Brief texts from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II refer to rations allotted to Judah’s exiled king Jehoiachin and his sons (cf. ).
KING LISTS
Sumerian
Early second millennium BC
The reigns of Sumerian kings before the flood are described as lasting for thousands of years, reminding us of the longevity of the preflood patriarchs in .
LACHISH LETTERS (OSTRACA)
Hebrew
Early sixth century BC
Inscriptions on pottery fragments vividly portray the desperate days preceding the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 588–586 BC (cf. ).
LAMENTATION OVER THE DESTRUCTION OF UR
Sumerian
Early second millennium BC
The poem mourns the destruction of the city of Ur at the hands of the Elamites (cf. the OT book of Lamentations).
LUDLUL BEL NEMEQI
Akkadian
Late second millennium BC
A suffering Babylonian nobleman describes his distress in terms faintly reminiscent of the experiences of Job.
MARI TABLETS
Akkadian
Eighteenth century BC
Letters and administrative texts provide detailed information regarding customs, language and personal names that reflect the culture of the OT patriarchs.
MERNEPTAH STELE
Egyptian
Thirteenth century BC
Pharaoh Merneptah figuratively describes his victory over various peoples in western Asia, including “Israel.”
MESHA STELE (MOABITE STONE)
Moabite
Ninth century BC
Mesha, king of Moab (see and note on ), rebels against a successor of Israel’s king Omri.
Mesha Stele (Moabite Stone), a Moabite inscription (c. 840–820 BC), recounts the exploits of Mesha, king of Moab ().
Z. Radovan/www.BibleLandPictures.com
MURASHU TABLETS
Akkadian
Fifth century BC
Commercial documents describe financial transactions engaged in by Murashu and Sons, a Babylonian firm that did business with Jews and other exiles.
MURSILIS’S TREATY WITH DUPPI-TESSUB
Hittite
Mid-second millennium BC
King Mursilis imposes a suzerainty treaty on King Duppi-Tessub. The literary outline of this and other Hittite treaties is strikingly paralleled in OT covenants established by God with his people.
NABONIDUS CHRONICLE
Akkadian
Mid-sixth century BC
The account describes the absence of King Nabonidus from Babylon. His son Belshazzar is therefore the regent in charge of the kingdom (cf. ).
NEBUCHADNEZZAR CHRONICLE
Akkadian
Early sixth century BC
A chronicle from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II includes the Babylonian account of the siege of Jerusalem in 597 BC (see ).
NUZI TABLETS
Akkadian
Mid-second millennium BC
Adoption, birthright sale and other legal documents graphically illustrate OT patriarchal customs current centuries earlier.
PESSIMISTIC DIALOGUE
Akkadian
Early first millennium BC
A master and his servant discuss the pros and cons of various activities (cf. ).
RAS SHAMRA TABLETS
Ugaritic
Fifteenth–fourteenth centuries BC
Canaanite deities and rulers experience adventures in epics that enrich our understanding of Canaanite mythology and religion and of OT poetry.
SARGON LEGEND
Akkadian
First millennium BC
Sargon I (the Great), ruler of Akkad in the late third millennium BC, claims to have been rescued as an infant from a reed basket found floating in a river (cf. ).
SARGON’S DISPLAY INSCRIPTION
Akkadian
Eighth century BC
Sargon II takes credit for the conquest of Samaria in 722/721 BC and states that he captured and exiled 27,290 Israelites.
SENNACHERIB’S PRISM
Akkadian
Early seventh century BC
Sennacherib vividly describes his siege of Jerusalem in 701 BC, making Hezekiah a prisoner in his own royal city (but cf. ).
Sennacherib’s Prism was discovered among the ruins of Nineveh, the ancient capital of the Assyrian Empire. It contains the annals of Sennacherib, the Assyrian king who besieged Jerusalem in 701 BC during the reign of King Hezekiah.
© 1995 Phoenix Data Systems
SEVEN LEAN YEARS TRADITION
Egyptian
Second century BC
Egypt experiences seven years of low Niles and famine, which, by a contractual agreement between Pharaoh Djoser (twenty-eighth century BC) and a god, will be followed by prosperity (cf. ).
SHALMANESER’S BLACK OBELISK
Akkadian
Ninth century BC
Israel’s king Jehu presents tribute to Assyria’s king Shalmaneser III. Additional Assyrian and Babylonian texts refer to other kings of Israel and Judah.
SHISHAK’S GEOGRAPHICAL LIST
Egyptian
Tenth century BC
Pharaoh Shishak lists the cities that he captured or made tributary during his campaign in Judah and Israel (cf. and note on ).
SILOAM INSCRIPTION
Hebrew
Late eighth century BC
A Judahite workman describes the construction of an underground conduit to guarantee Jerusalem’s water supply during Hezekiah’s reign (cf. ; ).
SINUHE’S STORY
Egyptian
Twentieth–nineteenth centuries BC
An Egyptian official of the Twelfth Dynasty goes into voluntary exile in Aram (Syria) and Canaan during the OT patriarchal period.
TALE OF TWO BROTHERS
Egyptian
Thirteenth century BC
A young man rejects the amorous advances of his older brother’s wife (cf. ).
WENAMUN’S JOURNEY
Egyptian
Eleventh century BC
An official of the temple of Amun at Thebes in Egypt is sent to Byblos in Canaan to buy lumber for the ceremonial barge of his god.
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