Subject: Canonical Compositions from the Biblical World; West Semitic Canonical Compositions; Royal Focus; Epic Commentary The Kirta story was recorded on three tablets that were discovered during the second and third campaigns at Ras Shamra (1930–1931). Lacunae prevent a complete understanding of the story, which must have been longer, recorded on tablets never discovered. On the other hand, the high degree of poetic narrative repetition permit the comparatively certain restoration of some important lacunae. …

Subject: Monumental Inscriptions from the Biblical World; West Semitic Monumental Inscriptions; Miscellaneous Inscriptions Commentary Two small limestone plaques, bearing a series of inscriptions and drawings and perforated at the top for wall-mounting, were purchased in 1933 at Arslan Tash, Syria (ancient Ḫadattu). The first plaque, which was published in 1939, is translated here. The main text is written on the front and back of the plaque in the spaces not occupied by illustrations; it consists of six lin…

Commentary Subject: Gen 1:1, 6–10; Gen 2:14; Exod 26:33; 40:3; Lev 16:2; Ps 89:5, 7; Job 5:1; 15:15;38:7; Gen 2:7; 9:6; Gen 2:5–7; Gen 1:5, 8, 10; 2:20; Gen 1:26–28; Deut 29:29 (28); Dan 2:8, 19, 27–29, 30, 47 This myth focuses its attention on the creation of humanity. Four copies are known, three of them bilingual (Sumerian and Akkadian). The earliest copy is from the Old Babylonian period, and written only in Sumerian, suggesting that perhaps the composition itself was composed originally as early as the third millennium. Unfortun…