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Ancient Aramaic and Hebrew Letters
Society of Biblical Literature’s Writings from the Ancient World Series, vol. 4
James M. Lindenberger
(Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1994) 155 pp., $44.95 cloth, $29.95 paper.
“What’s wrong? Why haven’t you sent me a letter? Even when I nearly died of snakebite, you didn’t write to see whether I was alive or dead!” This hardly sounds as if it was written centuries ago, but it was. The latest volume in the Society of Biblical Literature’s Writings from the Ancient World Series presents translations of seventy letters, nearly all the letters in Aramaic and Hebrew that have survived from the fifth, sixth and seventh centuries B.C.
Grouped according to the kind and national origins of the correspondence, the book’s eight chapters include military, administrative, business and family letters from Canaan, Phoenicia, Persia, Lachish and Elephantine. The archives of the fifth-century B.C. Jewish community at Elephantine are of special interest, as they describe firsthand the destruction of the temple there.
Each section opens with a description of the historical and social context of its letters, and each letter is initially rendered in the original language, with an English translation following. These missives bring the distant past vividly to life through such comments as, “Look, I’m sending you the vegetables tomorrow. Get there before the boat comes in—on account of the Sabbath—so they won’t be spoiled. I swear to God, if you don’t, I’ll kill you!”
A chronological table, maps, a list of sources, a concordance of texts, a bibliography, a glossary and multiple indexes accompany the text.
In His Honor: A Pictorial Journey Through the Early Years of the Church
Arthur Hastings
(Muskego, Wisconsin: H.H.P. Publishing, 1994), 288 pp., $85.
At age 54, former advertising executive Arthur Hastings raised support from friends and embarked on a 12,000-mile, year-long trip photographing ancient churches. The result is this folio-sized volume of 179 photos of churches from the first 1600 years of Christianity’s history—from caves where Christians first met secretly to magnificent medieval cathedrals.
Arranged geographically, the photos feature churches in Israel, Egypt, Cyprus, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Greece and Italy. Historical information and quotations from the Bible provide the context for each church covered.
A number of the photos, unfortunately, are dark or blurry. Frequent use of the wide-angle lens gives the viewer a feeling for the dimensions of the structures but distorts them as well. Also, since the photos are not arranged chronologically, it is difficult to recognize any architectural evolution in the building of Christian churches. However, In His Honor does succeed beautifully as a picturebook of church buildings, mosaics, icons and other interior decorations, from places most people won’t get a chance to visit.
Ancient Aramaic and Hebrew LettersSociety of Biblical Literature’s Writings from the Ancient World Series, vol. 4
