Semitic Inscriptions: Analyzed Texts and English Translations

This ground-breaking compilation of ancient texts includes Hebrew, Aramaic, and Canaanite Inscriptions. Each text is accompanied by an English translation. The Semitic Inscriptions: Analyzed Texts and English Translations would be extremely expensive to assemble in print form - and now Lexham Press brings them to you in a morphologically-tagged electronic edition!

Resources in This Collection

• The Hebrew and Canaanite Inscriptions
• The Hebrew and Canaanite Inscriptions in English Translation
• Glossary to the Hebrew and Canaanite Inscriptions
• Glossary of the Morphological Terms in the Hebrew and Canaanite Inscriptions
• The Aramaic Inscriptions
• The Aramaic Inscriptions in English Translation
• Glossary to the Aramaic Inscriptions
• Glossary of the Morphological Terms in the Aramaic Inscriptions

The Canaanite languages represented in this collection include Byblian-Phoenician, Standard and Mixed dialect Phoenician, Ammonite, Moabite, Ekronite (Philistine), and Edomite. The Hebrew and Canaanite database was prepared by Dr. Michael S. Heiser, Academic Editor at Logos.

Aramaic is a Northwest Semitic language, the same language family as Hebrew and the Canaanite dialects (e.g., Phoenician, Moabite). The database of Aramaic inscriptions was prepared by H.H. Hardy, II and Charles Otte, III, doctoral students in Northwest Semitic Philology at the University of Chicago.

Value of Inscriptions for Biblical Studies

The Hebrew inscriptions in this collection include the earliest written witnesses to the Hebrew language. Research in Hebrew and Canaanite inscriptions sheds light on the relationship of ancient Hebrew to other contemporary languages of Syria-Palestine. Data from epigraphic Hebrew explain uncommon spellings, morphological forms, and vocabulary in the Hebrew Bible, and may help establish the relative chronology of the composition and editing of the books of the Hebrew Bible. Hebrew and Canaanite inscriptions also provide extra-biblical insight into Israelite history, culture, and religion. For example, political figures and the affairs of state of people groups adjacent to Israel are revealed in inscriptional material.

Aramaic inscriptions have been found dating to the tenth century B.C. With the rise of the Assyrian empire, Aramaic became the universal language of trade and correspondence in the Ancient Near East, and thrived from around 600 B.C. into the Common Era. Research in the Aramaic inscriptions sheds light on the relationship of the Aramaic portions of the Old Testament to the Aramaic of various historical periods. Aramaic inscriptions such as the Tel Dan inscription (included in the database) have also provided extra-biblical witness to biblical figures and events.

Non-biblical manuscripts of a similar genre which are dependent upon or related to biblical materials may offer help in the interpretation of difficult passages, or may help to clear up grammatical, syntactic, or lexicographical problems through the use of the same or related terms in different contexts. The possibilities are practically unlimited, so that the discovery of inscribed texts almost always results in some positive gain in the interpretation of biblical passages. That is why the search for inscriptions remains the principle objective of biblical archaeologists. And the relative paucity of written materials turned up in Palestine has only increased the avidity of excavators. Practically every Hebrew inscription found, however brief, has contributed in some measure to the elucidation of the Bible. Needless to say, the reverse is also true, and in greater measure.
 -Friedman, David Noel, "The Biblical Languages", The Bible In Modern Scholarship. ed. J. Philip Hyatt. Abingdon Press, Nashville: 1965. p 299.