Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Ken Litwak <kdlitwak AT concentric.net>]

I don't recall HiIlers having any examples of Assyrian treaties from
the mid 2nd millennium BC.  I'd suggest further, that instead of relying
upon the views of Hillers or Weinfiled, you get Pritchard's two-volume
work of ANE texts and read them. Once you actually read them yourself, I
think the similarity between Hittite treaties and Deuteronomy will be
clear, as well as the dissimilarities between Deuteronomy and
Neo-Assyrian treaties.  Neo-Assyrian treaties, for example, in general
lack a clause about the deposit of a copy of the covenant in the god's
temple. Hittite treaties have this and Deuteronomy requires a copy to be
placed in the Ark, which is kept in the Tabernacle. Anyway I found
reading the actual texts (in translation of course) most instructive and
much more valuable than all the things I've read _about_ the texts. 
This is a serious suggestion, because I don't see any point to saying
Hillers didn't do the data justitice because someone else will just
argue that he did. Then all you will have gotten is two individuals'
ideas about another wrier.   


Ken Litwak