Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Brian,

You write:

>I am working on an article concerning the light that Ugaritic shines on
>Biblical Hebrew. I would like some suggestions on which biblical texts
>(references)would prove most fruitful for such a study.

Psalm 29 is often mentioned as a psalm with comparisons with Ugaritic.

Also Isaiah 27:1 has parallels with Ugaritic.

The topic of Baal offers parallels, and possibly other deities such as Mot,
Yamm, Reshef. Ugaritic poetry is like Hebrew poetry in using parallelism.

Read articles on Ugaritic in Bible Dictionaries like ISBE, Anchor, and
Interpreter's. Consult the commentaries of P. C. Craigie and Mitchell J.
Dahood for suggestions. There are indexes of Dahood's use of Ugaritic words
relative to Hebrew by E. R. Martinez. C. H. Gordon's _Ugaritic Textbook_
probably shows parallels.

Stanislav Segert's _A Basic Grammar of the Ugaritic Language_ also offers
the following bibliographic help:

M. C. Astour and D. E. Smith compare place names with parallels in the OT.
A. Cooper and M. H. Pope give 32 Ugaritic names and 10 epithets with OT
parallels.

J. C. L. Gibson's _Canaanite Myths and Legends_ will show parallels with
the Bible on pages 161-164. These are pages of biblical verses paired with
the Ugaritic material earlier in the book.

G. D. Young edited a book called _Ugarit in Retrospect: Fifty Years of
Ugarit and Ugaritic_. Pages 81-179 concern language and literature.

H. Cazelles, "Ugarit and the Old Testament," _Supplement au Dictionnaire de
la Bible_, 1425-1439.

J. Gray, _The Legacy of Canaan: The Ras Shamra Texts and Their Relevance to
the Old Testament_ (Supplements to Vetus Testamentum, V)

W. F. Albright, _Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan: A Historical Analysis of
Two Conflicting Faiths_

F. M. Cross, _Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic: Essays in the History of the
Religion of Israel_

A. S. Kapelrud, _The Ras Shamra Discoveries and the Old Testament_

C. F. Pfeiffer, _Ras Shamra and the Bible_

P. C. Craigie, _Ugarit and the Old Testament_

_Ras Shamra Parallels: The Texts from Ugarit and the Hebrew Bible_, vols.
1-3 (Analecta Orientalia 49-51)

Check under Ugaritic at a seminary library. Try an on-line search.

                        Yours,
                        Harold Holmyard