The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament / by Eberhard Schrader ; Translated from the Second Enlarged German Edition with an Introductory Preface by Owen C. Whitehouse - [Complete in 2 Volumes]

EBERHARD SCHRADER (1836-1908), German Orientalist. Took a university prize in 1858 for a treatise on the Ethiopian languages; in 1863 became professor of theology at Zurich; eventually became professor of oriental languages at Berlin. Though he turned first to biblical research, his chief achievements were in the field of Assyriology, in which he was a pioneer in Germany and acquired an international reputation. On Dr Schrader's work "The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament" one contemporary reviewer said: "Dr. Schrader's name is too widely and favourably known in connection with Assyriology and with Old Testament criticism for any work coming from his pen to require commendation in order to obtain attention. ... This work, ... its value to highly appraised, ... eagerly sought after by all who wish to know to what extent ... discoveries in Babylonia and Assryia have shed light on the books of the Old Testament and the History of Israel. ... No one, however, has done for us what Professor Schrader has done ... in the work before us. Dr. Schrader takes up the Old Testament, and, beginning with the first page of the book of Genesis, goes through it book by book, and whether it be a word or geographical name, the name of a tribe or people, a narrative, a historical event, or whatever it may be, on which the Assyrian language or the Assyrian inscriptions throw any light, he brings that light to bear on it, and shows us how it appears in it." Another contemporary reviewer echoed that appraisal and said: "Nothing of the same character and extent has hitherto appeared in English. ... To the Hebrew and Old Testament scholar it is a great gain to have the records themselves transcribed, so that he may be enabled to judge for himself respecting the conclusions which are based on them. Moreover, he thereby acquires some linguistic knowledge of the original Assyrian, and is placed in possession of facts of considerable philological importance."