Ancient Near Eastern Texts (ANET)

[Andrew Patterson]

Is there a reason why Accordance doesn't currently offer ANET? The Competitor sells it for $64.99 and the publisher for $190. This is a must have, and we don't. 😢

 

• Pritchard, James B., ed. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament with Supplement, 3rd ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969.

 

This is not the first request, but it looks like many of the others were also requests for COS vol 4 or other texts as well. Note that several "Accordance guys" chimed in and +1'd it too.

• Thread 1 (8/6/14)
• Thread 2 (7/19/18)
• Thread 3 (1/8/21)
• Thread 4 (5/7/22)
• Thread 6 (5/5/23)

 

COS is awesome, but it has not obsolesced ANET -- as you even admit here:

"Although ANET is still valuable for the student of the ANE and Bible backgrounds (COS does not fully replace it), its last published edition dates to 1969."

 

As @Leopold Green has mentioned before (see "Thread 2"), Ancient Texts for the Study of the Hebrew Bible (which y'all do sell) has extremely thorough references to both ANET and COS, but many of the relevant documents in ANET are only present there. The inclusion of ANET and subsequent update of ATSHB would be invaluable to ANE/Bible students for research and study.

Edited May 9, 2023 by Andrew Patterson
Added Thread 6

[Kristin]

I agree 100%. Given how many of my resources tell me to see ANET, complete with page numbers, I keep checking the store to see if it is sold yet. COS for sure does not replace ANET.

[jlm]

9 hours ago, Andrew Patterson said:

Is there a reason why Accordance doesn't currently offer ANET?

I imagine the main reason is the age of the book, which probably means there’s no electronic text. So besides the rights, it has to be OCRed, cleaned up, and tagged. In the time it would take to do that, OakTree could prepare multiple books for which the publisher can supply an electronic text, like new commentary volumes. 
 

The forum’s answer to this is to suggest farming out the OCR cleanup work to volunteers who are so eager to have the resource in Accordance that they’re willing to help produce part of it.

[Leopold Green]

Can only agree... if the competitor has it that suggests an e-text does exist - does the competitor offer OCR'd text for money?

 

adding ANET and the illustrated supplement volume would be the single biggest improvement to my library in Accordance

 

COS is great but I use my print ANET as much despite the faff of using traditional reference work

 

please please please

[Michel Gilbert]

13 hours ago, Kristin said:

COS for sure does not replace ANET.

 

This is debatable.

 

First, Accordance also has this page, "The Context of Scripture (from the Publisher)" at https://accordancebible.com/article/buzz-articles-cos-php/ , which mentions two reviews that call COS a replacement and successor to ANET:

 

"Now that it is complete, this major publication project will clearly replace James B. Pritchard’s long-standard Ancient Near Eastern Texts. The three volumes of The Context of Scripture offer improved renderings of familiar texts, introduce more recently published texts to a wider audience, and shed new light on the Bible by means of detailed introductions and copious annotations” (Millard, near the bottom of the page).

 

"The Context of Scripture (COS), is the logical successor to James Pritchard’s equally ambitious (for its time) Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (ANET)" (clicking on the link to Howard's review, at https://accordancebible.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Review_Howard_TheContextofScripture.pdf).

 

Compare, "The Context of Scripture fulfills some of the same desiderata fulfilled by ANET but moves significantly beyond the older publication . . . (clicking on the link to Knoppers's review, at https://accordancebible.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Review_Knoppers_COS.pdf).

 

Second, suffice it to say that there are many, many OT/HB scholars who also think along these lines. COS offers texts that ANET does not, and it subtly implies that its collection of texts (vs. fragments) is broadly more representative. It also says its translations are up to date and better contextualized. Again, many would agree.

 

Now we could debate how much of a replacement COS is of ANET--a total replacement or a replacement for most cases. I think the latter. However, this is not the place to argue this.

 

I know Accordance staff read these posts. So I'm offering my opinion as a user, that I would only vote for ANET if Accordance linked it with COS as a parallel text. Many older works reference ANET, and these references would serve as links to the newer COS translations in their contextualized settings.

 

Thank you.

 

Michel

[jlm]

6 hours ago, Leopold Green said:

Can only agree... if the competitor has it that suggests an e-text does exist - does the competitor offer OCR'd text for money?

To its competitor? I think not. Accordance doesn’t sell any Lexham products, and I don’t think they could get this either.

[Leopold Green]

ANET isn't a Lexham product

[jlm]

1 hour ago, Leopold Green said:

ANET isn't a Lexham product

No, it isn’t. My point was that I know of no case in which Faithlife has licensed to OakTree something that it has produced. I’m assuming they did the OCR, since they do regularly OCR old books for which the publisher cannot provide an electronic text.

[Leopold Green]

ahh sorry I misunderstood... I didn't realise that - I don't suppose Princetown are too fussed though they do still sell ANET as far as I know

 

shame that we won't see it in Accordance despite Michael's caveats

 

Perhaps Accordance could confirm the position so we know 100% it will never turn up

[A.D. Riddle]

In 2010, Princeton University Press reprinted ANET and ANEP in a single volume, with a new forward by Daniel Fleming. It is available in Kindle, so I am suspicious that an e-text does exist from the publisher.

https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691147260/the-ancient-near-east

 

A.D.

[A.D. Riddle]

For a survey of ANE text anthologies, you might be interested in

 

Younger, Jr., K. Lawson.
2006    “The Production of Ancient Near Eastern Text Anthologies from the Earliest to the Latest.” Pp. 199-219 in Orientalism, Assyriology and the Bible. Ed. S. W. Holloway. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix.

 

There are a lot of these types of anthologies.

 

A.D.

 

[Michel Gilbert]

1 hour ago, A.D. Riddle said:

Princeton University Press reprinted ANET and ANEP in a single volume,

 

To clarify, they printed abridgements of ANET and ANEP. It doesn't necessarily mean, though, that they don't have an electronic version of the unabridged ANET.

 

1 hour ago, A.D. Riddle said:

For a survey of ANE text anthologies, you might be interested in . . .

 

Thanks for mentioning the article. Owners of COS can also read Hallo's much shorter survey in the introduction to the first volume ("Introduction: Ancient Near Eastern Texts and Their Relevance for Biblical Exegesis").

 

Yes, there are many anthologies. I particularly wish Accordance offered Foster's Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature (Eisenbrauns, 2005), see https://www.eisenbrauns.org/books/titles/978-1-883053-76-5.html

Edited October 3, 2022 by Michel Gilbert
url didn't work; fixed

[Jordan S]

Never say never.

@jlm is correct, though. Absence of a digital text greatly reduces the probability that the title will get developed which is why this wasn't developed in the past. It's very expensive for us to OCR, cleanup, and markup an older text, esp. an academic one.

That said, I emailed Princeton to find out more about the Kindle edition.

[Leopold Green]

thanks Jordan!

[Michel Gilbert]

52 minutes ago, Jordan S said:

I emailed Princeton to find out more about the Kindle edition.

 

The two abridgements, which this edition combines, were widely assigned as textbooks for decades and would cover most references to ANET in Accordance modules. So, it would be valuable to those who requested ANET.

 

I have both of them on my shelf: The Ancient Near East, Vol. 1: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures cost me $6.95, and The Ancient Near East, Vol II: A New Anthology of Texts and Pictures cost $3.95. I would buy ANET if offered and if it scrolled in parallel with COS.

[Andrew Patterson]

@Jordan S

 

Is there any potential here? I can't see if these are OCR'd or not, but perhaps. 

[Leopold Green]

2 hours ago, Andrew Patterson said:

@Jordan S

 

Is there any potential here? I can't see if these are OCR'd or not, but perhaps. 

It looks like proper text... 

Hittite Myths, Epics, and Legends T R A N S L A T O R : A L B R E C H T G O E T Z E 1 The Moon that Fell from Heaven Text: KUB, xxvm, 5 and its duplicate 4; the text is bilingual, in Hattie and Hittite. Literature: J. Friedrich, AfO, xi (1936/37) 76 f.; H. Th. Bossert, Asia (Istanbul, 1947), 164 ff. (10) The Moon-god2(Hattie: Kalfet) fell downfrom heaven. He fell upon the bjlammar. But no one saw him. The Storm-god2 (Hattie: Taru) sent rain after him, he sent rainstorms after him so that fear seized him (and) fright seized him. (15) Hapantalliyas (Hattie: Hapantalli) went and took his place at his side so as to bespeak him. Kamrusepas (Hattie: Katahziwuri) saw what had fallen from heaven speaking as follows: “The Moon-god (Hattie: KaSfet) has fallen from heaven. He fell upon the felammar. (20) “The Storm-god (Hattie: Taru) saw him and he sent rain after him, he sent rainstorms after him, he sent the winds after him so that fear seized him (and) fright seized him.” Hapantalliyas (Hattie: Hapantalli) went and took his place at his side (25) so as to bespeak him: “What art thou going to do? .. .” Kingship in Heaven Text: KUB, xxxm, 120. Literature: E. Forrer, Eine Geschichte des Gotterfenigtums aus dem Hatti-Reiche (Annuaire de Vinstitut de philologie et d’histoire orientates, iv [1936], 687713 ); H. G. Giiterbock, Kumarbi Efsanesi (Ankara, 1945), 1116 ; the same, Kumarbi, Mythen vom churritischen Kronos (Zurich-New York, 1946), 6-12; the same, A]A, u i (1948), 123125 ; H. Otten, Mythen vom Gotte Kumarbi (Berlin, 1950), 5-13. (i) [Let there listen the gods who are in heaven] and those who are in the dark earth! Let there listen the mighty [ol]den gods, Naras, [Napsaras, Mink]is (and) Ammunkis! Let there listen Ammezadus [and the gods of the olden days, the god]s’ fathers (and) mothers! (5) Let there listen [Anus, Ant]us (and) Isharas, the fathers (and) mothers! Let there listen Ellilas, [Ninlilas and] alsothosewho are mighty (and) firmly established gods!. . . —Once in the olden days Alalus was king in heaven. (As long as) Alalus was seated on the throne, the mighty Anus, first among the gods, (10) was stand1 The nature of this publication has made it necessary to be liberal with restorations and to adopt sometimes rather free translations. Some scholars may feel that on occasion I have gone beyond the justifiable in this respect. It gives me great pleasure to express here my thanks to Prof. R. A. Crossland , who has greatly assisted me in putting my translations in adequate English. For a general discussion of Hittite texts see Introduction, pp. xvii* xviii. 2 These translations are a makeshift The real names of the gods are not known to us since they are always written with the respective ideograms. ing before him. He would sink at his feet and set the drinking cup in his hand. Nine in number were the years that Alalus was king in heaven. In the ninth year Anus gave battle to Alalus and he vanquished Alalus. He fled before him and u/ent down to the dark earth. (15) Down he went to the dark earth, but Anus took his seat upon the throne. (As long as) Anus was seated upon the throne, the mighty Kumarbis would give him his food. He would sink at his feet and set the drinking cup in his hand. Nine in number were the years that Anus was king in heaven. In the ninth year Anus gave battle to Kumarbis and life Alalus Kumarbis gave battle (20) to Anus. (When) he could no longer withstand Kumarbis’ eyes, (he) Anus, he struggled forth from the hands of Ku­ marbis. He fled, (he) Anus; (like) a bird he moved in the sky. After him rushed Kumarbis, seized (him) Anus, by his feet and dragged him down from the sky. (25) He (Kumarbis) bit his “knees”1 and his man­ hood went down into his inside. When it lodged there, (and) when Kumarbis had swallowed Anus’ manhood, he rejoiced and laughed. Anus turned back to him, to Kumarbis he began to speak: “Thou rejoicest over thine inside, because thou hast swallowed my manhood. (30) “Rejoice not over thine inside! In thine inside I have planted a heavy burden. Firstly I have impregnated thee with the noble Storm-god. Secondly I have impreg­ nated thee with...""

 

I can't see any tell take OCR errors here and have checked it against my print copy - is this enough for the Accordance team to work their magic?

 

 

 

Well that proves there is a proper e-text of the full ANET... I don't know how it works but if something exists in PDF format like that - is this enough for Accordance to work its magic upon?

 

Edited October 5, 2022 by Leopold Green

[A.D. Riddle]

On 10/2/2022 at 5:18 AM, jlm said:

The forum’s answer to this is to suggest farming out the OCR cleanup work to volunteers who are so eager to have the resource in Accordance that they’re willing to help produce part of it.

 

Yes! but we won't stay young forever.

 

A.D.

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

I’ve got this one on the list.

[Andrew Patterson]

21 hours ago, Nathan Parker said:

I’ve got this one on the list.

 

Trying not to get too excited yet, but do you mean by that that y'all are going to do this for real?

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

It’s on our list to look into. We’ll still have to get the license and develop it, but I’ve marked it as a high-priority volume to look at.