The Aramaic and Egyptian Legal Traditions at Elephantine: An Egyptological Approach

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This is a study of the interrelationships between the formulary traditions of the legal documents of the Jewish colony of Elephantine and the legal formulary traditions of their Egyptian counterparts.

The legal documents of Elephantine have been approached in three different ways thus far: first, comparing them to the later Aramaic legal tradition; second, as part of a self-contained system, and more recently from the point of view of the Assyriological legal tradition. However, there is still a fourth possible approach, which has long been neglected by scholars in this field, and that is to study the Elephantine legal documents from an Egyptological perspective. In seeking the Egyptian parallels and antecedents to the Aramaic formulary, Botta hopes to balance the current scholarly perspective, based mostly upon Aramaic and Assyriological comparative studies.

Reviews

This book throws down the gauntlet and challenges some long-established theories which are widely accepted and thought to be secure... There is no doubt about the erudition of the author and the impressive mastery of the legal material which he demonstrates in this book, which is well worth reading.' -- Journal of Jewish Studies
This first book by Botta promises to be the start of much insightful research by Botta and those who follow his example on the relationship between Egyptian law and the law of the ancient Near East, and those who are interested in the interconnections between ancient cultures will most definitely be enlightened and intrigued by this volume. -- Hebrew Studies, Volume LII
Summarized. * New Testament Abstracts *

Author Bio

Alejandro F. Botta (Ph.D. Summa cum laude, Department of History of the Jewish People, Hebrew University of Jerusalem) is Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible, School of Theology at Boston University.