Hidden Riches: A Sourcebook for the Comparative Study of the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient
Near East. By Christopher B. Hays. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2014. ISBN-13: 978-0664-23701-1. xxvi and 425 pages. Paper. $45.
Serious readers of the Old Testament have long used compendia of ancient Near Eastern
writings, such as ANET and COS, to learn more about the Bible’s world and culture. In general,
however, those collections leave readers on their own to figure things out, often a daunting task.
Hayes presents modern translations of a smaller number of ancient texts but provides
interpretations of these texts and how they are similar to or different from their biblical parallels.
The discussion of each text ends with reflection questions (often quite challenging) and
bibliography for further reading.
He identifies four goals of his book: to make intelligent comparison between biblical and
ancient Near Eastern texts possible; to give a wider view of the texts themselves (discussions of
genre or the meaning of the whole text when a text has been excerpted); to provide starting
points for analysis and comparison; and to open up avenues for motivated readers to explore
further. The author does not take a strong ideological stance so that users who use critical
methods of Bible study and those who do not can profit from this book.
The twenty-five major categories of documents are arranged according to the Pentateuch;
Former Prophets; Latter Prophets; and Writings. They include familiar texts like the Babylonian
creation and flood stories, the Code of Hammurabi, and ancient treaties/covenants, but also
parallels to prophetic symbolic actions and oracles against foreign nations, prayers, hymns, and
laments. Photographs of eight Near Eastern images that enhance our understanding of the Bible.
Some texts, of course, have opposite readings of history, such as Sennacherib’s attack on
Jerusalem in 701 as reported in his royal annals and the quite opposite outcome of that battle in
the Bible. I would have been a bit more forthright about the contradiction between these texts,
but Hayes’ approach will keep the discussion going, and he concedes that this event remains
subject to critical judgment and that readers need to wrestle with such texts and clarify methods
and presuppositions.
This will be a wonderful textbook, but it will also benefit all readers who want to go
deeper into the meaning of the Old Testament in its ancient context.
Ralph W. Klein
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago