Ancient Near Eastern Treaty Traditions and Biblical Covenants: Recent Surveys

Abstract

Three recent books survey ancient Near Eastern treaty texts and discuss their relevance to biblical covenants. Kitchen and Lawrence present the most extensive anthology now available. Altman tends to concentrate on Hittite diplomacy, while Charpin highlights evidence from Old Babylonian city-states. Taken together, they demonstrate that biblical scholars should bear in mind the flexibility of these political instruments when making comparisons to ancient Israel’s covenantal traditions.