A graduate essay is very different from an undergraduate paper. It should focus on an issue only as large as the writer can master. To master an issue means to examine all the evi- dence, to confirm or refute claims made by predecessors (no longer "authorities"), to consider all the angles (including logic or evidence opposed to your conclusion) and to make an honest effort to read and respond to every prior scholarly treat- ment. Be responsibly original (but since you are still a stu- dent, you may be a little irresponsible), and do not hesi- tate to disagree courteously with established scholars, including your teachers. A negative conclusion is as important as a posi- tive one, and the field is littered with speculations wanting rebuttal. Always write with a view toward publication, but don't let that goal inhibit you in the early stages, for perfectionism has paralyzed many a scholar. No one covers all the bases; everyone makes mistakes, including the stupid kind; no work is ever finished, merely dropped. Presumably you will be doing most of your research at the VPL and CAJS* libraries. Whatever they lack may be obtained through inter-library loan, but that can take weeks, so make your requests early. There is a fairly standard procedure which will enable you to treat rigorously any subject to which you turn your attention. The first steps in the analysis of a biblical passage are establishing the original text by the tools of textual criti- cism and determining the meaning of every word and phrase. Logically, establishing the text precedes determining the meaning, but in practice the two steps are interdependent: it is not always practical to do an exhaustive search for the variants of every word (in the future, HUB [see below] may make this more feasible), so problems in determining the meaning of a particular passage in the MT are often the first stimulus to searching for variant readings, and decisions about the original reading depend in part on which makes most sense. 1. For textual criticism, the standard critical edition of the Bible is Biblia Hebraica (the best known editions are the Kittel and Stuttgart editions, BHK and BHS respectively). There are several guides to BHK and BHS: E. Würthwein, The Text of the Old Testament (BS 1136 W813 1995); R. Wonneberger, Understanding BHS (BS715 1990); and W. R. Scott, A Simplified guide to BHS: critical apparatus, masora, accents, unusual letters & other markings (CAJS BS715 S36 1987). There is also a table of BHS's abbre- viations in E. Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992), pp. 376-377. Biblia Hebraica is not really a reliable guide to variants, but at best an early warning system. At worst it is misleading or erroneous. See H.M. Orlinsky, "The Textual Criticism of the OT," in The Bible and the Ancient Near East, ed. G.E. Wright, pp. 140-169; E. Tov's review of BHS in Shnaton 4 (1980):172-180 (Hebrew); and F. Deist, Towards the Text of the Old Testament (BS1136.D44 1981), excursus on "The Würtembergische Bibelanstalt editions." For certainty, the actual manuscripts or ancient translations (in critical editions when they exist) must be checked, especially if citing a reading in a paper. A far more thorough critical edition is The Hebrew University Bible (HUB). It illustrates the complexity of the discipline though, unfortunately, at present it exists only for Isaiah (BS1515.2 .G63), Jeremiah (BS1525.2 .T68 1997), and Ezekiel. The theoretical basis of HUB is spelled out by M. H. Goshen-Gottstein, The Book of Isaiah -- Sample Edition with Introduction (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1965) (BS1515.2 .G6 1965). The HUB Project also publishes the periodical Textus (JANES: BS/410/T45/), which is dedicated to the study of text-criticism and the primary sources on which it is based. There are two types of textual witnesses: those whose proto- types antedate the canonization of the Hebrew consonantal text (first century C.E.) and those from a later time. In the first group we have the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Old Greek (OG; the term "Septuagint" [LXX] properly refers only to the Torah; some books of the OG may be later than the Hebrew canonization) and the Samaritan Pentateuch (SP). For an index to biblical texts at Qumran, see J. Fitzmyer, The Dead Sea Scrolls: Major Publications and Tools for Study (BM 487Z F5 1977) and Eugene Ulrich, "An Index of the Passages in the Biblical Manuscripts from the Judean Desert (Genesis-Kings)," Dead Sea Discoveries 1 (1994):113-129. The best editions of OG are those of A.E. Brooke and N. McLean (the "Cambridge Septuagint") and J. Ziegler, Septuaginta: Vetus Testamentum Graecum (the "Göttingen Septuagint") (both editions are in RS* and CAJS*). Since we do not possess the original OG, you must examine the variants in the MSS (often, unfortunately, revised back to conform with the Hebrew) to ascertain the original Greek reading. These two editions have ample citations of variants; in a pinch, Rahlfs' Septuaginta, an abridged edition based on the Göttingen edition, will do (JANES*, BS41.R3 1935), as will Swete's The Old Testament in Greek (JANES, BS 41 S8 1909). If you do not yet know Greek, you can check the translation of Sir Lancelot C. Brenton, The Septuagint version of the Old Testament. With an English Translation, and with various readings and critical notes (JANES, BS742 B74 1971), but the text is uncritical. (The English translation alone, without the Greek, is found at http://www.ccel.org/bible/brenton/). A new English translation of the Septuagint, called, appropriately, The New English Translation of the Septuagint" ("NETS") is now complete. See http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/nets/. Finally, there is the multi-volume annotated edition in French, La Bible d'Alexandrie. See http://septante.editionsducerf.fr/. A list of the Penn library's holdings in this series can be seen if you do a title search for "Bible. O.T. French. Bible d'Alexandrie". Valuable for using the OG are E. Hatch and H.A. Redpath, A Concordance to the Septuagint (BS1122.H3 1954), which gives all the Greek-Hebrew equivalences. T. Muraoka's Hebrew/Aramaic Index to the Septuagint gives all the equivalents in reverse, that is, it lists all the Hebrew and Aramaic words in the Bible and then cites all their Greek equivalents in LXX. This is very valuable for seeing the various different ways a word is rendered in the LXX, and whether the word used in a given passage is one used normally or rarely. Muraoka's index is published in the new edition of Hatch-Redpath and also appeared separately as a paperback (both published by Baker Books, 1998). Note also the LXX dictionaries A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, by J. Lust et al (RS, PA781.L8 1992), and T. Muraoka, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint. Twelve Prophets (Louvain: Peeters, 1993). See also S.P. Brock et al., A classified bibliography of the Septuagint (Leiden, Brill, 1973; VPL Z7772.A1 B7) and Cecile Dogniez, Bibliography of the Septuagint = Bibliographie de la Septante (1970-1993) (Supplements to Vetus Testamentum, 60; Leiden: Brill, 1995; VPL BS410.V452 v.60). -- Keep in mind that the value of the OG is not limited to textual criticism; it is also useful for its exegetical value as an early commentary on the Bible, sometimes preserving otherwise forgotten meanings of words, and as evidence for the literary development of certain Biblical books. Three useful works on these aspects of the OG are K.H. Jobes and M. Silva, Invitation to the Septuagint (Grand Rapids MI: Baker Academic, 2000) and Emanuel Tov's Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, chap. 7, and The Text-critical Use of the Septuagint in Biblical Research, chap. VIII. The Samaritan Pentateuch is also based upon a prototype antedating canonization. The critical edition, listing vari- ants in different MSS, is that of A. von Gall (in JANES); a very helpful edition, based on two old manuscripts and laying out SP and MT in parallel columns with differences highlighted, is A. and R. Sadaqa, Jewish and Samaritan Version of the Pentateuch (Tel Aviv and Holon, 1961- 1965; JANES). Post-canonization versions such as the Latin Vulgate, the Aramaic Targumim or the Syriac Peshitta are less important for textual criticism because they are generally based upon either the traditional Hebrew or Greek texts and do not constitute independent witnesses. It is not that they never reflect genuine variants, but these are hard to find. There are translations to assist in understanding these versions: the Douay translation of the Vulgate; translations of the Targums by Etheridge, Drazin, Aberbach and Grossfeld, and Diez-Macho, and especially the multi-volume, annotated The Aramaic Bible, under the editorship of Martin McNamara; and George Lamsa's trans- lation of the Peshitta, The Holy Bible from Ancient Eastern Manuscripts (Philadelphia: Holman, 1933). Of course, there are translations of the Bible into virtually every human lan- guage, but in the establishment of the pristine text we decide, not by plebiscite, but by reason applied to independent witness- es. On the other hand, if your interest is in the history of interpretation, the ancient translations valuable and you must consult them. Bear in mind that if you challenge a prevailing view, you must account for its origin, and in such projects one cannot ignore the history of the understanding of the Bible. For more information on textual criticism see Tov's Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible and his The Text- critical Use of the Septuagint in Biblical Research; S. Jelli- coe, The Septuagint and Modern Study (BS 744 J44); R. W. Klein, Textual Criticism of the Old Testament (BS 1136 K58) and Würthwein, The Text of the Old Testament (BS 1136 W 813 1919). See also M. Greenberg, "The Use of the Ancient Versions for Interpreting the Hebrew Text: A Sampling from Ezeki- el 2:1-3:11," in his Studies in the Bible and Jewish Thought (Philadelphia: JPS, 1995), pp. 209-225. 2. For ascertaining the meaning of every word, or phrase, in a given passage one consults all other attestations in the Bible. The aim is to find decisive examples of the meaning or nuance you think is present in the verse you are studying; that is, passages where the meaning or nuance is not merely possible but inescapable. Use a concordance, such as Mandelkern's, Lisowsky's or Even-Shoshan's. Each of these is valuable for different purposes. Mandelkern's - the classic work -- breaks down each root into each of its inflected forms, so you can see how it is used in various conjugations, with various prepositions, etc. Even-Shoshan, at the beginning of each entry, classifies the words in terms of the combinations and idiomatic phrases in which they appear. Lisowsky is largely limited to nouns and verbs. It subdivides the verbs by their conjugations and the nouns by their status as subject, object, or other, and then lists the words in the order in which they appear in the Bible irrespective of person, number, prefix, suffix, etc; it is valuable for tracking all the occurrences of a word in a particular book, part of a book, group of books, or period. In addition to concordances, consult the dictionary of Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (BDB)(1907), which is practically a concordance and is very acute in its treatment of semantic nuances and will alert you to nuances you never suspected. Valuable for the same reasons is F. Buhl's revision of W. Gesenius's Hebräisches und Aramäisches Handwörterbuch uber das alte Testament (GB)(1915). Helpful, too, is Bruce Einspahr's Index to Brown, Driver, & Briggs Hebrew Lexicon (Chicago: Moody Press, 1977), which lists all of BDB's citations of every verse in the Bible. A more up-to-date dictionary is The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (HALOT), ed. L. Koehler, W, Baumgartner, and J.J. Stamm (this is the English version of a German original, HALAT; it's also available on a CD-ROM); it's more up-to-date, especially with regard to other Semitic languages (esp. Ugaritic and Akkadian), but not as thorough as BDB and GB, particularly with regard to nuances. In any case, examine the evidence cited by all these works critically -- don't just take their word regarding the nuances of the Hebrew vocables and especially about the nuances of the comparative evidence. A very important step is to analyze each word grammatically so as to identify the exact subject, gender and number of nouns and adjectives, the subject, gender, tense and conjugation of verbs (and which function of the conjugation is intended), and to identify aspects of each word that may seem different from what one might expect in the light of the context. For help in the grammatical analysis, consult Biblical Hebrew grammars, such as: M. Greenberg, Introduction to Hebrew Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar, ed. E. Kautzsch and A.E. Cowley (Oxford: Clarendon, 1966 etc. [latest reprint has expanded index]). PJ4564.G5 1966 (copies in JANES and stacks) (abbrev. Gesenius-Kautzsch-Cowley or GKC) P. Joüon, Grammaire de l'Hebreu Biblique. Rome: Institut Biblique Pontifical, 1923. Revised Eng. trans. by T. Muraoka, A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew (Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1991). PJ4567.J7613 1991 Eduard König, Historisch-kritiches lehrgebaude der hebräischen sprache (Leipzig, J.C. Hinrichs, 1881- 1897), 3 vols. JANES 492.15 K815.2. Bruce K. Waltke and M.P. O'Connor, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1990). JANES PJ4707.W35 1990 J. Blau, A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1976). PJ4567.B625 S.R. Driver, A Treatise on the Use of the Tenses in Hebrew and some other Syntactical Questions 2d ed. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1881). JANES PJ4647.D7 1881, and repr. in stacks PJ4647.D7 1969. The 1998 Eerdmans-Dove reprint includes a valuable introduction by W. Randall Garr (see the review by S.E. Fassberg in JQR 100 (1999):170-72). A.B. Davidson, Hebrew Syntax Benjamin Davidson, The Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon 2d. ed. (1850; repr. Peabody MA: Hendrickson, 2000) lists all attested forms of each word alphabetically and parses them (including an identification of the declension of each noun and an explanation of the declensions on pp. 58-77 and 87-90). Most of these have word and verse indexes to help you find an analysis of the phenomenon or passage you are working on. The most thorough is in König's Historisch-kritiches Lehrgebaude. F.C. Putnam's A Cumulative Index to the Grammar and Syntax of Biblical Hebrew (Eisenbrauns, indexes several scholarly grammars and may have the most thorough verse (though not word) index. Of course there will be times when a text remains difficult. You have two recourses: (1) conjectural emendation, based upon plausible errors such as transposition, dittography, haplography or the confusion of similar letters (for all these see the liter- ature on textual criticism cited above), or (2) the philological method. 3. The philological method applies the fruits of the compar- ative study of ancient, especially Semitic, languages to the Hebrew text. A rare word or structure in the Bible might prove to be common in another language. But you should mistrust the obsolete etymologies of BDB; consult rather HALAT/HALOT or, better still, authoritative dictionaries of the languages in question. In rough order of kinship to Hebrew, the cognate languages are Rabbinic Hebrew, Moabite and Ammonite, Phoenician, Ugaritic, Aramaic, Arabic, Akkadian, Old South Arabic, Ethiopic. Do not be fooled by the multiplicity of definitions of words, especially in Arabic; look for the root sense. Know the rules of phonetic correspondence (they can be found in S. Moscati, An Introduction to the Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages [PJ 3021 M6]); they work 99% of the time, so vio- late them at your peril. If there does seem to be some irregu- larity, consider the possibility of a loan word. The following are some major dictionaries of the Semitic languages: Akkadian CAD and W. von Soden, Akkadisches Hand- wörterbuch (Akkadian); based on the latter is Jeremy Black et al., A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian. Arabic. E. Lane, Arabic-English Dictionary (classical) (now available on a CD-ROM). On using Arabic see "On the Use of Arabic in Comparative Philological Study." Aramaic. Marcus Jastrow, A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli, etc.; (2) Michael Sokoloff, A Dictionary of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic of the Byzantine Period; A Dictionary of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic; A Dictionary of Judean Aramaic. Ethiopic. A. Dillmann, Lexicon Linguae Aethiopicae; note also Wolf Leslau, Ethiopic and South Arabic Contributions to the Hebrew Lexicon. Northwest Semitic inscriptions. J. Hoftijzer and K. Jongeling, Dictionary of the North-West Semitic Inscrip- tions. Rabbinic Hebrew. (1) Marcus Jastrow, A Dictionary of the Targumim, Talmud Babli, etc.; (2) E. Ben Yehudah, Thesaurus... South Arabic. (1) J.C. Biella, Dictionary of Old South Arabic, Sabaean dialect; (2) A.F.L. Beeston et al., Sabaic Dictionary (English-French-Arabic). Syriac. (1) C. Brockelmann; (2) R. Payne Smith, Thesaurus Syriacus; (3) J. Payne Smith, A Compen- dious Syriac Dictionary. Ugaritic. C. Gordon, Ugaritic Textbook (for bibliography of more recent studies see the articles of Dennis Pardee in Archiv für Orientforschung 34 [1987]:366-471; 36/37 [1989/90]:390-513) A study devoted to words that appear only once in the Bible (hapax legomena) is H.R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena in the Light of Akkadian and Ugaritic. However, there are many problems and pitfalls involved in using comparative philology to understand the Bible. See the important study by James Barr Comparative philology and the Text of the Old Testament (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1968; recently reprinted by Eisenbrauns; VPL PJ4544 B37). 4. Never forget to examine the context of the passage you are studying; it might give it an entirely different meaning, and you will be embarrassed when this is pointed out to you. 5. Look for passages in the Bible or cognate literatures similar or comparable to that which you study; similarities and differences can alike be enlightening. But never forget that the Bible, not to mention all ancient literature, is the work of many people who do not use words and phrases in precisely the same way. Parallels often point out the possible, rather than consti- tute proof. 6. Try to envision social, economic or political factors that may have affected your text. Note any relevant archeologi- cal evidence. Even when dealing with linguistic minutiae, it is important to remember that the Bible did not exist in a vacuum. Presumably, for instance, many of the words found only once in the Bible were very common in day-to-day speech. 7. Envision ramifications of your view in the Bible or in material remains; see if such exist and if they are susceptible of alternative explanation. 8. Do not be discouraged if some evidence doesn't fit or argues contrary to your view. If such data did not exist, the odds are that your solution would have been so obvious it would have been seen long ago. But you should try to account for these difficulties. Ideally, you should weigh several explanations of a problem and see which fits best with known data. 9. At some point, of course, you must consider other schol- ars' treatments of your text. If you do this at the beginning of your research you will know where the issues stand and avoid duplicating the work of others; if you do this after the bulk of your own work you will have avoided being biased by the results of others and perhaps will have seen something new. Some schol- ars prefer the latter approach: they do their own work, then correct it in light of the opinions of others, who often have seen what they have missed. Of course, one can find one's own medium between these two extremes. Locating earlier treatments is a matter of both detective work and luck. Experience will sharpen your research skills. For example, you may know of a book on a subject tangential to your own whose index can direct you to sources you really re- quire. But there are several publications whose sole aim is to facilitate your research. Every scholar should be familiar with the following: (1) Many journals periodically publish indices listing everything that has appeared in the journal since the last index. Most exhaustive is the Elenchus Bibliographicus Biblicus (vols. 1-48 [1920-1967] bound with Biblica 1-48; in RS: BS/410/B7; since vol. 49 [1968] bound separately; in RS: Z/7770/E44 [RS]). This is a huge, yearly index of everything published anywhere related to the Bible. It is difficult to use, and its organization is altered every few years. Look first at the index in the back. Unfortunately, it is several years be- hind. In addition, the journals Orientalia and Syria (both in JANES) publish yearly indices in the fields of Assyriology and Epigraphy, respectively. Know, too, the Annual Egyptological Bibliography. (2) We have, in book form, the card catalogue of the Ecole biblique et archeologique de Jerusalem, Catalogue de la bibliotheque de l'ecole biblique de jerusalem (in JANES: BS/417/E3/1983). It lists works (including articles) by author, title, subject and by Biblical chapter and verse. Since the Ecole has a huge biblical collection, almost everything ever written is listed. A CD-ROM version of this catalogue is now available. (3) Index of Articles on Jewish Studies (known as RAMBI from its Hebrew title Reshimat Ma'amarim be-Madacei ha-Yahadut, includes articles on the Bible in Hebrew and other languages, and is probably the most thorough source for Israeli and Hebrew publications. For the on-line version see http://www.library.upenn.edu/webbin5/facilities/count_use.cgi? resource=RAMBI&method=catalog&proxy=Penn&gotourl=http://libnet.ac.il/ ~libnet/rmb" (N.B. this should be entered as a single string of characters, with no empty spaces) or see the link in Franklin under the call number BM1.I634. (4) Less compendious than the above, are (a) the journal Old Testament Abstracts, a list of books and articles loosely grouped by subject with an index in the back; (b) Internazionale Zeitschriftenschau fur Bibelwissenschaft und Grenzgebiete (in JANES: BS/410/I583) (abbreviated IZBG); and Paul-Emile Langevin, Bibliotheque Biblique (in JANES: BS/410/L35). Almost, but not quite, useless is (d) the Index to Religious Periodical Literature. Its purview is simply too broad to cover the field. (5) Among encyclopedias, the following are noteworthy: Entsyqlopedia Miqra'it (Encyclopaedia Biblica, in Hebrew; 8 volumes plus index volume); in JANES:BS/440/E5. Thorough and excellent, especially for matters historical and archaeological, though the first three volumes, pub- lished in the fifties, were not up to the standard reached in the remaining volumes. Anchor Bible Dictionary. 6 vols. 1992 (Ref BS440.A54 1992) (abbreviated ABD). Articles are generally thorough and up-to-date, but finding the topic you want can sometimes be maddening. An index may be planned. The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible (4 vol- umes plus supplementary volume; in JANES and Ref: BS/440/I63) (abbreviated IDB). Aging but still extremely useful. F. Vigouroux, Dictionnaire de la Bible. The original edition is out of date, but the supplement has much valuable material. JANES BS440.V7 Suppl. and VPL Yarnall 203 V688 Suppl. Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (11 volumes to date [German original is complete]); in JANES: BS/440/B5713) (abbreviated TDOT). More useful than you would think from its name, and the same is true of the Theolog- ical Dictionary of the New Testament (RS). The trick to using these is to think of a Hebrew or Greek word likely to have an entry. The discussions are often very technical and have little to do with theology. [On one occasion the pub- lisher of the English translation, Eerdmans in Grand Rapids Mich., was helpful in providing galley proofs of the English translation of an article in not-yet-published volume; if you need to try this, contact Alan Myers there, at 616-549- 4591, or amyers@eerdmans.com] E. Jenni & Claus Westermann, Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament, 3 vols. (Hendrickson, 1997) is a more concise theological lexicon, also very useful. Encyclopaedia Judaica (16 volumes; in JANES and Ref: DS/102.8/E52 and E53) (abbreviated EJ). For older views, a handy and thorough source is Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible; it often has the fullest and most clearly presented collection of the Biblical data, though it is very out-of-date regarding extrabiblical data. M. Avi-Yonah and E. Stern's Encyclopedia of Archaeologi- cal Excavations in the Holy Land is a handy reference tool for archaeological excavations, listed by site (unfor- tunately there is no index of artifacts found). Of course you will want to consult commentaries regularly. For a compendium of rabbinic interpretation on the Torah, partic- ularly Midrash, consult M.M. Kasher's Torah Shlemah. Most of the classical medieval Jewish commentaries, such as Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Rashbam, Radak (Kimhi), Ramban (Nachmanides), and Seforno, are printed in non-critical editions in Miqra'ot Gedolot. There are critical editions of the rabbinic and medieval commentaries (including many further medievals such as Bekhor Shor, Hazzekuni, and Ralbag [Gersonides]; some of Abravanel is now out in a ctitical edition). There are now also two critical editions of Miqra'ot Gedolot: Torat Hayyim on the Torah alone, and Bar Ilan University's Miqra'ot Gedolot HaKeter edited by Menahem Cohen (Genesis, Former Prophets, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Psalms have appeared as of November, 2005). Modern commentaries are too numerous to list here, but two that have particularly valuable methodological introductions must be mentioned: Moshe Greenberg's commentary on Ezekiel, vol 1. pp. 18-27, and Adele Berlin's commentary on Zephaniah, pp. 17-31, both in the Anchor Bible Series. For further methodological observations by Greenberg, see his Studies in the Bible and Jewish Thought, pp. 209-243. This is hardly a complete list of the tools of the trade. Please consult your teachers for further tips on resources, as well as advice on writing a paper. But this at least should give you a good start in producing a well crafted essay. HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY Knowing the location of places named in the Bible is often important for understanding the meaning of a passage. Identifying Biblical places can be difficult because many places were destroyed or abandoned over the centuries or underwent changes of name. Identifying places mentioned in ancient texts is a highly specialized discipline known as Historical Geography. Sometimes the Bible identifies places or gives their location, particularly when an old name had already been replaced by a newer one that was better known to readers. Because of the Bible's own interest in geography, it contains itineraries and lists of the towns of the Israelite tribes and descriptions of their borders. Frequently, historical geographers begin with less explicit clues in the Biblical text, such as the names of nearby places and landmarks and indications of the direction of one place relative to another. Information in the Bible is supplemented from several other sources: references to places in other ancient texts, which are studied by the same methods; archaeological evidence about which sites were occupied in certain periods; identifications of Biblical places in ancient translations of the Bible and other postbiblical texts, including Josephus, rabbinic literature, the writings of Church fathers, Christian pilgrims, and Arab geographers; and Arabic place-names which sometimes preserve the ancient names. All of these sources must be sifted with care, since they are not always reliable and are frequently based on conjecture rather than unbroken tradition. The results of such research are scattered in an extensive body of scholarly literature. They are periodically summed up in Biblical encyclopedias and reference works devoted to historical geography. The single most useful source is the Hebrew Entsyklopedia Mikra}it, published in Israel by the Bialik Institute and the Hebrew University's Museum of Jewish Antiquities, which cites all the major suggestions that had been made about each place, and the evidence on which they are based, as of the time the articles were written. Because the available evidence is incomplete, there is uncertainty and disagreement about the identification of many places. Archaeological exploration regularly opens new options, particularly in Jordan. Further bibliography: The classics: · F.M. Abel, Geographie de la Palestine (Paris: 1933-38) · G.A. Smith, The Historical Geography of the Holy Land (repr. New York: Harper & Row, 1966) · G.A. Smith and J.G. Bartholomew, Atlas of the Historical Geography of the Holy Land (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1915) Recent works: · J.J. Simons, The Geographical and Topographical Texts of the OT (Leiden, 1959) · A.F. Rainey, "The Toponymics of Eretz-Israel," BASOR 231 (1978): 1-17 (with further bibliography) · Y. Aharoni, The Land of the Bible, revised by Anson F. Rainey (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1979) · G.I. Davies, The Way of the Wilderness (Cambridge, 1979) · S. Ahituv, Canaanite Toponyms in Ancient Egyptian Documents (Jerusalem and Leiden, 1984) · N. Na'aman, Borders and Districts in Biblical Historiography (Jerusalem: Simor, 1986) · Z. Kallai, Historical Geography of the Bible (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1986) · C.G. Rasmussen, Zondervan NIV Atlas of the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zond-ervan, 1989) · E. Stern, ed., The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society & Carta; New York : Simon & Schuster, 1993) · Y. Aharoni, M. Avi-Yonah, The Macmillan Bible Atlas, revised by A.F. Rainey and Z. Safrai (1993); fourth edition, The Carta Bible Atlas (Jerusalem : Carta, 2002) ----------- *Abbreiations: CAJS = Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, 420 Walnut St. JANES = Judaica and Ancient Near East Seminar, 4th floor east, VPL Ref = Reference room, first floor VPL RS = Religious Studies Seminar, 3rd floor east VPL (combined with Medieval Studies Seminar) VPL = Van Pelt Library
jtigay@sas.upenn.edu
Last updated October 15, 2003