Predicting the Past in the Ancient Near East: Mantic Historiography in Ancient Mesopotamia, Judah, and the Mediterranean World

Full title
Predicting the Past in the Ancient Near East: Mantic Historiography in Ancient Mesopotamia, Judah, and the Mediterranean World
Research notes

Reader Checked|OA 24/10/2013

Reference type
Author(s)
Neujahr, Matthew
Year
2012
Issue / Series Volume
354
Series Title
Brown Judaic Studies
Abbreviated Series Name
BJS
Publisher
Brown Judaic Studies
Place of Publication
Rhode Island
Label
12/11/2012
Abstract

This work provides an in-depth investigation of after-the-fact predictions in ancient Near Eastern texts from roughly 1200 B.C.E.–70 C.E. It argues that the Akkadian, Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek works discussed are all part of a developing scribal discourse of “mantic historiography” by which scribes blend their local traditions of history writing and predictive texts to produce a new mode of historiographic expression. This in turn calls into question the use and usefulness of traditional literary categories such as “apocalypse” to analyze such works.