Ugaritic Texts: Ba'al Cycle by Scriptural Research Institute
Consider this a stand-in for the entire catalogue of the Scriptural Research Institute - here with the emphasis on the related Near Eastern literature.
Amazon blurb:
The Ba‘al Cycle, or Ba‘al Saga, is a collection of stories about Ba‘al Hadad, the supreme god of the Canaanite pantheon in the late bronze age. The Ugaritic Texts are ancient tablets that were recovered from archaeological digs at the ruins of Ugarit, a bronze-age city in northwest Syria, at the foot of the mountain Jebel Aqra on the modern Syrian-Turkish border.
The Ba‘al Cycle is generally divided into several sections, based on the groupings of the tablets that were discovered, however, this series of translations is divided into just two sections, Victorious Ba‘al, and Ba‘al Defeats Mot. These divisions are always subjective. Some translators divide the central section regarding the building of Ba‘al’s Temple on Mount Zaphon from the preceding battle with Yam. Others also separate out the intermediate section involving Ba‘al’s discussion with Anat, however, this series is divided based on the apparent shift in source material between the early section and the later section. The earliest section appears to be a translation from ancient Egyptian and includes Egyptian loanwords, as well as numerous references to the houses of the gods, which seems to be a reference to the system of decans used in Egypt from the Old Kingdom onward, to tell time at night.
The main section of Ba‘al Defeats Mot, appears to have been translated from an old Akkadian text that retold a Hurrian and Hattic story about two gods descending into the underworld. Many Akkadian, Hattic, and Hurrian loanwords are found in the later section, which are mostly missing from the earlier section, as well as the conclusion. The major exception being the messenger Ủgar, who was a Hurrian psychopomp, like the Canaanite Horon, and Greek Charon. As the city of Ugarit was named after him, this name clearly predates the text itself, and so it cannot be used to date the text. Nevertheless, does indicate that the city was originally a Hurrian settlement before becoming Semitic, which helps to explain why the older second section, appears to be a translation of an Akkadian retelling of a Hurrian story. Additionally, Luwian names are found in the second section, which places the origin of the Akkadian source text to sometime between when the Luwians settled in western Anatolia, generally dated to circa 2000 BC, and when the Hittites absorbed the Hattians around 1700 BC. As the text appears to have then been translated into Egyptian, before Ugaritic, it may trace the route the Hyksos took to Egypt, via the Luwian, Hattic, and Hurrian lands.
The first section, Victorious Ba‘al, appears to be a later text, written after 1700 BC, when a massive series of earthquakes destroyed most of the Minoan cities and palaces. The earthquake marks the division between the Old Palace Period and the New Palace Period of Minoan architecture. At the time, there was a significant change in the sky, as the Bull stopped being the asterism that marked the northern vernal equinox, and the Ram replaced him. Unlike the Bull, the Ram was not on the ecliptic, the line in the sky that the sun and planets travel on relative to the earth, but above it. Below the ecliptic, and closer to it, was the Sea Monster, later called Cetus. The battle in the Victorious Ba‘al, was about the storm-god Hadad battling the sea-god Yam, to take over the kingship from the ram-god Attar, and appears to be about the struggle between these two gods to rule the earth after the bull god El had turned over his throne to the ram god Attar. That transition would have happened in circa 1700 BC, and so this text had to be written later than that.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
Comments
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Please, seriously consider this and more Ugaritic and, in general, Ancient Near East resources.
Dad gracias al Señor porque es bueno, porque es eterna su misericordia.
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BTW, M.J. Do you know who the authors/translators are? There doesn't seem to be an official webpage or anywhere I can find more info…
Dad gracias al Señor porque es bueno, porque es eterna su misericordia.
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I know nothing about them but have assumed it was a project similar to
given the quality of the footnotes and apparatus being similar to what might come out of a graduate school seminar.Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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@Armando Javier Arteaga Unigarro, I agree. We need more studies that get us back to the original texts and original culture. Here are three resources that I've requested that you might find interesting, the first two of which deep dive into the priestly responsibilities of the King of Israel, and the last of which branches out beyond BC Israel and discusses the history of the Nestorian Christians in the Near East:
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Hey, @MJ. Smith, you've probably already noticed this listing (The Ugaritic Baal Cycle), but I figured I'd mention it just in case. It's stupid expensive, like Brill products are, but it is an option.
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Thank you. I had missed it or forgotten about it due to price.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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The Ugaritic Baal Cycle is also included here:
Ugaritic Narrative Poetry | Logos Bible Software
And here:
Religious Texts from Ugarit, 2nd ed. | Logos Bible Software
P.S. Oh, goodness, how badly I want more Brill material, and at a better price… 🥲🍃
Dad gracias al Señor porque es bueno, porque es eterna su misericordia.
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Thanks, @Armando Javier Arteaga Unigarro! I actually have both in my collection, but they got buried amongst the thousands of resources in there. 😂 I'm going to create a collection in Logos for them.
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Happens to all of us, yesterday I "re-discovered" Kenton Sparks' Bibliography while looking for material on Adapa. Hahaha…
By the way. The Baal Cycle is also here:
Canaanite Myths and Legends | Logos Bible Software
The thing is that this resource is not tagged to KTU, nor UDB or UT… Just to CTA… easy to miss if you don't look attentively.
And I got Del Olmo's material in print; I can take a photo for you if you ever need to cite it or check it. #UgaritFellows. 😁📖📜✍️📚
Dad gracias al Señor porque es bueno, porque es eterna su misericordia.
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The Baal Texts should also be found in TUAT, but as far as I see they are not tagged sufficently to appear in Factbook.
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Let's hope they correct that deficiency soon…
Meanwhile… let's go vote for some good stuff!
Judges 1-5 — Barnabas Lindars — Logos Community
Enuma Elish: The Babylonian Epic of Creation — Logos Community
Reconsidering Israel and Judah - Gary N. Knoppers and J. Gordon McConville — Logos Community
Sennacherib's Campaign to Judah — William R. Gallagher — Logos Community
A Song of Power and the Power of Song — Duane L. Christensen — Logos Community
Introduction to the Bible — Christine Hayes — Logos Community
God in Translation - Mark S. Smith / Eerdmans reissue edition — Logos Community
Dad gracias al Señor porque es bueno, porque es eterna su misericordia.
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Thank you, Armando … I have all my Ugarit tagged, but miss the Canaanite Myths group.
"If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.
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Great! Make sure to check if you have "A Manual of Ugaritic" by Pierre Bordreuil and Dennis Pardee… They used to sell it, back in the beautiful days when Eisenbrauns was still amongst us. 😭😭😭
Pierre Bordreuil and Dennis Pardee, A Manual of Ugaritic, ed. M. O’Connor and Cynthia L. Miller, vol. 3 of Linguistic Studies in Ancient West Semitic (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2009), iii.
And please, would you vote for these? 🫡📜📖✍️📚
Judges 1-5 — Barnabas Lindars — Logos Community
Enuma Elish: The Babylonian Epic of Creation — Logos Community
Reconsidering Israel and Judah - Gary N. Knoppers and J. Gordon McConville — Logos Community
Sennacherib's Campaign to Judah — William R. Gallagher — Logos Community
A Song of Power and the Power of Song — Duane L. Christensen — Logos Community
Introduction to the Bible — Christine Hayes — Logos Community
God in Translation - Mark S. Smith / Eerdmans reissue edition — Logos Community
Dad gracias al Señor porque es bueno, porque es eterna su misericordia.
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Thanks for highlighting the books needing votes. We ought to be doing more of that
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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Hey, you're not gonna believe this! 😂
Anyways, thanks again. I went through and voted for almost all of them (I already have Mark Smith's book God in Translation having purchased Verbum 2025).
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Yeah… The heaps of books… I had forgotten about Bordreuil and Pardee's "Manual of Ugaritic" (Mentioned above, no longer sold). But at least all this ruckus has reminded me of the tagging issue:
Canaanite Myths and Legends is indexed just with CTA
Ugaritic Narrative Poetry just with KTU
Religious Texts from Ugarit, 2nd edition with basically all Logos seems to have: CTA, KTU, UDB, and UT
And both UDB and UT to them all.
Bordreuil and Pardee is not indexed… 😥
Tools like "Power Lookup" and "Text Comparison" work really well for these kinds of tasks…
P.S. I don't have either the German collection mentioned above, nor Mark Smith's Baal Cycle. Someday we may see if they are or get tagged. And if Eisenbrauns ever comes back…
Dad gracias al Señor porque es bueno, porque es eterna su misericordia.
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