The Context of Scripture Online

Edited by William J. Hallo, The Context of Scripture Online illuminatingly presents the multi-faceted world of ancient writing that forms the colorful background to the literature of the Hebrew Bible. The online version makes the content of this unique and valuable reference work even more accessible.

Designed as a thorough and enduring reference work for all engaged in the study of the Bible and the ancient Near East, it provides reliable access to a broad, balanced, and representative collection of Ancient Near Eastern texts that have an impact on the interpretation of the Bible. Each entry includes an introduction to the text, an authoritative translation, commentary, and bibliographic references.

The online version is based on the substantial three-volume work and was updated with the fourth volume, which was published in 2016.

The Context of Scripture Online illuminatingly presents the multi-faceted world of ancient writing that forms the colorful background to the literature of the Hebrew Bible.

Five textgroups

The Context of Scripture Online is represented by five textgroups in the library. The reason is as follows.

Part of the syntax if CTS URNs is the CTSNAMESPACE. Intended as a naming authority to declare the uniqueness of textgroup identifiers, in practice it functions as an identifier of the linguistic-cultural tradition. (This can lead to a certain overlap with with the language identifier that is part of the work version identifier.) In The Context of Scripture Online, there are five such traditions. They are listed here.

• urn:cts:akkLit:cso-akk for the Akkadian texts
• urn:cts:anaLit:cso-ana for the Anatolian texts
• urn:cts:egyLit:cso-egy for the Egyptian texts
• urn:cts:nwsemLit:cso-nwsem for the West Semitic texts
• urn:cts:suxLit:cso-sux for the Sumerian texts