Basics of Ancient Ugaritic

While this presentation has severe limitations, in many ways those limitations aid the intermediate reader in Hebrew studies. As is commonly pointed out, the vocabulary between Hebrew and Ugaritic is almost identical in places. This aids the Hebrew student. Further, Ugaritic concepts (or perhaps concepts common to both Ugaritic and Hebrew) shed light on sometimes ambiguous Hebrew passages.If you study this book, you won’t be able to read cuneiform. That’s not really a drawback, since never in your life will you be in a situation where you will need to do that. Therefore, Michael Williams simply transliterates the cuneiform. That is valuable for the Hebrew student since he can see parallels between the two languages and cultures.As lagniappe, I will summarize Williams’ chapter on the conceptual world of ancient Ugarit.The Ugaritic WorldDeities:El, father of the gods and head of pantheon.Ba’al, Anat, and Mot are his children.Aged deity who does not actively rule. In Ezekiel 28:2 the King of Tyre says, “I am El, king of the gods.”He lives on a cosmic mountainBa’alHis name means lord.Defeats the sea god, Yamm, and the dragon Lotan.Associated with the weathe.He lives on Mt ZaphonAnat, sister and consort of Ba’al.Athirat/Asherah.The great goddess, consort of El.Worshipped in Tyre and Sidon primarily, perhaps explains Jezebel’s actions (1 Kgs 16:31-32, passim)Associated with a cultic pole or phallic symbol (Deut. 16:21; 7:5).Yamm, the SeaSon of El, enemy of Ba’alSometimes associated with Lotan (Heb. liwyatan) or Tunnan (tannin).Bible mentions a cosmological battle with the Sea (Ps. 74:13. 89:9-10).Mot.God of Death. Enemy of Ba’al.Literary FiguresWho is Dan’el? See Ezek. 14:14, 20, and 28:3.Lotan = LeviathanRephaim: these are the inhabitants of the underworld (Williams 21ff). They are rapa’uma. The key passage is Isaiah 14:9, “The realm of the dead is all astir to meet you at your coming; it rouses the repa’im to greet you, all those who were leaders in the world; it makes them rise from their thrones–all those who were kings over nations.”But they aren’t just demon kings of the underworld. There was perhaps a parallel race above. King Og was the last of the Rephaites” (Deut. 3:11).

This book is designed primarily for the student with a background in Hebrew, but it is simple enough for the beginner with zero knowledge of any Semitic language.It is by far not an exhaustive treatment of Ugaritic which the author makes abundantly clear. However, it does provide a rather nice set of references for further study throughout the book should one choose to delve deeper into the language. Teaching only the generally accepted rules of Ugaritic grammar etc. And alerting the reader to questionable rules of grammar at times, this book gives the student a balanced introduction emphasizing that there is still much academic debate and disagreement on features of Ugaritic.The only criticism I could have is that there is not as many citations and emphases in Ugaritic script throughout the book as I would like to see. It would be nice to have a short Ugarit passage at the end of each chapter for the reader to gloss. This would help the reader assess his/her cumulative profiency or at least the chapter-specific material previously covered.In the end, this book is excellent and will provide a working knowledge of the language in a simple, none-intimidating manner. I recommend it especially for Hebrew students to augment their studies in morphology and scripture, but also for anyone else thwisps interested in the ancient language(s) of Canaan.

The grammar is well written, taking into account various scholarly viewpoints. It seems to be this was written for a 1-semester course: the was not a running list of vocabulary at the end of chapters as with the other books in this series.After the second chapter, the cuneiform script was no longer used. This makes sense if it was designed for a 1-semester course, because there would be no time to learn to read them well. However, the book provides great background into early canaanite studies, allowing the student of the bible to have a fuller picture of the canaanite culture and religions.Michael Williams has written a great resource for students of the old testament, and those with the time to devote to the subject will find it beneficial to Old Testament exegesis, historical context in particular.

I've wanted access to a useable basic text for years. This book filled a hole in my library, and in my practical knowledge of semitic languages. Delighted with my purchase

Great introduction to the language. Dr. Williams has done very good work condensing the multitudinous scholarly treatments of various aspects of the language into a user-friendly form. If you haven't studied other Semitic languages, this is a good place to start!Rarely, the exercises that accompany the chapters include material that has not yet been covered. It is best to use this book in the company of other learners (and more fun).

Unlike other books written on the Ugarit language, this book begins as any basic grammar would begin with the alphabet and working through the nouns and verbs as well as grammar in an orderly fashion. Many of the Ugaritic grammars that I have seen made far too many assumptions about the readers' knowledge of Semitic language in general. I would recommend this book as an excellent primer and let the other books flesh out the rest.

I have yet to go through the material. The 13-week orientation will certainly be helpful in teaching members of our church. I was initially very disappointed to find that it was a relatively thin paperback. It is a "Basics" book, but the image had me thinking I would receive a text more comparable to Basics of Biblical Hebrew. Again, that being said, I look forward to going through the material.

This is a perfect self-learn text book for seminary students.

An excellent introduction to understanding the basics of Ugaritic. A must-have resource for students willing to explore this ancient language.