War and Ethics in the Ancient Near East: Military Violence in Light of Cosmology and History (Beihefte Zur Zeitschrift F R die Alttestamentliche Wissensch) by C.L. Crouch

War and Ethics in the Ancient Near East: Military Violence in Light of Cosmology and History (Beihefte Zur Zeitschrift F R die Alttestamentliche Wissensch) Reviews

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  Margaret Sankey

  This is a comparative examination of the conduct of warfare by the 8th century BCE kings of Israel and Judah, and their dangerous neighbors, the Assyrian Emperors, as expressed in available documentation (inscriptions, documents, artistic works, etc.) in an effort to place the better known Old Testament episodes in a broader context. This is pretty clearly a published dissertation, meant for specialists, with the expectation that a reader can handle untranslated German and Hebrew. The highlight here is the methodology, teasing out how much of the source to take as reliable about the conduct of the conflict and how much is threats, wishful boasting or propaganda, with insights about the role of warfare in cementing each society's concept of order and righteous authority, the handling of prisoners, restive populations (sending people off in chains is a recurrent motif, especially for wall decoration), exemplary punishments and conditions of surrender for besieged cities.