An examination of the ethics of violence in the Ugaritic story of Aqhat using the conventions of characterization and the conflicting points of view. The points of view of the divine characters El, Baal, Anat, Yatpan, are contrasted with the points of view of the human characters, Aqhat, Dan'il and Pughat, in order to bring out the multi-dimensional aspect of Anat's violence.

From Ugarit to Nabataea is a collection of articles on the texts and cultures of various Near and Middle Eastern societies such as Ugarit, Ancient North Arabia, Nabatea, Palmyra, Edessa, the monasteries of Mesopotamia, and modern day Syriac-speaking communities. They include discussion of the religious beliefs, iconography, epigraphy, architecture and language of these societies – fields to which John F. Healey has contributed in his long, distinguished and varied career.

The imagery of thunder and lightning, fire and earthquake which attends YHWH's theophany in Old Testament poetic texts has most often been interpreted as a series of metaphors in biblical scholarship. This work applies insights from recent work in metaphor theory and myth theory to argue that this traditional interpretation of poetic theophanic imagery is mistaken, and that these texts make better exegetical sense when understood against the background of the ANE myth of the defeat of chaos.

This volume is a collection of selected essays on specific themes in Ugaritic literature. Included are eight unique contributions to understanding the religious life and thought of Ugarit, including detailed studies and essays covering broader issues for grasping the worldview of ancient Syria.

This study focuses on the imagery of meals and feasting in the Baal Myth and Kirta and Aqhat epics. Utilizing contemporary approaches to ritual, these meal events reveal the manner in which ritual behavior described and defined the different social relationships with the Ugaritic pantheon and the interactions between the divine and mortal realms. This study demonstrates the role successful ritual behavior played in the organization and presentation of characters within the narratives, as well as the role of unsuccessful or failed rituals associated with the meal event, which resulted in social chaos and confusion.

The book investigates the qatal//yiqtol (yiqtol//qatal) verbal sequence, previously known as ‘tense shifting’, as found in couplets of the Hebrew Psalter, attempting an innovatory explanation by means of M.A.K. Halliday’s Systemic Theory. This study argues that qatal and yiqtol verbal forms, when part of the qatal//yiqtol verbal sequence in Psalms' poetic couplets, can be used primarily for aesthetic reasons, with no individual reference to time or aspect. Arguably, the Systemic Functional Grammar analysis of lexicogrammar can provide a comprehensive interpretation of form and function and an integrated approach to phonetics, morphology and syntax.