Background
James Bennett Pritchard was born on October 4, 1909, in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. He was the son of John Hayden and Mary (Bennett) Pritchard.
(This anthology brought together the most important histor...)
This anthology brought together the most important historical, legal, mythological, liturgical, and secular texts of the ancient Near East, with the purpose of providing a rich contextual base for understanding the people, cultures, and literature of the Old Testament. A scholar of religious thought and biblical archaeology, James Pritchard recruited the foremost linguists, historians, and archaeologists to select and translate the texts. The goal, in his words, was "a better understanding of the likenesses and differences which existed between Israel and the surrounding cultures." Before the publication of these volumes, students of the Old Testament found themselves having to search out scattered books and journals in various languages. This anthology brought these invaluable documents together, in one place and in one language, thereby expanding the meaning and significance of the Bible for generations of students and readers. As one reviewer put it, "This great volume is one of the most notable to have appeared in the field of Old Testament scholarship this century." Princeton published a follow-up companion volume, The Ancient Near East in Pictures Relating to the Old Testament (1954), and later a one-volume abridgment of the two, The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures (1958). The continued popularity of this work in its various forms demonstrates that anthologies have a very important role to play in education--and in the mission of a university press.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691035032/?tag=2022091-20
1969
(The description for this book, Ancient Near East, Volume ...)
The description for this book, Ancient Near East, Volume 1: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures, will be forthcoming.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691002002/?tag=2022091-20
1973
(This first book-length presentation of the results of our...)
This first book-length presentation of the results of our excavations at el-Jib has been written for the general reader who is concerned with the contribution that archaeology has made to the biblical history of the site.... In telling the story of Gibeon I have tried to show how the tale of the city unfolded week by week and year by year through excavation and study. I have sought to give in these pages a personally conducted tour, as it were, of the ruins of ancient Gibeon and what we have seen in them.... The results of the excavations at el-Jib are unique in that they can be related with a high degree of certainty to specific events described in the Old Testament. For the first time in the history of scientific archaeology in the land of the Bible an actual place name of a biblical city, neatly incised on clay, has been found under circumstances which make certain the identification of the name with the ruins.--from the Preface.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/069100210X/?tag=2022091-20
1973
(This volume makes available some of the most important di...)
This volume makes available some of the most important discovered source material for the historian of the ancient Near East.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691002096/?tag=2022091-20
1976
(Comprising more than four hundred illustrations and 134 m...)
Comprising more than four hundred illustrations and 134 maps, this volume conveys the sense of landscape, events, everyday life, people, and historical eras portrayed in both the Old and New Testaments.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061818836/?tag=2022091-20
1987
James Bennett Pritchard was born on October 4, 1909, in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. He was the son of John Hayden and Mary (Bennett) Pritchard.
Pritchard received a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Asbury College in Wilmore, and a doctorate in Oriental studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 1942.
In 1977 Pritchard received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Theology at Uppsala University, Sweden.
Pritchard taught at Crozer Theological Seminary, in Chester for 12 years and in 1954 joined the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley. In 1962, he joined the Near Eastern Studies Department at Penn, where he remained until his retirement as a professor of religious thought in 1984. He was also director of the University Museum and its curator of biblical archaeology.
Pritchard's archaeological reputation began to be established by his excavations at a site called el-Jib (1956–1962). He followed (1964–1967) with excavations at Tell es-Sa'idiyeh, on the east bank in the Jordan Valley, Jordan, and his third and last major excavation was at Sarafand, Lebanon (1969–1974).
In retirement, Dr Pritchard continued to write and publish and to work on two Atlases of the Bible.
(This anthology brought together the most important histor...)
1969(This first book-length presentation of the results of our...)
1973(Comprising more than four hundred illustrations and 134 m...)
1987(This volume makes available some of the most important di...)
1976(The description for this book, Ancient Near East, Volume ...)
1973James Pritchard was a member of the American Philosophical Society, American Oriental Society and Archeological Institute American Clubs: Franklin Inn, Pennsylvania.
Quotes from others about the person
Lorraine Hannaway said "Throughout his career he has related his findings to the literature of the Old Testament, breathing new life into its personalities and places and satisfying his own ambition to me more than a 'textbook expert'. He writes with equal clarity and grace for expert and general reader."
Pritchard married Anne Elizabeth Cassedy on June 30, 1937. The couple had 2 children: Sarah Anne (Mistress Robert F. Hayman) and Mary Bennett (Mistress Clifton Mitchell).