Bible Review

We thank the Louvre for allowing us permission to photograph this and other texts in its collection and particularly acknowledge the help and patience of Mme. Beatrice André-Leicknam, who directs the Department of Oriental Antiquities in the Louvre. Mention must also be made of the indispensable aid of André Lemaire and Maurice Sznycer of the Institut d’Études Sémitiques The openness and collegiality afforded us by the entire staffs of the Louvre and the Institut constitute a model.

Anyone interested in the work of the West Semitic Research Project may write for further information: Bruce Zuckerman, Director, West Semitic Research Project, c/o School of Religion, 328 Taper Hall, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089–0355.

See Raphael Patai, The Hebrew Goddess (1967), pp. 20, 52.

Othmar Keel, Das Böcklein in der Milch seiner Mutter und Verwandtes (Göttingen, 1980).

See M. Haran, “Seething a Kid in its Mother’s Milk,” JSS 30:23–35 (1979), p. 27.

This reading is suggested by Hans Goedicke in Journal of Near Eastern Studies 42:302–03 (1983), p. 303, and, interestingly, was also proposed by Luther.

Philo of Alexandria, Clement of Alexandria, Ibn Ezra and Rashbam are among those who think that this humanitarian motive explains the prohibition. For modern support, see Menahem Haran, “Seething a Kid in its Mother’s Milk,” Journal of Semitic Studies (JSS) 30:23–35 (1979); H. Louis Ginsberg, The Israelian Heritage of Judaism (1982), p. 52, note 69; Umberto Cassuto, “A Kid in Milk,” Encyclopaedia Biblica 2:436–37 (1954) (in Hebrew).

See J. Soler, “The Dietary Prohibitions of the Hebrews,” New York Review of Books 26/10 (June 14, 1979), p. 24ff., and F. Martens, “Diététhique ou la cuisine de Dieu,” Communications 26 (1977), pp 16–45.

Exodus 16:31; Numbers 11:7. See G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends (1956), p. 146, note 10. The parallel to gd in our text, annh, probably derives from the Akkadian nanahu, meaning “mint”; ibid, p. 135, note 28.