lexicons first. There are many admirable
glossaries attached to the editions of texts, which for students are a
valuable supplement to the lexicons. All philological discussions are, of
course, excluded. As a rule, doubtful interpretations will be ignored or
at least queried. It is, on the other hand, impossible to give detailed
proofs of what is certain to the writer, when it disagrees with recognized
authorities. Nor is it desirable to puzzle the reader with alternative
views, when there is no opportunity for him to judge of their merits.

Every attempt will be made to discard non-essentials. Thus, in order to
insure that there should be no mistake as to the persons intended, the
ancient scribe usually gave not only the name, but the father's name, and
often added the name of his tribe, or his occupation. For example,
"Ardi-Ishtar, son of Ashur-bani, the son of Gahal," might be the scribe's
careful specification of one party to some transaction. But unless some
other party is a relation and the transaction explicitly concerns what
could take place between relations, the whole line gives us no information
of value for illustrating the subject for which it is quoted. Indeed, in
most cases, the name itself is of no interest. It is true that the names
have a value of their own; but that is aside from the purpose of this
book. The examples are selected to illustrate legal points, not for the
sake of the names. And indeed, the few interesting names so given would be
insufficient to serve any useful purpose; they might even be misused, for
no permanent results can be obtained by picking up here and there a name,
with some fanciful likeness to Abraham, or Jacob, unless a complete list
of similar names be available to check and control the readings.

Hence, as a rule, the name of a party is condensed into a single letter,
chosen usually in order to suggest the part played by the person in the
transaction. Thus S stands for the seller, B for the buyer, J for the
judge, C for the creditor, L for the lender, D for the debtor or borrower,
and so on. These abbreviations may be used without any detriment to the
argument, as the context usually defines the relation and there is no need
to remember what they mean. This seems preferable, for the most part, to
the Continental system of using A-A-G for the above name.

As a further abbreviation, all lists of witnesses are excluded. The date
is usually suppressed, for, unless we are follo