The Hebrew Bible, apart from its religious significance, is one of the most important extant primary source texts for scholars of the ancient Near East (often abbreviated as ANE). While the questions of authorship and the exact time of composition remain open inquiries for many Hebrew Bible texts, there is a broad recognition that all the texts fall within a compositional range from the second half of the second millennium BCE at the earliest to the late first millennium BCE at the latest. Despite this imprecision in the exact dates of composition, the texts of the Hebrew Bible stand among the most complete and voluminous records of ANE life and history produced anywhere within that period. 

The earliest of the texts, which include portions of the Torah, are traditionally attributed to the mid-to-late second millennium BCE (usually in a range from the 15th to the 13th century, depending on one’s dating of the exodus events) and to the authorship of Moses. If that attribution is accurate, then these texts represent a glimpse into a period for which only scarce records remain. This was a time in which Mesopotamian civilizations were entering a significant lull and in which the rising civilization of Greece was still firmly locked in its legendary period.