Pub Date : 2016-03-18DOI: 10.1163/15692124-12341274
Foy Scalf
With a continuous tradition spanning more than two millennia, funerary texts from ancient Egypt offer an excellent data set for studying how compositions were composed and passed on in the ancient Near East. Clear evidence demonstrates the importance and mechanics of scribal copying in the transmission process. What remain less clear are the methods by which new compositions were created. In some cases, the accretion of scholia, commentary, and exegesis produced new versions of old texts. This is well illustrated by the continuum between Coffin Text ( CT ) spell 335 and Book of the Dead ( BD ) spell 17. In other cases, however, large collections appear in writing for the first time showing few hints at the earlier stages of their production. This is true for the Pyramid Texts ( PT ), whose pre-written forms can only be hypothesized. Fortunately, fragmentary steps from conception to textualization are partially preserved for a relatively little studied corpus from Roman Period Egypt, sometimes known by the title the Demotic Book of Breathing. Despite clearly representing the final stage in the PT-CT-BD tradition, scribes did not create this composition by copying from its predecessors. Instead, a new composition was crafted without direct parallel. In addition, the new text was never fixed, as fifty separate exemplars attest to a core set of formulae that could be added to, subtracted from, or rearranged at will. The variance in this corpus reflects a growing trend toward multiplicity in similar funerary manuscripts from Greco-Roman Egypt. A portion of this variance can be demonstrated to derive from an active oral tradition and it is this oral tradition, I will argue, that provided the raw material for new compositions such as the Demotic Book of Breathing. This paper will therefore address how textual traditions began by looking at the very end of funerary literature in ancient Egypt.
{"title":"From the Beginning to the End: How to Generate and Transmit Funerary Texts in Ancient Egypt","authors":"Foy Scalf","doi":"10.1163/15692124-12341274","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15692124-12341274","url":null,"abstract":"With a continuous tradition spanning more than two millennia, funerary texts from ancient Egypt offer an excellent data set for studying how compositions were composed and passed on in the ancient Near East. Clear evidence demonstrates the importance and mechanics of scribal copying in the transmission process. What remain less clear are the methods by which new compositions were created. In some cases, the accretion of scholia, commentary, and exegesis produced new versions of old texts. This is well illustrated by the continuum between Coffin Text ( CT ) spell 335 and Book of the Dead ( BD ) spell 17. In other cases, however, large collections appear in writing for the first time showing few hints at the earlier stages of their production. This is true for the Pyramid Texts ( PT ), whose pre-written forms can only be hypothesized. Fortunately, fragmentary steps from conception to textualization are partially preserved for a relatively little studied corpus from Roman Period Egypt, sometimes known by the title the Demotic Book of Breathing. Despite clearly representing the final stage in the PT-CT-BD tradition, scribes did not create this composition by copying from its predecessors. Instead, a new composition was crafted without direct parallel. In addition, the new text was never fixed, as fifty separate exemplars attest to a core set of formulae that could be added to, subtracted from, or rearranged at will. The variance in this corpus reflects a growing trend toward multiplicity in similar funerary manuscripts from Greco-Roman Egypt. A portion of this variance can be demonstrated to derive from an active oral tradition and it is this oral tradition, I will argue, that provided the raw material for new compositions such as the Demotic Book of Breathing. This paper will therefore address how textual traditions began by looking at the very end of funerary literature in ancient Egypt.","PeriodicalId":42129,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2016-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/15692124-12341274","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65153627","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2015-09-17DOI: 10.1163/15692124-12341267
A. Al‐Jallad
This article provides a new reading and interpretation of the undeciphered Ancient North Arabian inscription KRS 2453. It is argued that the text is composed in a mixed Safaito-Hismaic script, and contains a three-line poem recounting the conflict between the Canaanite deities Baal and Mōt as known from the Ugaritic Baal Cycle. The inscription’s Ancient North Arabian context is also discussed, and its style and structure are examined in light of the ʿĒn ʿAvdat inscription, the only comparable Old Arabic text.
本文提供了一个新的阅读和解释未破译的古代北阿拉伯铭文KRS 2453。有人认为，该文本是用萨法伊托语和西班牙语的混合文字写成的，其中包含一首三行诗，讲述了迦南神Baal和Mōt之间的冲突，这是从乌加里特Baal循环中知道的。还讨论了碑文的古代北阿拉伯背景，并根据唯一可与之比较的古阿拉伯文本- - - Ēn - - -阿夫达碑文，对其风格和结构进行了检查。
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Pub Date : 2015-09-17DOI: 10.1163/15692124-12341270
Noel K. Weeks
Examples where a ritual has a clear connection to a myth are actually rare in the ANE , with the exception of Egypt, yet they provide the best evidence for the connection between the two. Comparison of examples does not support some previous generalisations about the connection of myth and ritual but rather raises the possibility that the connection varies with culture and period. Further the myths involved are often different to the myths known from the literary tradition, raising the likelihood of separate functions for the literary tradition and whatever tradition lay behind these texts. That in turn leads to a need to conjecture a reason for the difference in attestation of myths in the literary traditions of Mesopotamia and Egypt.
{"title":"Myth and Ritual: An Empirical Approach","authors":"Noel K. Weeks","doi":"10.1163/15692124-12341270","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15692124-12341270","url":null,"abstract":"Examples where a ritual has a clear connection to a myth are actually rare in the ANE , with the exception of Egypt, yet they provide the best evidence for the connection between the two. Comparison of examples does not support some previous generalisations about the connection of myth and ritual but rather raises the possibility that the connection varies with culture and period. Further the myths involved are often different to the myths known from the literary tradition, raising the likelihood of separate functions for the literary tradition and whatever tradition lay behind these texts. That in turn leads to a need to conjecture a reason for the difference in attestation of myths in the literary traditions of Mesopotamia and Egypt.","PeriodicalId":42129,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2015-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/15692124-12341270","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65153512","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2015-09-17DOI: 10.1163/15692124-12341268
Noga Ayali-Darshan
The paper examines a group of texts from second-millennium BCE Egypt, Hatti, and Ugarit that contains motifs relating to the Storm-god’s combat with the Sea. The similarity these accounts exhibit to one another and their divergence from Enūma elis and related biblical passages suggests that they constitute a variant of this mythologem that circulated in the Fertile Crescent during this period. The primary elements of this version, its origin, and means of transmission are examined through a comparative analysis.
{"title":"The Other Version of the Story of the Storm-god’s Combat with the Sea in the Light of Egyptian, Ugaritic, and Hurro-Hittite Texts","authors":"Noga Ayali-Darshan","doi":"10.1163/15692124-12341268","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15692124-12341268","url":null,"abstract":"The paper examines a group of texts from second-millennium BCE Egypt, Hatti, and Ugarit that contains motifs relating to the Storm-god’s combat with the Sea. The similarity these accounts exhibit to one another and their divergence from Enūma elis and related biblical passages suggests that they constitute a variant of this mythologem that circulated in the Fertile Crescent during this period. The primary elements of this version, its origin, and means of transmission are examined through a comparative analysis.","PeriodicalId":42129,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2015-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/15692124-12341268","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65153500","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2015-09-17DOI: 10.1163/15692124-12341269
C. López-Ruiz
The Greek Gold Tablets (also called “Orphic Gold Tablets”), have often been compared with Egyptian funerary texts, especially those comprising the Book of the Dead . At the same time, North-West Semitic gold and silver leaves (Phoenician-Punic and Hebrew) with protective formulae offer a close parallel to them in aspects of their function and form. Although this group of funerary amulets are also said to follow Egyptian models, the three corpora have never been discussed together. Egyptian afterlife motifs and magical technologies may have indirectly influenced Greek Orphic funerary ideas and practices. I suggest, however, that this transmission happened through adaptations of Egyptian materials in the Phoenician-Punic realm, with evidence pointing to southern Italy and Sicily (Magna Graecia) as likely scenarios for this exchange. Intersections between Orphic and Phoenician cosmogony and the selective use of Egyptian iconography in Phoenician funerary amulets reinforce this hypothesis.
{"title":"Near Eastern Precedents of the “Orphic” Gold Tablets: The Phoenician Missing Link","authors":"C. López-Ruiz","doi":"10.1163/15692124-12341269","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15692124-12341269","url":null,"abstract":"The Greek Gold Tablets (also called “Orphic Gold Tablets”), have often been compared with Egyptian funerary texts, especially those comprising the Book of the Dead . At the same time, North-West Semitic gold and silver leaves (Phoenician-Punic and Hebrew) with protective formulae offer a close parallel to them in aspects of their function and form. Although this group of funerary amulets are also said to follow Egyptian models, the three corpora have never been discussed together. Egyptian afterlife motifs and magical technologies may have indirectly influenced Greek Orphic funerary ideas and practices. I suggest, however, that this transmission happened through adaptations of Egyptian materials in the Phoenician-Punic realm, with evidence pointing to southern Italy and Sicily (Magna Graecia) as likely scenarios for this exchange. Intersections between Orphic and Phoenician cosmogony and the selective use of Egyptian iconography in Phoenician funerary amulets reinforce this hypothesis.","PeriodicalId":42129,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2015-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/15692124-12341269","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65153506","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2014-11-24DOI: 10.1163/15692124-12341263
Seth L. Sanders
Was religion a unifying force in ancient Judah and Israel? In what way did people in this region even have the same religion across different areas and time periods? And what were the fundamental units of religion—were its basic divisions political, into the kingdoms of North and South, geographical, like the coast or highland areas, or individual villages or houses? This book, written in alternating sections by two accomplished historians of Hebrew religion and literature,1 is a major argument for how to approach religion in the ancient southern Levant, in the form of an encyclopedic scholarly resource. In particular, it presents the most detailed claim to date that the Iron Age (11th–7th centuries bce) was a coherent cultural period when seen from the smallest scale, the viewpoint of families and dwellings. As a result, it allows both the biblicist and the scholar of ancient Near Eastern religions access to a unique
{"title":"“The Mutation Peculiar to Hebrew Religion:” Monotheism, Pantheon Reduction, or Royal Adoption of Family Religion?","authors":"Seth L. Sanders","doi":"10.1163/15692124-12341263","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15692124-12341263","url":null,"abstract":"Was religion a unifying force in ancient Judah and Israel? In what way did people in this region even have the same religion across different areas and time periods? And what were the fundamental units of religion—were its basic divisions political, into the kingdoms of North and South, geographical, like the coast or highland areas, or individual villages or houses? This book, written in alternating sections by two accomplished historians of Hebrew religion and literature,1 is a major argument for how to approach religion in the ancient southern Levant, in the form of an encyclopedic scholarly resource. In particular, it presents the most detailed claim to date that the Iron Age (11th–7th centuries bce) was a coherent cultural period when seen from the smallest scale, the viewpoint of families and dwellings. As a result, it allows both the biblicist and the scholar of ancient Near Eastern religions access to a unique","PeriodicalId":42129,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2014-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/15692124-12341263","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65153344","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2014-11-24DOI: 10.1163/15692124-12341260
A. Archi
The Hittite documentation concerning the Land of Astata on the Euphrates, with Emar as capital, can now be better evaluated thanks to a more precise chronological order of the documentation from Emar (1400–1180 b.c.). Hittite rule did not exercise any religious imperialism, on the contrary, it was Mursili ii who transferred to Hattusa some Astata cults for the Syrian goddess Isḫara. He did not refrain from calling to his court priests from Emar in order to celebrate the proper rites to the goddess in an emergency. The king of Karkamis, who exercised Hittite control over Emar, sent there one of his diviners to enquire through oracles if the local gods were in favour of his travelling to the city. A reorganization of cults promoted by Tuthaliya iv was at the origin of the introduction in Emar of a liturgy for some Hittite gods. This was not a superimposition of a theological organized pantheon over the local gods, but personal gods of the king; their cult was committed to the local family of diviners in charge of the cults of the city, with which the Hittites maintained close relations. Apparently, Hittite religion never deeply penetrated Emar society. A group of seals used by some Emariotes, however, presents the same iconographies as Hittite seals, with gods of the Hittite pantheon, an evidence of adhesion to the Hittite rule.
{"title":"Aštata: A Case of Hittite Imperial Religious Policy","authors":"A. Archi","doi":"10.1163/15692124-12341260","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15692124-12341260","url":null,"abstract":"The Hittite documentation concerning the Land of Astata on the Euphrates, with Emar as capital, can now be better evaluated thanks to a more precise chronological order of the documentation from Emar (1400–1180 b.c.). Hittite rule did not exercise any religious imperialism, on the contrary, it was Mursili ii who transferred to Hattusa some Astata cults for the Syrian goddess Isḫara. He did not refrain from calling to his court priests from Emar in order to celebrate the proper rites to the goddess in an emergency. The king of Karkamis, who exercised Hittite control over Emar, sent there one of his diviners to enquire through oracles if the local gods were in favour of his travelling to the city. A reorganization of cults promoted by Tuthaliya iv was at the origin of the introduction in Emar of a liturgy for some Hittite gods. This was not a superimposition of a theological organized pantheon over the local gods, but personal gods of the king; their cult was committed to the local family of diviners in charge of the cults of the city, with which the Hittites maintained close relations. Apparently, Hittite religion never deeply penetrated Emar society. A group of seals used by some Emariotes, however, presents the same iconographies as Hittite seals, with gods of the Hittite pantheon, an evidence of adhesion to the Hittite rule.","PeriodicalId":42129,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2014-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/15692124-12341260","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65153310","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2014-11-24DOI: 10.1163/15692124-12341261
Y. Heffron
The elusive Hittite cultic phrase DINGIR eku-, “to drink a god,” has long been controversial as regards its precise meaning: Did the phrase refer to a mystical act (comparable to the Eucharist), or was it simply a turn of phrase for toasting the divine? Commentators have thus far remained almost exclusively on philological ground, drawing their conclusions from syntactic arguments and paying little attention to archaeological evidence. This paper offers a new approach to the question of ‘god-drinking’ by focusing primarily on its paraphernalia, namely the vessels themselves, particularly those that are zoomorphic (BIBRU in Hittite texts). The evaluation of zoomorphic vessels centres on the early second millennium forerunners of Hittite BIBRU, namely the large and varied repertoire of the kārum period (20th–17th century b.c.),1 which is exceptionally well-represented at the site of Kultepe-Kanes/Nesa. Also included in the discussion are anthropomorphic vessels and their potential place in cultic drinking. Situating zoomorphic (and anthropomorphic) ritual vessels as part of a continuous tradition throughout the second millennium thus offers a wider scope for understanding their use in the Hittite cult, and their specific function(s) in relation to god-drinking.
{"title":"The Material Culture of Hittite ‘God-drinking’","authors":"Y. Heffron","doi":"10.1163/15692124-12341261","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15692124-12341261","url":null,"abstract":"The elusive Hittite cultic phrase DINGIR eku-, “to drink a god,” has long been controversial as regards its precise meaning: Did the phrase refer to a mystical act (comparable to the Eucharist), or was it simply a turn of phrase for toasting the divine? Commentators have thus far remained almost exclusively on philological ground, drawing their conclusions from syntactic arguments and paying little attention to archaeological evidence. This paper offers a new approach to the question of ‘god-drinking’ by focusing primarily on its paraphernalia, namely the vessels themselves, particularly those that are zoomorphic (BIBRU in Hittite texts). The evaluation of zoomorphic vessels centres on the early second millennium forerunners of Hittite BIBRU, namely the large and varied repertoire of the kārum period (20th–17th century b.c.),1 which is exceptionally well-represented at the site of Kultepe-Kanes/Nesa. Also included in the discussion are anthropomorphic vessels and their potential place in cultic drinking. Situating zoomorphic (and anthropomorphic) ritual vessels as part of a continuous tradition throughout the second millennium thus offers a wider scope for understanding their use in the Hittite cult, and their specific function(s) in relation to god-drinking.","PeriodicalId":42129,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2014-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/15692124-12341261","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65152925","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2014-11-24DOI: 10.1163/15692124-12341262
E. Silver
This essay considers the image of the yoke (Akk. nīru/absānu; Heb. ʿōl) in the context of ancient Near Eastern political discourse. It analyzes the yoke’s function in Jeremiah 27–29 as a means to developing a clearer understanding of how biblical prophecy operated as political speech. The yoke finds abundant attestation in the neo-Assyrian imperial rhetoric that immediately preceded the period of Babylonian domination in Judah. In manipulating this image, the Jeremian poetry strategically reframed an element of imperial ideology within the discourse of the patriarchal, agrarian household. In the course of this critical engagement, the prophet also restructured the basis for his Judean audience’s political identity, grounding it not in complex bureaucratic structures, but in the lifeworld of the basic kinship unit. The prophet’s speech functioned as a type of subaltern political theorizing in a poetic mode; it discloses a coherent theory of power and models intellective practices capable of operation under conditions of political domination.
{"title":"Performing Domination/Theorizing Power: Israelite Prophecy as a Political Discourse beyond the Conflict Model","authors":"E. Silver","doi":"10.1163/15692124-12341262","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15692124-12341262","url":null,"abstract":"This essay considers the image of the yoke (Akk. nīru/absānu; Heb. ʿōl) in the context of ancient Near Eastern political discourse. It analyzes the yoke’s function in Jeremiah 27–29 as a means to developing a clearer understanding of how biblical prophecy operated as political speech. The yoke finds abundant attestation in the neo-Assyrian imperial rhetoric that immediately preceded the period of Babylonian domination in Judah. In manipulating this image, the Jeremian poetry strategically reframed an element of imperial ideology within the discourse of the patriarchal, agrarian household. In the course of this critical engagement, the prophet also restructured the basis for his Judean audience’s political identity, grounding it not in complex bureaucratic structures, but in the lifeworld of the basic kinship unit. The prophet’s speech functioned as a type of subaltern political theorizing in a poetic mode; it discloses a coherent theory of power and models intellective practices capable of operation under conditions of political domination.","PeriodicalId":42129,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2014-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/15692124-12341262","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65153753","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2014-05-27DOI: 10.1163/15692124-12341257
Isabel Cranz
The Priestly Source makes no explicit reference to the demonic when describing pollution which supposedly sets it apart from non-biblical conceptualizations of impurity. Most scholars explain the Priestly disregard for demons by referring to the advance of monotheism and the subsequent eradication of supernatural forces other than God. Depending on whether monotheism is viewed as gradual process or as the foundation of Israelite religion, commentators either detect a weakened demonic quality in Priestly pollution or claim that the Priestly Source has always been of a non-demonic nature. However, in recent years the idea that monotheism pervades most books of the Hebrew Bible has been increasingly called into question. At the same time, the extensive publication of Assyro-Babylonian ritual texts allows for better understanding of Assyro-Babylonian conceptualizations of impurity. These developments necessitate the reevaluation of the current views on Priestly pollution by examining Assyro-Babylonian texts pertaining to impurity and the demonic. Special attention is given to context and dating of the cuneiform sources used to exemplify the non-demonic nature of Priestly impurity. This renewed comparison of Priestly and Assyro-Babylonian impurity highlights how the Priestly writer frames the concepts of pollution within the context of the sanctuary and its maintenance. The Assyro-Babylonian texts dealing with impurity and demons, by contrast, focus on the individual and his/her relationship to the personal god rather than temple maintenance. Likewise, cuneiform texts that deal with pollution and temple maintenance do not concern themselves with demonic affliction. Consequently, it can be argued that the non-demonic nature of impurity in the Priestly Source is the result of the Priestly focus on the sanctuary and does not give witness to an underlying theological ideal.
{"title":"Priests, Pollution and the Demonic: Evaluating Impurity in the Hebrew Bible in Light of Assyro-Babylonian Texts","authors":"Isabel Cranz","doi":"10.1163/15692124-12341257","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15692124-12341257","url":null,"abstract":"The Priestly Source makes no explicit reference to the demonic when describing pollution which supposedly sets it apart from non-biblical conceptualizations of impurity. Most scholars explain the Priestly disregard for demons by referring to the advance of monotheism and the subsequent eradication of supernatural forces other than God. Depending on whether monotheism is viewed as gradual process or as the foundation of Israelite religion, commentators either detect a weakened demonic quality in Priestly pollution or claim that the Priestly Source has always been of a non-demonic nature. However, in recent years the idea that monotheism pervades most books of the Hebrew Bible has been increasingly called into question. At the same time, the extensive publication of Assyro-Babylonian ritual texts allows for better understanding of Assyro-Babylonian conceptualizations of impurity. These developments necessitate the reevaluation of the current views on Priestly pollution by examining Assyro-Babylonian texts pertaining to impurity and the demonic. Special attention is given to context and dating of the cuneiform sources used to exemplify the non-demonic nature of Priestly impurity. This renewed comparison of Priestly and Assyro-Babylonian impurity highlights how the Priestly writer frames the concepts of pollution within the context of the sanctuary and its maintenance. The Assyro-Babylonian texts dealing with impurity and demons, by contrast, focus on the individual and his/her relationship to the personal god rather than temple maintenance. Likewise, cuneiform texts that deal with pollution and temple maintenance do not concern themselves with demonic affliction. Consequently, it can be argued that the non-demonic nature of impurity in the Priestly Source is the result of the Priestly focus on the sanctuary and does not give witness to an underlying theological ideal.","PeriodicalId":42129,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2014-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/15692124-12341257","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"65152891","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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