Showing papers in "Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions in 2007"

The Storm-Gods of the Ancient Near East: Summary, Synthesis, Recent Studies: Part II

Abstract: In many regions of the ancient Near East, not least in Upper Mesopotamia, Syria and Anatolia where agriculture relied mainly on rainfall, storm-gods ranked among the most prominent gods in the local panthea or were even regarded as divine kings, ruling over the gods and bestowing kingship on the human ruler. While the Babylonian and Assyrian storm-god never held the highest position among the gods, he too belongs to the group of 'great gods' through most periods of Mesopotamian history. Given the many cultural contacts and the longevity of traditions in the ancient Near East only a study that takes into account all relevant periods, regions and text-groups can further our understanding of the different ancient Near Eastern storm-gods. The study Wettergottgestalten Mesopotamiens und Nordsyriens by the present author (2001) tried to tackle the problems involved, basing itself primarily on the textual record and excluding the genuinely Anatolian storm-gods from the study. Given the lack of handbooks, concordances and thesauri in our field, the book is necessarily heavily burdened with materials collected for the first time. Despite comprehensive indices, the long lists and footnotes as well as the lack of an overall synthesis make the study not easily accessible, especially outside the German-speaking community. In 2003 Alberto Green published a comprehensive monograph entitled The Storm-God in the Ancient Near East whose aims are more ambitious than those of Wettergottgestalten: All regions of the ancient Near East—including a chapter on Yahwe as a storm-god—are taken into account, and both textual and iconographic sources are given equal space. Unfortunately this book, which was apparently finished and submitted to the publisher before Wettergottgestalten came to its author's attention, suffers from some serious flaws with regard to methodology, philology and the interpretation of texts and images. In presenting the following succinct overview I take the opportunity to make up for the missing synthesis in Wettergottgestalten and to provide some additions and corrections where necessary. It is hoped that this synthesis can also serve as a response to the history of ancient Near Eastern storm-gods as outlined by A. Green.

Was dust their food and clay their bread? grave goods, the mesopotamian afterlife, and the liminal role of inana/ishtar*

Abstract: Many literary texts portray the Mesopotamian netherworld as unrelievedly bleak, yet the archaeological evidence of grave goods suggests that there may also have existed an alternative way of thinking about the afterlife. An analysis of the types of objects found in burials indicates that many people may have anticipated a less harsh form of existence after death. Furthermore, iconographic allusions to the goddess Inana/Ishtar in certain burials raise the possibility that this deity may have been associated with the descent of human dead to the netherworld. The occasional presence of her image and iconography in funerary contexts does not necessarily imply a belief that Inana/Ishtar would personally grant the deceased a happy afterlife, but it may provide an allusion to her own escape from the undesirable netherworld of literary narrative. Inana/Ishtar's status as a liminal figure and breaker of boundaries also may have encouraged Mesopotamians to associate her with the transition between life and death.

The First Documented Occurence of the God Yahweh? (Book of the Dead Princeton “Roll 5”)

Abstract: The article presents and discusses the proper name of the owner of a recently unfolded and mounted Book of the Dead papyrus from the late 18th or 19th dynasty (Princeton University Library, Pharaonic Roll 5). It is proposed that the name in question is a Northwest Semitic theophoric sentence name in Egyptian transcription, 'adōnī-rō'ē-yāh “My lord is the shepherd of Yah”. Whereas the name Yahweh has been known from Egyptian toponym lists of the New Kingdom, the present name would be the first documented occurence of the god Yahweh in his function as a shepherd of Yah, the short form of the tetragrammaton. The article also points to a new etymology of the divine name and the cultural significance of the evidence.

The Origins of the Hebrew Bible: Some New Answers to Old Questions

Abstract: In two recent studies, one by William M. Schniedewind, How the Bible Became a Book, the other by David M. Carr, Writing on the Tablet of the Heart, these scholars present their answers to the age old question of how the Hebrew Bible came into being as a special collection of edited and canonized books. Both scholars reject the older formula of a three stage process of Law (400 BCE), Prophets (ca. 200 BCE), and Writings (First Century CE). Schniedewind, on the one hand, proposes an editorial process of collection and arrangement of traditional material within the preexilic royal court and among the royal scribes in captivity in Babylon that gave rise to an authoritative corpus, which was then augmented with some later works in the Persian and Hellenistic periods. Carr, on the other hand, sees the collection and selection of biblical books within an educational process of enculturation that was continuous over an extended period from simple oral tradition in early Israel to the final stages of curricular consolidation, i.e., the canon, in which the priests play a major role. This study will examine a set of issues (e.g. orality and literacy; dating and composition of texts; editing and transmission of texts in antiquity; the role of texts in education) that are covered by these studies, and will offer some alternative suggestions for consideration.

The Cilician God Sandas and the Greek Chimaera: Features of Near Eastern and Greek Mythology Concerning the Plague

Abstract: A gem in the Museum of Castelvecchio (Verona) depicts the god Sandas of Tarsos with his terrible animal: the lion-goat. On the reverse side there is the inscription YOYO. The epigraphical and archaeological evidence from Anatolia, from Hittite to Hellenistic times, proves that Sandas was a underworld god protecting tombs and sending pestilences when angry. He was appeased by offerings to his terrible ministers, who were usually seven. Similarly Nergal or Erra (similar to Sandas) in Mesopotamia, and Sekhmet in Egypt had seven animal-headed terrible ministers, who were able to bring pestilences and death. A Hittite inscription mentions Yaya as Sandas' female partner. Her name is very similar to the Yoyo on the Verona gem. Sandas was identified with Heracles because of his relations with the underworld realms and his warlike features. The lion-goat of Tarsus was the model of Greek Chimaera. In fact the myth of Bellerophon took its place in Lycia and Cilicia. In Hellenistic age the original form of this monster was better known and therefore we find its typical features in Hellenistic and Roman sculptures and reliefs.

The Soul has to Leave the Land of the Living

Abstract: A fragmentary Hittite tablet (a late copy of an Old Hittite original) describes the soul's journey in the Netherworld, unwilling to travel “the great road . . . the road that makes things disappear”, even though aware that “to the gods belongs the soul”. This is the belief, or cry of hope, that runs through the entire history of humanity, which a popular poem in Des Knaben Wunderhorn expresses in this way: “Ich bin von Gott und will wieder zu Gott”. Despite this, the soul does not want to “undergo the perdition of the mortal”. The journey starts in the second column (of which only a few words remain). It is not clear whether the narrative is interrupted here by a ritual act. At the end of the second column and up to the start of the third, the desolation of souls in the Netherworld is described. However, the fate awaiting this soul is different, but the text breaks of without telling us anything more definite. The fourth column contains a brief section of the ritual.

RS 15.039 remis sur pied

Abstract: A new epigraphic examination of RS 15.039 has led to reversing the obverse-reverse orientation of the tablet as previously read. The new orientation gives a simple progression from distributions of wine to distributions of a second liquid commodity currently unidentifiable. The philological analysis has led to the conclusion that the recipients of these two commodities do not belong exclusively to the religious sphere.