Prophecy in its ancient Near Eastern context: Mesopotamian, biblical, and

PROPHECY IN ITS ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN CONTEXT

SOCIETY OFBIBliCAL liTERATURE

JrlJZ' SYMPOSIUM SERIES

Christopher R.

~1atthews,

Editor

Number 13 PROPHECY IN ITS ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN CONTEXT MESOPOTAMJAS, BIBUCAl., AND ARABIAN PERSPECTIVES

edited by Manti Nissinen

Martti Nissinen, editor

PROPHECY IN ITS ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN CONTEXT MESOPOTAMIAN, BIBLICAL, AND ARABIAN PERSPECTIVES

Society of Biblical Literature Atlanta

PROPHECY IN ITS ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN CONTEXT MESOPOTAMIAN, BIBLICAL, AND ARABIAN PERSPECTIVES

edited by Martti \Iissinen Copyright © 2000 by the Society of Biblical Literature All rights reserved. :-.Jo part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form m hv any mpans, e)Petronic or mechanical. including photocopying and recording, OJ' by means of any information storage or r('(J'iC\·~!1 system, except ;is may be expressly permitted by the 11)76 Copyright Act or in "'Titing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed in writing to the Rights and Permissions Office, Society of Biblical Literatllre, 82;; Houston Mill Road, Atlant;t. GA 30333-0399, CSA.

Librdry of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Prophecy in its ancient Near Eastern context: Mesopotamian, hihlical, and Arahian perspectives ,/ \fartti Nissinen, editor.

p. CIlI. - (SHI. symposium spries ; no. I~) Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBr-; 0-8841+026-1 (pbk. : alk. paprr) 1. Prophecy-Comparative studies-Congresses. 2. l\liddle East-ReligionComparatiw studies-Congresses. T. :-.Jissinen, Marui. II. Symposium series (Society of Biblical Literature) ; no. 1'>. BL633.P75 2000

291.2'117-oc21

00-061927

OR 07 011 05 04 03 02 0 I 00 Prinled ill lhe U lIited Stales of America oil ;tcid-fret' paper ~

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CONTENTS

PrcEICC

Vll

Abbreviations

IX

Part One STUDIES IN METHOD 1. Comparare neusse est? Ancient Israelite and Ancient Near Eastern Prophecy in a Compararjvc Perspective Hans :Yl. Barstad

3

2. Ancient Near Eastern Prophecy from an Anthropological Perspective l.estleo-Assyrian Tt'xl CO'1)US Project. 1(98). "Prophetic textsfrom other ancient Near Fasten! cultures an: discLlssed in several scholarly cono'ibutions of vall';ng quality. All excellent work (with bibliography) is M. Weippert, "Aspekte israelitischef Prophetie im Lichte verwaudler Erscheinllngen dcs Alten Ot;ents," in Ad />t-ne el jidelitf'r seminandwn: pf'stgabe fur Karlhl'irlJ. Ddler (ed. G, Maller and U. Magel); AOAT 220; Kevelaer, Germany: BUtLOI1 & Bercker; Neukirchen\1uyn: NeukilThener. 1988), 287-319. See also B. Margalit, "l\;inth-Century Israelite Prophecy in the Light of Contemporary NWSClllitic Epigraphs," in '''''nd Mosp srhril'b dif'ses Lipd auf': Slwlim ZUff/ Alii'll 'J,'slalfw'It /tlld ZWII A/tf'1! Onml, l'fstsrhrifi Fir Oswald roret~ (ed. 1>.t Dietrich ,mei 1. Kotlsieper; AOAT 2:'0; l\·lllllster: t'garit-Verlag, 1998), 51 r)-32. Useful is Omcles l'I pmI'M/ie, dans l'antlquitt': Art!!" rill Colloque de Slms""urg, 15·~17 juin 1995 (t>d. J·G, Heintz; Travaux du CellLn:- de Recherche sur Ie Proche-Orient et la Gree€' antiques 15: Paris: De BOt'card, 1997). Still lacking is a synthesis of West Semitic prophecy similar 10 the excellent study by S. B. Parker, Stories in SoitJ/ure and Insoipllons: Comparative Studies on Nan-alil!es in NorthulI-'s! Snniti, {Tl.lrriptiotis and th" Hebrew Bible (New York: Oxford {l n iwrsity Press. 1997). Many observatiol1;' ill Parker's book, however, relate to prophccy. Relutt,d as· pecL~ are dealt with in A, Jeffers. l\-fllglt (lI/li /)illina/io1l ill Aruienl l'al./'stinl' I/nd Syria (Studies in the History and CUltllH' of the Anciell! NClU:hungen Win Gotie,IJl'.ldleid in 1I1m"i: Die ";'tJfll"itm'/Jhl'iU'" in dn "ltteslam,'lItlichm Forse/wng (AOA1" 202: Kevelaer, Gellllany: Butzoll & Bucker: Neukirchen-vluvn: Neukirchener, 19771. 19 N. Shupak. "Egvptian 'Prophecy' 'and Biblical Prophecy: Did th.,. Phenomc'

10

Prophecy in Its A.ncient Nmr Eastern Contf'xt

a student of biblical prophecy for many years, I cannot say that I alv,:ays recognize the phenomenon of biblic,ll prophecy as conceived (likewise differently) by Noort or Shupak. I am not saying that I am right and they are wrong-that is not my point. But we have a problem when ~cholar A. and scholar B compare phenomenon }"to phenomenon Z, when they have widely difkrcnt views on what Yis. One cOllsequence is that, iII any comparative stlldy, one has to pay much lllore attention to what is being compared than has normally been the case. I end this shorl survey by introducing another vital problem in comparative studies, exemplified by a model study by a distinguished "comparativist," :\Iarui Nissincll, who has published several important studies 011 tbe subject. 20 Unfortunately, it is not possible to deal with his Ulany interesting conclusions in cielail.:!l I melltioI\ Dilly onl' example. In his 199~) article on the relevance of Neo-Assyrian prophecy fOI" Old Testament research, Nissinell identified many relevant similarities in the two corpora. In his conclusion, he notes that many examples in the :\eu-Assyrian prophetir texts have few parallels ill the Prophetic Books of the Hebrew Bihle (with the exception of Isa 40-~)5).:?~ The Historical Books and the book of Psalms, however, abound in interesting parallels. This conclusion is important not only for what it tells us about similarities between Neo-A'is)Tian prophetic text, and the Old Testament. It also has significant methodological implications. The method lIsed by Nissinen is purely literary. based 011 "genre" identification. He restricts himself, ill other words, to the illnon of Prophecy. in the Biblical Sense. [xiSl in Ancient Egypt?" .1EOL 31 (1989-1990): ;)--l(). 20 ]\"issincn, "Die Relevanz der neuassyrischen Prophetic fiir die alttestamentliche Forschung.·' in Afe.w/JOtamira-·.( :~ariliffl-Biblim: Festsell/if! .fill" Kurt /J,..rg:rho/ «('(I. M. Dietl"ich and O. Lort:"u: ADAT 232; K('veiatT, (;t:rmall~·: Butzon .'\: Ikrcker; Nf'llkirchen-Vlllyn: Ncukirchener. 1993).217-58. All important work IlY NissiIl('n 011 :\'eo-Assvlian prophecy, Rp/m'No'I (0 ProjJ/my. is cited ill II. :) abol·e. Set· aho bv the same author: ··Fabell(' Prophetic in IWlI;1SSITischer tlnd dcuteronomistischer lJarstellung." ill Das Dellieronolllium llnd st'irlt' (2ueriJl'::.iehungm (cd. T. \'eijola; Schriften der Finnischen Exegetischen Gesellschaft 62; Helsinki: Finnish Exegetical Society; G{)ltingen: Vandenho('ck .'\: Ruprecht. 1996). 172-95. Zl See, for instance. Nissinen, Hejnnlff'l 10 PmtJ/wfV. 1(;4: "In times of crisis the prophets enc()llr,~g('d the king with their words, proclaiming the love of the gods. paniclliarly that of IStal·, fOl the dhincly c/]()s('n king, and their Sllpport Jor his rightfi.1l undertakings. especiallv the military olles. But lheir wonh Wert' not rcpt-atec! ollly when the king"s lile or I uk ""s in dangel. they cuuld be leferred to ill peacehll time~ as well, if a political decisioll required a divinc authorization." 22 Nissinen, "Relevanl- der neuassyrisdlen Prophetic: 249.

,,1.

Comparare IlI!cess(' est? Ancient Israelite and ANF. Prophecy

11

lernal reality of the text when making his comparisons. This is vcry important. Some scholars have unclear or unconsciolls views Oil the relationship between the texts they read and extemal prophecy as a social and historical phenomenon. 23 R. P. Ca.rroll, in particular, has warned against this confusioIl, which appears most likely in sociological and anthropological HlOdcls,2,' It is essential that all comparisons 'lr start ii'om the literary leveL-') Only when this has beell done is it possible to proceed and, t:ventually, to reconstnlct prophecy as a historical phenomenon. Due to the nature of the sources and the highly stereotypical and cOll\'entionallanguage of ancient Near Eastern literary geHres, this attempt will often be more problematic than has hitherto been assumed.

23 A study like that of I{. van def Toorn. "Old Babylonian Prophecy between the Oral and the Written: JNSL 24 (1998): 34-70, is, for all its cxcellence, sometimes problematic Oil this point. Evell more problematic is the monograph by the samc author: Sin and Sanction in Israel and '''kwjJolamia: :\ CompamtiT'l' Study (SS:'-l 22: Asscn: Van COrnllTl. 198fi), ~4 R. P, Carroll, "Prophet\, and Society: in 11t!, World o/Awil'll! l.mud: Sv(irliog'l(al. AJllliwj;ologim{. (/lid i'oliliwl Pcnpt'dhll's 11::",1.\'.1 by Mrmbn.l 0/ thl' Sor;dy for Old TrslaIIINII Study) (ed. R E. Clcmellls; Cambridge: Cambridge Lnivc-rsity Press. I CJ89). 20:\-2[,.11 does not follow from Carroll's article that one should not I1se sociologicr5 (sm $BS 17; :\llanta: Sch()br~ Press, 1986). A 1l1ll11ber of illdividu,t1 sllidie, are also cited ill the footnotes below.

Pm/Jhl'l)' ill Its ,1ncit'lli Nl'ar Eastern Cnntt'xt

Methodological Considerations It mllst. be remembered-though it is 100 often forgotten-that the use of sociology and anthropology in ollr discipline has one purpose only: to provirle a heuristic method.:> I\·lodcls derived from the social sciences are not data. bllt only a means of illterrop;ating the textual and other sources. TI1f'Y allow us to ~isk questions in a new way and t.hen to go back to the original sources, to see whether the questions can he answererl. Such models are themseh'cs the' result of interpretation; they arc not to be imposed on the familiar data but to be tested against it. There are always rlangers ill sHch a comparative exercise, anrl. to help avoid them, it has often been pointed 0111 lhat the first step is to compare systems rather than indivirlual points of difference. 1\\'0 details of separate cultures that seelll remarkahly similar may appear only t()rtuitously similar when each is studied as pal-t of a whole system. Different cultures may llIap reality in a differellt way, so that episorlic practices OJ' belief's become significallt Dilly when the total culture is takell into accoUlIl. The comparisoll of isolated l'xamples may giye mislearling results. Yet we should be careful about being too rigid. \\rays of vie\\ing the world are sometimes strikingly the same in detail, eyen when the cultural systems are diilt-rent. One example is the way the maternalllTlc1e is regarded ill a variety of cultures. l Wit.hout debating this particlllar argumellt., the observatioll iIIustrmes that certain cultural elements may be similar, even when the systems al-e different, awl that comparison of the isolaterl case is still justifierl. Nevertheless. the cultural system as a whole still needs to be considered, and the value of similarities at the level of details may be limited. The irnportant point is to be open to a wide range of suggestions about the dala, but to he rigorous in testing these queries. Ollt' of the first difIiculties in any cross-cultural comparison, in the 3 I already have djscus~ed lllethodological issucs in P1i('sts. PrOPhd.I, Divin;>n. Sages (11-19) and abo ill the al'licle, "Sup-llI'bs or Onl)' H)p-lIrbs) Prophets and Populations" in Evpry City Shall Bf' [«maken: l !rbanism and l'rol,/tl'l'i ill ,'\w:iml lsrad I1nd thl< ,"mr 1:'(1.,[ (ed. L. 1.. (:r;thhe and R. IIa01k; .JSOTSup: Shdlield: Shcffield Academic Pres", forthcomin!l:). I Rohert A. Oden,.JL, 'Jacob as Fathn, Husband. alId :\ephew: Kilbhip Studks and the Parl"ian:'hal :\anV{ 26 20i: 19-~6, translation fWIII \-lorall ("New Evidellt:e form Mari," 48). reading tiUimi in line 36. Durand translates somewhat differently because he reads {J,,/iini in line 36 (Archives, 436).

ot

Prophecy in Its A /lriell( Near Eastl'l'N Context tivilies have been documented in lIlalIY ditli.'rent societies. Sadly, there are few data on such points among the Mari prophets, although, in one area. we have some information. Prophets are frequently Ilott'd for their strange actions or strange way of life. Sometimes this behavior affects them after they are called by the deity but before they n:cognile their calling; it is lIot llllusual for such strange behavior to be the first signal that the deity has chosen that persoll. III most cases, we have no infonllation in cuneiform texts on the call of the pl'ophet~, but the prophetic reports of M:lIi sometimes desClibe behavior or dress in ways that suggest difftTences from other people. One of the most interesting reports is a lext desnibing a strallge symbolic act,~:') in which a fltuhhtan of Dagan cailed for food and was ),riVl'1I a lamb, which he ate raw. He assl'mbled the city cldtTS at. the gate and described the devoUl'ing of the lamb as a sign of pestilence. This is no more unusual than the ~ller prophet Ngundcng, who, during his prophetic call, spent weeks wandering the bush and eating nothing but tobacco. Hlud. grass, alld dung.~(i At til1les, he also spent long pCI"iods sitting Oil a pointe(l stake. The idea that the prophet has strange dress or habits is well-known from the hiblical prophets, including such figures as .John the Baptist. That Isaiah wandered the streets ofJerusalem naked (Isa 20) was. probably as strange to the city's inhabitant~ as eating raw lamh was to the city elders of Mari. There are lIIany examples of st.range behavior while the prophet is possessed Iw a spirit. For example, Venier Elwin describes all Indian ceremony to drive a tiger away after it had killed a man.~7 At one point the spirit of the lord of the animals, in the form of a medium, comes upon the father of the dead man, and the medium begins to growl and run around like a tiger, at one point seizing a chicken, teven contradinOlv-when consiciered funher. :{ J As ",ill he ohviolls to lIlan~, this CI iterioll is not vel')' helpful since (a) many biblical pmphecie~ have not cOllle to pa~ and (b) prophetic filltlIlment is often said to be cOJltillgent on the response of the people (Jonah; Ezek 33:1-20).

24

PmphelJ in Its Anriell{ ;Vt?ar hlStrm COlltJ'xt

or Ibid., 240.

A;..JE Prophecy from an Anthropological Perspective

2:)

omy will not diminish. Wherevel in the laud your hand has laid hold. the 'food of peace' \\ill be secme .... (And) I, Kititum, will strengthen tIl(' foundations of vour [hmne. I have established a protective spirit for you. Be ready [0 hear mel"

This fonnat leaves many intrif,Tlling questions: Was the prophecy SPOlltaneous or instigated? Vl""ho received it? "Vas it received as an audition. a dH:am, a vision, or in some otlwr way? Yet it is very much like Kear Eastern prophecies that hegin, ~Thus says (DN)." The message is that Kititum opens the seCl·ets of t11e gods to lbalpiel and will strengthen his throne and reward his rule with peace, increased domains. and prosperilv. This is because the king has honored her by speaking her Hame. The content. is thus similar ro a Dlllnher of the Mari prophecie~. No delnauds are made on the king, howt'ver, except to continue to listt'11 to the goddess, because that is what he has been doing. (One should compare similar messages from Yhwh to Isnlelite kings and others, such as Gen 26:2-5 and 2 Sam 7:8-16.) The editor of the text hum Ishchali has noted its literary character. Although dt:JOllg Ellis aCCepL'i that the t('xt is probably based on a report of a revelation, she believes that the scribe has clothed it in his own literary form. Two points can be made: The first is that we do not know if this tt'xt was based on an actual oracle. The editor thinks that it was, but this is an educated gm'ss. The second point is that even if t.he t.ext were based on an actual oracle, the scribe lIlay have provided the present form and wording.:1t\ This has implications for the question of whether we have the lpsi~sima vl'7ba of the prophets, whether in .\1csopotamia or the OT. EYt'11 when a prophecy is based on actual speech from a human intermediary. can we be certain that we have the Ofigillal words? It is often diffICult to distinguish hetween actual prophetic oracles and literary prophecies created hy scrihes. For example, evell the '\-fad prophecies, which. in general. wert' written at roughly the same time

3G According to Durand, when the prophecies of the (ipilum were written, thev were cOllched in a mOl"ions. ",I I

This was a false prophecy, as we know: Hammurabi and the Babylonians defeated Zimri-Lim and lOok control of r>.Lui. Zinlli-Lim's palace, and probably much of the CilY. was bumed. We read no further of Zinni-Lim and du not kllow what hapP-26, ,tnd in "Discourse on Prophetic Discourse," in The QUf'S' jin' Ihe Kiu!!;dom (1/ God: Studies ill HOllO,. (if Gi'Orge 1-:. Afmrimhall (ed. H, Hufhnoll et al.; '''.'inona Lake, Ind.: Eisenhrauns, 1983), 141-58, 7 Y Giray. ·Oratorical Rhf'tOl~C: The Question of Prophetic Language with Special Attention to Isaiah," Am.\'/rnlamw CailirH 10 (19H~'): 7~-K\. I< S. Mowinckel. PJa/mells/udim lfJ: KIIUIIIII'/Ihlil' IIlId pmphptis(he Psafll/{'// (l\ristiaIlia. Norway:,Jacoh Dyh,,~Hl, 1923). ~l F. Cross. Callaanite !Hylh and Hebrew J';pi( (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, }9n), 223-29. 'i A.

Ii

tr,'. "

36

Prophecy in Its Ancient Ntar Eaoftrm Contt:,'1:{

roval individuals. Thollgh these functions changed over time, prophets remained dose to this center of Israelite society. Cross thought it significant that prophecy cornmenced in Israel at about the same time as monarchy, and that it ceased at about the same time that the monarchy disappeared. Both Mowinckel and Cross maintained that the prophets were inextricably linked to specific social contexts, the cult alld the monarchy, respectively Here too one must raise questions. To be sure, some prophets were priests, most clearly Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah. The book of Joel surely reflects ritual activit,' that took place at the temple. However, what was true for some pn)phets in Illis vein was not true for all. There is olle imponant corollary to theses of the sort adumbrated by Mowinckel and Cross. If prophets are active ill a particular social setting and if that social setting were to disappear, then one might expect prophecy itself to change in some fundamental way. In other words, there are social prncquisitcs f()r prophecy.1O However, not all social contexts elicit intermediation. -"I.nd not all intcnnediation grows out of the same social context. 4. The pr'ophl'f possesses distinctive penonal qualities, for example, charisma. The work of Max Weber has pride of place here. 1l Weber maintained that a pc rS()JJaJ f()rc(', charisma, was the hallmark of prophets. They wen" imbued with a pownful presence of the holy, which made people pay attention. This spirit (niiih) distinguished prophetic authority from that of other religious kadel'S. However, '·V('her's own articulation of the issue has presented problems. Weber maintained that charisma \vas not simply a psychological quality; rather, it also had a sociological side. Charisma-as charismatic authority, to hc distinguished trom traditional and from bureaucratic authority-worked itself Ollt by creatillg a following. One would. therefore, expcct a charismatic prophet to attran a group of followers or disciples. This is not always the case ",ith individuals in the Hebrew Bible whom we characterize as prophets. 'Were we to lise '\'eber's definition, we would, as Dorothy Emmett contends, "have to

or

10 On which see 'r OH,rl1oll, Chat"",/; "fl')"Pill'{,: T/u' Sorlfll fhnamin l'ru/)h.·,), (:>.lillueapolis: F'.JIut'" Pn.';'s, 19H is rooted in a biblical text, 1 Sam 9, which involves somethillg ak.in to a diviuation report. This is a different kind of prophetic activity than that associated with Elisha as 'iJi lui'i'liihim, when he curses the boys or causes an ax head to float (:.! Kgs 2::.!~i-25: 6:1-7). Put simply, intermediation took place through different lx-havlors, which are themselves rdlected in the various labels.

6, The prophet has a dislinrtil.'f' messap;e. Some scholars have maintained that prophets, particularlv in Israel, were important because they espoused a distinctive message or theological perspective. The most famous of such claims is surely that of \\'ellhausen, who maintained that prophe'ts wert> responsible for articulating "cthical monotheism" in ancif'l1t Israf'l, a new amalgam anti high watermark in ethical and theological thought. ThclT ha., been a s\\ing away from such a notion. particularly in the work of von Rad, who, f()llowing E. Rohland, maintained that prophets were recasting earlier traditions rather than f()rging new ones, 17 Thc spirit of Wellhausen, however, is alive and well, as is evident from such claims as Koch's, that prophets were respollsible for creating "an ethical, futuri5tic monotheism."ls Koch speaks as well of the prophets who generated the lIotion of a "lIIl'tahistory." "For the first tiIlle in the history of mankind, human beings dared to make hope the foundation of their ontology and their theology. The prophets theref()lT brought a futuristic turn into the thinking of following centuries, a sClIse of incompleteness and a further purpose to be found in the course of world event,.,,19 For Koch, the prophets had a distinctive me~sag('~they were theological il1l1ovators, My own view is that certain prophets may have offered innovative ideas, for example, Isaiah's idea [hat Yahweh had an overarching 16 Sec D, Petersen, nIP Roll'S of r'TfI!'l" Pm/llirt, (JSOTSup 17; Sheffield: .ISo-1' Press, 198 J). 17 G. von Rad. Old '[i"talllnit Ihl'Olog) (vol. 2: New York: Harpn & Row, 1968), lR K. Koch. 'Thf PrO/'ilt'h: nil' Assyrian Period (Philadelphia: FortIess Press. 1983), \3, 19 Ibid" J 63,

Defining Prophecy and Prophetic Literature plan for the world. Nevertheless, it is difficult to speak of a characteristic prophetic message, whether inside or outside Israel. More generally accepted are expositions on less grandiose features of prophetic literature. For example, James Mays has argued on behalf of an ethical tradition in the eighth-century prophets regarding justio'.2° Such an argument holds special importance, particularlv if one views the prophets are intermediaries. One wishes \0 know, in a particular cultural setting, if there were "content" in that intermediation or if the prophets could say vinuaJly anything in that process .

• These then are the primary options-definitions that focus on religious experience, distinctive literature, social selling, personal charisma, the prophet's role as intermediary, and distinctive message. However, only one of these typologies, the notion of prophet as intermediary, seems compreht'l1sive t'l1ollgh to help understand prophets throughout the ancient Near East, illcluding thuse allested in the Hebrew Bible and in the Old Babylonian and Neo-Assyrian texts.

Recent Definitions Now it is time to ask: How is recent scholarly discussion related to this typology? A.5 a case in point, I reflect brief1y on a dictionary entry, published ill the Neues Bibel-Lexikon (I 997), relevant to discussions of prophecy in Israel and the (llIciellt Near East.:!l III that vulume, a prophet is defined a,s lal person who (a) through a cogniti,·e {'xpelience (visioll, an auditory experience, an audio-visual appearance, a dream or the like) becomes the suhject of the revelation of a deity, or several deities and, in addition. (b) is comciolls of beillg COlllllli~siolled by the dt,ity 01 deities ill q\le~ljoll 10 ("ollvev the n:\"elatioll in a H"I"hal form (as it "prophecy·' or a "prophetic specch"), or 11uough I1Olwcrh"l (·omnlllllic-ati\'c acts ("symhoMf ans") , to it third part'· who (onsri(utes th" actual addressee of the message:-

20 J. Mays, ~Justice; Perspectives frolll the Prophetic Tradition," in Pcrersen. I'ruphefY in i.mU'/. IH-51l. 21 M. \'I'cippcn, "Prophcti{' im Alten Orient," NBL 19i. 22 This English tldllslation is prO\ided by M. Nissinen, Iv-jN"f'ncl'S 10 Prophecj in Xeo-Anyrian SourCr.5 (SAAS 7; Helsinki: :t\eo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, 1998), 5.

40

Pmplwc), in Its ilncient Near Easterll Context

This definitioll appears to reflect one of the types I have just examined, namely, the empha~is on prophets as individuals who had peCllliar forms of experience, a view associated with Gunkel and Lindblom. In this recent definition, the experience is described as "cognitive." which pr('sumably means that the experience can be articulated or expressed. vVhen we reflect on this defiIlition from the perspective of the prior analysis, several problems appear. First, the definition appeals to "experience," not to observable behavioL Unless the experience as such is reported, one has no reason to claim that someone is a prophet. Second, how arc we to understand text~ or reports that include no references to such experience? For example. what should wt' think about ARM 26414, which narrates the activity and words of Atamrum, the apilum of Samas? Here we deal \o\1.th a person who has a down-to-earth message: "Send me a discreet sClibe and I will have (him) "'-'Tite down the news which Shamash has sent me for the king.,':l:> There is no implicil or explicit reference lo a distinctive cogllilive experience, othn than the reference to "the news" that SamLls had sent. Third, the definition refers to the "consciolls[ Hess] of being commissioned by the deity." Even in the biblical material, only four prophetic books (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. and Amos) olIn overt reports about such self-consciousness. (We should note that a number of scholars do not think that these lexL~ reflect the selt~ulldt'rstalldil1g of the prophets, hilt are instead later additions.) Arc we then to disallow the rest of the Prophetic Books in the Hebrew Bihle, such as Zephaniah orJoeL from being construed as prophetic literature simply because they do not include commissioning narratives or reports about a sense of call? The S~Ulle may be said for prophetic texts from either Mali or Nineveh. ·These texL~ do 110t routinely report 011 prophets' consciousness of being called or commissioned by the deity. We should say that some prophetic t.exts offer evidence of a sense of call. but mal1Y do not. Hence, it is risky to define prophets as individuals who possessed this con\1.ction of divine commission. The definition in the Neues Bibel-Lexikon reflects (he first category ~:\ H. HUtlillOl1. "The Expansion 01 Prophecy in the Mali .-\I·chives: New Texts . .\lcw Readings, )\ew Information." in f'ropht:ry rwd Prophets: Thf Dl1wrsity of Crmtnn-

tomr)' IsslU's ill Sdwlunhip (ed. Y. Cilay: Semeia Studies: Atlanta: SOliely of Biblical Literature, 1997), 11.

Defining Prophecy and Prophetic Literature

41

examined, namely, an individual who has a distinctive form of experience. However. as we have seen, the disadvantage of this concept is that it prc\'ents us from thinking that there were prophets of difTel-ent sorts, some in states of possession, others not. To be fair, the definition docs specif\' variolls experiences, tin example. \ision or audition, which might, in turn, he manifest in divers{' heha\iors rdlected hy the different prophetic lahels. Still, this careflllly constmcted ddinition of "prophet" appears overly monolithic and excessively reliant on the Gunkel and Lindblom heritage concerning biblical prophets.

Prophets and Prophetic Literature I now propose a relation betwecII the typolobTY of prophets as illtermediaries and prophetic liter. :1 W, G Smith, On Understanding [,lam: Sdertl'fi Slud;", (Religion and R('awfl 19; The Hague, Paris, and New York: \1outon, 1981). ~33.

47

Prophet), in Its Anrienl Near Easlnn Con{.f'xt that "the Qur'an is to Islam as the persoll of Jesus Christ is to Chrislianity.,,3 He illustrates this point elsewhere by his suggestion that, rather than the role of Jesus. the role of the apostle Paul in Christianity is most comparable to the role of .'vlub.ammad in Islam.~ In accordance with this perspective, this t'ssay attempt); to sketch not only tht' pht'nomenological similarities hut also the different contextual roks of prophets from .'vfari, Assvria, and Israel. In the royal archives of .'vfari, the l\'eo-Assvrian texts, and tilt' Hebrew Bible, together with related texts, WI'" find a commonality in distinctive settings and with differing manifestations. The commonality is that proplwts (I) prl'"sl'"llt communications from Ihl'" divine world, normally for a third party, and serve as ml'"diators who mayor may not idelltify "'r und l?ill1d{!;l'I1ppm: lin/raw w eilm- Soziaiwschirlitp tUS Allm Onpnts (cd. \'. Haas; Xenia: Konstanler Althistonsche Vorfl'age Ilnd Forschullgen 32: KOllslam:. Germany: l.'niversitatsvedag. 1992), 159-71. 15 For th ... IStar ritual, see Durand and (;uic:hard. "Rit\lcls de ;\-lari," 5:1-54, lines ji.23', 26'; note that the hTa-gamil who becomes ecstatic in ARM 26222 is identified as a muhhum in ARM 21 333:34' and 23 446:9'.

A Company of Prophets (AR1\1 26 213; d. 197, 198), and Ahatum, a young (StTValll?) womaIl

(A.&,\1 26 214), both in the temple of AnIlunitum. The apilum. who had a somewhat higher status among the prophets, anrl the muhhllm arc associated even by their titles with providing messages from the gods. Their messages art" also frequelltly connected with sacrifice or other temple event, at which lilll(" the prophet "arises and speaks." When these prophets convey a complaint to the king, the complaint often refers to royal neglect of the deity's cult or cuitic property (ARl\1 26220; 221; A. 1121+; A. 1968; etc). Presumably, the Hanaean naln1 group was also associated with the cultus. Many messages, however, derive from pt"rsolls wilhout a prophetic tilk-speakers identified by name, resirlence, or status. l\Iany such messages derive from the women of the Mari court. Strikingly. a ,{ang/i, "chief temple administrator," reports a revelatory dream (ARM 26 238); another ,(allgU speaks ill olle of the dreams of the queen mother, Addudud (ARM 26 237); and a third .~angll. reports to Queen Siptu, the king's correspondent. on a young woman's dream (ARM :!6 214).](; Vinually all of the messages are addressed to the king-we are rlealing wiLh the royal archives, after all. But 011 occasion the message arldresses local pt"ople conceming what they shoulrl do. The letter ARI\J 26 221-bis, from the king's representative in Terqa, reports that a muh}nim addressed him regarding (re)builrling a gate, the second request cast dearly in the plural, as if adrlressed to tlw people of Terqa or at least to the "governor" and his workers (lines 23-:)0): "I If (?) 1 you (pl.) do not build that gate, 1£1 cal]amity (?) will occur. You (pl.) are [no]t gelling anywhere. IThils is what that muhhiim [saiJd to me. But I am [eng]aged with the ha[r]v[est]. To turn ov[er] my [ser]vants, I cannot rlo." On another occasion the muhh spoke to a public audience (ARM 26 2lfl), presumahly with the intent of putting pressure on the king to order variolls cities to return sacred items. The correspondent notes that this message was delivered "in the assemhly of the elrlers." Other messages are rlehyered at the temple gate, where presumably the public would also be present. The prophetic messages typically assure the kiIlg of success or warn of possihle dangers. At times, howf'\,er, the pr()phet~ express concern

um

J(i :\ot(' the Ishchali t.exts from the an'hive of the ,i'(J.llf.,'{L~ of the:' KilitUlll te:'Hlple:', in which the goddess Kilillllll .Idlh esses lhe king, lbal·pi-EJ. directly (Mal ia de.l0ug Ellis, "The Goddes:; Kititulll Speaks [0 King Ibalpiel: Oracle Texts from r,hchali," "lAW"> \19871: 2$:>--(6).

5·1

Pruphny ill Its :1nrient Near j,'as({'m Context

that c('rtaill cuI tic acts, sHch as special sacTifices, have been neglected (ARM 26220; 221; 231; sce also ARM 26 224). But the prophet may also raise-even repeatedly (having done so five times previously)-issues of cult property (A. 1121 +). Requests for regular information also occur (Dagan of Terqa, 2:3:~). All of these reqlJcst.~ an: rcprcsclltn\ as being inlhe king's selfint.erest (e.g., ARM 2tl 194; 217; 218; 219; 227). ComislcIlt Wilh acting in the king's selt~int('r('st, prophets are mentioned in scveral administrativc texts as having received gifts or supplies from the king. All dtJilwTl is mentioned several times as having received a garment. bronze nails. silver ring. and a donkey distributed fWIII boolY: a muhh1'i.rn receives clothing ami jewelry; a qammiitwn recciycs a gannclIl and lIose ring. One muhll1(1/l receives a silver ring "whell he gave the message to the king" (ARM 25 H:2: 12~( 5; sec Durand. :'trchivf5, 380). Sometimes the prophets request thcse gift.~ directly (e.g., ARM 26199; 206). Contrasted with these modest incursions inlO the king's realm, howcver, is the special asscrtin:llcss of thc iijlilum-prophets of Addu of Alcppo/Kallassu. Speaking from the historical dominance of the Aleppo kingdom ill the life of Zimri·Lim and his hunily. and within the protection of an independent jurisdiction, a series of messages reminds Zimri-Lim. "\Vhat I have given I can take away.~ and makes specific requests (A. 1121 +). The Mari representative, seemingly emoarrassed by the message, appeals to his tradiliollal dUly to convey information about what others arc doing and saying about the king, and notes the warnings that lIlight kad to future dis;'i.~tel·s if igllored. The same letter reports an admollition {i'om Addu to the king of Mari, "\'Vhen a plaintiff: male or female, makes an appeal to YOll, take note and give them justice," together with an assurance of benefits for an allentive king. Anolher leiter from Zimri-Lim's represelllative ill Aleppo (A. 19(8)' again citiIlg the beneficellce that Addu h,{s shown the killg, adds. "Whenevcr allyone with a claim crit's out to . saying. 'I have been wlrong]ed.' stalld up uncooked meal."j\l Thereupon the muhhllm requests ,,~despread cullic restitution and adds, "For the well-being of your Lord. Zi[mn-Lim], clothe me with a gannent" (AR~I 26 206:23-24). The king's correspondent prmides him with a garment In another text, a qmnmiitlltn. or the Lady QammatUI1J of Da~an of Terqa, having- wamed the king aboul proceeding in peace negotiations with ESJlUIlJla (ARM 26 199), requests and receives a garment and a nose ring. In stronger f~tshion, Dagan's prophetic voices opposed, in Zimri-Lim's sixth year-following a year or more of warfare-his conclusion of a treaty \~ith Esnunna. The situation is daIiticd by examining the exteJlsive correspondence on the relationship hetween lVlari and ESnuuna. Promising victory for ZiJllri>

17 ivlartha T. Roth, Law Collections from :1vlewpolamia and ;\Si{l Minor (SBLWAW 6: Atlanta: Scholars Pres:;, 1995). 133-:H (xlvii 59-78). I:H (xlviii 3-19}. ]8 Regarding the divine council, see Abraham Malamat. "The Secret Council and Prophetic InmiYement in Mati and IsraeL" in Prophrtle und gesrhirhtlirhf' Wirklichkrit im altl'lI flr(w/: h'.5tsrhri/f /iir Siq{/rjed Henmann ((·d. R. Liwak and S. Wagnn; Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1991),231-36. :'>Jole also thaI cu1ti(~ I~rsollllel {:ould be affiliated with a number of dt'ities.. even within a gil'ell temple. which honor~ a primarv deitv and aJIiliated deities. Ii! See 'Samuel :-'-oah Kramci-. 171t'Sume-riaTlS. TheiT History, Cu.lllll'l'. and Chamrtn (Chicago: llniversitv of Chica).{o PI identify the speakers by Bailie and place of residence. Possibly because she breaks with the patterIl of the IStar affiliates. one speaker is identified bv title as a votaress Udiitu) of the king (SAA 9 1.7). Another text identifies a prophetic speaker as a sehdu-votaress of IStar of Arhela.C!5 Collection 23 For the process of discovery and publication, see Simo Parpola, Assyrian l'lliphl'('if'\ (S:\:\ 9: Hdsinki: Helsinki l'lIi\'t:r~ity Press, 1997), xiii-·xi\·. Note also the

attelltion given to sUllie uf these textlS as a potelltially separate category by Morris Jastlow (Rehgioll BabyluTlil'Tl.1 11 lid ItlSyriOls Ivol. ~/ I; Gicsscn. Germany: 'fopdman n. 19121, 1:16-74. esp. 158). Bruno Meissller writes that sOl11e of the texts showed that "es im Zweistromlandc aIll1\ich wic im alren Israel anch Propheten ~t'gt'bt'n [hat I. die ohne Zuhilfenahmt' der Wahrsagekullst Iediglich dllfch gottliche EinKt'bllngcn die Zukunft yerkiindeten" (Bahlanim und Assyriell [vol. 2: Heidelberg: Carl Winter. 1925], 281, hut ,f. 243). Some of the oracles were available in standard handbooks. bm thc\' othcrwise remained ignored. ~~ Parpola. ihlyrinn ProIJhp('il's, xlv-xlvi: SiJTlo Parpola awl fulzukn \\"at."· RJ'{'on:i;. 1'111'1 J (SAA 7: Helsinki: Helsinki University PrC'ss, 19\)21, no. 9 r. i 23. 27 Parpola, AU),rian PmjJhl'cies, xvjii~xx\i, it

A Company of Prophet~ ArbellaJ has said ... " (SAA 9 6:1). or "The ra~rintu-prophetess ... (has saio)" (SA.A.9 7: 1 )-reports that provioe no context apart fi'om what call be reconstructed from the prophecies themselves. Furthermore. more than two-thirds of the Assyrian prophecies are preserved as part of collectioll tabIeL~, a secondary stage that involved the royal scriptorium-perhaps even OIlt' spn:itic scribt:-gathel'illg tive to six or evell len or lnorc prophetic oracles (or sets of oraclt-s. e.g., SAA 9 1.6) onto one archival tablet. The prophecies were copied for posterity, as they might have been in view of the emphasis on reassurance to the royal f~lmily. with on Iv a rare complaint of neglect by the deity mixed in (e.g .. SAA 93.5). The prophecies were gathered ann transferred as ,t body to iudividual collection tablets, and therehy were incorporated into the otlicial archives. In this collection pnKess there is also evidence of scribal redaction. For example. in the standardized attribution in collection SAA 9 I, seven times (as preserved) one reads the phrase "from the mouth of so-and-so of such-and-such a place"; however, onct'. as mentioned, the slight variant occurs for a different category of speaker, "jj'Olll the mouth of so-and-so, the .~eli(lu-votares~ of the king." The other speakers lllay have been identilied as a Guegory in the first lines of the tablet. now lost. The pattefll of individuallIlessages is broken only by allusions, such as the letter in which Bc1-usezib, a prominent astrologer, asks the king why he had sHlnmolleo mggimnnu and ragf!:imlilu, "prophets and prophetesses," to assist in undersl;:lIlding and dealillg with tilt: troubles he hao reponed. Rllt the writer's chief questiolJ seems to he, "vVhy has the king .. , not summoned l11e?,,28 He seems to be saying that he would have been more effective than the prophets. even if thev may haye been present as a group. The assertive role of the raggimu is emphasized in the collection of prophetic oracles reporting on a symbolic treaty cOlllmitment by the national goo, ASSur. promising victory in battle for king Esarhaodon. The oracle. SAA 9 3.3. is (written down and) deposited in the temple in the presence of the gods: also included is divine vengeance against the enemies of Esarhaddon. who had cried out to ASSUI' for help. The written covenant is also presented to the king, with full ritual. At the 2H Parpoht, I.fUns from AS'~Y'ian and Jiabvioni(lll Sdwlan (SAA IO; f1ebinki: Helsinki llniversily Press, 19!1~). no. J09 (Ali!. 1216); \1anti ~issillen. Rrji'rnw·.1 to ProPhHY in Neo-A..uyrirl11 Sourees (SA,AS 7; Helsinki: NC'O,:\ss;Tian 'leX! Corpus Pro· jC'Ct.. 1998),89-95.

60

Pmphery in Its A ncienl ,'iea,. Eastern Con lexl

initiative of ISlal' of Arbela, a coven,mt meal is then carried Ollt symbolically. with provision for reminders to those who have sworn loyalty to the king, that they might "remember me (Istar) and keep this covenant which I have made on behalf of Esarhaddon" (SAA 9 3.4 iii 13-15). The collection concludes with !Star's charge of neglect by Esarhaddoll and hel- reminder of her continlling prOlection of tilt' king. The concluding attribution assigns tlw speech 10 a m{fgimu, prt'sumably fi-om [Arbell a. Parpola's restoration of the prophet's name as the other\\;se attested La-dagil-ili is a bold but plausible restonltion. Apart from the prophecy reports, which provide limited information about the cOJltext, there are a Ilumher of letters that tell about prophetic activity. These letters show that the prophets were involvt'd in matters affecting the kingship. Tn Olle letter, a raggintu who had already taken the king's clothes to Bahylollia prophesied about removing a throne from the temple for use in a ritual elsewhere that would be beneficial for king Esarhaddon, hut the king's represen tative would not release the throne without the king's permission.~q This mg{finlll is pf.'rhaps thf.' same ra{(ghttu mentioned in another letter, who, prior to the death and burial of a substitute king, reportedly prophesied to the substitute king-himself apparently of high stallding-that ht' would take over the kini,rship, that is, that the suhstitute king would serve iII successfullv diverting danger from Esarhaddon.~o The inscriptions of Assurbanipal include the often-cited reference to a .;abnt, a "visionary. a seC! of dre/ I; Kt'velan, Germany: Bu!zo!l & Ikr·cker; Nellkirdwll-Vluyn: NeukircheJler. 1970).271-·7;;>, ,Hid l'artll: Comnwnlary and Appmdirrs (AOAT 5/2; Kevelacr. Germany: Bullnn & Berder; Neukirchenvluyn: Neukirchener, 1983). :129. anti Nissinen, Re(m'n(p,. 78--Sl. :'10 SAA 10 3[J2; see also Parpola. LA'tters!tnm iI.I,fj'17rln Sd/O/.ars. I--II. no. 280. :11 Maximilian Streck. AS.lurbanipalund dif'/f/zlm aHyrlw-!wn Kiinige hi5 wm [InlPTgangf' Nillivrh's (VAH 7; I.eipzig: Hinrichs. 1916). 2:114--19. 11'\1'\--95 (esp. B v 49--76); Rvkle Horge!". lil:ilrii,W' Will /n.I(/m/tI'll1l'f7k Aml/ballipal" (\-Viesbaden: Harrassowilz. 199/i), 101 of Yo Ill' Peoph·: Female Prophets in Ezekiel 13:17-23,"JBL lit! (1999): ,1li-:-t-1.

47 Note Simon B, Parker. "Official Attitude, towal'd Prophen' at ~1ari and in Israel," Vf43 (1993): 50-68. esp. 67-68,

A Company of Prophets

67

"the one who troubles Israel," and Elijah responds, "1 have not troubled Israel, but you and your father's house have" (1 Kgs 8:17-18). The prophets often address the king directly, and their words otherwise are easilY conveyed. In most of these encounters that annoyed the king, the prophet nonetheless slUviw:d. The member of the prophetic band who carried out Elisha's orders and anoint.ed Jehu may have been dismissed by Jehu as a Il/j{ugga', "a crazy man," bllt Jehll was ready to act on what the "crazy man" did (2 Kgs 9:1-13). The prophets arc oftell consulted, even though the king-just like the people-may reject the message. The prophets-as with the symbolic treaty described by the nll,,&rimu of lStar' of Arbela-could also serve as covenant mediators. Samuel is a prime example. They n~ay also announce a new covenant-f()r example, Hosea and Jeremiih-and tlley frequently take initiative as innovators, as illustrated by Hosea, Second Isaiah, and others. The prophets are both adyocates of established traditions and harbingers of nt'w possibilities. The Israelite prophets, individually and cUlllldatively, played a ilIOn.' important role in Israel than t1wir countel1)arts in Mari or Assvria. The message of the prophet~ is both judgment and salvationrarely one without the other. Thev express God's ultimate commitment to Israel and insist that, whatever the prcscIIt. Israel will have a splendorous futllre. They also place themselves within the community, whatever iL" future. As with the muhhum in the "\{ari text who dramaticalIy ate raw lamb, the Israelite prophets often reinforced lheir message \\~th strange symbolic act~. A primary addressee is the king, but the focns is not the king's Pt'fsonal safety and welI-being-on how to keep the king safely in power or to improve the king's attent.ion to cultic acts-but on the king's beh~i\'ior as it connected with the overall worship of Yahweh and the maintenance o(justice and righteousness in the king's realm. i

The Charge of Falsehood One consequence of the exclllsi\ist tradition prevalent among certain groups in Israel, and of the pl"ophetic penchant for thinking and acting indepcndeIllly of the reigning monarch, is conflict between the kings and the propheL'i alld conflict among the prophets themselves. Unlike l\1ari and AssYlia, in which different cult centers might have had different agendas and rnight have offered conflicting or unsought ad-

6R

PropheC)' ill Its Aucimt Near E(/\{rrn Couto;t

vice, but ill which no 01le charged deliherate falsehood, Israelite prophets were willing to charge each orherwith being deceptive or false. Intriguingly, the accusel' does not always say that the false prophet is aware of falsehood or that the prophets are making something up (see Ezek 13:2-4). In the revealing story in I Kgs ~2. \Iicaiah says that he overheard the deliberation in Yahweh's council that !erl to the rccolIlIlleIHlatioll, ~\ppro\'{'d by (;od, "I \\:ill go and he a lying spirit in the mouths of all f the kjng'sj prophets" (Y. 22). According to Micaiah. the king's prophets wcre heing duped in recommending battle. Ezekiel 14:9-10 affirms that prophets who speak deceptively may have heen intemionally deceived by (~()(i. III response to Micaiah's charge of a I}ing spirit, Zedekiah hell Kcna'anah. the leader of the li:mr hundrerl, immediatelv disputes this allegation and defenrls his authenticity. The king's respollse was to do what he wanted, albeit \\;th precautions, and to clap Micaiah into jail. This was bad news for .\Iicaiah, but be-or the redactor-appealed to another criterion of falsehood: "If you (0 king) C\'l'T do get horne satdy, Yahweh h;L~ not spoken through me." But, whatever happenf'd, Micaiah was in serious trouble. In another story (2 Kgs H), Elisha openly oilers a two-pronged oracle to Hatael of Damascus: (al King Ben-Hadarl is going to die, but tell him he will recover; (b) Hazael will herome king in place of Ben-Hadad. HazaeI follows Elisha's achice but decides to help the prediction by suffocating Ben-Harlad. \hcaiah's appeal to historical outcome as a means of verification, a criterioll IIsed hy others as well, especially the Deuterollomistic tradition, does not help people make decisions at the moment. The appeal also lack.~ darity, as for many of the \videly lwralded prophecies that have not come true. such as the announcement of the peaceful kingdom. Evcn when known, thcse outcomes arc am higuous. {n Jer :)7:18-19,jert'miah complains to the king that, unlike the unpunished prophets who said that the Rabvlonians wO\lld not attack Israel, Jeremiah, despite historical vindication. does not get respect. Another example is the inlerplav hetweenJeremiah and those haking raisin cakes fl)r the Queen of Heaven. Although bakers ceased their practice, pres\lmablv at least in part at Jert'miah 's urging (jcr 7: 16-20), the fall of Jerusalem was not advertcrl. The dCHHces of the quccn wok this as a sign of the goddess's anger rather than of insutlicient repentance toward Yahweh, aud resumed their baking Un 44:24-28). In the dispute between Jeremiah alld Hananiah, the suggestion is

A Company of Prophets

69

that truth is on the side of those who prophesy disaster. This standard has difficulties, not only for prophets of salvation such as Second Isaiah. bllt also for those who judge what constitutes a disaster. Note, however, that Hananiah not only predict.s an early return from Babylon of the temple furnishings. which presumably would please mostJudeans, he alsu predicts-according to the text-the return of King Jehoiachin (leI' 28:4). which, considering theJuclean power structures, would lIot have been good news for Jehoiachin's uncle, King Zedekiah, and somewhat risky for Hananiah. 4 /j Also acceptable as an accusation but not susceptible to velification is the charge that false prophets proclaim their personal dreams as revelatOl-Y, rather thall having heen givcn access to the deliberations of Cod's council Ucr 23). Ideology played a primary role in judging falsehood. If the prophecy was displeasing to the king or the people, or whoever was arbiter, it was likely to be discarded out of hand. Deuteronomy 13 advises I hat a prophet or a dreamer who otfers signs or wOllders, who uses the accomplished signs or wonders to encourage people [0 follow another god, is being used by Cod to test the people. Such a misleading prophet, even if being llsed by God. should be put to death. More restrictive is the intimation in Deut 18:14-20 t.hat the coming prophetor any prophet-must be from \\1lhin the community and must be like \toses; that is, IlO futnre prophet could disagree with Moses and be genuine. In short, thne was no real means of empirical verification.

Inspiration The prophet~ report theophanies, ,isions. auditions, and dreams, while ha\ing their own vehicles of choice for revelation. Ecstasy underlies milch of Israelite prophecy, although thefe mllst have been those adept at quickly puuing thelllselves into an erst,Hie or "altered state of consciousness."

48 Roben P. Carroll nott's that Han,Uliah "is in deli,Ulc(> of Zedekiah, thl' COllrt and the Babylonians," a formidable list of opponen.t~ (/nrrniah [OTL; Philadelphia: \Vestrninster Press, 198(;1. 54~~). Hananiah is 1I00just playing to the crowd.

70

Pro!,hfCV in Its Ancient Nmr Hastrm Cun/exl

Conclusion Among prophets in Mari. Assyria. and Israel. we find many variations and "exaggerations" of the possibilities of prophetic revelation. There are Illany possibilities. and each comlllllllity is distinctive. Prophecy was a living phenomenon. and each COlIllIlllIlity, for unknown reasons, selectcci different options t\-OHI the prophetic alteruatives. The three corpuses are valuable because of the range of activity they report. As such, it is easier to see commonalities and anomalies among prophets, and to appreciate different ways in which prophetic revelation playeci a role in societies of the ancient ]'\car East.!9

19 I am preparing a bO(lklellgth treallllt'lll. of plOphecy in the ancient Near Fast, which will expanrl ami, hop('fillly. c1arifv poillLs lIerc. FOI \lari, the masterful sturlres hv.J.-M. Durand, D. Charpin. andJack:V1. Sasson olTn a wealth of insight ano information, and Abraham Malalllat has been a keen observer of tht' mutual illumillatioll of prophecy in tht, Mari texts and in Israel (see especiall)' his iHari and the Frlrl}' bmelilf F:x,twrimcp [Schweich Lectures, 1981: Oxford: Oxford University Press. 19891, 70-12l, ami his Mari find thl' /liMp [SH,-\;"lF. 12; Leidell: Elil!. 1998 J). For tht' Nco-As5Ylian texts, the cited sllH.lics hy Parpo];t and Nissinen have special import;mn'; set' also Manti ;,\issint'll. "Die Rele\'alll del' Hella.ssyd.schcll Prophetic fiir die alttest.Mllclllliche For~(hllng." in ;Hl'w/lo/r11l1il'fl-l'Wllilica-Biblim: i'i'.\(srim/! fiir Kurt Bergeriw(ed. ~r. DiNrich and O. LOI'efz; AOAT 232; Ke\'claer, Germany: BUIlOH & lkrckcr; Neukirchen-\luyn: J:\'('ukirchencr, 19\)3),217-:'>8.

5 Mesopotamian Prophecy between Immanence and Transcendence: A Comparison of Old Babylonian and N eo-Assyrian Prophecy Karel van der Toorn Introduction Over the past century. many genres of the Hebrew Bible have been fiuitfully compared Vvith relevant literature from neighboring ci\ilizations of the ancient Near East. Biblical Jaws. rituals. historiography. prayers. and wisdo1l\ have counterparts in the literature of the \ksopotamians, Hittites, Canaallites. and Egyptians. Prophecy. however. was long cOl1sidered a ulliqudy biblical phenomenon. Since the publication of a considerable number of ancient Mesopotamian prophecies, this \iew can no longer be upheld. Biblical scholars who realize this fact have devoted their efforts to studies of the relationship hetween biblical aJl(i Mesopotamian prophecy. Such is not the aim of this contributioll. I limit myself to all investigation of Mesopotamial1 prophecy in order to demonstrate the internal differences and developments of what is often treated as a monolithic phenomenon. \\'hile not entering into a comparison with the Bible. I am convinced that the conclusions of this study \vill he relevant to student,; of Ilebrew prophecy as well. The ('vidence for ancient Mesopotamian prophecy is limited to Old Habyloniall and Nco-Assyrian texts. The vast majority of the Old Babylonian texts come from the archives of Mari; they are conveniently accessible in al1 edition by Jean-~'larie Durand. 1 The Neo-AssYlian texts I Jeall·Marie DIU-ti); Ili-hazn'l}'a. an flssinnum of Annunitum (ARM 26 212): the lay prophetess Ahatu!l1 (ARM 26 214:6-7); one It ra-gamil (ARM 26 222: 12); the ("("statics Hadnu,EI and IdclinKubi (ARM 26 n7): and Abiya, the ii/dum of Addu of Aleppo (,H.ARi 7 r 199:~J: 4.'\ A. 19I.itV~). See also ,\RM 26 nos. 21 I: 221-bis. ;;4 Sec Dur,md, An-hi.,,!''', ·109. 2~ See Parpota, ,1,I.\W)(11I Pmphprirs. xlvii-xlviii.

:11 SAA 91.2; 25; 9; 10 (Sinqisa-.unur,·Uunn.1sa-anlllr): SAA

Prophecy between Immanence and Transcendence

79

ofIstar. 26 Unlike SiIl10 Parpola, I do nOllhink this means that in these cases IStar is "putting on new masks" to speak on behalf of other members of some sort of Holy Trinitv. 2i Bel and Nabu can speak for themselves, but they do so through the agency of the !Star prophets. The distinctioIl might seem a sIlbtlc OIle, but it is not without importann:. In Nco-A>;sjTian times, prophecy was a type of divinatioll pertaining to the province of Etar, as cxtispicy was a type of divinatioIl connected with the gods Sama.s and Adad. Neo-Alisjlian prophecy owes its privileged link to the cult of Etar to the shamanistic nature which the two have in common. The Nco-Assyrian prophets arc ecstatics. They "shout" (raKc"tlnu) and "go ilIto a frenzy" (mahii, N-steIIl). Such beh,tvior fiL~ well with the character of the cult of lSt.ar, which was strongly shalIlaIlistic. IStar was deemed capable to produce, by way of ecstasy, a metamorphosis in her worshipers. ~len might be turned into women, and women were made to behave as men. If ever there was a possession cult in Mesopotamia, it was connected to IStar?' Prophecy, being a type of divinatioll based on inspiration, is at home in such a cult. Then; is evidence that at least some of the Nco-A~S}'lian prophetesses were in reality men, or rather self~cas­ trated transvestites.~X) Their outward appearance was interpreted as a display of IStar's transforming powers. Possessed by the divine, they were the obvious persons to become mouth pieces of the gods. The association between prophecy alld the cult of !Star (or one of her al\omorphs) was not unknown in Old Babylonian times. A case in point is that of Selebum, a transvestite (assimwm) belonging to the cult personnel of Annunitum, mentioned as the medium of prophetic oracles in three Mari letters.:lO "\'hat remained an occasional link in Mari, however, has become a structural connection in first-millennium As~yria. By then, prophets, as a rule, are named individuals whom IStar has endowed with powers to act as a medium hetween gods and humallkilId. We TIlay perhaps speak, in this connection, of a professionalization of prophecy 2(> See, e.g., SA-A 9 1.4; SAA 13 139. 2i Parpob. Assyrian Proph,'l'ie.l. xviii. 21'1 Brig-itte CroIlf'herg-. Loh drr .War: Gebet und Ritual an -21. See also ARM 26 227:6rr "In nl\' dream Hadnn-EI and ludin-Kubi, thl! eesr;Hies. were alive ;lI1ct went hefore Abba. They spoke as follows ... " (follows an orark from rhe god Abba). 4:1 Compare the tcxt~ fIIclltiOlwd in 11, ~2. ARM 26 2n:7 i" IlU exceptiun. because the phmse umma :~nnunilu.mma is not a quotation from the prophecy, but an explanation by Queen Sibtll. who sent the letrer. The one time one does encoutcr a self~introduction is A. 1121 + 2731:14-15, 49-50 (= RA 78 [1984): 17-18), but then' it serves no! to reveal the identitv of the divine speaker, but to underline the favors formerly hestowed hy the f,!;O(i. ·11 Sec ARM 26 192; 193: l~H; and FL!' 1671 (~ AHlU c) r 1\:187]: 2:~5-6tj, ('sp. 240). ,n See n. ,,(j, 46 See, e.g .. SAA I:~ 148.

Prophecy between Immanence and Transcendence

Hj

gest that the oracles might OCCllr anywhere, be it inside or-more frequently-outside the temple. "~I Turnillg to the oracles themselves. we encounter additional evidence for setting the prophecy outside the temple. The most telling example, in this respect, is an oracle hy the WOJllan Bayii froJll A.rbda, in which the gods Bel, IStar of Arhela, and Nahil arc successively introduced as speakers (SAA 9 1.,1). -nlOlIgh IStar had a 1~1l1101lS temple in Arbela, there is not the slightest hint in our records that it contained chapels for the images of Bel and NahlL l8 "\-'e must assume that Saya gave her prophecy in one piece in the absence of the images of Bel and :'\labll. There is also internal e"idelKe in the oracle of Bay,l indicating that the audience could not he sure on hehalf of which deity she was speak~ ing. Each god had to be identified bv a formula of self~introduction. Modern readers would not be aware of the multiplicity of divine voices if it were not for the fact that the gods present themselves with the words "[ am Rei" (17'), ") am 'star of Arbela·' (;W'), and '" am Nalni, lord of tilt' styl\ls~ (:~H'). Such formulae of sell~introdllction art' t'xtremel), rare in the Old Babylonian prophecies. The only t.ime one does OCCllr, it serves not to identify the god, but to underscore his support of the king in the past. 49 There is reason to belieye that the omnipresence of divine self~introduction in the l\eo-A'isyrian prophecies is not merely a matter of style. The audience needed to hear this, otherwise the\' would not know which god was speaking. Such ambiguity is not inherent in the situations in which the Old Babylonian prophecies were originally delivered. 17 See 1\issinen. Reform cps. passim, but esp. 28 and n. 121; 64-6:) (prophf'L~ among the military. pnwiding oracks during a royal campaign). Sec also Simo Parpola. iR((f'r., fmm Assyrifln Sdw/ars to Ihi' KiI1R.I Emrizaddon Ilnd AHm·/zrmifi"/ (AOAT :i/l; Kevdael', GelTlI,Ul\': BtllZoll & Ben:ker; Neukin:hen-\lllyll: Nt'ukin:ht'Ilt'r. 1970). no. 29 r. 7-11. l'arpola's no. :>]7 (~SAA 1'1 '17) shows Ihal Neo..As-Wlian prophecies could also be delivered in temples; see !\:issillen, 1&/irl'1l(f.\. 7S-Hl. Some relevant texts not discussed bv !\:issinen are now to be found in SAA. 13: no. IJ9 (= Robert Francis Harper. /lss,riar/ aT/d Babylonian Letters [London and Chicago: Lul.ac, lK92-1914]' no. 1249); no. 1 paUelll (G.1(; !:iS50, s, (2). muhhll and maill/lf are the B~bylonian and ;\.ss'rTian variants uf a D-stem verbal adjective (Parpola. 11Ss\',';al1 Proph,'r.ircs, ciii, n, 219). Thi, makes unnecessary the asslImption of a semantic contaminatioll of two different words (Howard Wohl, "'1'h", Problem of the maM1ii,"IA.!'v7,~)C[!3 11970-1971]; 112-18). 1'1 There are plentv of nonpropherical attestations of both words; cf. 4 R 28:59: "fllru i11lahhilflflli imahhi, "the small and the great alike go into a frenzy" (d, Joel 3:1): ER7, 3R:21: ana ,fa illl";; bdiu im,i'rl, "Like one who has gone mad and forgottt'll his lord"; Esarltaddoll Nin Ai 41-12: mkal'lu all/uia ill/mahlhllll millllna.ia Pli ilimi 11 omrllll; Iii l/iilu [.ioJ lurIl' [.ill] IIrbail ,ii[pirtji [aun]111l ana\[am !;jil ija . .. J lssin [. , .J. "[ ... -Jya. vOlaress [ofllStar [oil Arbela [reportedlllhlis mcs[sagJe for the ki[ng, my lord]: '[ ... J IStar [, . .]' .. It. is not clear, however, whether this "Olano'SS had actually littered the divine word in question, orjllst reports it to the king; d. Parpola. ilslyrirl1l Prophecies, Ixxvii; Whiting. introduction to Cole and ~lachinist, i.eU,,!). xvii. :lk E.g., 1I1IS'(Ulmm; '" have S('(,11 her cli\'inir(; I.lSar-bdl-da' "lm, "lStar, strenglhell my lord'''; Iswlr-la-ta.ll,ifl.!. "00 not Ilcglt,cl 1St'll !"; Sinqi.ia-amlll; "I have s('en hel dis1(,('S.'·'; see Parpola, A,srrian l'rophl'fil's, ii-iii. :19 S/\A 9 9:16-20; d. the similar language IIsed in SAA 313.

The Socioreligious Role of the Neo-Assyrian Prophets

97

[ anoku] Rei i'forDo i.lli /Ylu[ lfl is.>1i ilsillim :tnll SlI adi miillslt al·tianki

II) am Bel. I have entered and reconciled with Mulli~sll. king of Assyda whom she raised: Fear notl I am Bel, I have had lllnCy, (lit you (f). AssurbanilJal is in a cOllntry . W which remains loyal. I have !J;i(l lllt'I'C, 011 vou, together \,ith his country

,~surb" (line 26), refers 10 the £lardllk: The S 167'1 and 2064: set:' Maria deJolIg Ellis, "The L:Oddt:'ss Kititllll1 Speaks to Killg Ibalpiel: Oracle 'Iexts from Ishcluli." AHfU:) (19H7): 23)-66, fi() Annunitum: ARM 22 '\2b: 26 HII'; 212; 21:\; 21,1: 2:n: \Stilr of Bis!'a: AR.\'1 26237; Diritum: AR.\f 26 199; 20R; Iklet-{'kallim: ARM 26 209; 211 (?); 237: 240: Belet-biri: ARM 26 238; Hisamitum: AIUl-I 26 195; !\inhursag: ARM 22 167 (cf. A. 4(76); 26 219, ;'\Jole espedallv the role of the prophets in the rituals of IStar (A 3165; A. I 249b+ ); d. Durand and Guichard, "Riwels de ~1ari," HI Dagan: ARM 2:) 1:,; 26196; )()7: 19~); 202; 205; 209: 2\0: 21.'1; 220; 221; 22'1; 2'12; 2:\3; A. 3796; '1, 114:16; T. fl2; Sarna;': ARM 26 194: 414; Adad: ARM 25 142; A. I J 21+; 196R; Itur-Mer: ARM 21 :n3: 2:\ -116; 26 2%: 0lergal: AR,\I 21 33:\; 2:1 Hti (26 :!22?); Ea: Alt.\! 2b 20~; Abba: ARM 2(; 227. 62 ARM 26 199::;; .'\, ~{796:4--·,): \1, 11436:4, There are plenty of similar cases:

The SociOl-e1igious Role of rhe Neo-A-:H. and most ('mphatically and concl\lsively by ParpoJa, ;\s.l),nan j-'mtJitl'cifS, x.i\". Cr. abu l'ollgralL-I.eislell. 1li'l'n('hajtswissm, 49-51. 66 E.g" the Zakkur Inscription, tht' Deir 'Alla Insniption. the Ammonite Cita-

102

Pmphecy in Its Anrimt ;\'ear Eastern Conh'xt

Jesser prolllinence of the goddf:"sS in the prophetic documents of Mari is due to socioreligious circumstances and traditions different from those of imperial Assyria.

The Prophets and the King Apart frolll the biblical narratives about propheb having all inuncdiate communication with the kings of Israel or Judah-which may have happened less often than one would have expected b7-at least one ancien t )\;ear Eastern source hints at stIch encounters, namely the letter of the well-knowlI Babylollian astrologer Bel-use.lib to the king Esarhaddoll. Bd-lLsczib wonders why Esarhaddon, t()i1owillg his coronatiolI, has slunmoned "propheb and prophetesses'· (m~e;irniznll mg{,rirniItu) instead of him and ill spite of the services he has provided j()r Esarhaddon during the civil war preceding his rise to power. I1H This reference is unique ill ancient ;'\J"ear Eastern sources, and BellIsezib's tone expresses his astonishment andje~llollsy. as if it were exceptional fi:>r prophets to be honored by the kilIg-'s summons. It is not certain that this reference indicates a f~Ke-to-fiKe rcndezvous between the propheL'i and the king. The "suIIlIlloning" (rdu na§!i) primarily means employing: the life of a scholar depended on the king's lise of his services, and Bel-llsezib is furious hecause Esarhaddoll, at the beginning of his rule. has made lise of the prophets' senices before COI1sulting the skilled and loyal Babylonian a~trol()ger. The Mali archive~ provide, to the best of' IIIV kllowlcdg'c, no record dcllnscription, etc.: c[ ..\ndr{~ Lemaire. '·Oracles, propagande ct litterature dans les royaumes arameens et transjordaniens (IX" _VIlle s. a\'. n.e.)," in Oracil's ef /,rophflif'S dans l'anliqllil';: ;\rtF5 rlu Colloq UP riP Stmsbmng, 15-17 Juin 1995 (ed. Jean(;eorges Heint7; CniVt'rsite des sciences humaltles de Slrasbollrg. Tlavaux du Centre de rccherdw sur Ie Proche-Orient ('1 la Gn'ce anliques 10; Paris; lk Bon:;;lrd,

1997)' 171-93. (;7 These encounttTS happen belwt'ell lJle anonymous prophet and Jeroboam (1 Kgs 13;1-10); Elijah and Allab (J Kg~ 18:16-20,41); \-licaiah and Ahab/Jchoshaphat (l KW- 22: 1-28): Elijah and Ahaziah (2 Kgs 1); Elisha and Ben-Hadad, king of Damas('us (2 Kt,rs 8:7-J 5); Isaiah and Ahaz (lsa 7): Isaiah and Hezekiah (ha 37-39 = 2 Kgs 19-20) and Jeremiah and Zedekiah Un :H:J-7: 37:17-21; :~8: 14-2H). Jeremiah 21; 36; 37; 1-10 are not direct enCOlllllers, but prophecies littered elsewhere and transmitted to the king by a 69 ARM 26 :nl; see Dominique Charpin, "Le contexte hisloriql1c et geo.. graphiqlle nt's prophfties dans ks textes n'lfO\lV(;S a Mad," HC'liYfS 23 (1992): 21-:11, esp. p. 2R-29. 70 S('t' Pongratz..l.eisten, Illn~rhathllJiS)Tian prophecies have been preserved only from the time of Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal raises the question whether II1/)I1I1(1h, ''You whose mother is Mullissll. have no fear' You whose nUl'se is l.ady of Arhela, have no fear:"; SAA :I IS L 6-8: .I,'hm aI/a A§siir·h(ini·apli ,{a ulIlaHimJw ina muhhi ,Sarra I Xinua {akii alta As§iir-biini-apli sa aIbaka ma burki ,~m'/'(lt ,Vmua, "You were a child. Assurbanipal. when I left you \vith the Quet,n of ~ineveh; you were a bahy. Assurballipal. when you sat in tht' lap of the Queen of Nineveh!" For enlrusting tht' A,syrian princes to temples of IStar, and for further references. see Parpola, AHy/iall Pmphl'ries, xxxix-xl; ic-c llll. I7·!-77. flO E.g., ARM 26215:15--21: fltUhll1lTfl PUll DagYln [nlblma ki"am iqbi /i[mJmami {lima (ulmllii nli; ~(Jkiilim III (riulli lilla b;Stlka jiipurfl/(/ II Ill;; Ulkiitim li.iqnwi, "A prophet ;trust; before Dagan ami spoke: 'How long shall I not h(' ahk to drink pure waler: \\'rile to your lord thaI he would pro\~de me with pnrt' water:'" 81 The archives of ~1ari contain traces of such prophetic demands, especially in the kilns of l'U!~Sin from Aleppo (A. 1121+ and A. 1968). for whi,h see Sasson. "Posting," 3H-16: Jean-Georges Heintz. "Des textes st;mitiques anciens a la Bible h':brai'lue: Un comparatbme io?gitime?" in L.,' rmnl}mati,~m,' en h~loir, dtes rdil-,rio/iS (ed. Fran: Parpola. :hsyrinn Propheril'.5. lxviii-Ixi: ;-';issinen, Rfinnlc,'" 30-31). and at least some of the prophetic quotations in the inscriptions of AS$IUbanipaJ may bf' cited from wrillen sources (sec Nissinel1. Rp{r'I"rnrrs, !)R--61). 1':1 SAA 12 {,9; VS 19 1: see above. )'. Gaiter; Crazer Morgt'ntindische Studien :~; l;r.1L. Aw;rria: Universitatsbihliothek. 19~H), 47-59. ('sp. 51-52.

The Socioreligiolls Role of the Nco-A-;s)'Tian Prophets

109

First. the majority of the Assyrian prophets knovm to us are women, while there is no kmale representative among the scholars. Second, as noted earlier, prophets, unlike scholars, do not write letters to the king: if their words are written, they are transmitted to the king in reporL~ written by pmfcssional scribes.Sf! Third, while scholars transmitted received tradition as Sllccessors of the mvthical, antediluvian sages?' prophets acted as direct mouthpieces of gods: both roles were the result of education and training in a specific environment. Fourth, prophets do not take part in political counseling in the way of the scholars; they do not form pan of the kiug's closest advisury body and were not members of the political elite, or the "magnates" (LlJ.l;,\L.~H:S).91 This does not prevent them, bv the medium of oracles. from being actively involved in political decision making, but unlike the scholars they do not seem to be in the position of making practical sllggestions. Scholars sometimes make suggestions on the grounds of prophetic oracles.'):? but more often Oil the basis of t11Cir learned observations and political instiun. In Assvria, the roles of scholar and prophet are not interchangeable. The inductive and noninductive methods of divination are never mixed, although, in a literary context, the outcome of divination may sometimes be described in a way that resembles prophecy.Y:{ However, when dreams and visiolls are reported, [oJ' exalllpk. in inscriptiolls, the source seems immaterial to the author, and it is oftell impossibk to decide whether the dream or vision in question should be dcfillCd

WI Sec Nissillen, "Spoken, \\'rinen. Quoted. and Invellted.See Simo Parpola, lA'tlf'T5 frOTfl Ass'irian and Babylonian Srholars (SAA 10: Hel-

90

sinki: Helsinki Uni\'el~ity 1'1 eS5. 1993), xvii-xxiv. 91 For the offirials he'longing to this class. see Raija :viattila, Ihe King'., MagnaIJ-,,\; A Study n/llip Hight"1 Offirial, (iflhr ,\eo-As,wrian bnpirt' (SAAS 11: Helsinki: 1\eo-A$' syriall 'li:xt C0'1111S Project, 20(0); Simo Parpola, "The Assyrian Cabinet," in hllft Allen Orient WI/! /llim ,[ps(nllu'lll: FpIIghritljiir Wol/7mn ,'on Sodm (ed. Manfried Die' trich and Oswald Loretz; AOAT 240; Kevelaer, GermallY: Butzon & Bercker; :-.ieu kirrh e 11-\1 Il\'n: :-.ieukirchener. 1995), ~)79-40 I. ' 9~ As Be]'\lseezib dol" ill SA/\ 10 111 and~ab(I'lladin-sumi in SAA 10 284; see :-.iissillen. Ri1"n',u·r.l. 91)-100. 'tl E.g., Fs,uiladdoll NiH A i til-G2: alik IIi !wlli/a id(ika nittallakma nilliim gareRa, "l;o ahead, do not hold back! We walk bv your side, we annihilate your enemies!" These words are called e'/I'taliilli, "orack of encouragc'JUenl," which refers to ex, tjspicy; see :-.iissinen, Re{t'rt'nres. 33-34: Potlgratz-Lt-isteJ1. Hnnrill1{fswissnl, il4-8~).

PmphpCf ill Its A.nrient

110

;\;'1'0" t:astnll ContF:.:t

as prophetic.'1~ Visionaries like the ,~ahni, and the .~ii' iEu arc \irtually equated with prophets in Neo-AssYlian texts, and the dreams of ,~abrUs recorded in the prisms of A,surbanipal are n~portcd in language that could also be used by the Assyrian prophets. What lIlakes the prophets distinctive from others in Neo-Assyriiln society is their alt.achmcnt to the worship of EtaI' and to the respective socioreligious role, cOlllparable to that of other devotees like the a~sinnu and kurgarrll, whose gender role was permanently changed by the goddess. The prophets may Ilot have been generally characterized by a specific gender role, although indications to that effect exist (sec above); in allY case, the association of mahlili and mggimu 'with other ecstatics and the cOllllotation of frantic behavior suggest that (0 be a proplll:t required a role ami way of lift' distillcti\'(: from that of an average Assyrian citiLen. Like the repn'scntatives of the "third gender," the prophets impersonated the goddess-at least fUllctionally, if not in their outer appearance. This ('xplains the prominent role of worn en in prophecy without making it solelv an at/hilt' rirfOflltil's: the goddess who is able to take the role of both sexes can be impersonated hy female and rnalc persons alike, All this is not to say that the purpose of prophecy would have been different h-om that of divination in g('neraL The difference is qualitative rather than functional; all branches of diyination share a common ideological and theologicaJ basis. In Assyrian imperial ideology, there should llot havc been an\' discrepancy among prophets, scholars, and other diviners who worked for a common goal. for ('xampIc, dllling the war of ,barhaddon against his brothers.'I:, The legitimation of all divination was based 011 the idea that gods indeed communicate with humans and that the decisions of the heavenly world allect earthly cir-

,I

')'\ F()r :;imilar situation at l\'lari, sce Sasson, "Postilli!:," .10ft. Man\' I\hri It'llers COllvt'lltionally induded in the "prophetic" corpus arc, in facL dream repons (e.g .. AR\I ~G ~'n; 2:14: 2:~5: 2'\6; 231": ~i:'l9: 24(1; ;tud other 1t~It('r, classified under the title -Le5 reYes" in Durand, A.rrhilwl. 465-82). and it is ohen difficult to decide whether they shollid be qllalified as prophetic dreams, if the dreamer her/himself is not designated explkit]y as a prophet; for an attempt to differentiate between prophe· cies alld (noll prophetic ) dreams jn l\larj lellers. se(' !chiro l'\akata, "Two Remarks 011 the So·Called Prophetic Texts from Mal·i." A(fa S/lIlIl'miog1l(1 1 (]982): H:~-48, As to l\lari dreams ill gcueral. s('('Jack:'lf. S;ISSOll. "l'vl (OTI.; London: SC:\1, 1\186),90-91. Even if min hukkofulnllll ,hould he unoerstood ;is a rcft'reTlu' to Jerellliah\ father Hilkiah and nOI to himself (thus 'Villiam rvfcKalle. :1 Critiml owi l':x~f!:pliral CmnmpntlIrv Oil .1l'1rmiah [vol. 1: ICC; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. 1986], 1). it doe, Ilot dl'lllge the socioreligious background oflf'H'miah as Iwing from priestly circles.

The Socioreligious Role of the Neo-AssFian Prophets

] 1:~

on reconstllICtion of the Second Temple. There arc innovators, rcformers, and promoters of dynamic social change among the biblical prophets, but one might ask about the breadth of evidence for this kind of prophecy and to what extent it goes back to historical circumstallces. In other words, to what extent docs "biblical prophecy"prophecy as depicted ill the tinal form of the llcbrew Biblc-colTespond to "ancient Israelite prophecy," thc concrete historical phenomenon? The prophetic literature of the Hebrew Bible is the result of centuries of selecting, editing, and interpreting, and can give lIlll only a partial and somewhat distorted \iew of the phenomenon. It is \~idcly accepted today that the hiblical plOphctic figures represent . t· su 1)seropht:('~ reasons. After all, the sturly of West Semitic prophec\', attested ill Mari, Assyria, and Israel, may profit from South Semitic comparative matl'l"ial. despite the later date for the latter. .j S('(' (~daliahu C. StrollIllsa, .. 'Se"l of the Prophets': The 1\atllre of a ~1ani­ chaean Metapho!"'" jl.'Tu.wwm Studip.I in Ambi,. lind hl(Jm 7 i 19R6): 61-74, and )"0hanan FI'iedlllalln, "Finalitv of Prophethnnn in Sunnl Islam," JPrl1Stl!em Sludit's in ,'Irabil" alld Islam i (19R6): li7-21!'l. " In Islamic stlldie~. "bib1ic, all we can savi about them is thai they-or their models-most probably existed. The existence of an Arab tradition of propheL~ is also indirectly supported by the career of Muharnmad himself. A5 the oldest parts of the Qur\in ShOW,19 the mig-inal message of Muhammad was not biblically iIlspired, yet he was readily accepted br his audience as an inspired IllaIl-('\'cn those who seem to have opposed him did not find it diHiCIlIt to accept him as a hiIhin, slirl'iT; or majniin, all terms that imply supernatural inspiration. 2o To obey him was more difficult. Thus there was a paradigm into which his earliest audiellce set Muhammad. "nle cornerstone of this paradigm was most probably the kiillin (and his female cOllllterpart, the kii.hir/fl), who received his knowledge from a familiar spirit. Labi' 21 Krihins arc fonnd throughollt the peninsula and ,

,

i

,

.

17 A similar increase in respect is s('en in the legcnds surrounding Sa(ih; ,ce below. 18 The study of Serjeant C·HI-Id"). lik .. , in {~ct, most of his othel' studies on early Islam. sulfers from his re;\4 ments"'\1 re Iates to t Ile ([. un Il1StltutlOIl, as suggeste d b y ra " t tlen we might have a more predominantly female origin for the system, k' - } "

.

.

:1;> nil' COl/qU''>1 o/Amliia (vol. 1() of Tltr lIis/or)' (1/ fll-Tab(lT1: trailS, Freel ~k(~raw Donnel; BibliothcGI Persica; Albany: State t'nivcrsily of ::-;,.w York Press, I flRR) , 65-{l/). I give references only to the tJ'anslation (abbreviated as ]abari), as the pagination of the original appears in the margins. The other volumes used are 6: Muhammad al Merm. trans. \\', Montfl'omery Watt and M. V. ~IcDonald (1993); 9: The Last }i'ars of Ihf Prophet, trans. Ismail K Poonawaht (1990); and 29: AI-IIJansiir and alMaltdi. trans. Hugh Kenlledy (1990). :1:; S('(', ('.g., Israel Fph'al, I'll, .-twinl! ,11(1/1,: Nomads 011 !iJ,' Bonten o/Ihl' Fertile Cn'scml, ?>.'inth-H/th CPnIU!'if.~ RC. q('[makm: Mag-nt's PTCSS; L('inen: firill, 19~2), index, s.v. "Arab, '1ui'rll." :\.1 Fahd, Divination, 98-\02.

Arabian Prophf'cy The preponderallce of male kiihins in the legends might even he an Islamic dt'velopment, but these ideas are purely hypothetical. 35 Were the kiihillS, then, prophets? The answer depends on the definition of prophecy; if we presuppose that a prophet should havt' a distinctive message,% the l1iilzin fails to quality. Yet as an intermediary betweeIl the divine--or at least the numinous-and the human, the kiihin does fill t.he gap. Despite their different social settings. one cannot draw a line between the functions of, for examplt-, the AssYI;an prophet":'{ and the kilhins. The whole of Arabian prophecy grows out of kihilna. The kiihin has heen seen as the spiritual and even as the political It'ader of his tribe, yt't this role hardly manifests itself in the hahin stodt's. The ka/tin indicated prestige, and he may have been t.aken along to battlefields, but there is virtually no reliahle evidt'nce for him having been the leader of the trihe. It may be that the role of ~Iu/:lammad himself in ;vledina, as described by t.he Sirah, influenced this view, hut, as we shall s('e, it may he hazardous to see in ~lu/:lammad a ., prop I let an d statesman. .. 38

The Career of Muhammad This was the situation on the peninsula when l'vIubammad started his career. In scholarly literature. based on the Islamic tradition, Muhammad has been seen as the prophet of his native town, Mekka, who there came illto n.llltact with monotheists, Jews Of Christians, from whom he received an impetlls. Thus his invocation has been seen as a result of his becoming aware of a monotheist traditiOll.~9 The earliest layers of the Qur'an do not, however, support sHch a ~'i One might mention the Berber K;:jhina. who in the late seventh ce11lurv led l1.'1)r)l'lopaedia Of Islam. vol. 'I. For the (ption (6:1--8); the recognition of \hti)amrnad. in several versions. as the future prophet by the Syrian monk Bal~!ra ;Hld hy another monk (6:-14~lR); \-Illhammad's marriage to Khad~j;t, not located specifically in \lc-kka (one of the kw t>veJlb lackillg reli).,rio!ls motif,) (6:48-51); the rdHlildin,ll; of t.he Ka'ba (651·59); ,lIJd im'O(alioll (6:67-80). Aftcnv;trd, the proplwt's life hecomes less based on religiolls theIlJes. blH tht'IV ;Ire few df'tails. and thCM:. lJIon'over, tend to he llsed sevCl~IJ times. 'li-picall)'. one evelll is narrated twicf', ami the nar'rator states how many veal'S passed belween the IWo. An ob,;olls example are the two pledges of 'Aqaba (G: J 22-138). There should be olle year between these two ev("nts, but the sitllatjon in Mekka seems meanwhilt> to freeze. LikewiM', very lillIe seems to happen dming lht' boycott (6:105-1 H), yet we are told that it "contillllC'd for two or tlut>e yean;' (f.i:106). Had the boycott, if it e\'er exi~ted. taken so long. it is (uriolls that there is lIothing ill tht' Qur'all dealing with it. 4-i The follmving examples are hom lilll!lri. In the search for a kahillll tn gi\'e a verdict 011 'Abdallah. '-'luhaIllmad's father. "Abdallah is taken from the Ka'ba while still a boy, first to Yathrib and from there to meet the kiihina (6:4). In one version of the legendary story of the conception, 'Abdallah is said to have been stained with clay or mud. As the translators note (6:6, n. 6). this paSSr, preted as a rt>ferellce 10 agricultllre, which should not have been lIIuch pnlctin:d ill Mekka-Yathrih, instead, wa, lhe ale,t'S llJailJ aKlicultllraJ center (6:6). AI)dalhih dies ill Yathrih and is huried tl1(:>re (6:il·9). Yluhammad's gralHlfather is said to have gmwII up ill y,tlhI'ib (6:9-1 'i). Thr' opening of the hi t>ast happen,s, accord, ing to the most bmous version. among the bedouin (see Siralt 1:144-149/69-7:->: in -';lbari 6;75 this event is situated ill the valley of Mekka). Setting the dlildbood

12H

Pmph"f), in Its Allrirnt .Vear Eastern Contrxt

are either legendary or unrlatable, this necessitates rethinking the early location for Mubammad. yluhammad's ~enealogy also seems problematic. Besides legends (7hbari 6: 1-9), nothing is known of his father, 'Abdallah, whose name, meaning '"the servant of God," is often used in later text-; when the real name is unknown. In the earliest literature, 'abd'lltith and the respective krninine amatallith arc used generically. Likn"isc, Mubammad lacks brothers or sisters, alld both of his parents are reported to have died whell he was vcrv young, his father, according to most traditions, before he was born. The existence of his grandfather 'Abdalmunalib seems to have been doubted already by FranL-; Buhl.~~ III any case, the lack of (kllown) close relativeli made l\luhamrnad's early life open to manipulation. This was casier than in Jesus' case, whose mother and a brother, James, played roles in the early community, yet whose genealogy and childhood were completely rewritten within a few decades of his death. 40 It is not necessary to go into further detail. The main facts are as follows: the Mckkan provenance of Muhammad and his affiliation with the maiIl tribe of l\lekka, the Qurays h, rests either 011 legends or the simple statemeIlts of the sources, with little evidence or detail. Except for events directly before the hijm, Muhammad's life in Mekka is almost a blank. Its chronology seems arbitrary and may, in fael, be based on numerical speculation, as pointed out by Rubin."7 The later association of the Prophet with the Quraysh would not be unique in a pl'eIslamic tribal system ill which lineage could be adjusted to comply with a 11f'W situation, and in which outsiders were admitted illLo a family for political reasons. The strong association of Mulpmmad with Mekka of )'luhammad in the strongly Jewish town of\'athrib would create more problems than it solv('s; Why was his ('arly message. if he grew up. in Yathrib, not already heavily Judaiciled) More than anything, this example shows how (onfused th(' SOlJrC('S a~e as It) his place of origin . .1', '''Abo al-1\·tuqp a/thE' Be}wldn: 189-214.

12~

Arabian Proptwcy

finds iL~ Sitz im [.£fU'l1 in the Iate-seventh-n:ntury emphasis on Mekka and its sanctuary, the Ka 'ba, as the holy places of Islam. At this time the Arab background of the religion began to be emphasized as a countenveight to Jerusalem and the ('adier monotheistic traditions ..'8 The main deity of the Ka'ha, Hubal, is not mentioned in the Qur';m 4Y and is almost invisible in the surrounding explanatory material. as if his cult had had no influence on the life of IVluhammad and his enemies. Reading the Siral! and the Qur'an, one would never conclude that Muhammad had grown up in the cultic center of Huba1. 5o My main point. though-whether IVlul).ammad carne from Quraysh or not-is that his early activity before the I!ijra has been lIlisllnderstood. The sources claim I.hat he was aClive for SOIllt' twelve years ill I\'1ekka before his hijra, hut when studying the details this period seems to evaporate. In the SimI! there are realistic details from the end of the Mekkan period. Almost all of these cenier on Muhammad's activity during one ·18 As an aside. I ,iraw attention to the fact that Mekkphe! had he Ilot died ill inhlncl' (discussed 111 Friedmann, "Finalirv," I Rtl-!l:1) is oLI hiler period, and even the existence of Ibr[thi1l1 has laldv hcell qllesliolll'd: set' Kaj ()11l nberg, "Mariya al· (.libtiyya l'meil,'d." SludOr ');') (198-+): 2~i7 -,IO,'i, :;6 A r,uhn ohscure (,Dn closely associated ill Ihe Qill ','in witb Abraham; Sfle. e,g., 3:67. The discussion of \Vatl. Muhammad's ,HfC((J. 37-:18. is l'Cle\~U1t to the meaning of ham/ I agret' with Watt in doubling the existence of any" hallirmovement" hefort' Islam. ~7 The nallle is spelled in slightl\' differeJlt forms: Ibn Sa 'id: IhIl as-$;l'id; Ibn as· S;l\vad: t'te For more ahout Ibn Sa\,~jd. sec especiallv f);lvid Halperin, 'The Ibn sayyad Traditions and lht' Legelld of :tl-Daii,ll," .lAOS 96 (19711): 21~-25, a 1111 Steven \1. \Vasserstrolll, Bl'lwf'1'fI :vIwlim !llId J'7l': 111/' I-'mbll'lll 0/ Symbiosis Will", Fatly hlam (Priuceton: Prillt.:t'loll l: niversily Pre'ss, I 99=-;). 77 ~"''2, In lim al·l\lunjcii, Maiit/Jlm, 222. there is an intETt'sting ston' which has ht't'll overlooked bv Halperin. According to the sttwy, Ibn S:I'id was an IsfahanianJew who went into occultation in order to rt'turn as the Antichrisl. >\8 III addition to L-thman ihn Sa"id ad-D;llli. OI-Sl/lIal/ a/'1l'Iirida fi i:fifan 1/1(/' Khawa'diha lila' ,I' Ill' (I WllflSluiilil{{1 (1411); eel. Rici;i 'albh \tuhalllma Tammuz and Istar Ritual (Farber, BI'.5chworungw'itual.e) 90n.6, 94 /l. 23

42

SAA

92.4 92.5 92.6 93

26 31

32 33 37 ~~;

12

:3 13

314 ,~ 34

62 n. 37, 89n. 3, 91 nil. 10, 11, 95 n. 30 97n.43 97n.43 97n.43 96n.36, 9711.43 97n.43 96n. 39, 97, 97n.43. 98n.44, 99n.52, lOOn. 57, la5 n. 79 98

91-4 91-2 91 9 1. 1 91.2 91.3 9 1.·1

9 1.5 9 1.6 91.7 91.H

91.10

93.2-5 93.3 ~~.

90n.6, lOOn. 58

4

60

58, 59, 9[ n. /1, 105 58, 9611.36, 104, 104n.78 59, 73, 82, 91 n. 11, 9211.18, 98

95 46 ~) 7-11 97

98 98

98n.45 58n.26, 89,1.3, 91 n. 11, 103n. 7} 73 57 43,59, 94, 10611.82 86n. 61, 94n.26, 98 78n.22, 98 73, 9811. 50, 10311.73 58, 75n.12" 78n.22, 79 n. 26, 83, 86 n. 63, 94n.26, 98 96n.36

59, 75n.12, 86n. 60, 99n.52 57, 96n.37, 104, 104 n. 78 98, 104. 104n.78, 1 lOll. 95 75n.13, 7RI1.21, 98

104n.78 78n.22, 86n. 63, 98 75n.13, 78n.2/, 86n.62, 98 58, 96n.36, 98n.19 78n.22. 98, 99/1.52 I(Nn.78 43.58, 77n.19, 98, 106n.82 7871.21 59, 85 n. 59, 99n. 5 '3

93.5

9nn.6, 91 n.lO, lOOn. 58

:) :~5 337 339 344-47 79

43

42. I 92.2 92.3

9

153

99

106 It. 84 58, 58n.26, 59,

76nu.16,17, 91 n. 11, 961/.36, 99n.52, lO4n.79 73, 78n.22,82, 86/1.6.'J, 961171. 36, }9, 9"" . I, 98, lOOn. 57

9 10 10 109

7871.22, 9/n.l1, 98 5911.28, 89n.3, 91 n. II, 102n.68, lIOn. 95

10 111

8911.3, 99n.54,

I () 2R4

10294 10352

10911. 92 76'11. 18, 8CiIl.:I, J09n. 92 61 n. 3" 89n.3, 9111.11 60n.30,89n.3, 91 u. 11, 9211.19. ]{)4 n. 76

1269

90n.5, 9111.10, lOOn. 57, 10611..83

If:i4

Index

0/ A n r ifnt /)u(wf!efl 1,,\

SAA (continued) 1337 60n. 29, 83n. 47, 89n.3, 91 n. 11, 93n.20, 99n.56. f(}4 n. 76 -1 II. "'-. 1 I ~{ l:N (jOn. 31. I~

B 144

B 118

13157

7911.26,81/1.47, 8911.4, 97n.40. lOOn. 57 61 n. 32, 8311.47. 891/.4. 9811.48.

I04n.76 57n.25, 82n.46. 83n. ·17, 9011.4, 9611.37 9211.13

OTHER CUNEIFORM,TEXTS 4R

28

9In.13

BWL :~R

9111.}}

MDP

MSL

CT

91n.9, 95 n. 32

DA 211

9111.9. i)]1I.22. 94n.29, 95 rI. 31

12

OECT 91n.9

Sm :132

9111.9

TCL 1039

91 n. 9

TDP ,!

9In.9

Ugaritica 5 162

64n.42

VS 19

384

9In.9 9In.9

107 18 171

91 n. 9. 9411.25. I06n.83

YOS 618 7135

91 n. 9 91 n. 9

91 n. 9

QUR'AN

FLP 1674 2064

24, 7211. 1. 82 n. 44. 10011.59, 10611.84 72n. 1. lOOn. 59, 10611.84

2

2:62 3:67 6:31 8:43

LKA 29d

95n.32

II: 114 17: 1 19 27:20

13771. 78 13511. 70 140n.86 144n.l04 133

13911.83 INn.66 137n. 78 I371l. 78

Innex of Ancient Documents Qur'an (continued) 29 137n.78 3:):40 116 50:39-40 13911.83 120n.20,123n.28 52:29 113 53 5:1:19 129n. -/9 69:41-42 12011.20 72:1-15 121 n. 22 73:1 133n.61 74:1 13311.61 nyu. 83 76:25-26 93:6 12811.46

1:30-33 1:1J6-1:N 1:J 36-2:99 I: I·H-l 49 1:181

2:29-31 2:39-9:3 2:212-214 2:2:{O ·l:W 4:110-111

122n.23 14/n.92

127n.43 12711.44 124 130 13171.54 134

I 34n. 65, /37n.74 lJ4n.65 134

155

Index of Modern Authors Cited

Adas, Michael, 19n.19 Allen. S .. 7n. 9 Amir-Moezzi. Mohammad Ali, 115 II. IOfi Artzi, Pin has, 104 n. 74 Baird, R. D., 7n.8 Barstad, Hans 1\1., ,ii, :~ n. 1. 3 II. 2, 1 B-14 n. 102 Bashcar, Suliman, 129n.50 Ballo. B. F.. 5 n. 'f Beach, ~1. A., 28 n.42 Bell, Richard, 12511.39 R1enkinsopp, Joseph. 63 n. 39, 114n.106 Borgcr, Ryklc, 60n. en, 74n. 9 Bcespflug, F., 5 n. 4Bowen, Nancy R., 66n.46 Bremmer. .J. :\., 7n. 10 Brock, Sebastian, 1;11 11.55 Buhl, Frants. 128 ButlfT, Sally A. 1... 107n. 86 Carroll. Robert P., 11, ] 1 n. 24, 31 n.49, 69n.·18. 112n.99 Calagnoti, A., 8:-> n. 58 Charpin. Domillique, 4H II. Ii, 5In.]1, iOll.,t9, I03n.69 Civil, M., 9311.22 Cogan, Mordechai, 1Oin.85 Cole. Steven \\'.. 5il1.25, H9. 8911.4 Colstoll, Stephen A., 30 n. 48 Conrad, I.awrence l., IIi n. i Cook, Michael, 11il1. 7 Corhin, Henri, 143 n. 9[J

Cragham.John F., 2:~JI. 28 Crolle, Patricia. 11711. i, ] 18n.I;), 132n.56 Cross, Frank, 35-36, 35 n. 9

Dalley. Stephanie. :->0 n. 9 Daniel, Elton L., 144n. 101 Dc \·Vaal Mald'ijt, A., () n. 8 Dietrich. ylanhied, 72 II. ;), I02n.68 Dijkstra. Meindert, 97 n. 44 Di6szegi. V, linn.l0, 11 Donner. Fred McGraw, 117 n. i. 124u.32 Dunand. E. 5n. 4 Durand, Jcan-\farie, vii, 3 n. 3, 13n.l, 48I1n.5, 6, 'lgn. 7, 70 Il. 49. 71. 7111.1, 90 n. 8. 92 n. 17 Edsman, Carl-I\.Jartin, 17n.ll EickeIrmmll. Dale E, 137ll.75 Eliade, !'.iirc{'a, 17 n. 10 Ellis, l\laria dt.:Tong, 1311. 1, 2411.33, 53n. 16, 7In.I, 100n.59 Elwin, Verrier, 22 n. 27 Emmett, Dorothy, ~16, ~n 11. 12 Eph'aJ,lsrad, 124n.:1:) ES5, Josef van. 144 Il. 102 Evans, C. D., 5n.4

Fahd, Toufle. 115 n. 2, 120-21 n. I'll, 124, 1 ~)4-% n. f)9 Fales, F. M .. ~)8n.26, 10711.8:) Farber. Walter, YO n. 6

157

Index of l'llodern A. ut/wn Cited

w..

Fauth. 9. 9lI.16 Festinger, Leon, 31 n.49 Fiensy, D., 7n.l1 Fleming, Daniel, 65n. 4g Fohrer. Georg, 9 Frazer, Sir James. 8u. 13 Freedman, navid i\oeJ, ~~5. 3511. ti Freydank, Helmut. 9411. 25 Friedmann. Yohamm, ]] 6 n. 4 Frymer-Kensky, Tikva, 100 n. 58

Hinds, M'lI-tin, 11811. n Holscher, Gusta\', 3g-34, 34n. 2 Hoppal, \1., 17 nn.lO, 11 Hoyland, Robert G., 131 n. 55 I1uffmon, Herbert B., viii, 30 n. -!6, 40 n. 2:). 7'2 II. ,~, 8911. I. 105n.81. 11111.% Hultkranz, Ake, 17n.1O Humphrey, Caroline, 17 n.l1 Humphreys, R. Stephen, 117 n. 7 Hutter, Manfred. 10 I Jl. 65

Geertz, Anllin W., 2611.38 (~it1 vall dt·!', viii, S n. 4, 11 11.23,7211.3,7311.4, 90n.6, 103n.71 Trafzer, C. E .. 28 n. 42 Van Doren, Charles. 2Rn.43

Wallace, A. F. C .. lill.9

Wansbrougb,John,117n.8, 133n.60 \Vasserstrom, Steven M., 140n.87 Watanabe, Kazuko, fJ7 n. 24 \Vatt, W. Montgomery, 124n.32, 12!in.38, 13311.62, 14011.86 Weber, Max, 36. 36 n. 11 Weippert, Helga, 96n. 36 Weippert, Manfred, 4n. 3, 391l. 21,76, 76n.15, 89n. I, 95n.:H, 9611.36, 108n.87, 111 II. 90 Wcllhausen. Julius, 38. 123 n. 31. 129n.50 \\11ite,J. B., 5n.4 Whiting, Robert ~I., 90nn. 4.5 Wilcke. Claus, 51 n.12 Williams, tvlichael Allen, 1]8n.12 \\,illis. R. G., 1511.5 Wilson, Brian R., 17 n. 9 \Vilsol1, Robert R., 7n. ]0, 911.17, 13n.2. 37, 37n.15, 1l1n.go, IHn.l05 \\'ohl, Howard, 91 n. 12 Wolf, Kenneth B., 1 ;~7 n. 78 Wumit, Wilhelm. 34 \'ounger, K. 1,., 5n.4

CONTRIBUTORS

I-TANs M. of Oslo.

BARSTAD

teaches in the Faculty of Theology at the University

LESTER 1.. GRABBE teaches in the Department of Theology at the University of Hull. England.

Jiv\KKO IL\MEE;-.;-A.NTrIU. teaches in the Department of Asian and

African Studies at the University of Helsinki. HERBERT

B.

HCFFMON

teaches at Drew University in :\ladison, New

Jersey. teaches in the Department of Biblical Studies at the University of Helsinki.

MARTH NISSIc\EN

DAVID

r'. PETERSEN teaches at the Iliff School of Theology in Demer.

teaches in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Amsterdam.

K>\RFL VAN DER TOOR.l\j

161

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