Papers

At Manor House, University of Birmingham, January 6th-8th

Theme: The Hebrew Bible against its Ancient Near Eastern Background

Robert Gordon (Cambridge), ‘Comparativism and the God of Israel’ (Presidential Paper)

Dr Janet Tollington (Cambridge), ‘Abraham and His Wives: Status and Culture’

Dr Anselm Hagedorn (Berlin), ‘“A Stranger from Abroad”: Greeks in Palestine in Old Testament Times’

Mr Mervyn Richardson (Woubrugge), ‘Characteristic Features of Peripherally Biblical Traditional Literature’

Dr Stephanie Dalley (Oxford), ‘Athaliah the Queen of Sargon II and Assyrian Relations with Judah’

Professor Kevin Cathcart (Dublin), ‘From Akkadian to Ugaritic: Comparative Semitic Philology and the Text of the Hebrew Bible’

Dr Peter Williams (Cambridge), ‘Teraphim, Rephaim, and the Ugaritic RPUM’

Dr Sarah Nicholson (Glasgow), ‘On Tamar in Genesis 38’Summer Meeting, July 2002

Abstracts

Professor Robert Gordon (Cambridge): ‘“Comparativism” and the God of Israel’ (Presidential Address)

The steady accession of comparative Near Eastern material has almost inevitably fostered a perception of resemblance, rather than of difference, between Israel’s God and the gods of the ancient Near East. This tendency towards convergence is evident in a number of areas, four of which were highlighted: divine action in history, prophecy, the national covenant, and aniconism. On the other hand, expressions of what may be termed ‘reverse comparativism’ have also been forthcoming in recent writing. According to this approach, the Old Testament is seen as impoverished and constricted by Deuteronomic and similarly motivated manipulation of Israel’s religious and literary traditions. Monotheism itself is regarded as having robbed the tradition of the variegation and richness of polytheistic religion as it actually existed in (principally) pre-exilic Israel — a form of Israelite religion to which the Old Testament itself is the primary witness. In response, the paper examined ‘ways in which even the heavy hand of Deuteronomism or monotheism has worked positively, imaginatively and insightfully with Israel’s traditions’. Four features of the Old Testament were cited in illustration: the Old Testament’s ready attribution of characteristics (forms, functions, epithets) of ancient Near Eastern gods to the God of Israel (‘The Coat of Many Colours’), the development of the Israelite narrative tradition (‘God and the Narrative Tradition’), the anthropomorphic depiction of God (‘The Anthropomorphized God’), and the integration of the ancient Near Eastern ‘council of the gods’ into a range of Old Testament texts (‘The Conciliar God’). In conclusion, it was maintained that ‘there is no reason why the making of cultural comparisons [between Israel and its neighbours] should be abandoned’, and that it is legitimate, and even desirable, to attempt to highlight and discuss elements of cultural uniqueness in the biblical text.

Dr Janet Tollington (Cambridge): ‘Abraham and his Wives: Culture and Status’

The narratives in Genesis 11:26-­25:11 include stories about Abraham’s relationships with three wives, Sarai/Sarah, Hagar and Keturah and the sons born as a result of these unions. This paper explored the origins of each wife and the terminology used to describe her status and relationship to Abraham; and in respect of Sarah and Hagar their relationship to each other. The discussion incorporated a consideration of cultural attitudes towards marriage, adultery, and what in today’s world might be called surrogate motherhood with respect to the birth of Ishmael. A theological approach was adopted towards the question of status, and issues of authority, dominance, mutuality and self-interest were considered alongside a discussion of the ways in which the narrator presented each character. This revealed significant differences in terms of the level of interaction between Abraham and each of his wives, a literary device also used by the narrator to portray each character’s attitude towards God. Both Sarah and Hagar are depicted as more aware of God’s presence and ongoing involvement in the fulfilment of the divine promises than Abraham. Each marriage relationship showed Abraham’s primary concern to be that of self-interest with an ambivalent attitude towards the well-being of his wives. However, whilst Abraham was presented in the narratives, when interacting with wider society, as the important person in each partnership, in the relationships themselves he appears less authoritative and rarely in control of events. Certainly Sarah is portrayed directing her husband’s actions as often as she allows him to direct her. The paper argued that all three marriages have importance theologically for Israel’s self-understanding as the elect nation living in relationship with kindred peoples; and that in the Abraham/Sarah marriage Abraham represents the leaders of Israel who put the nation, represented by Sarah, at risk. Perhaps these narratives are not as patriarchal as is generally presumed, for close attention to the women’s stories reveals a distinctive theological voice at work challenging received tradition.

Dr Anselm Hagedorn (Berlin): ‘“Who Would Invite a Stranger from Abroad?”: The Presence of Greeks in Palestine in Old Testament Times’

The paper surveyed the textual and archaeological evidence for a possible presence of Greeks in Syro-Palestine before the conquest of Alexander the Great. Starting from Homer, Odyssey 17.382-385, where migrant craftsmen from the East are mentioned, the possibility was explored of the existence of ‘travelling specialists’ from the Greek mainland and the Aegean islands in Palestine. Herodotus, the only Greek author who explicitly calls Palestine ‘Palestine’, stresses that there has been contact between Greece and especially Phoenicia from a very early stage onwards. Strikingly, the only Greek active in Palestine whom we know by name is the brother of the poet Alcaeus who served as a mercenary in the army of Nebuchadnezzar II and was probably involved in the siege of Ashkalon. Generally speaking, these so-called mercenaries (or probably better: ‘soldiers of fortune’) are about the only Greeks for which one can establish a secure presence. Next to the Kittimmentioned in the Arad ostraca, the Judean fortress of Mezad Hashavyahu deserves attention. Here, an archaeological site that cannot be identified from the biblical text, Greek soldiers lived next to Judean military personnel. This mercenary presence certainly does not allow us to subscribe to W.F. Albright’s thesis of a coast ‘dotted with’ Greek settlements, because there is no evidence of a specific Greek way of life at the sites where pottery has been found. Since pottery is often used to argue for Greek presence, it was necessary to survey this evidence. If we are correct to assume that the preferred mode of existence of Greeks in Palestine has been the enoikismos, it is hardly surprising that we do not find any architecture of a specific Greek style, since this mode of ‘colonial’ existence is generally expressed by making use of the exterior structure (houses etc.) of the native population but using interior furnishings (pottery etc.) which reflect the place of origin of the settlers. This would explain why the existence of Aegean Greece and its inhabitants is known in biblical sources but concrete points of contact are missing. If the Greeks living in Palestine were not part of any elite group, it is hardly surprising that the written evidence is sparse (and always next to Semitic inscriptions) and that the elite circles mostly responsible for the authorship of the biblical documents hardly mention contact with them. True, ‘in the ancient Near Eastern universe Israel and Judah are something of a backwater’ and both states probably never had any direct political dealing with Aegean Greeks, but on the non-elite level we can confidently argue for contact and exchange as well as some permanent Greek presence in Palestine before Alexander the Great.

Mr Mervyn Richardson (Woubrugge): ‘Characteristic Features of Peripherally Biblical Traditional Literature’

Traditions associated with Coptic sacred sites show that only some have been preserved in textual form. Such texts as Papyrus Westcar, which contains fantastic stories of the historically verifiable Old Kingdom pharaohs, also seems to rely on oral tradition. Why that text has not usually been included in anthologies of Near Eastern literature illustrating the Old Testament is not clear, for there are abundant parallels. The story of Sinuhe is regularly quoted, though little is made of the duplicate texts on ostraca written in the school at Deir el-Medineh. These show that there were attempts to set Sinuhe within the context of a later world and to resolve grammatical cruces, aims which figure prominently within biblical exegesis. Similarly, the duplicate of the Merenptah stele confirms that it was composed as a religious hymn rather than a historical annal, and this, together with circumstances surrounding its first discovery, means that it needs to be reassessed in terms of its historical value for the emergence of Israel. An insight into the ancient Egyptian view of ancient Palestine can be gleaned from the letter of Hori in Papyrus Anastasi. Allen in The Context of Scripture provides more details about an Egyptian’s awareness of the language of his neighbours than that given by Wilson in Ancient Near Eastern Texts. There are several Hittite and Akkadian texts which also show the range of change a literary narrative undergoes when evolving into traditional literature. Such examples may well provide the context in which the scriptural narrative as we know it evolved.

Dr Stephanie Dalley (Oxford): ‘Athaliah the Queen of Sargon II and Assyrian Relations with Judah’

Evidence from two Assyrian letters and an administrative text from Nimrud, and from two sculptures from Sennacherib’s palace at Nineveh, contain evidence that Judah in c. 716/715 BCE and thereafter was a vassal of Assyria supplying tribute and troops. Details on the Lachish relief indicate that Sennacherib largely blamed the Nubians for Hezekiah’s disloyalty in 701. The Assyrian-style stamp seal of a high official of Uzziah suggests a long-term close relationship between Judah and Assyria. Assyrian interest in Palestine focussed largely on trade with Egypt. On the border of Egypt both Tiglath-pileser III and Sargon used Arab agents to organise their trading posts. Since those kings marched past Judah on several occasions, the biblical account of how Hezekiah ‘harrassed’ the Philistine cities may imply that Judean kings acted as agents for Assyria. This would explain why Padi of Ekron was delivered to Hezekiah, why Sennacherib called Hezekiah ‘strong and mighty’, and why Jerusalem was wealthy and important. Deportation figures for 701 may be high because they include Philistines with Judeans. In addition, the tomb found recently at Nimrud containing the sarcophagus of Yaba wife of Tiglath-piliser III and Athaliah wife of Sargon II with inscribed grave-goods may be significant, since Athaliah is almost certainly a Hebrew name, and Yaba, presumably related to her, is likely to be Hebrew also. If so, Hebrew spoken by Sargon’s wife would account for why the rab shakeh could speak Hebrew to the people of Jerusalem. Diplomatic marriages with foreign royalty were common at that period, and help to allow a more nuanced approach to Assyrian policy. Mistranslation and unwarranted assumptions have led to wrong interpretation of Sennacherib’s intentions in 701; corrections suggest that he did not attempt to capture Jerusalem.

Professor Kevin Cathcart (Dublin): ‘From Akkadian to Ugaritic: Comparative Semitic Philology and the Text of the Hebrew Bible’

One of the events in the 1960s which many Old Testament scholars remember well was the publication of James Barr’s Comparative Philology and the Text of the Old Testament. No less interesting were some of the lively reviews of that book. This paper briefly examined Barr’s definition of comparative philology, his distinction between the two types of treatment: the textual and the philological. It is not an uncommon situation to work with a combination of the textual and comparative approaches. Excesses in philological treatments should not deter scholars from engaging in the comparative philological approach, nor should the wholesale reckless emendation of the biblical text associated with a previous era be used to block sensible and convincing solutions based on emendation. In the second part of the paper, worked examples were presented which took into account recent research and epigraphical discoveries. They involved the use of comparative data from Akkadian, Ugaritic and Old Aramaic. For example, modern English translations of the Old Testament must acknowledge (as does the REB) that at Ezekiel 16:30, אמלה לבתך means ‘How angry I am with you’, not ‘How sick is your heart’ (NRSV) (see Akkadian libbati malû, ‘to become angry with’). Other texts chosen for discussion were Numbers 23:9; Job 30:3, 17; Nahum 2:14; 3:17; and Habakkuk 2:3.

Dr Peter Williams (Cambridge): ‘Are the Biblical Rephaim and the Ugaritic RPUM Healers?’

The biblical Rephaim and Ugaritic RPUM are generally connected with the root רפא ‘heal’. It is usually suggested that the Ugaritic form is a participle and that the Masoretic vocalization רְפָאִים  represents a tendentious correction from an original participle, רֹפָאִים. MT’s non-participial vocalization is supported by the Septuagint and probably Samaritan Pentateuch, and, contrary to the claim of R. Liwak, the participial vocalization is not demanded by the Neo-Punic inscription from El-Amruni. Consideration of the difficulty involved in the systematic tendentious alteration of the vocalization of a common Hebrew term suggests that the theory of revocalization should be set aside as implausible. Since it is unlikely that Ugaritic and Hebrew had the same vowel pattern for the term, the argument that the Hebrew term has not been revocalized brings into question the consensus vocalization of the Ugaritic RPUM as a participle. The lack of support for the participial vocalization of the Ugaritic word, combined with the observation that as yet no Hebrew, Phoenician or Ugaritic text mentioning these figures need imply that they have healing powers, suggests that scholarly association of the Rephaim or RPUM with healing is not warranted.

Dr Sarah Nicholson (Glasgow): ‘Playing the Whore: Gender Performance and Basic Instinct in Genesis 38’

This paper raised the question of the plausibility of the Tamar story and asked why she risks assault and even death by her encounter with Judah. Using Judith Butler to challenge the system of binary opposites that has been used to explain the story, it may be argued that subtle dimensions emerge in Tamar’s performance of prostitution. The traditional answer that she was socially and materially bereft without a son does not fully explain the reason for her action. It makes more sense when we consider the possibility that she desires Judah. A brief exploration of evolutionary psychology also points in this direction.