A Forgotten Reference to Divine Procreation? Psalm 2:6 in Light of Egyptian Royal Ideology
AbstractThe author discusses whether or not MT Ps 2:6 (in particular the verb ) reflects Egyptian royal ideology as the one evident in “Ptah’s Decree to Ramesses”. He tentatively concludes that the verse historically reflects a concept where the god procreates the human king. Semantically, the verb might originally have denoted the emission of semen, either after the model of or at least in a way comparable to “Ptah’s Decree to Ramesses” (c. 13th-11th centuries BCE). The common translation by means of a legal term “to install” etc. reflects the LXX. LXX Ps 2:6 might represent a theological correction of what the translators considered to be a case of an intolerable anthropomorphism in the Hebrew text.