Foreign Relations in the Ancient Near East: Oaths, Curses, Kingship and Prophecy

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas G Freire
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
The Political ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Royal Power ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
Religious Background ◽  
Political Role

Oaths and curses, embedded in a covenantal context, were paramount normative mechanisms in the foreign relations between ancient Near Eastern kings. This article provides an account of the political role of covenants and oaths and their religious background, presenting textual evidence denoting the notion that breaking a covenant in foreign relations was a serious offense punishable by divine curses. The article further explores how curses operated, by looking at other texts portraying kings as representatives of their people, and prophets as representatives of the deities, not only to reinforce royal power, but occasionally also to challenge it, particularly in the prediction of divine curses as a reaction to covenant-breaking.

Archaic lists, writing and mind

2013 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 484-504
Author(s):  
Rita Watson
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Near Eastern

Theories of writing and mind have proposed that the uses of literacy give rise to a distinct repertoire of cognitive skills, attitudes, and concepts. This paper reconsiders the earliest lexical lists of the Ancient Near East as one type of evidence on writing and mind. Past and present conceptions of the lists are briefly reviewed. Early views cast the lists as reflecting a Sumerian mentality or a uniquely literate mode of thought, while recent accounts suggest they may simply be routine scribal exercises. A view from the philosophy of science, on which lists are considered a sub-type of ordering system, suggests a way of aligning a scribal practice account with aspects of earlier views by articulating the nature of list entries and the intentions of the list makers. On this account, the Ancient Near Eastern lists can be seen both as uniquely literate and as uniquely informative on the role of writing in mind.

Placing Ancient Israel in Its Ancient Near Eastern Context

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor H. Matthews
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Historical Geography ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
History Writing ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Economic Context ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

The focus of this chapter is on the methods employed in examining the history writing (historiography) of the biblical writers and editors, and of the task associated with writing a history of ancient Israel. In every instance an effort is made to place ancient Israel into its social, political, and economic context as part of the world of the ancient Near East. Also included is the current library of extrabiblical sources available to scholars that throw light on the history of ancient Israel. Attention is then given to the role of historical geography as it relates to a study of the history of the countries of the Levant, as well as an introduction to the values and limitations of archaeology.

JOB’S WIFE

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-164
Author(s):  
Aron Pinker
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Book Of Job ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
External Evidence ◽  
Behavioural Patterns ◽  
Theological Conflict

Internal textual evidence, as well as external evidence drawn from behavioural patterns in the ancient Near East, shows that the book of Job contains not only a theological conflict between man and God, but also one between man and the society to which he belongs. Job’s physical affliction (שחין רע ) made him into a social outcast because of fear of contagion. The role of Job’s wife has to be understood within this context. In particular, this paper is focused on the speech of Job’s wife in the Prologue (2:9), allusions to her in 19:17, 30:12–13, 17–18, 31:1, 10, and her absence from the Epilogue. These sources suggest an image of Job’s wife that is at variance with the negative character usually ascribed to her.

Amos vii 10-17 and Royal Attitudes Toward Prophecy in the Ancient Near East

2008 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 300-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Blake Couey
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis study examines the confrontation between the priest Amaziah and the prophet Amos in Amos vii 10-17 against the background of selected ancient Near Eastern texts that deal with royal attitudes toward prophecy. Texts from Mari, Nineveh, and Lachish all provide evidence for the role of royal officials, including priests, in reporting prophecy to the king in the ancient world. In light of this evidence, Amaziah's actions in this narrative appear to be motivated by state interests more than specifically cultic interests, as suggested in the text by his appeal to the royal sponsorship of the Bethel shrine (v. 13). Read in this way, the narrative points to the complexity of the relationship among priests, prophets, and kings in ancient Israel.

THE RECONCEPTUALIZATION OF KINGSHIP IN DEUTERONOMY AND THE DEUTERONOMISTIC HISTORY'S TRANSFORMATION OF TORAH

2001 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 511-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Levinson
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Public Office ◽  
Royal Authority ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Royal Power ◽  
Textual Authority ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
Judicial Administration ◽  
Constitutional Monarchy

AbstractBecause the royal ideology of ancient Israel was largely identical to that of the broader ancient Near East, the points of divergence are the more remarkable. In particular the legal corpus of Deuteronomy conceptualizes the king in a way that rejects all prevailing models of monarchic power, both Israelite and Near Eastern. Deuteronomy submits a utopian manifesto for a constitutional monarchy that sharply delimits the power of the king. This redefinition of royal authority takes place as part of a larger program (Deut. xvi 18-xviii 22) whereby the authors of Deuteronomy redefine the jurisdiction of each branch of public office (local and central judicial administration, kingship, priesthood, and prophecy). Each is subordinated, first, to the requirements of cultic centralization, and, second, to the textual authority of deuteronomic Torah. This utopian delimitation of royal power never passed from constitutional vision into historical implementation: it represented such a radical departure from precedent that the Deuteronomistic Historian, precisely while seeming to implement deuteronomic law, pointedly reversed the deuteronomic program and restored to the monarch all that Deuteronomy had withheld.

The Good, the God, and the Ugly: The Role of the Beloved Monster in the Ancient Near East and the Hebrew Bible

2020 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-145
Author(s):  
Ryan S. Higgins
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Near East ◽  
Speculative Fiction ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Contemporary Speculative Fiction

Ancient Near Eastern texts teem with horrifying and grotesque beings that pose some significant threat to the cosmos, humanity, and its institutions. Adopting Noël Carroll’s definition, such beings are monsters: interstitial not only physiologically and ontologically, but also cosmically and morally. This essay takes a comparative and literary approach to beloved monsters in Ugaritic, Mesopotamian, and Hebrew Bible texts. It suggests that in Ugarit and Mesopotamia, such monsters play a crucial role in advancing the goals of antipathic heroes while maintaining the integrity of sympathetic deities. It then considers the beloved monster in the Hebrew Bible and its interpretations. Finally, the essay makes note of the phenomenon’s transformation in contemporary speculative fiction. The essay argues that the beloved monster in Ugarit and Mesopotamia keeps together a fragmented cosmos, while in the Hebrew Bible it refracts through the facets in a prismatic God.

Patronage in the Ancient Near East

2005 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 210-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond Westbrook
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
Universal Feature

AbstractPatronage is generally assumed by scholars to have been a universal feature of ancient Near Eastern societies, but has been neglected as a topic of serious investigation. The purpose of this study is to offer, without prior assumptions, textual evidence that establishes the existence of the concept of patronage. The approach is to present case studies from various parts of the region which are best explained by the presence of patronage. For these purposes patronage is narrowly de fined on the basis of ancient Roman and contemporary anthropological models. Les historiens du Proche-Orient ancien supposent que le patronage était un phénomène universel dans la région, sans que ce sujet n'ait fait l'objet d'une étude approfondie. Dans cet article je propose de présenter sans présomptions préalables des preuves textuelles que le concept de patronage existait. L'approche est de présenter des cas concrets provenants de plusieurs parties de la région qui s'expliquent au mieux par la présence du patronage. À ces fins, j'adopte une définition étroite du patronage, à la base de modèles romains anciens et antropologiques modernes.

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