Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 186 Im Auftrag des Departements fur Biblische Studien der Universitat Freiburg Schweiz, des ~gyptologischenSeminars der Universitit Basel, des lnstituts fijr Vorderasiatische Archaologie und Altorientalische Sprachen der Universitzt Bern und der Schweizerischen Gesellschait fur Orientalische Altertumswissenschaft Kein Land herausgegeben von Othmar Keel und Christoph Uehlinger in Verbindung mit Susanne Bickel fur sich allein Studien zum Kulturkontakt in Kanaan, lsrael/Palastina und EbirnSri Der Geehrte: Manfred Wei ppert (1 937) studierte Evangelische Theo- logie, Orientalistik und ArchSologie in Neuendettelsau, Gottingen und furManfred Weippert zum 65. Ceburtstag Tijbingen. 1965-76 war er Wiss. Assistent an den Theologischen Fakultkiten in Gottingen (1 965-68)und Tubingen (1968-76), 1971-76 als herausgegebenvon Privatdozent f8r Altes Testament in Tubingen. 1976-83 wirkte er als Ulrich Hiibner und Ernst Axel Knauf Professor fiir Semitische Sprachen in Utrecht, 1983-98 als Professor fijr Altes Testament in Heidelberg, seit januar 1999 ist er emeritiert. Forschungsschwerpunkte: Geschichte und Religionsgeschichte Syrien- Palastinas, vor allern irn '1. Jahrtausend, altorientalische Prophetie, Altorientalistik. Zahlreiche Publikationen uber alttestamentliche und altorientalische Themen, darunter: Die Landnahme der israelitischen Starnme in der neueren wissenschaftlichen Diskussion (FRLANT 92, Gijttingen 1967; engl. The Settlement of the Israelite Tribes in Palestine, SBTh 1112 1, London 1971 ); Beitrage zur prophetischen Bitdsprache in Israel und Assyrien (000 64, 1985, mit Helga Weippert und Klaus Seybold); Jahwe und die anderen Giitter. Studien zur Religions- geschichte des antiken Israel in ihrem syrisch-palastinischen Kontext (FAT 18, Tubingen 1997); Historisches Textbuch zum Alten Testament (in Vorbereitung).

Die Herausgeber: Ulrich Hiibner (19521, Vorsitzender des Deutschen Verei ns zur Erforschung Palastinas e.V., ist Professor fiir Religions- geschichte des Alten Testaments und Archaologie Syrien-Palastinas an Universitatsverlag FreiburgSchweiz der Universitat Kiel. Ernst Axel Knauf (1953) ist Professor fiir Altes Testament und Biblische Archaologie an der Universitat Bern. Vandenhoeck& Ruprecht Gijttingen The Text Ritual Wisdom? On<

l5 For the use on milk in Mesopotamia, see BIGA 1994; STOL1993; 1994. For its role in method of cooking, that the law forbids*. His point was: because the law uses the biblical narratives, see Gimm(1994) who also reviews the opinions of anthro- verb biSE1, hziliib must refer to a liquid (hence milk) that could be brought to a boil. pologists. I mention here, for lack of a better spot, the curious Greek references to a *he- Had it stood for hEleb, afatm. the relevant verbs would have been s2lH(to roast) or goat (occasionally also bull or ram) falling in milk* mentioned, among other texts, in 4th hiqtir (((to turn into smoke*).20 century gold leaves recovered from sarcophagi. (I owe Gregory NAGY knowledge of the In fact, already in antiquity there was discrepancy in how to interpret a few material and to Robert DREWSthe bibliographic help.) The meaning andimport of the phrase still eludes interpretation, see ZUNTZ1971, 322-327. I follow SEGA~1990, 41 1 in Scriptural occurrences of the consonants hlb. This was so despite the possibility that reading one of these leaves: the hEtin hidab, eunillvb, and in heieb, <,, but the Greekgives, you eat the miIk,- etc... .r2I Youhave wine ns yourfortunate honor. The opposite is found in Ezek 25:4 where the MT reads <[The Easterners] will be And there await you beneaththe earth the rewardsthat the other hppy ones (have). l6 The Sinuhe passage has been rendered variously, but in some opinions is said to read amilk in everything cookeb. Even so, meat has to be imported into the phrase to make Is HARANis good at exposing the difficulty of the reading (1979: 25-27). So too is biblical sense out of it, aProvisions and strong drinks were made for me, with wine as a . MILGROM1985. In the opinion of RAWER& ZUCKERMAN(1986). the passage is part of a daily supply, and cooked flesh, and mast fowl, as well as wild game. They would snareand choreographed cultic ceremony in which youths are to declaim (or sing) a poem that lay it out for me, as well as the catch of my own hounds. Many sweets were made for me, begins with ugd in milk, imh in ghee~,the italicized words themselves referring either with milk in every cooked dish* (quoted from PARKINSON1997, 31-33; see also RsQEX to plants or to animals. 1976). In fact, Sinuhe may be ironichere, for the association of eating flesh and drinking It is obvious that passage and context of the Ugaritic text are not yet fully understood. milk (especially raw) with the uncivilized and the nomadic was widespread, especially in l91 add *allegedly* because in fact in thesentence the verb can only be read asaiphal (as Greek antiquity; see SHAW1982t83. - Ethnological references to Arabic dishes that are in the WM), especially because of the indirect clause that follows, 'el-p%B hd'Ed6n said to require the cooking of meat in its own rnofher'a milk can be ranged into the same YHWH. biblicizing category. For a startling example of such introjections,, see Claudia Roden's See USHER 1988,592. comments on a recipe for aimmosn (RODEN1970,265). 21 Probably because in many cultures milk is said to be *eaten%as well as drunk.Note. l7 For the use of milk in Mesopotamian recipes. see BO~O1995, 162. 219-220 however, that in a passage with the same phrase (Ezek39:19), the versions arein agree- (index). ment in translating, *You ate fat until full, drank blood until drunk... ,. those who eat your fruit anddrink your milk (hemmii yiBtfi @litbEki@>, where the broad category of meat processing that could include boiling. The last meaning Greek has a... drink your lushness (piontai tEn piot~ta)>>.~~ would be manifest when water is mentioned as a medium (such as in Exod 129). Other passages involving hlb could easily support either vocalization. Sense can when the preparation requires kettles or the like (as in 1 Sam 213-15,2 Kgs 4:38, 2 be had however we render the consonants blb in Deut 32:14, *Curds of cattle Chr 35:13, Zech 14:ZI),or when broth is said to result (Judg 6:19). In Deut 16:7, as (hem 'at bSq&) 4 milk of sheep (welab SO'n), with fat from lambs ( 'im-heleb well as in 1 Kgs 19:21, the verb ismost likely suggesting ~grillingn.~~In 2 Sam k&-m), rams <>.Utensils for this activity include (metal) pans W-r Num wheat and ten of these loaves, and rush them to your bothers in the camp. Bring also 11 :g29),pottery and bronze vessels (heres, kelinehZet, Lev 6:21). these ten slices of fat (hm-SE hlb) to the squadIeader, check on your brothers' well- being and take reassurances about them*. Uncontested mention of milk and milk hgleb derivative as table products are surprisingly few in the Hebrew Bible, given Israel's lebaISG1, then, is the general term for preparing meat." But in this paper, I am extensive pastoral operations.23 speculating that the prohibited meat was not one cooked in milk (hiiliib, or in any But R.Aha's point remains well taken. To conjecture a reading *fat%rather than dairy product) but in animal fat (h~leb).~~Whatever the ingredient with which the <>for our passage, we will need to show that big53 could refer to food goat was being cooked, however, our prohibition cannot have been cultic, for preparation other than boiling, and that the prohibition was applicable despite the sacrificial food was neither boiled nor grilled, but burnt into a smoke that lifted Hebrew ban on eating fat, toward the heaven. From the comparison of Exod 23: 14-17 with Exod 34: 18-24, it has been commonly deduoed that our prohibition was especially in effect during *TOboil+? Succoth, one of thee festivals when food intake was likely to include meat (HARAN The verb bSI has cognates in other Semitic languages, some (Akkadian, Aramaic) 1979, 34-35, see also KNAUF 1988). Since brael had developed sharp rules against closer than others (Arabic) to the meaning of qreparing food,. Most of the the eating of fat from sacrificial animals, the questionsarise whether the proscription attestations in Hebrew are to the pie1 (biSSEI)with meanings that can be established also affected non-sacrificial meat and if it did, whether its provisions applied equally contextually, although in a few instances it is not possible to be certain about their to all permitted animals as well as to fatty portions (for example around the muscle) precise connotation. In Exod 16:23 the verb is contrasted to <).Qua- also 39:19). Still, there remain hints in Scripture that the use of fat was not totally lifying human beings, however, it imparts arrogance, stubbornnessand insensitivity, proscribed, especiallyfor those who had no ready access to a permanent temple. This even wickedne~s.~O is implied by Deut 1220-25, which omits mention of fat: The burnt heieb (often translated in English by *suet* or cctallow~)is peeled off When your Lord God enlargesyour borders as he had told you and you decide to eat from around organs below the diaphragm of a sacrifice -the kidneys, the lobe of the meat just because you have a craving for meat, eat from it as much as you desire. liver, the intestines (Exod 29:22; Lev 3:3-4; 4:8-10; 73-6; 9:lO). The tail of sheep Moreover, if the place that your Lord God has chosen where to set his name is too ( 'aylii), very fatty in the bvantine variety, is also Included in some of these pas- far from you, then slaughter as I have instructed you from cattle or flock that the sages, and some authorities have emended (too hastily, despite the fact that it would Lord had given you and eat from it within your town as much as you desire. But eat corroborate my suggestion) a word in 1 Sam 9% from wehe'adhii to w'lyh that it as are partaken gazelles and deer; the clean no less than the unclean may eat would make Saul the recipient of a fatty portion of rneat.3' Why Israel, unique among its neighbors, was so insistent on assigning the heleb of sacrificial animals 34 That especially after the destructionof Werod's Third Temple the protocol and ritual of to God is beyond easy recovery. Despite idiomatic usage in which the hEieb (and profane and cultic slaughters merged is not immediately relevant to this study. It is derivatives) of a commodity refers to its best quality (as is <Elisha are paralleled in 1 Sam 6:14 and 2 Sam 24:22ff prohibitive amount of sustained heat. where presentations to God are manifest. from it. Take good care, however, not to eat blood, for blood is life and you may Cooking a young animal in its mothers' fat would require the killing of a young not eat life with the meat. Do no eat it, but pour it out on the ground like water. Do animal together with its breeder, thus compromising one's holdings in a way that not eat it, so that you and all your descendants can prosper by doing what is right would not obtain were the young animal cooked in milk or butchered with its sire. in the Lord's eyes. The same sort of prudent counsel occurs in Deut 22:b-7, rShould you chance on a This focus on the spilling of blood but not on the avoidance of fat is replayed in Lev bird's nest before you on the road, on any tree or on the ground, as hatchlings or as 7:25-27 where, in most interpretations, only the blood, but not thk fat, of non- eggs, with the mother sitting by the hatchlings or on the eggs, do not take the sacrificed animals is prohibitedS3' From a number of passages (for example Lev mother along with the young. Shoo away the mother and talk the young, that you 7:24), we also know that the fat from ncb5J2 (animals that died naturally) and .PEPS may prosper and live long,. As in our prohibition, banning the killing of the (animals killed by wild beasts) were not to be eaten, implying that the fat of mother bird makes it possible for someone else in the future to chance upon more of profanely butchered animals could be included in meals.38Moreover, it is possible to her eggs. That Deut 22:6-7 may have also been prompted by humanitarian goals interpret the evil acts attributed to the sons of Eli reported in 1 Sam 2:15:16 as their does not undermine my suggestion. insistence on treating ritual sacrifice as profane.39 Finally, we may also imagine that Lev 2227-28 advises that young animals may be slaughtered as early as eight before the Hellenistic period the Passover sacrifice was treated profanely, so that days after their birth (see Exod 22:29), but that, <.BURKERT 1983, 89 n. 29, is especially useful to rather than milk>,. The earliest we can be certain that these consonants in the prc- understand how the sons of Eli arrogantly conupted the sharing of sacral meat (1 Sam hibition were read hatib, >is the second (perhaps the third) century BCE, when 2:12-17). the Greektranslations of the Bible consistently gave galaktos, ((milk,, for the rel- " See also the remarks of MONDERL~on Lev 7:15-18 and Exod 32:18 (1980, 394). 41 1 might note that in the BH there are two attestations of hEleb that are construed with the preposition W-:Job 1227 (*face covered with fat,, said of a wicked man) and 2 Chr vracticalitv of establishing true eouivalence in most circuktances, have understood them 29:35 (said of an abundance of peace sacrifice). is statemints of such as making the punishment fit the crime through adequate 42 AS such, it has the same application (and the same complicated interpretive afterlife) as compensation. See the good overviews (with bibliographies) in ~Talions,Encyclopedia the thrice repeated and distinctively set lex rationis formulations as an *eye for an eye ~udclica15,741-742 (IiT H.COHN) and uLex talionis;, ABD 4,321-322 @I. B. HUFFI~ON). (etc) ...P (Exod21:23-25; Lev19:21; Deut 19:21), the chiastic and alliterative nHe who 43 The vocabulary here is generic and must not be interpreted to involve only the males sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be sheds (Gen 9:6),and the compact c you among sacrificial animals. will treat [the false witness] as he schemed to do to his brother* (Deut 19:fg). Some re- 44 The two passages (as well as the bi~dand eggs law of Deut 226-7) are commonly con- spected scholars (following Phi10 and losephus) have urged that strictly equivalent talion nected by medieval exegetes, for example Rashbam (LOCKSHIN1997, 288); Ibn Ezra (in Israel aswell as in cuneiform law) was applied, especially among *tribal> groupings. (R-u 2000, 743-7441, See also GER~TENBERGER1996, 331. who cites a Nuer hus- However, many scholars (and talmudic rabbis for that matter), who have questioned the bandry practice; FIRMAGE1992, 1128. evant consonants. Lacking evidence or guidance on how these passages were under- Bibliography stood before the Hellenistic period, it is difficult to suggest why a reading hdib, amilk,, came to be preferred over hEleb, (>(even to prohibit it!) was resisted, so €hat BOTTERO.J. 1980-83.Kiiche: RIA VI, 277-298. amilkn came to be preferred as a reading. The most plausible explanation, however, BOTT&O, J. 1995. Textes Culinaires M6sopotamiens (Mesopotamian Civilizations 6). is that in selecting hdab over h€leb there was a potential for championing an enig- Winona Lake. matic, if not also an esoteric, interpretation of Scriptural law, one whose application BURKERT,W. 1983. Homo Necans: the Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual would sharpen the distinctiveness of Jewish ritual practices from those of their and Myth. Berkeley. neighbors. Such a drive to forge uniqueness though the interpretation of Hebrew law CAQUOT.A. 1980.3% chS1Zh ;1l733. gbhinsh; 7HDfI chem 'llh Theological Dictionary of accelerated after the Roman destruction of the Temple, when non-priestly people the Old Testament 4, 386-391. DETIENNE,M. 1977. Dionysus mis h mort. Paris. progressively accepted rabbinic transmutationsof priestly rituals. DEITENNE,M. 1989. Culinary Practices and the Spirit of Sacrifice: M. DE~~FNNE& J .-P. Within a couple of centuries in the Hellenistic period the interdiction against VERNANT,The Cuisine of Sacrifice among the Greeks. Chicago, 1-20. cooking a kid in milk itself permutated from a quaint, narrowly interpreted, practice DHORME,E. 1963. L'emploi metaphorique des noms & parties du corps en hebreu et en (Philo), to one with a sweeping application (Onqelos). One scholar has suggested Akkadien. Paris. that the change occd during the Bar Kochva revolt, ostensibly to create sharper DRIVER,S. R. 1890. Notes on the Hebrew text of the Books of Samuel; with an Intro- division between Jews and gentiles (LURIA 1992). Be that as it may, in the pages of duction on Hebrew Palaeographyand the Ancient Versions, and Facsimiles of Inscrip- the Talmud, the injunction cameto be a cornerstone in the Jewish traditional practice tions. Oxford. of karhrut and, as it has been persuasively argued, a bulwark for Jewish survival.45 FIRMAGE,E. 1992. Zoology (Animal Profiles): ABD 6, 1119-1167- Whether thosepromoting it had originally (Magna Graecia. 9. Arch'dologischer lahresbericht, Zeitschrift des Deutschen Pallstina-Vereins 79 (1963) Oxford. 164-179. 10. Archilologischer lahresbericht. Zeitschrift des Deutschen Pallstina-Vereins SO (1964) 150-193. , 11. Arch2ologischer lahresbericht, Zeitschrift des Deutschen PalLtina-Vereins 82 (1966) 274-330.