CHAPTER 2 | THE ANCIENT WORLD VIEW CHAPTER 2 | THE ANCIENT WORLD VIEW

treatment here will touch only on those elements לַּׁשֶמֶׁשׂשָם אׂהֶל ּבָהֶ ם: and ethnic groups about which something is וְהּוא ּכְחָתָן יׂצֵאמֵחֻּפָתֹו known and which shed light on the outlook of יָׂשִיׂש ּכְגִּבֹור לָרּוץ אׂרַח: .the passage as a whole מִקְצֵה הַּׁשָמַיִםמֹוצָאֹו One may see that the “Table” presents three ּותְקּופָתֹו עַל-קְצֹותָ ם main branches of the population of the known וְאֵין נִסְּתָרמֵחָּמָ תֹו: He has placed a tent for the sun world as viewed from the standpoint of the land among them, of /Israel. These are subsumed under And it is like a bridegroom the headings of the three sons of , the coming out of his chamber; legendary ancestors of all who came after the It rejoices as a strong man to Flood. The relations between certain groups are run (his) course. not always comparable to modern knowledge of Its rising is from one end of the the language families or generic ties as modern The Egyptian sky goddess Nwt giving birth to the morning heavens, research has defined them. But the general And its daily rotation to the sun and swallowing the evening sun. Composite based on relief in the Dendara Temple (after Schulz and Seidel 1998:444 fig. 4) and Greenfield, picture is instructive for understanding the other end of them ancient mentality. And there is nothing hidden papyrus sheet 87, British Museum EA 10554 (ibid. p.448 fig. 43). from its heat. The descendants of (Gen 10:1_5; 1 (Ps 19:5_7 [Eng. 4_6]) Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, Chr 1:5_7) are: In some Semitic languages and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to (1) , the Cimmerians of classical sources, (including Hebrew), while the north and to the south. (Gen 28:14) a people from the Caucasus who threatened the civilized nations in the seventh century BCE and facing the east, the South As in the above passage, westward was later, and , probably a kindred group; was designated by “the indicated by “seaward” since the western right hand” (Amurrite boundary of the land was indeed the (2) , the Indo-European nation situated in northwestern Iran; the Persians of southeast וְעַד הַּיָםהַּגָדֹול :Yam¥n, Hebrew Yœmîn, Mediterranean Sea; note for example .and as far as the Great Sea towards Iran are not mentioned“ ,מְ בֹוא הַּׁשָמֶ ׁש Têmœn) and the left hand meant North (e.g. the entering in of the sun” (Josh 1:4, 23:4). (3) (Hebrew Yœwœn = an archaic Amurrite Simœl, borrowing from Greek Iaoneß, Iwneß before the ßimâl). However, the THE BIBLICAL VIEW OF WORLD digamma [Ω] was lost), viz. Ionia. terminology from culture (4) and and . Three to culture is not uniform. SOCIETY nations in Anatolia; the first two are Tabal and The Egyptian view of world geography is expressed in the Poetical Stele of The epigraphic and artistic sources of the Mushki, Phrygian kingdoms of Cappadocia The Arabic janûb, “south,” The Family of Nations. Thutmose III. In that inscription, the god Amon recounts the many nations and peoples ancient peoples are replete with allusions to known from Assyrian inscriptions. Tiras might that he has placed under the feet of the Egyptian king. Like the Mesopotamians (and is evidently cognate to h the various ethnic groups that peopled the Turshnoi the Greeks), the believed that a river encircled the known earth. The nations biblical ne©e∫, ne©bœ (Barth be the of the Greek sources, viz. listed are those with whom Thutmose interacted during his many military campaigns 1893:4; 1902:55; Rainey 1984:88). Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East. In the Etruscans who migrated from in the tah, Raamah and Sabteca. The sons of Raamah Northwest Semitic dialects (according to current and commercial ventures. In the “east, most traditions, such as that of the Egyptian eighth century BCE at the earliest. are said to be Sheba and Dedan, two elements in terminology), viz. Canaanite and . None eastward”© is usually Carta artists, there were standard models of facial and Jerusalem (5) The sons of Gomer are (the south and north Arabia respectively. of them are in Transjordan. 4_5; Younger 2000:149). This view was shared by the expressed by qedem, qedmœ, “front, frontwards,” sartorial types denoting the peoples that they ), (unknown) and , Furthermore, the link between The descendants of (Gen 10:21_32; 1 .eastward toward the shining encountered. This is also true of the Til-garimmu of the Assyrian texts. and the mighty hunter is strange. Chr 1:23) are even more obscure and speculative“ הקֵדְמָ מִזְרַח הַּׁשֶמֶ ׁש .ancient as well forth of the sun” (Josh 19:12_13). But when and especially of ancient Persia (note the wall (6) The sons of Javan are (presumably Nimrud is associated with a group of cities The main emphasis is on the descendants of Eber speaking of the four points of the compass the reliefs of Persepolis). = ancient Alashia on the south coast of in Mesopotamia: Babel, Erech, Accad and (‘E∫er) since Abram is called an ‘I∫rî (Hebrew). east is not necessarily mentioned first, e.g., For the biblical view of world anthropology Cyprus), in Cilicia, (the Calneh, in the land of (*Ían≠a = The list as a whole includes some overlaps we have the “Table of Nations” in Genesis 10 kingdom of Kition?) and , which must in Mesopotamian terminology), and and duplications. What is especially surprising ׂשָ א נָאעֵינֶָך ּורְאֵ ה מִ ן-הַּמָ קֹום אֲׁשֶ ר-ַאּתָ ה םׁשָ צָפׂנָה וָנֶגְּבָה וָקֵדְמָ ה and its parallel in 1 Chronicles 1:4_23. These two be corrected to Rodanim, in accordance with (), and its political capital, , as is the absence of some of the most important וָיָּמָ ה: texts and their counterparts can be LXX ÔRo/dioi, Rhodes, and with 1 Chronicles 1:7, well as Rehoboth-ir (possibly = rês¥t œli “the ethnic groups of the earlier periods, such as Now lift up your eyes and look from the place1 where used to clarify some of the obscure ethnicons but which also has Rodanim. open space around the city”) and Calah along the Hurrians and the Urartians. The similarity you are, northward and southwardAll and eastward and Rights Reserved many of them still remain unknown to us. For Surprisingly, the sons of encompass with (unknown) between Nineveh and to the ethnic picture in indicates westward. (Gen 13:14) a detailed exegesis of these passages one may groups which we would arrange in a different Calah. The Chronicler mentions the connection that it reflects a viewpoint of a very late consult critical and linguistic commentaries. The order: between Nimrud and Cush but he ignores the period. One might think of the Persian period וְהָיָה זַרְעֲָךּכַעֲפַר הָָארֶץ ּופָרַצְּתָ יָּמָה וָקֵדְמָה וְצָפׂנָה וָנֶגְּבָה (7) Cush, , and Canaan (Gen 10: list of Mesopotamian cities. but it does not seem to match what is known 6_10; 1 Chr 1:9_16). This group includes three Mizraim is surprisingly associated with about the many nations of the Persian Empire elements in . Cush is presumably the same the Ludim (Lydians in southwest Turkey) and and the neighboring areas (as described, e.g., as Egyptian K£ß which is in Nubia, i.e. modern an obscure group called from whom by Herodotus). In general, one may note that Sudan. Mizraim is the Semitic term for ; the author derives the , but also the three sons of Noah and their descendants are it derives from Semitic mi∆ru (as in Akkadian), the Caphtorim, i.e. the people of Crete (from roughly placed in three areas, north, south and “border, district.” The dual form evidently which Amos 9:7 derives the Philistines). east of the Levant. Perhaps this is its main object: reflects the awareness that Egypt was known Canaan, as a supposed descendant of Mizraim, to show how the eastern Mediterranean littoral by its two logical geographical parts: the Nile is called the ancestor of a number of well-known is the land bridge between the main branches of Valley () and the Delta (Lower peoples: Sidon, his firstborn (Sidonians is the the human race. Egypt). Put is on the Libyan coast. biblical generic name for the Phoenicians); Heth An ancient view of the peoples of the world What has surprised modern scholars is the (the Neo-Hittite states that survived the collapse as comprising a vast feudal society with each inclusion of Canaan as a descendant of Ham. of the Hittite empire and continued to exist nation assigned to the care of a specific heavenly Linguistics discerned long ago that the Canaanite in north Syria); the Jebusite (the occupants being is clearly reflected in the original text of dialects are part of the family which modern of pre-Davidic Jerusalem) and the Amorite Deuteronomy 32:8_9. scholarship has called the “Semitic” languages. (originally the population of north Syria in the When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, The appropriateness of that latter title is itself Middle Bronze Age); the Girgashite and Hivite When He separated the sons of man, Mesopotamian Cosmology (Horowitz 2004) questionable since the biblical ethnographic (among the unknown ethnic groups mentioned He set the boundaries of the peoples 1) Upper Heaven of An÷; 2) Middle Heaven of the Igigi gods; 3) B®l division in this chapter included Elam as elsewhere in the Bible); and the people of several According to the number of the sons of God. sits on a dias in a lapis lazuli (blue) shrine; cf. Ex 24:10, sapphire a son of Shem as well as other elements whose well-known city-states: Arkite (of ‘Arqat) and And YHWH's portion was His people; Jacob was the (blue) bricks; 4) Lower Heaven of the stars (constellations); 5) languages are hardly “Semitic” in the modern the Sinite (of Siyannu), Arvadite (of Arvad) allotment of His inheritance. Shamash; 6) Sîn; 7) Sha˙ar (morning star); 8) Shalem (evening linguistic sense. and the Zemarite (of Ôumur, Ôimirru, classical At the end of line 8, the Masoretic Text as we star); 9 )The Sun's going forth; 10) The Sun's coming in; 11) Upper according“ , לְמִסְּפַרּבְנֵי יִׂשְרָאֵ ל The Cushites in this list are then linked Simyra) and the Hamathite (the Neo-Hittite/ have it now reads earth, the animated beings; 12) Ocean (the Great River); 13) Middle to the number of the sons of Israel.” However, earth, the Apsu (primeval waters), “the water below”; 14) The with elements that all seem to be either in Aramaic city-state of Hamath). In general, one kata» ajriqmo«n realm of Ea/Enki; 15) Lower earth, “land of no return,” rebellious The sun god Re‘ traversing the underworld at night in spite of the Serpent's efforts to hinder his progress. After a papyrus from northeast Africa or on the southern “heel” of the may note that all the identifiable elements in the Septuagint reads here Anunnaki gods imprisoned here. The dead eat clay and drink dust. the Egyptian Museum with no index number (Schulz and Seidel 1998:448 fig.43). Arabian Peninsula, viz. Seba, Havilah and Sab- this group were speakers of one of the so-called ajgge¿lwn qeouv, “according to the number of 26 27