POST-Defense Thesis
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WHEN ON HIGH YAHWEH REIGNED: TRANSLATING YAHWEH’S KINGSHIP IN ANCIENT ISRAEL by Shawn W. Flynn A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations University of Toronto © Copyright by Shawn W. Flynn 2012 When on High Yahweh Reigned: Translating Yahweh’s Kingship in Ancient Israel Shawn W. Flynn Doctor of Philosophy Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations University of Toronto 2012 This dissertation identifies two distinct stages of YHWH’s kingship in ancient Israel: an earlier warrior king with a limited sphere of geographic influence, and a later, Judahite creator king with universal power and absolute rule. After identifying these stages, this dissertation proposes the historical context in which the change to YHWH’s kingship occurred. Articulating this change is informed by the anthropological method of cultural translation and studied via a suitable historical analogue: the change in Marduk’s kingship and the external pressures that lead to the expression of his universal kingship in the Enuma Elish. The Babylonian changes to Marduk’s kingship form a suitable analogy to articulate the changes to YHWH’s kingship in the Levant. Therefore Judahite scribes suppressed the early warrior vision of YHWH’s kingship and promoted a more sustainable vision of a creator and universal king in order to combat the increasing threat of Neo-Assyrian imperialism begun under the reign of Tiglath-pileser III. ii Table of Contents Chapter One: Charting the Kingship of YHWH Introduction 1 Scholarly Ambiguity in Characterizing YHWH’s Kingship 3 A Brief History of Scholarship 8 Scholarship Since Mowinckel 12 The Backgrounds of Israelite Divinity 17 The Absence of the Warrior Motif in the Psalms of YHWH’s Kingship 27 Chapter Two: Stages of YHWH’s Kingship in Ancient Israel 33 Part I: The Psalms of YHWH’s Kingship 34 The Sphere of YHWH’s Kingship in Psalms 93, 95-99 38 Transition in the YHWH Kingship Psalms 43 Summary of the YHWH Kingship Psalms 46 Part II: The Corpus of YHWH’s Early Kingship 47 The Song of the Sea 47 Parallelism 50 Repetition 52 Sounds 52 Narrative Progression and Structure 54 Structural Analysis and its Relevance for Verse 18 56 Summary of Exodus 15 57 Exodus 15 and Psalm 93: Differences in YHWH’s Kingship 57 The Absence of a Creation Motif in Exodus 15 60 Summary: The Elements of YHWH’s Kingship in Exodus 15 62 Deuteronomy 33:5 64 Summary 68 Numbers 23:21 69 Summary 75 Psalm 29: Establishing Differences From Earlier and Later Expressions of YHWH’s Kingship 75 Conclusions: Stages of YHWH’s Kingship 82 Chapter Three: Cultural Translation as Method 84 Cultural Translation in Israelite Religion 85 Limitations to Israelite Religion’s Use of Cultural Translation 86 iii Cultural Translation and its Anthropological Roots 89 Cultural Translation and Amitav Ghosh 93 Ghosh and Contributions to Cultural Translation 95 Cultural Translation and Its Further Use for Israelite Religion 100 Chapter Four: The Origins of New Israelite Expressions for YHWH’s 105 Kingship Introduction 105 The Enuœma elis¥ 106 The Uniqueness in the Enuœma elis¥ and Coherence 108 Resonance of the Enuœma elis¥ 112 The Problem of Dating and Motivations for Marduk’s New Expression 115 Lambert’s Dating 119 Kassite Rule and Lambert’s Date of the Enuœma elis¥ 122 Reign of Tukulti-Ninurta I and Assyrian Threats to Marduk 126 The Enuœma elis¥ and The Epic of Tukulti Ninurta 130 Summary 138 Chapter Five: The Context and Motivations of YHWH’s New Kingship 140 Part I: Parallel Expansion: The Similar Histories of Marduk’s and YHWH’s Kingships 140 Conglomerate Traditions 144 A Close Reading of the Enuœma elis¥ and the YHWH Kingship Psalms 147 Universal and Absolute Kingships 148 Divine Nature 150 The Eternal Word 155 Creation 158 Part II: Divergences in Translation: Making Marduk’s Divinity 160 Coherent in Judah The Nature of Worship 160 The Warrior Tradition in the Psalms of YHWH’s Kingship 163 Part III: Selecting an Appropriate Context for the Change of YHWH’s Kingship 167 The Nature of Neo-Assyrian Imperialism under Tiglath-pileser III 174 Neo-Assyrian Imperialism and the Psalms as Response 177 Economic Policy 178 Cultural Policy 180 Religious Policy 184 Universalism as Response 191 The Absence of a Warrior Tradition as Response 192 Part IV: Jerusalemite Prophets of the Neo-Assyrian Period 193 iv First-Isaiah 194 Universalism 195 The Warrior Tradition 198 Summary 202 Chapter Six: Conclusion 204 Bibliography 208 v Abbreviations AB Anchor Bible ABH Archaic Biblical Hebrew ATDE Altes Testament Deutsch Ergänzungsreihe AfO Archiv für Orientforschung AKA The Annals of the Kings of Assyria ANE Ancient Near East AOTC Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries AR Archiv für Religionswissenschaft AYB Anchor Yale Bible BA Biblical Archaeologist BASOR Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research BCAW Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World BCSMS Bulletin of the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies BETL Bibliotheca ephemeridum theologicarum Lovaniensium BibOr Biblica et orientale BM British Museum BZAW Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft CAD Chicago Assyrian Dictionary CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly CSMSB Canadian Society of Mesopotamian Studies Bulletin CH Code of Hammurabi CHANE Culture and History of the Ancient Near East CM Cuneiform Monographs COS Context of Scripture ConBOT Coniectanea biblica: Old Testament Series CT Cuneiform Texts CT Cultural Translation CTA Corpus des texts cunéiforms alphabétiques déscouvertes a Ras Shamra- Ugarit de 1929 a 1939. Edited by A. Herdner. Mission de Ras Shamra 10. Paris, 1963 DDD Dictionary of Deities and Demons ED Early Dynastic EE Enuœma elis¥ ET Expository Times ETMS Evangelical Theological Monograph Series FAT Forschungen zum Alten Testament FAR Forschungen zur Anthropologie und Religiongeschichte FRLANT Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments HBM Hebrew Bible Monographs HBS Herders Biblische Studien HdO Handbook of Oriental Studies HTR Harvard Theological Review HS Hebrew Studies vi HSM Harvard Semitic Monographs HSS Harvard Semitic Studies HUCA Hebrew Union College Annual IRT Issues in Religion and Theology ISJ Institute of Jewish Studies JAAS Journal of the Assyrian Academic Society JANER Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Religion JAR Journal of Anthropological Research JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society JBL Journal of Biblical Literature JCS Journal of Cuneiform Studies JCL Journal of Commonwealth Literature JHS Journal of Hebrew Scriptures JSOTSup Journal for the Study of the Old Testament: Supplement Series KAR Keilschrifttexte aus Assur religiösen Inhalts KTU Die keilalphabetischen Texte aus Ugarit. Edited by M. Dietrich, O. Loretz, and J. Sanmart.n. AOAT 24/1. Neukirchen-Vluyn, 1976. 2d enlarged ed. of KTU: The Cuneiform Alphabetic Texts from Ugarit, Ras Ibn Hani, and Other Places. Edited by M. Dietrich, O. Loretz, and J. Sanmart.n. Münster, 1995 (= CTU) LB Late Babylonian LBH Late Biblical Hebrew LIC Language and Intercultural Communication LRB London Review of Books MB Middle Babylonian NABU Nouvelles assyriologiques breves et utilitaires NIBCOT New International Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament NICOT New International Commentary on the Old Testament OB Old Babylonian period OBO Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis OIS Oriental Institute Studies OLP Orientalia Lovaniensia Periodica OTE Old Testament Essays OTL Old Testament Library PEQ Palestine Exploration Quarterly PSPSH Poznan Studies in the Philosophy of Sciences and the Humanities PT Postcolonial Text PTMS Princeton Theological Monograph Series RA Revue d’Assyriologie et d’Archéologie Orietale RAI Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale RIA Reallexikon der Assyriologie. Edited by Erich Ebeling et al. Berlin, 1928– RIMA Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia SAAB State Archives of Assyria Bulletin SAACT State Archives of Assyria Cuneiform Texts vii SBL Studies in Biblical Literature SBLDS Studies in Biblical Literature Dissertation Series. SBLABS Society of Biblical Literature Archaeology and Biblical Studies SBLRBS Society of Biblical Literature Resources in Biblical Studies SBLWAW Society of Biblical Literature Writings of the Ancient World SB Standard Babylonian SBH Standard Biblical Hebrew SBL Studies in Biblical Literature SSEA Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities SR Studies in Religion SS Subaltern Studies ST Studia Theologica SO Studia Orientalia ThZ Theologische Zeitschrift TLS Times Literary Supplement TRE Theologische Realenzyklopädie UBC I Mark S. Smith, The Ugaritic Baal Cycle Vol I UBC II Mark S. Smith and Wayne T. Pitard, The Ugaritic Baal Cycle Vol II UF Ugarit Forschungen UCOP University of Cambridge Oriental Publications VT Vetus Testamentum WBC Word Biblical Commentary YOS Yale Oriental Series ZAW Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft ZTK Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche viii Chapter One: Charting the Kingship of YHWH Introduction The impact of the Neo-Assyrian period on Israelite religion is a contested topic with deeply different views. An early period of scholarship suggested that Assyrian imperialism had a minimal impact on Israel.1 Cogan calls attention to Assyrian policies that upheld the local cult: at times Assyrian rhetoric claimed that the god of the conquered nation had abandoned his host nation to join the victors, that the Assyrian officials accepted oaths from new vassals, and that the Assyrians were involved in the restoration of local cults.