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Faxafdruk Op Volledige Pagina THE MELAMMU PROJECT http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/ “The Good Shepherd” JOAN GOODNICK WESTENHOLZ Published in Melammu Symposia 4: A. Panaino and A. Piras (eds.), Schools of Oriental Studies and the Development of Modern Historiography. Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Symposium of the Assyrian and Babylonian Intellectual Heritage Project. Held in Ravenna, Italy, October 13-17, 2001 (Milan: Università di Bologna & IsIao 2004), pp. 281-310. Publisher: http://www.mimesisedizioni.it/ This article was downloaded from the website of the Melammu Project: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/ The Melammu Project investigates the continuity, transformation and diffusion of Mesopotamian culture throughout the ancient world. A central objective of the project is to create an electronic database collecting the relevant textual, art-historical, archaeological, ethnographic and linguistic evidence, which is available on the website, alongside bibliographies of relevant themes. In addition, the project organizes symposia focusing on different aspects of cultural continuity and evolution in the ancient world. The Digital Library available at the website of the Melammu Project contains articles from the Melammu Symposia volumes, as well as related essays. All downloads at this website are freely available for personal, non-commercial use. Commercial use is strictly prohibited. For inquiries, please contact [email protected]. WESTENHOLZ THE GOOD SHEPHERD JOAN GOODNICK WESTENHOLZ Jerusalem/Chicago The Good Shepherd* I. Deceptive Familiarity he shepherd is one of the most actually began his life as a shepherd important archetypal symbols and caring for his father’s flocks (I Sam. 16: Tmetaphors that our ancient fore- 11, 17: 20, 34-35), and was later given bears bequeathed to future generations of the task of shepherding the people of Is- humanity. Encoded in the symbolism of rael: “... and the LORD said to you: ‘You the shepherd is an elaborate metaphysical shall shepherd My people Israel; you schema of the way in which relation- shall be ruler of Israel’” (II Sam. 5: 2). ships, society, politics, ethics and global David became the ideal ruler and the type consciousness are to be envisioned. If a of the true shepherd of Israel.1 mythic image, metaphor or symbol is to In Jewish and Christian sacred writings, be properly understood, we must be aware the epithet ‘shepherd’ is also applied to of the message that it is conveying. God in relation to the individual, Israel or From the end of the third millennium the Church as in the well-known psalm: BCE onwards in Mesopotamia, the mon- “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not arch was thought of as the ‘shepherd of want” (Ps. 23: 1). Similarly, Mesopotamian his people.’ For instance, king Hammu- deities were described as shepherds, in rabi proclaimed “I am Hammurabi, the particular Enlil.2 An Old Akkadian indivi- shepherd called by Enlil” (CH i 50ff.). In dual bore the name B l-SIPA “My-Lord- the Bible, it is recorded that King David Is-(My)-Shepherd” (MAD 1 163 x? 13).3 The abbreviations in this article follow the conven- shepherd terminology, see Waetzoldt 1972-5: 421-425. tions of The Assyrian Dictionary of the University of Because of space limitations, only this pair of lexemes Chicago (CAD) and The Sumerian Dictionary of the will be treated in the context of the three millennia of University Museum of the University of Pennsylva- cuneiform tradition. Lexical questions already exist in nia (PSD) with the following additions: Electronic the earliest texts; for instance, Selz (1998a: 326 note Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature = J. A. Black, 201) suggests that the term NAMEŠDA used in Uruk G. Cunningham, E. Flückiger-Hawker, E. Robson and III was replaced by sipa but sipa already appears in G. Zólyomi, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian traditional lexical lists of professions, Archaic Lú A 95 Literature (<http://www-etcsl.orient.ox.ac.uk>), Oxford (see LATU, 83). Morever, other terms occur in Uruk 1998-; LATU = R. Englund and H. Nissen, Die lexi- III lexical texts, based on UDUa and AB2, such as kalischen Listen der Archaischen Texte aus Uruk GAL.UDUa AB2, GAL.PA.UDUa AB2 Archaic Lú A [ATU 3] (Berlin, 1993). List 111-2 (LATU, 84). The exact meanings of these 1 Actually the first biblical occurrence of this meta- professions are unknown but must be differentiated phor of shepherd and flock to signify leader and from the profession AB2.KU = UTULa ‘cowherd,’ people is Moses’ plea that God should make Joshua which is also found in archaic texts (LATU, 88 Offi- the leader of the people after his own death, so “that cials, 59f.), as well as the profession GALa UTULa, the congregation of the LORD be not as sheep which which appears together with SANGAa UDUa AB2 in have no shepherd” (Numbers 27: 17). MSVO 4, 32 ii 3; see Englund 1995: 35, K. SzarzyL- 2 For instance see Enlil and Ninlil, line 10, and note ska 1994: 1. See further Waetzoldt 1982. Note that in Behrens 1978: 91. utullu occurs as a title of Assyrian kings, in particular 3 There was a range of terms covering the span of of the Middle Assyrian kings Shalmaneser I, Tukulti- herding professionals, the most common of which are Ninurta I, and Tiglath-pileser I. sipa in Sumerian and r ’û in Akkadian; for a review of A. Panaino & A. Piras (eds.) MELAMMU SYMPOSIA IV (Milano 2004) ISBN 88-88483-206-3 281 WESTENHOLZ THE GOOD SHEPHERD These two metaphors, the royal and the pagan image was easily assimilated to the divine, unite in the Christian image of biblically-derived metaphor describing Jesus as the good shepherd: “I am the Jesus. In funerary contexts (fig. 2), the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays shepherd image embodied the doctrinal down his life for the sheep” (John 10: belief in the salvation of the soul, being 11). similar in intent to the Early Christian Although this metaphor developed in use of the Old Testament figures of the ancient Near East, the corresponding Noah, Daniel and Jonah, and it later be- iconographic motif is said to have evolved came a viable substitute image for Christ in the classical world.4 In classical art, as saviour of his flock. small figurines, statuettes and statues de- This study will first investigate the picted the god Hermes as kriophoros meaning of the shepherd metaphor in (‘ram-bearer’). In his role of the god current understanding and then trace its honoured for finding lost sheep, Hermes reflection in its Near Eastern inception appears as a young shepherd carrying a until its mature elaboration in Early young animal on his shoulders (fig. 1). Christian art and literature. It will also The youthful figure of the ram-bearer touch on the significance of the Good had a long tradition of pagan usage (of- Shepherd as a royal depiction and divine fering bearer, bucolic figure, personifi- image, both in the ancient Near Eastern cation of Winter, Hermes pyschopompos and in the classical world.5 [“carrier of the souls of the dead”]). This II. Shepherd Ideology The first step in reaching a clearer un- As one who guards, the shepherd is a derstanding is to analyse our own pre- guardian for the defenceless and provides suppositions about the definition of the protection. However, could this protec- shepherd’s profession, and then to probe tive aspect of shepherding have a possible the metaphoric / allegorical / symbolic aggressive undercurrent? Is the guardian- meanings which may be derived by anal- ship envisioned defensive or peaceful, or ogy from the realistic level. Multiple is it seen as offensive in character? “The strata of cultural, ethical, theological, and shepherd is said to be a peaceful person psychological connotations overlie the who avoided strife as much as possible.”6 base root metaphor, and need to be ex- On the other hand, the aspect of defence plored and examined carefully. is basic to the general concept of a shep- The Oxford English Dictionary (1971, herd: “I am the good shepherd; the good 681) gives the basic definition of the lex- shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” eme ‘shepherd’ as: “A man who guards, (John 10: 11). tends, and herds a flock of sheep (graz- As one who tends, the shepherd also ing at large).” looks after his charges, acting as a care- 4 See Huyghe 1968: 16. trayed as a shepherd, and in Buddhism, the Bodhi- 5 Other ancient traditions used the shepherd image as sattva is often depicted as the Good Shepherd. a model for leadership but lie outside the scope of 6 Samuel 1996: 106. this survey. In Hinduism, Krishna is sometimes por- 282 WESTENHOLZ THE GOOD SHEPHERD giver and a provider to the vulnerable; he tionships, such as the shepherd to his gathers the newly born lambs and holds flock, the leader to his follower; the one them in his arms. He thus succours and to the many, the dominant to the power- nurtures his sheep. In addition, in his less. This is the Shepherd King meta- role as herder, the shepherd keeps his phor. Not mentioned in the OED defini- charges from straying and finds the lost tion is the negative aspect of the shep- sheep. Sheep are thought to wander since herd who leads his sheep to the slaughter they have no sense of direction, and de- for purposes of either ritual or the provi- pend on the shepherd to guide them to sion of food. Although existing at the re- streams and pastures. The shepherd must alia level, this is not part of the meta- lead his flock along the proper paths so phor. that they do not fall prey to accident or In this paper, I will concentrate on the predators.
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