CHAPTER ONE I Ntrod Uct Ton A. the Distinctive Nature of the Israelite Cult
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CHAPTER ONE I ntrod uct ton A. The Distinctive Nature of the Israelite Cult The most important social and political institution in tribal Israel was the cult of the league's patron deity. I The cultic gatherings of the Israelites were the primary fashioners of social and religious unity. The league shrine functioned as the meeting place for the muster of the militia and it was to this shrine that the victorious warriors returned with the spoils of battle.2 Unlike the city-state which had enforceable, centralized programs of military conscription and taxation, the tribal league's constitution was much more tenuous. The league had to depend on tribal participation in the cult of the league shrines for both its muster and its collection of offerings.3 Indeed, it is difficult to speak of an entity ·1sraer in the tribal period outside of the gathered body of clan members around the shrines of their patron, YHWH.4 It is most likely for this reason that the religion of a tribal confederation is typologically distinct from that of the city-state. As Cross has noted: ·1n Phoenician and Aramean city states there are city gods, triads of city gods, and patron gods of the king who often differ from the chief city gods, but in both documentary evidence and in the onomastica, we find multiple state deities lThis study is concerned exclusively with the pan-tribal YHWHistic cult. Although Israel's religion will be spoken of only in terms of this public manifestation the writer acknowledges the varied types of religious expression which were to be found in the private cults of individual families or extended clan groups. The public cult of YHWH was not the only form of religious expression in ancient Israel, but it is one of the few to which modem scholarship has access. 2on the role of the cult in early Israelite wars see Von Rad, Der heilege Krieg im alten Israel (Zartch: Zwingli Verlag, 1951). One should also note the reaction of M. Wetppert, "'Hetltger Krieg' in Israel und Assyrten: Krtttsche Anmerkungen zu Gerhard von Rads Konzept des 'Hetltgen Krieges 1m alten Israel.· ZA W 84 (1972), pp. 460-93. 3Note the strong injunctions of the Covenant Code (Ex 23: 14-17}. all the men of Israel were required to participate in the pilgrim festivals and not to come empty-handed! Both of these injunctions were lost in the later priestly recenslons of this list (Lev 23 and Num 28-29). 4This position was classically stated by M. Noth in his Das System der zwlJlf Stllmme Israels (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1930). See also G. Von Rad, Theology of the Old Testament, vol. 1, (New York: Harper and Row, 1962), pp. 17ff for a concurring view. Noth's perspective ts. of course, firmly grounded in his theory of an early Israelite amphtctyony. This theory has been subject to a number of criticisms in recent years. Especially problematic ts his thesis that there was a central shrine for all of Israel. Yet Gottwald, one of Noth's strongest crtttcs, agrees with Noth's baste premise-the cult ls the center of early Israelite life ( The Tribes of Yahweh (Maryknoll: Orb ts, 1979), pp. 63-125 and 252-59). 2 Sacrifices and Offerings and personal de1ties. • 5 It is different in the tribe. There the tribal members bind themselves to one particular god. the patron of that tribe. In the annals of AssurbanipaL an Arab tribal confederation is called Plu !a dAtarsamain, ·the league of Atarsamain.• The significant item is the word Plu, ·1eague: The word Plu is derived from e'elu, ·to bind an agreement: Cross associates it with Old South Arabic 'hL Lihyanite 'L ·people· or ·cult association.•• 6 The linguistic development of this root shows the close connection between covenant, cult association, and ethnic identity. The formula J'lu !a DN points to the importance of the tribal patron deity in describing the tribal constituency. As Cross observes, ·Israel may be called the cam YHWH, Moab the cam k~mlJ! (Num 21:29), and the Arab league, 'hi cafJtar:1 This phenomenon carries over into the onomastica as well. In the onomastica of IsraeL Ammon, Moab, and Edom, the dominate divine element is the name or epithet of the patron deity. In Israel this is YHWH or El, in Ammon, Moab, and Edom the deiUes are El (or the epithet Milcom), Chemosh (an epithet of cAfJtar), and Qos (perhaps an epithet of Hadad) respectively. The concept of a tribal clan bound to a single patron deity presumes some type of covenant.8 For tribal groups, the language of kinship was the favored means of expressing the mutually assumed covenantal obligations. Ideally, each clan stood on equal footing with the others; the political SF. Cross, "The Epic Traditions of Early Israel; p. 36. ln R. Friedman ed .• The Poet and the Historian (HSS 26. Chico: Scholars Press, 1983). 6The root ts also found ln Hebrew 'ahel, ·tent· and Akkadian !/u. ·ctty.• We should note that von Soden. AHw p. 189. does not associatee'e/u with Hebrew'ahe/ or Akkadian a/u. 7F. Cross. "The Epic Traditions,· p. 36. 8This idea ts somewhat controversial, and, it should be noted, is not crucial to our thesis. There are still a number of scholars who feel that the covenantal theology of Israel is a late development. See for example. L. Perlitt, Bundestheologle Im a/ten Testament, (WMANT 36. Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1969). Their arguments have some basts. The Hittite formulary does not neatly fit any of the early pre-deuteronomlstic narratives. Joshua 24 is probably the first biblical text to clearly outline Israelite belief on a covenantal model. Though this text ts pre-deuteronomic. it cannot be conclusively put in the early period. On the other hand though. one must reckon with the fact that the Sinai narratives are the most heavily redacted narratives in the Bible. A neat survival of an original covenant formulary in this corpus is impossible to expect. Even with these reservations, though, one must come up with some type of legal or religious formula which enabled a diverse group of independent tribal clans to participate regularly in the militia and pilgrim feasts of a tribal confederacy and share a distinctive onomastic pattern. These were not natural developments/ To disallow the existence of a covenantal agreement in the early period would pose more problems than it would solve. For a similar position see J. Barr. ·Some Semantic Notes on the Covenant.· in Beltrage zur Alttestamentllchen Theo/ogle: Festschrlft far Walther Zimmerli. ed. H. Donner et al. (G0ttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht. 197n, p. 37: "Yet with all the will in the world it ts a little hard to believe that the covenant of Yahweh with Israel became significant only so late.• .