University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations Spring 5-16-2011 The plinS tered Divine: A Study of Ištar, Baal, and Yahweh Divine Names and Divine Multiplicity in the Ancient Near East Spencer L. Allen University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Near Eastern Languages and Societies Commons Recommended Citation Allen, Spencer L., "The pS lintered Divine: A Study of Ištar, Baal, and Yahweh Divine Names and Divine Multiplicity in the Ancient Near East" (2011). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 309. http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/309 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/309 For more information, please contact [email protected]. The plinS tered Divine: A Study of Ištar, Baal, and Yahweh Divine Names and Divine Multiplicity in the Ancient Near East Abstract This dissertation examines ancient conceptions of Near Eastern deities whose names consistently included geographic epithets, which functioned like last names. In Neo-Assyrian (ca. 900-630 B.C.E.) texts, Ištar-of-Nineveh and Ištar-of-Arbela are often included as divine witnesses or enforcers of curses along with several other deities whose names lack any geographic epithets. Similarly, in second-millennium Ugaritic texts, Baal-of-Ugarit and Baal-of-Aleppo received separate offerings in cultic rituals along with several other deities whose names lack geographic epithets, and in firstmillennium Aramaic, Phoenician, and Punic texts, Baal-of-Ṣapān, Baal-of-Šamêm, and several other Baal-named deities are contrasted with each other in the same way that they are contrasted with other deities. The exploration of these Ištar and Baal divine names as first names suggests that the scribes of the ancient Near East considered each Ištar and Baal who was explicitly associated with a unique geographic last name to be a unique deity. In fact, the geographic epithets that follow the divine names should be viewed as an essential part of these deities’ names. Neo-Assyrian scribes thought of Ištar-of-Nineveh as distinct from Ištar-of-Arbela just as they thought of her as distinct from any other deity whose name was not Ištar. Likewise Ugaritic, Aramaic, Phoenician, and Punic scribes thought of Baal-of-Ṣapān as distinct from Baal-of- Aleppo and any other Baal-named deity just as they thought of him as distinct from any other deity whose name was not Baal. These analyses are pertinent to biblical studies because inscriptions from the eastern Sinai (ca. 800 B.C.E.) invoke a Yahweh-of- Samaria and a Yahweh-of-Teman in blessings. Unlike, the Ištar and Baal divine names that are contrasted with each other in the same texts, however, these two Yahweh divine names do not appear together in the same texts and were not necessarily contrasted with each other. For this reason, it could not be determined whether or not Israelites who encountered the Yahweh-named deities recognized them as distinct and independent deities. They might have known the names Yahweh-of-Samaria and Yahweh-of-Teman, but there is nothing in the inscriptional or biblical evidence to suggest that they necessarily thought of these as different Yahwehs. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/309 First Advisor Jeffrey H. Tigay Second Advisor Grant Frame Third Advisor Barry L. Eichler Subject Categories Near Eastern Languages and Societies This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/309 The Splintered Divine: A Study of Ištar, Baal, and Yahweh Divine Names and Divine Multiplicity in the Ancient Near East COPYRIGHT 2011 Spencer Loren Allen For Laura iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A world of gratitude is owed to the several people who helped in various different ways complete this dissertation. I would especially like to thank Profs. Jeffrey H. Tigay and Grant Frame for the tireless hours they invested in this dissertation the past three months, reading, rereading, and commenting on the various drafts of each chapter, pointing me towards new ideas and sources, and indicating when too much was enough. While researching and writing this dissertation, I often wondered if I should consider myself a Biblicist dabbling in Assyriology or an Assyriologist dabbling in Bible, so it has been extremely helpful having one advisor to help me focus on Assyriological matters when I was in a Bible mode and another to help me focus on Biblical matters when I was in an Assyriology mode. With their complementary help, the two halves of this dissertation should now be recognizable as an integrated whole. I would also like to thank Prof. Barry Eichler, now at Yeshiva University, whose instruction and feedback were most invaluable during the proposal period. Dozens of pages that did not make it into the final edition were written in response to his concerns from those early planning stages about the nature of ancient Near Eastern gods, pantheons, and syncretizations and how these affect divine multiplicity. The entirety of this dissertation is built upon the foundation he caused me to set up. There are many others at the University of Pennsylvania who also made this dissertation possible. Linda Greene, Peggy Guinan, Diane Moderski, and Chrissy Walsh supplied the answers to all my questions that did not deal with Near Eastern deities, guided me through NELC and Jewish Studies, listened to my Bruce Springsteen stories, and made sure that the rest of the world, or at least the university and Philadelphia, was in iv working order. Jamie Novotny in the tablet room granted me access to the forthcoming Esarhaddon, Sennacherib, and Tiglath-pileser III volumes of the Royal Inscriptions of Neo-Assyrian Period and all the lists of gods contained in those inscriptions. Joshua Jeffers was always ready to lend a hand whenever I needed help recognizing cuneiform or figuring out where a reference was located. I would also like to thank Erle Leitchy, Ilona Zsonlay, and Phil Jones for their assistance in the tablet room and all my other colleagues and classmates at Penn who have already graduated. I am also grateful to Valerie Ross, Patrick Wehner, and the rest of the Critical Writing program for accepting me as a critical writing fellow and letting me teach “The Bible in Popular Music,” which proved to be an exciting opportunity that greatly improved my own writing. I would like to thank David Stern and Richard Zettler, who served as chairs of the NELC graduate group and steered the occasional research grant in my direction as they were able. I am also grateful for the material support provided by the University of Pennsylvania while I was a William Penn fellow and by the Ellis Fellowship Fund this past year. I am also indebted to numerous scholars from other universities, who offered feedback on specific areas or topics outside of Biblical Studies and Assyriology. Steve Holloway, of the American Theological Library Association, gave me more than one opportunity to present my research at the Society for Biblical Literature Annual Meeting. Richard Beal, of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, gladly and quickly answered my questions about the nature of divine lists in Hittite treaties, and JoAnn Scurlock, of Elmhurst College, provided me with her own pre-published insights into the natures of Ištar-associated goddesses and other academic concerns. Wiebke Meinhold, of the University of Heidelberg, granted me access to her dissertation about Ištar at Assur v long before she had published it in book form, allowing me to get a jumpstart on my own work. The comparative discussions in chapter 3 could not have been accomplished without the generous feedback about Hinduism, Catholicism, and classical Greek traditions from Benjamin Zeller, of Brevard College, Robert St. Hilaire, of Niagara University, and Daniel Levine, of the University of Arkansas. Each of them directed me to great resources and helped me clarify difficult issues in these foreign disciplines. I would also like to thank Shalom Holtz and Shawn Aster, of Yeshiva University, Jeffrey Stackert, of the Divinity School at the University of Chicago, and Mark S. Smith, of New York University, for reading through my proposal and warning me about potential pitfalls. Hopefully, most of them were avoided. And thanks to Thomas Paradise, of the University of Arkansas, for inviting me to teach for three semesters back home in Arkansas at the King Fahd Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies. I am also thankful to my family and friends who have encouraged and supported me throughout this dissertation. Raphael Cunniff and J. J. Shirley were more than generous by letting me stay at their home in whenever I needed to return to Philadelphia so that I could research, write, and complete my dissertation on visits after I moved back to Arkansas in 2008. Safdar Akbar also generously let me apartment-sit while he was away so that I could write in seclusion, which is another word for Maryland. My third getaway was with Cousin Melissa Pearrow and Mark, Eleanor, and Jason in Massachusetts, who were always ready to be my closest relatives on the East Coast and let me crash with them when I needed a break from my schoolwork. Additional gratitude is owed to Cousin Mark for all his hours of computing and technical assistance. vi My parents, Barry and Barbara, and my grandfather, Howard Records, have been extremely supportive since I first decided to pursue a degree and career as a Biblical Scholar who dabbles in Assyriology. I am grateful to them for their continuous encouragement and confidence all these years as parents and for their generous support over the years as patrons.