Abishag: Administrator of King David's Household (Hebrew Bible Monographs) (English and German Edition)

434 Pages·2021·2.868 MB·English, German

by  Daniel Bodi

AbishAg
Hebrew Bible Monographs, 93

A
bishAg
AdministrAtor of King dAvid’s household
Daniel Bodi
sheffield Phoenix Press
2021
Copyright © 2021 Shefeld Phoenix Press
Published by Shefeld Phoenix Press
Shefeld Institute for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies (SIIBS),
University of Shefeld, S10 2TN
www.shefeldphoenix.com
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No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
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is available from the British Library
Typeset by Trans.form.ed
ISBN 978-1-910928-87-5 (hardback)
Contents
Abbreviations ix
Abisag—a Poem by Rainer Maria Rilke (1905/6) xv
Introduction 1
Chapter 1
Abishag in the Hebrew Narrative (1 Kings 1 and 2) 9
1. 1 Kings 1–2, as the Continuation of 2 Samuel 9
2. The Last Outworking of the Retributive Justice in David’s Life 11
3. Old and Advancing in Years (zāqēn bā’ bayyāmîm, v. 1) 16
4. Keeping ‘Warm’ with Clothes—or Pulling Wool over One’s Eyes 17
4.1. The ‘Clothes’ (begādîm) and the ‘Treachery’ (bōgedîm) 18
4.2. Keeping David Warm—Two Kinds of Heat 22
5. The Literary Topos of Placing a Young Virgin in an Old Man’s Lap 26
6. Abishag as an Androgynous (Intersex) Person
According to the Rabbis 34
7. Was Abishag Part of an Original Potency Ritual? 40
8. Conclusion 46
Chapter 2
Abishag as the Administrator of King David’s Household,
Hebrew sōkenet, West-Semitic sākinu and Akkadian šākin bīti 49
1. Abishag as House Administrator, sōkenet, in Hebrew 49
2. The Term *sōkinu in Fourteenth-Century bce Amarna Texts 53
3. The Term sākinu at Ugarit (Fourteenth and Thirteenth Century bce) 55
4. The Female House Administrator (MUNUS abarakkatu) in Old
Babylonian Mari Royal Palace 60
5. To ‘Exercise Rule’, ‘To Dwell’, and the Link with Erect Stones
(Betylus) and Steles 64
6. The šākin bīti in the Kingdom of Arrapḫa
(Fifteenth- and Fourteenth-Century bce Nuzi) 68
7. Neo-Assyrian (šākin m.) and (šākintu f.) as Majordomo,
House or Palace Administrator 73
8. Conclusion 81
vi Abishag: Administrator of King David’s Household
Chapter 3
Adonijah’s Coup d’État 82
1. Adonijah as Absalom Redivivus: Another Failed Coup d’État 82
2. Adonijah and Kirta’s Son Yaṣṣubu:
Rebellion against the King as a Cursed Enterprise 85
3. Adonijah and the Connection with Ninurta-Nimrod,
the Biblical Rebel Par Excellence 89
3.1. Hunting, Military, and Royal Symbolism, with Echoes
of Ninurta-Nimrod 90
3.2. The Link with Ancient Jerusalem’s Divinity Ḫebat 97
3.3. Mythological Significance: The Link with Asherah,
Fertility and the Serpents 103
3.4. Economic Significance 107
4. Conclusion 109
Chapter 4
Where’s the Oath? 111
1. Introduction 111
2. The First Mention of the Supposed ‘Oath’ by the
Court Prophet Nathan 112
3. Bathsheba and the Second Mention of the ‘Oath Sworn
by Yahweh’ 116
4. Nathan’s Speech Mentioning Adonijah Twice
and Omitting the Oath 120
5. David Gobbles Down the ‘Solomon’s Oath’,
Making an Oath within an Oath 121
6. The Lists of David’s Sons and the Dynastic Principle
of ‘Porphyrogenesis’ 122
7. The Literary Topos of the Reversal of Fortunes:
The First Shall Be Last 127
8. Conclusion 129
Chapter 5
Adonijah’s Chariot and Horsemen and Solomon’s She-Donkey:
The Donkey as the Hebrew Royal Symbol in Light
of Amorite Customs 135
1. Introduction 135
2. Adonijah’s Chariots and Horses Versus Solomon’s Royal
She-Donkey 136
3. Saul’s Journey after the Missing Asses (1 Samuel 9)
and the Donkey as the Hebrew Royal Symbol 138
4. The Equids in the Ancient Near East and Ancient Israel 140
5. The ‘Donkey of Peace’: The Donkey as a Sacrificial Animal
in Covenant Making 151
Contents vii
6. The Reinterpretation of the Hebrew Messianic Symbolism
of the She-Donkey 155
7. Conclusion 158
Appendix 158
Chapter 6
The Role of the King’s Mother (gebîrâ) in Royal Succession
(1 Kings 2) 161
1. Issues of Terminology, No Queen or Queen Mother,
Just King’s Mother 161
2. The King’s Mother Mentioned Only with Reference
to the Judean Kings 164
3. Mothers of the Kings and Their Religious Role
in the Asherah Fertility Cult 174
Chapter 7
The King’s Mother in the Ancient Near East
(Egypt, Mari, Ḫatti, Ugarit, Assyria) 183
1. Introduction 183
2. The Mother of the King as the Mother of God in Egypt 184
3. Addu-dūri, the Mother of the King Zimrī-Līm at Mari,
and Dām-ḫurāṣi the Mother of the Heir 189
4. The Institution of the Tawananna in the Hittite Empire
and the Queen Puduḫeba 192
5. The Mother of the King at Ugarit, the Dame Aḫat-Milku 198
6. The Mother of the King in the Kingdom of Alalaḫ 200
7. The Mother of the King in Assyria 201
7.1. Naqi’a-Zakûtu the Mother of King Esarhaddon 202
7.2. Šammu-ramat/Semiramis 209
8. Conclusion 211
Chapter 8
The Four Wives of King David and the Four Women of Odysseus 213
1. Introduction 213
2. The Ambiguity between the Terms for Woman and Wife
in Greek and Hebrew 214
3. Differences between the Texts Compared 215
4. The Names Odysseus and David 217
5. Odysseus and the Four Women in His Life 221
6. The Nymph Circe (Κίρκη) 224
7. The Nymph Calypso (Καλυψώ) 234
8. The Young Virgin Nausicaa 240
9. Penelope (Πηνελόπη)—the Emblematic Faithful Wife 249
viii Abishag: Administrator of King David’s Household
10. The Abuse of Hospitality at Odysseus’ Palace 254
10.1. Abigail’s Intervention in 1 Samuel 25 in Light of
Ancient Near Eastern Hospitality Customs 256
10.2. Hospitality Customs in Ancient Mesopotamia 258
11. Eurycleia, the Wet-Nurse and Administrator
of Odysseus’s Household and Abishag 264
12. Conclusion 267
Chapter 9
The Stories of David’s Wives as a Hebrew ‘Advice to a Prince’
(Fürstenspiegel) 269
1. Introduction 269
2. From the Babylonian ‘Fürstenspiegel’ or ‘Mirror for Princes’
to Fénélon’s Télémaque 269
3. The Babylonian Advice to a Prince 276
4. The Babylonian Advice to a Prince and the Bathsheba Episode 287
5. Wisdom Equated with Prophecy in the Advice to a Prince and
1 Samuel 25, Abigail and David 294
6. The Advice to a Prince and the Abishag Episode in 1 Kings 1 297
7. Conclusion 298
Chapter 10
Cunning and Craftiness as Archaic Forms of Wisdom,
in the Hebrew Bible, Classical Greece,
and the Ancient Near East 303
1. Cunning in the Hebrew Bible 393
2. Wisdom and Cunning in Ancient Greece 310
3. The Greek Goddess of Cunning Mētis and the Aptitude
of Craftiness 316
4. The Crafty God Enki/Ea of the Mesopotamian Religious Traditions 321
Conclusion 327
Bibliography 353
Index of References 396
Index of Authors 409
Abbreviations
AASOR The Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research
AB Anchor Bible
ABD Anchor Bible Dictionary (ed. David Noel Freedman; 6 vols.; New
York: Doubleday, 1992)
ABS Archaeology and Biblical Studies
ACF Annuaire du Collège de France
AfO Archiv für Orientforschung
AHw W. von Soden, Akkadisches Handwörterbuch (3 vols.; Wiesbaden,
1965–81)
AION Annali del’Istituto Orientale di Napoli
AIPHOS Annuaire de l’Institut de Philologie et d’Histoire Orientales et
Slaves
AJBA Australian Journal of Biblical Archaeology
AJP American Journal of Philology
AJSL American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures
AnBib Analecta Biblica
ANEP The Ancient Near East in Pictures Relating to the Old Testament
(ed. James B. Pritchard; 2nd edn; Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1994)
ANET The Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament
(ed. J.B. Pritchard; 3rd edn; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press, 1969)
AnOr Analecta Orientalia
AOAT Alter Orient und Altes Testament
AOS American Oriental Series
ARMT Archives Royales de Mari, Textes, Transcription et traduction
(Paris, 1950–)
ArOr Archív orientální
AS Assyriological Studies
ASTI Annual of the Swedish Theological Institute
ATANT Abhandlungen zur Theologie des Alten und Neuen Testaments
AUSS Andrews University Seminary Studies
b. Babylonian Talmud
BA The Biblical Archaeologist
BAR The Biblical Archaeologist Reader
BASOR Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research
BBB Bonner biblische Beiträge
x Abishag: Administrator of King David’s Household
BBET Beiträge zur biblischen Exegese und Theologie
BBR Bulletin for Biblical Research
BDB F. Brown, S.R. Driver and C.A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English
Lexicon of the Old Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907;
1968)
BETL Bibliotheca Ephemeridium Theologicarum Lovaniensium
Bib Biblica
BibOr Biblica et Orientalia
BJ La Bible de Jérusalem
BK Biblischer Kommentar
BM Bibliotheca Mesopotamica
BN Biblische Notizen
BR Biblical Research
BBB Bonner Biblische Beiträge
BBR Bulletin of Biblical Research
BBVO Berliner Beträge zum Vorderen Orient
BWL W. G. Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom Literature (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1960)
BZ Biblische Zeitschrift
BZAW Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
CAD The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University
of Chicago
CahRB Cahiers de la Revue Biblique
CBC The Cambridge Bible Commentary
CBQ Catholic Biblical Quartely
CahRB Cahiers de la Revue Biblique
CBET Contributions to Biblical Exegesis and Theology
CH Codex Hammurabi
CHANE Culture and History of the Ancient Near East
CJ Classical Journal
ClQ Classical Quarterly
COS The Context of Scripture (ed. William W. Hallo; 3 vols.; Leiden:
Brill, 1997–2002)
CSA Copenhagen Studies in Assyriology
CT Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum
CTN Cuneiform Texts from Nimrud
CUSAS Cornell University Studies in Assyriology and Sumerology
DBAT Dielheimer Blätter zum Alten Testament
DBS Dictionnaire de la Bible, Supplément
DDD Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (ed. K. van der
Toorn, B. Becking, and P. W. van der Horst; Leiden: Brill, 1999)
DNWSI J. Hoftijzer and K. Jongeling, Dictionary of the North-West Semitic
Inscriptions (Leiden: Brill, 1995)
EA El Amarna Tablets: J.A. Knudtzon, Die El-Amarna-Tafeln (1-358);
A.F. Rainey, El Amarna Tablets (359-79)
ErIs Eretz Israel
EJ Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem: Keter, 1971)