Kein Land für sich allein: Studien zum Kulturkontakt in Kanaan, Israel/Palästina und Ebirnari für Manfred Weippert zum 65. Geburtstag

351 Pages·2002·10 MB·German

by  Manfred Weippert

Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 186
Kein Land
für sich allein
Studien zum Kulturkontakt
in Kanaan, Israel/Palästina und Ebirnäri
für Manfred Weippert zum 65. Geburtstag
herausgegeben von
Ulrich Hübner und Ernst Axel Knauf
Universitätsverlag Freiburg Schweiz
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Göttingen
Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Bibliothek
Die Deutsche Bibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie;
detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.ddb.de abrufbar.
Veröffentlicht mit Unterstützung der Schweizerischen Akademie
der Geistes-und Sozialwissenschaften
und des Hochschulrates Freiburg Schweiz
Die Druckvorlagen wurden von den Reihenherausgebern
als reprofertige Dokumente zur Verfügung gestellt.
© 2002 by Universitätsverlag Freiburg Schweiz
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Göttingen
Herstellung: Paulusdruckerei Freiburg Schweiz
ISBN 3-7278-1402-0 (Universitätsverlag)
ISBN 3-525-53043-9 (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht)
ISSN 1015-1850 (Orb. biblicus orient.)
Digitalisat erstellt durch Flurin Baumgartner,
Religionswissenschaftliches Seminar, Universität Zürich
INHALT
Vorwort vii
Portrait Manfred Weippert viii
Ernst Axel Knauf
Introduction
Martti Nissinen
Prophets and the Divine Council 4
Zeidan A. Kafafi
Egyptian Governors' Residencies in Jordan and Palestine: New Lights 20
Ulrich Hübner
Jerusalem und die Jebusiter 31
Andre Lemaire
a
La Reine de Saba Jerusalem: la tradition ancienne reconsideree 43
Carl S. Ehrlich
Die Suche nach Gat und die neuen Ausgrabungen auf Tell e~-~äfi 56
Hermann Michael Niemann
Nachbarn und Gegner, Konkurrenten und Verwandte Judas: Die Philister
zwischen Geographie und Ökonomie, Geschichte und Theologie 70
Christoph Uehlinger
Hanun von Gaza und seine Gottheiten auf Orthostatenreliefs
Tiglatpilesers III. 92
Stefan Timm
Ein assyrisch bezeugter Tempel in Samaria? 126
Frederick Mario Fales
Central Syria in the Letters to Sargon II 134
Bob Becking
West Semites at Tell Seb I:Iamad: Evidence for the Israelite Exile? 153
vi INHALT
Ludwig Massmann
Sanheribs Politik in Juda. Beobachtungen und Erwägungen zum
Ausgang der Konfrontation Hiskias mit den Assyrern 167
Ernst Axel Knauf
Who Destroyed Beersheba II? 181
Angelika Berlejung
Notlösungen-Altorientalische Nachrichten über den Tempelkult in
Nachkriegszeiten 196
Felice Israel
Der Amurriter in Ezechiel 16 231
Paul-Eugene Dion
La religion des papyrus d'Elephantine: un reflet du Juda d'avant l'exil
243
Baruch Halpem
Assyrian and pre-Socratic Astronomies and the Location of the Book
ofJob 255
Karel van der Toom
Sources in Heaven: Revelation as a Scholarly Construct in Second
Temple Judaism 265
Hans-Peter Mathys
Das Alte Testament - ein hellenistisches Buch 278
Jack M. Sasson
Ritual Wisdom? On «Seething a Kid in its Mother's Milk» 294
Bibliographie Manfred Weippert 309
Indices 319
Vorwort
«Kein Land für sich allein» - dieser Erkenntnis, die in der Betrachtung der Ge
schichte Israel/Palästinas noch keineswegs Allgemeingut geworden ist, hat Manfred
Weippert in seiner wissenschaftlichen Arbeit Bahn gebrochen. Was für das Land gilt,
trifft in noch höherem Maße für seine Bewohnerinnen und Bewohner, ihre Sprachen,
Literaturen, materiellen Artefakte, Religionen, Sitten und Gebräuche zu. Kein
Mensch ist eine Insel, noch weniger ein Land, eine ethnische Gruppe oder eine Reli
gionsgemeinschaft. Was wären wir, flössen uns nicht in jedem Augenblick des indi
viduellen wie kollektiven Lebens aus Geschichte und Mitwelt Kräfte zu, die uns
formen, tragen und relativieren, und was wären wir für unsere Mit- und Nachwelt,
würden wir das Empfangene nicht in jedem Augenblick unserer kollektiven wie indi
viduellen Existenz um- und weiterformen. Man kann jedes Neue nur auf dem Hin
tergrund des Alten erkennen. Man kann jedes Fremde erst erkennen, wenn man es
mit dem Eigenen vergleicht. Und man kann das Eigene erst dann verstehen, wenn
man es in Beziehung zum Anderen setzt. Man tut der Bibel keinen Gefallen, wenn
man ihr theologische Innovationen zuschreibt, auf die Asarhaddons Priester und Ge
lehrte das Copyright gehalten hätten, wenn es Derartiges im 7. Jh. v. Chr. gegeben
hätte.
Schüler und Kollegen versuchen mit diesem Band und unter diesem Titel, den
Dank abzustatten, den sie dem Lehrer schulden, und auf je ihre Weise über das Em
pfangene Rechenschaft abzulegen. Im Namen der Mitarbeiter und Mitarbeiterinnen
danken die Herausgeber Othmar Keel und Christoph Uehlinger, daß sie diesen Bam
in ihre Reihe aufnehmen, die wie keine andere mit ihrem Reihentitel ausdrückt, wo
rum es uns allen geht, und für die freundliche Bereitschaft, Bilder aus dem reichen
Freiburger Fundus beizusteuern. Sie danken weiter Sarah Werren, Bern, für Hilfe bei
der redaktionellen Betreuung der Beiträge; Philippe Guillaume, Genf, für die Erst
erstellung der Indices. Rene Schurte, Fribourg, hat sich große Verdienste erworben,
indem er in der Endphase der Redaktion zahlreiche Korrekturen nachtrug, die Forma
tierung der Beiträge vereinheitlichte, den Index überarbeitete und schließlich die end
gültigen Druckvorlagen erstellte. Auch ihm sei dafür herzlich gedankt.
Bern und Kiel, im Juli 2002 U.H. & E.A.K.

lntroduction
Ernst Axel Knauf
The authors - who responded to the request with much enthl,\siasm - were asked to
treat one of the many aspects of cultural contacts and interactions between (and
within) Canaan - Israel - Palestine and the rest of the «Biblical World» from the 2nd
millennium through the 3rd century BCE; they were free to choose their period, their
cultures, and their level of interaction from the realms of politics, economics,
languages, literature, arts and religion. The topic proved too large to be treated com
prehensibly in a single book. What emerged might serve as a documentation of
present scholarship's focal points from the spectrum of the intercultural exchanges
which finally shaped the Bible. The focus, if there is but one, gravitates toward the
Akkadian, notably the Assyrian, impact on the history - and theology - of Israel /
Palestine. Assyria is treated, randomly or centrally, by 14 of the 19 contributors.
The Assyrian preponderance might be attributed, first, to the fact that the Neo
Assyrian royal inscription in their entirety are finally available in reliable editions;
and second, to Manfred Weippert's being one of the pioneers of the «new dialogue»
between «Israel» and first millennium BCE Mesopotamia, «Bible» and «Babel». But
the truth of the matter should rather be seen in the Assyrian and Babylonian sources'
representing the international standard ideology during most of the time when bib
lical literature was conceived and shaped, and in their providing the riebest docu
mentation of the social and economic structures and conjunctures; they thus furnish
by their sheer vastness an unceasing number of cases for comparative studies. Was
life in Assyrian Samaria, Neo-Babylonian Samaria and Yehud much different from
the prospects of Sargonid central Syria (FALES)? What were the options of Jeru
salemite priests and theologians after 586 BCE, whether they still stayed home or
went into exile, within the conceptual framework of their world (BERLEJUNG)? What
happened to the exiled Israelites, the «Ten Lost Tribes» (BECKlNG)? As it seems
unfeasible to discuss biblical prophecy in the future without recourse to Akkadian,
and notably Assyrian, prophecy and prophetic literature (NISSINEN), so the annals of
Sennacherib should, at last, be regarded as the superior source in comparison with
the Isaiah-legends (MASSMANN, KNAUF). lt goes without saying that none is
bound, or inclined to believe, just about anything from the cuneiform sources and
their modern interpreters (TIMM, KNAUF). Even the vexed question of its mother's
what-ever-it-was in which the kid is not to be cooked receives some light from
Mesopotamian (among other) culinary writings (SASSON1 ). Most fascinating,
1 This article's stimulating proposal (stimulating at least for everyone who likes to eat,
and to cook) might be further tested by a correlation to the change in cooking and table
wares observable between the 6th and the 3rd centuries throughout Syria-Palestine, indica
tive, in all probability, to dietary changes - but which ones?
2 INTR0DUCTI0N
however, in the present editor's opinion, is the impact of cuneiform theology on
benchmarking the position of biblical thought processes within a global perspective
on the emergence of philosophies which became seminal for the Judeo-Christian cul
ture (BERLEJUNG, HALPERN, VAN DER TOORN).
Three authors discuss aspects of Greek influence on the biblical tradition
(HALPERN, MATHYS, SASSON); only one deals with Egypt (KAFAFI) - indicating a
rather radical shift of perspective on the «formative period» of Israelite history (in
opposition to pre- and proto-history) and biblical tradition as opposed to the epoch of
W. F. Albright and A. Alt. Two contributions vote for a Persian period date of the
book of Job (HALPERN, VA N DER TOORN) versus one opting for a Hellenistic back
ground (MATHYS); the ratio might be regarded as representative for the state of the
international and interdenominational discussion conceming Job. In this editor' s
opinion, it is archaeology (KAFAFI2, EHRLICH3, KNAUF), epigraphy (NISSINEN,
DION) and, notably, iconography (UEHLINGER) which are underrepresented in the
present volume - underrepresented as measured against the impact these empirical
disciplines should have for modern historical reconstructions on all levels of history.
In order to compensate for the regrettable lack of iconic materials submitted -
undoubtedly due by the present generation's upbringing at a time when history was
still regarded as a text-oriented discipline by most of her students - Christoph Ueh
linger has added pertinent illustrations for whatever space was left free in the desert of
coldly staring print (the illustrations in KAFAFI, NIEMANN, KNAUF and UEHLIN
GER were supplied by the authors).
lt goes without saying that the four contributions to this volume from biblical
scholarship in its narrower sense (LEMAIRE4, HÜBNER, ISRAEL, SASSON) are fully
2 This editor takes issue with Kafafi's statement «Archaeologists should ... study the lite
rature for a description of such a special type of structure. We assume that the written docu
ments are the best scientific support for such a claim» (p. 21), revealing a partisan posi
tion in the present debate on archaeological theory and methodology by favoring a
«post-processualist» point of. view vis-a-vis the «processualist» approach (cf. D. S.
WHITLEY, Reader in Archaeological Theory: Post-Processual and Cognitive Approaches,
London and New York 1998; J. MDLLER-CLEMM, Archäologische Gender-Forschung -
(k)ein Thema für die Palästina-Archäologie: lectio difficilior 4/2001, www.lectio.unibe.
eh). lt goes without saying that archaeologists tuming historian make use of all the evi
dence available, textual or material in nature. Tue archaeology of Israel/Palestine has,
however, suffered much (and for a long time) from archaeologists' serving themselves
freely from textual sources, whose complexity and proper evaluation of their pertinence
to history as it is supposed to have happened, far exceeded their analytical skills. lt is
with good reason, therefore, that leading scholars in the field still follow the «pro
cessual» path which demands that, at least on a first level of interpretation, the archae
ological evidence is explained by nothing but archaeological means; cf. SH. BUNIM0VIlZ,
On the Edge of Empires - Late Bronze Age (1500-1200 BCE): T. E. LEVY ed., Tue
Archaeology of Society in the Holy Land, New York 1995, [320-329] 328f.
3 lt already is safe to assume that the present excavations of Philistine Gath are going to
change our perception of the 10th and 9th centuries BCE, and will finally corroborate the
«Low Chronology» and its historical consequences.
4 That Pirenne is wrong does not, however, imply that Kitchen and Millard are right.
Both Assyrian and Sabaean texts attest to the process of Sabaean state formation in the
INTRODUCTION 3
aware of the cross-cultural dialogue which shaped biblical literature as well as its
modern elucidation. The present editor cannot, however, conceal his impression that
two of these four contributions rather derive from an earlier stage in the history of
biblical research than is represented by the majority of studies here collected (and
thus attest to the ubiquitousness of the «contemporaneity of the noncontem
poraneous» ). Whether the miserable assemblage of hovels that must have been 10th
century Jerusalem was visited by a South Arabian village queen or not is, after all,
of little historical consequence. Whether Ezek 16,3.45 refers to any extra-biblical
reality at all is by no means necessary, nor necessarily to decide5.
To be aware of the present collection's (and the present generation's) short
comings should not, on the other hand, mitigate the editor' s joy and satisfaction
deriving from the broad array of scholarship that has come together in this volume.
The spirit of uncompromising scrutiny, held up by Manfred Weippert during his
career and kindled by him in others, is marching on, et l 'histoire continue.
late 8th and early 7th century (cf. E. A. KNAUF, Tue Migration of the Script, and the
Fonnation of the State in South Arabia: Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 1 9
[1989] 79-91, now confinned by the chronology of pre-urban «Bronze Age» and urban
«Iron Age» South Arabia, cf. J. GöRSDORF & B. VOGT, Excavations at Ma'layba and Sabir,
Republic of Ye men: Radiocarbon Datings in the Period 1900 to 800 cal BC: Radiocarbon
43 [2001] 1353-1362; id., Radiocarbon Datings from the Almaqah Temple of Bar'an,
Ma'rib, Republic of Yemen: Approximately 800 cal BC to 600 cal AD: ibid. 1363-1370).
Neither a Sabaean state, nor its trade or diplomacy embellished the 10th century.
Liverani's argument does not pay attention to the obvious, viz. that most of «Sabaean»
trade goods arriving in late 8th century Mesopotamia did not originate in Saba (cf. already
N. NA' AMAN, The 'Conquest of Canaan' in the Book of Joshua andin History: 1. FINKEL
STEIN & N. NA' AMAN ed., From Nomadism to Monarchy [Jerusalem 1994] 218-281, 227) -
which implies that their importation previous to the 8th century did not require Sabaean
involvement. Nor could a Queen of Sheba of 10th century vintage have been much im
pressed by the palaces of Jerusalem, for these had to wait for Athaliah to be erected (c f. I.
FINKELSTEIN, Tue Rise of Jerusalem and Judah: the Missing Link: Levant 32 [2001] 105-
115). Tue argumentation of LEMAIRE demonstrates once again the dangers of relying on
textual evidence without proper consideration of the structures and conjunctures that
shape (not: determine) evenemental history, and the f allacy of looking for historical re
sults by exegetical means. Paying closer attention to M. WEIPPERT, Geschichte Israels am
Scheideweg: ThR 58 (1993) 71-103 might have helped.
5 Cf. K.-F. POHLMANN, Der Prophet Hesekiel/Ezechiel Kapitel 1-19 (ATD 22,1; 1996)
222. What ISRAEL calls «paradigmatic history» is probably not paradigmatic for the vast
majority of his fellow-contributors, cf. for an introduction to the present state of the art I.
FINKELSTEIN & N. A. SILBERMAN, Tue Bible Unearthed (New York &c 2001); W. G. DEVER,
What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know lt? (Minneapolis 2001).
This editor would have liked to learn more about what ·F. Israel regards as «paradigmatic»
in the fields of comparative Semitic studies and diachronic linguistics.
Prophets and the Divine Council
Martti Nissinen
,,:i, n~ ,,o:i
.t,ö&i ~,.,, m;-,, 1ö.t, ,ö ,:i
Who has stood in the council of Yahweh and seen and heard1 his word?
(Jer 23,18)
The Council of God in the Hebrew Bible
There are two ways to explain the motto, quoted from the Book of Jeremiah. lt can
be read as a rhetorical question emphasizing the hidden intentions of God, who is
beyond human perception and knowledge (cf. Job 5,18). As such, it is mostly ex
plained as a wisdom gloss with the implied answer «nobody».2 On the other hand, it
has been understood as referring to the previously mentioned false prophets, of
whom it is said later (23,22): «If they had stood in my council, they would have
proclaimed my word to my people». If this is the correct interpretation, then the
question inverse 18 is not rhetorical but quite serious, implying that true prophets
indeed were believed to have access to the council of God, the decisions of which are
the substance of their prophetic proclamation.3 This paper is written in support of
the second alternative, which I try to substantiate with some ancient Near Eastem
evidence.
The council of God in the Hebrew Bible is no novelty; the occurences are well
known and need only be briefly listed here. The «council of Yahweh» (il1i1" 1,0 Jer
23,18; Ps 25,14; cf. "1,0 Jer 18,22; i11?~ 110 Job 15,8) and related expressions
like «meeting of God» (?~ n1.P Ps 82,1) and «council/convocation of the Holy
Ones» (t:ri61p 110\ ?i1p Ps 89,6.8), as well as references to «sons of God» (" J:J
er,~ Ps 29,1; 89,7; 11"?.P "J:J Ps 82,6; D"i1?~i1 "J:J Job 1,6; 2,1)4, «all gods»
(D"i1?~ ?:J Ps 97,7), or simply «gods» (D"i1?~ Ps 82,1.6), imply a notion of an
1 Tue word .t,ö&1 may be a later addition, explaining the difficult expression «seeing
YHWH's word»; cf. McKANE 1986, 581.
2 Voiz 1922, 235; RUDOLPH 1968, 152-153 (gloss); Tuia 1973, 251; McKANE 1986,
582. Cf. AULD 1991, 6: «lt may well have been a prophetic or visionary commonplace to
claim such experience. I wonder if it is not being implicitly objected that none of the
rrophets can dare to claim access to the divine privy council (or kitchen cabinet?)».
If HERMrssoN 1995, 126 is right in his assertion that the second half of verse 18 is a
later addition, then the original text may not be a question at all. Hermisson translates:
«Wahrlich: Wer im Rat Jahwes stand, der sehe und lasse hören (w-yasma ') sein Wort!».
4 Also Gen 6,2.4, without the implication of a divine council; for the probable reading
t:J"',~ ":l::l instead of the Masoretic ',~iill" ":l::l in Dtn 32,8, see BHS.