Text and Transmission: An Empirical Model for the Literary Development of Old Testament Narratives

324 Pages·1994·9.46 MB·English

by  Hans J. Tertel

Hans Jürgen Tertel
Text and Transmission
An Empirical Model for the Literary Development
of Old Testament Narratives
Walter de Gruyter · Berlin · New York
1994
© Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines of the ANSI
to ensure permanence and durability
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tertel, Hans Jürgen, 1962 —
Text and transmission ; an empirical model for the literary develop-
ment of Old Testament narratives / Hans Jürgen Tertel.
p. cm. — (Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche
Wissenschaft ; Bd. 221)
Originally published as the author's thesis (doctoral) — University
of Liverpool, 1991
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 3-11-013921-9 (alk. paper) : $98.00 (approx.)
1. Bible. Ο. T. Samuel - Criticism, Textual, 2. Bible. Ο. T. Kings -
Criticism, Textual. 3. Bible. Ο. T. Chronicles — Criticism, Textual.
4. Assyro-Babylonian literature — Relation to the Old Testament.
I. Title. II. Series.
BS1325.2.T47 1994
221.6'6 —dc20 94-12755
CIP
Die Deutsche Bibliothek — Cataloging-in-Publication Data
[Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft / Beihefte]
Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft.
— Berlin ; New York : de Gruyter.
Früher Schriftenreihe
Fortlaufende Beil. zu: Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
NE: HST
Bd. 221. Tertel, Hans Jürgen: Text and transmission. — 1994
Tertel, Hans Jürgen:
Text and transmission : an empirical model for the literary development
of old testament narratives / Hans Jürgen Tertel. — Berlin ; New York :
de Gruyter, 1994
(Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft : Beihefte ; Bd. 221)
Zugl.: Liverpool, Univ., Diss., 1991
ISBN 3-11-013921-9
ISSN 0934-2575
© Copyright 1994 by Walter de Gruyter & Co., D-10785 Berlin.
All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this
book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Printed in Germany
Printing: Werner Hildebrand, Berlin
Binding: Lüderitz & Bauer-GmbH, Berlin
Dedicated to my wife Elisabeth
and to our children Jakob, Anne, Kathrin, and Philipp

Preface
The immense religious importance of the Old Testament imposes a great
responsibility on the exegete. Since his results are inseparably bound to his
presuppositions, a thorough and continuous examination of the latter is essential.
The need for a discussion of appropriate methodology is illustrated by the variety
of results provided by source-critical studies of the same narratives. The present
work, a slightly revised version of my Ph.D. thesis submitted to the University of
Liverpool March 1991, aims to contribute to this discussion by suggesting a pos-
sible analogy to the transmission of Old Testament narratives.
Two basic assumptions are made: 1. analogies between the transmission of
Ancient Near Eastern texts and Old Testament narratives are possible and 2. if the
evidence is inconclusive, a hypothesis based on a valid empirical model is to be
preferred.
Since general tendencies of development have to be isolated, many pas-
sages of Ancient Near Eastern texts had to be referred to, which because of space
limitations could not all be quoted verbatim. The reader is thus referred to the
publications of these texts noted in the relevant passages. I have not aimed to
present a complete list of works on the texts discussed, but only referred to books
and articles relevant for the present line of investigation. In footnotes only short
titles of books and articles are mentioned. The full title with further information is
given in the bibliography. I have not aimed to present a complete list of works on
the texts studied, but rather concentrated on references to books and articles
relevant for the present line of investigation.
I would like to record my gratitude to my supervisor Prof. A.R.Millard
for his well-reflected comments, questions, and steady encouragement. My thanks
are also due to the Tyndale House Fellowship and the Arbeitskreis zur Förderung
evangelikaler Theologie for their generous grants. I would further like to thank
my first teacher of the Hebrew language, Prof. R. Laird Harris. I am grateful to
Prof. Dr. O.Kaiser for accepting this work for publication in BZAW.
Many friends and relatives have provided financial or other support. Only
a few can be mentioned: my fellow-students Dr.E.C.Lucas, Dr. J.Collins, and
Dr.Y.Muchiki; Mr.P.Groß (t), Fam.R.Gross, Fam.R.Tertel and Mr.F.Tertel,
Fam.G.Denker, Fam.Th.Wusterack, Mr. & Mrs. B.Burk, the members of
VIII Preface
Belvidere Road Church in Liverpool of which Mr. & Mrs. E.Walsh and Mr. &
Mrs. M.Evans may be specially mentioned. I would also like to thank my parents
and my brothers for their sacrificial support. Finally, I wish to express my deep
gratitude to my wife and my children for enduring hardships and giving many joy-
ful moments.
J.T.
Table of Contents
Preface VII
I. Methodological Considerations 1
A. The Necessity of an Analogy 1
B. The Nature of a Valid Analogy 10
C. The Investigation of Analogies 15
D. The Aims of the Present Study 18
II. Previously Proposed Analogies 20
A. Akkadian Epics 20
1. The Anzu Epic 22
2. The AtrahasTs Epic 27
3. The Etana Epic 39
4. The GilgameS Epic 42
B. The Biblical Books of Samuel-Kings and Chronicles 56
III. A New Analogy: Assyrian Royal Annals 67
A. The Macrostructural Development of Assyrian Royal Annals 68
1. Sennacherib's First Campaign 71
a) The Structure of the Earliest Extant Version 75
b) The Structural Development 85
2. ASSurbanipal's Campaign Accounts 96
a) ASSurbanipal's First Campaign in Egypt 101
(1) The Structure of the Earliest Extant Version 101
(2) The Structural Development 116
b) ASSurbanipal's Second Campaign in Egypt 127
(1) The Structure of the Earliest Extant Version 127
(2) The Structural Development 131
c) The Gyges Affair 137
d) The Mugallu Affair, the Iakinlu Affair, and ASSurbanipal's
Campaign against Ba'alu of Tyre 145
B. An Example of the Chronicler's Editorial Methods: The Account of
Sennacherib's Siege of Jerusalem 156
C. The Microstructural Development of Assyrian Royal Annals 171
1. Omission 172
a) Omission of Main Clauses 172
(1) Omission of the First Part of a Series of Actions 172
(2) Omission of Sentences Without Relevance for the Main
Course of Events 173
(3) Omission of Descriptive Sentences 174
b) Omission of Descriptive Sentence Constituents 175
2. Contraction 178
a) Subordination 178
b) Replacement of Lists by Common Denominators 181
IV. Application of Results 182
A. 1 Kgs.22j.3g 182
1. E.Würthwein's Analysis 187
2. H.Seebaß' Analysis 195
3. H.Schweizer's Analysis 195
4. O.H.Steck's Analysis 201
5. H.Weippert's Analysis 205
6. S.J.DeVries' Analysis 217
X Table of Contents
Β. 1 Kgs.20 221
1. J.Wellhausen's Analysis 222
2. H.-C.Schmitt's Analysis 224
V. Conclusions 231
Appendix I - The Chronicler's Vorlage 237
Table 1: Text Types 237
Table 2: References to Sources 245
Appendix II - Discourse Profiles 247
1. ASSurbanipal's Campaign against AhSeri 247
2. ASSurbanipal's Campaign against Teummän 252
Appendix III - Participant Orientation Patterns 257
1. Sennacherib's Second Campaign 257
2. Sennacherib's Third Campaign, Part 1 260
3. Sennacherib's Third Campaign, Part 2 261
4. Sennacherib's Third Campaign, Part 3 261
5. Sennacherib's Third Campaign, Part 4 263
6. ASSurbanipal's Campaign against Kirbit 264
7. ASSurbanipal's Campaign against AhSeri 266
8. ASSurbanipal's Campaign against Teummän 270
9. ASSurbanipal's First Campaign against Ummanaldasi 274
10. ASSurbanipal's Second Campaign against Ummanaldasi 276
11. ASSurbanipal's Campaign against Dunanu 281
12. ASSurbanipal's Campaigns against Arabs 287
Appendix IV - Ahab in 1 Kgs.22 292
Abbreviations 298
Bibliography 300
I. Methodological Considerations
A. The Necessity of an Analogy
For the understanding of Old Testament narratives1 as they were intended
by their narrators source-critical and redaction-critical analysis to reconstruct their
transmission history is of crucial importance. The authors' intentions can only be
deduced from passages which may safely be attributed to them and not to later
redactors2 and vice versa. Attempting to avoid redaction criticism for dogmatic3 or
pragmatic4 reasons means to merely ignore the problem but not to solve it.
1 Of course, there are substantial differences in form and content between narratives in
the Old Testament which must not be ignored. However, unless it is apparent that such
differences are due to or prompted different modes of transmission methodological
principles and working hypotheses may be regarded as generally valid, but have to be
constantly re-examined.
It is important to note that the present investigation is concerned with the literary-
critical analysis of narratives only. Texts of other literary genres may be expected to
have been treated with different redactorial techniques.
2 At this stage of the investigation the term redactor may not be associated with any
redactorial method. A disctinction between redactors and editors, for example, has to
be left to the results of the present analysis. Until it should become apparent that such a
disctinction is appropriate, the terms are used interchangeably.
3 Cf. e.g. E.H.Merrill's introductory remarks in Kingdom of Priests, pp.13-19.
4 Cf. e.g. R.Alter's literary approach to Old Testament texts. Criticizing scholars who
"tend to write about biblical narrative as though it were a unitary production just like a
modern novel that is entirely conceived and executed by a single independent writer
who supervises his original work from first draft to page proofs" {Art of Biblical Narra-
tive, p. 19), he takes up a suggestion by Joel Rosenberg, "It may actually improve our
understanding of the Torah to remember that it is quoting documents, that there is, in
other words, a purposeful documentary montage that must be perceived as a unity,
regardless of the number and types of smaller units that form the building blocks of its
composition. Here, the weight of literary interest falls upon the activity of the final
redactor, whose artistry requires far more careful attention than it has hitherto been
accorded" (Art of Biblical Narrative, p.l9f). Thus Alter can accept the results of
historical-critical research and still treat even texts of composite origin as literary
unities ("But even if the text [sc. Gen.38] is really composite in origin, I think we have
seen ample evidence of how brilliantly it has been woven into a complex artistic
whole"). However, the intentions of a redactor, and this includes the final redactor, can
only be properly understood if his work is distinguished from his Vorlage(n). Thus
redaction critical research remains indispensable. A second difficulty with this approach
lies in the presupposition of the redactor's "artistry". What may appear as the discovery
of an "artistic" structure is in fact the ordering of literary phenomena by the reader. The
choice of phenomena determines the presence or absence of literary structures. It
2 Methodological Considerations
However, it is impossible to prove whether a passage stems from the
author himself, or from a later redactor. Since we know that someone wrote an
original5 version of the narrative preserved in the Old Testament, but we do not
know a priori whether it was altered during its transmission, the unity of a text
and single authorship have to be assumed until the opposite can be demonstrated.
However, from the fact that the assumption of literary unity is to be preferred
methodologically it does not follow that a priori it carries greater probability than
that of literary compositeness. The question whether a given narrative in the Old
Testament is the result of various redactions or whether, apart from accidental
alterations, it exhibits the original version6 remains to be answered by redaction
criticism.
Various criteria have been developed by literary critics to identify diverse
author-/redactorship of Old Testament texts. Most prominent among these are the
identification of internal inconsistencies, in form or content, or the presence of
doublets.1 Methodologically, however, there are some fundamental problems with
remains to be shown whether the "discovered" structures conform with the narrator's
intentions or whether they are artificially imposed on the narrative by the reader. For a
telling example of how subjective such a methodology may be cf. J.P.Fokkelman's
studies on narratives in the Books of Samuel (Narrative Art I.II).
5 The notion of an original is, of course, problematic, since there is no clear-cut distinc-
tion between an author and a redactor. We use the term original for the earliest identifi-
able version of a given narrative.
6 Various examples from Ancient Near Eastern literature demonstrate that texts could be
transmitted accurately over long periods of time (cf. e.g. R.D.Biggs, "An Archaic Ver-
sion", p.196: "Although the Abü Saläblkh copies are approximately eight centuries ear-
lier than copies known before, there is a suprisingly small amount of deviation (except
in orthography) between them ..."); cf. also J.Lessee, "Fragments"; J.S.Cooper, The
Return of Ninurta. For the Late Assyrian fragments of the Atrahasls epic, all coming
from ASSurbanipal's library, which have well preserved passages of Ku-Aya's edition
cf. below, pp.27f.
7 Cf. H.Barth and O.H.Steck, Exegese, 32f: "Diese Fragestellung (sc. nach der literari-
schen Integrität eines Textes) beherrscht traditionell die lk.e (sc. literarkritische)
Forschung". J.Stoebe, writing even on the limitations of literary criticism in the Old
Testament ("Grenzen der Literarkritik") considers this methodology as "indisputably
justified": "Die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft hat für die Beurteilung von Textzusam-
menhängen, ihrer Entstehung und ihrer Zusammensetzung eine feste Methode ent-
wickelt. a) Eine besondere Bedeutung hat in dieser einmal die Beobachtung von Dop-
pelberichten über denselben Gegenstand, von sogenannten Dubletten ... b) An zweiter
Stelle steht die Feststellung von Sprüngen und Spannungen in der Darstellung, sofern
diese zu Widersprüchen und Unvereinbarkeiten führen. ... Die Folgerung, die aus
diesen Beobachtungen gezogen wird, ist die, daß sich von hier aus die Entstehung eines