The Old Testament In Its World: Papers Read At The Winter Meeting, January 2003, The Society For Old Testament Study And At The Join Meeting, July 2003, - The Society for Old Testament Study and Het Oudtestamentisch Werkgezelschap in Nederland en Belgie (

304 Pages·2004·1.6 MB·English

by  Robert P. Gordon

The Old Testament in Its World
Oudtestamentische Studiën
Old Testament Studies
published on behalf of the Societies for
Old Testament Studies in the Netherlands and
Belgium, South Africa, the United Kingdom
and Ireland
Editor
J.C. de Moor
Kampen
Editorial Board
H.G.M. Williamson
Oxford
H.F. Van Rooy
Potchefstroom
M. Vervenne
Leuven
VOLUME 52
The Old Testament in Its World
Papers Read at the Winter Meeting,
January 2003
The Society for Old Testament Study
and at the Joint Meeting, July 2003
The Society for Old Testament Study
and
Het Oudtestamentisch Werkgezelschap in
Nederland en België
Edited by
Robert P. Gordon
&
Johannes C. de Moor
BRILL
LEIDEN•BOSTON
2005
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
LC Control Number: 2004058584
Becking, Bob.
Between fear and freedom : essays on the interpretation of Jeremiah 30–31 /
by Bob Becking.
p. cm.—(Oudtestamentische studiën = Old Testament studies,
ISSN 0169-7226; d. 51)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 90-04-14118-9 (alk. paper)
1. Bible. O.T. Jeremiah XXX–XXXI—Criticism, interpretation, etc.
I. Title. II. Oudtestamentische studiën; d. 51.
BS1525.52.B43 2004
224’.206—dc22 2004054639
ISSN 0169-7226
ISBN 90 04 14322 X
© Copyright 2005 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill Academic
Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated,
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Fees are subject to change.
printed in the netherlands
Contents
Introduction ................................................vii
K.J. Cathcart, The Comparative Philological Approach
to the Text of the Old Testament .......................1
M. Dijkstra, ‘As for the other events ...’ Annals and
Chronicles in Israel and the Ancient Near East .........14
R.P. Gordon, ‘Comparativism’ and the God of Israel ..... 45
A.C. Hagedorn, ‘Who would invite a stranger from abroad?’
The Presence of Greeks in Palestine in Old Testament
Times .................................................68
P.S. Johnston, Death in Egypt and Israel: A Theological
Reflection .............................................94
K.A. Kitchen, The Hieroglyphic Inscriptions of the Neo-
Hittite States (c. 1200–700 bc): A Fresh Source of
Background to the Hebrew Bible .....................117
M.C.A. Korpel, Disillusion among Jews in the Postexilic
Period ................................................135
N. MacDonald, Whose Monotheism? Which Rationality?
Reflections on Israelite Monotheism in Erhard Gersten-
berger’s Theologies in the Old Testament .............158
M.E.J. Richardson, Textual Modification: Some Examples
from Egypt ...........................................168
J.E. Tollington, Abraham and his Wives:
Culture and Status ...................................183
P.J.P. van Hecke, PastoralMetaphorsintheHebrewBible
and in its Ancient Near Eastern Context ..............200
vi Contents
J.A. Wagenaar, The Priestly Festival Calendar and the
Babylonian New Year Festivals: Origin and Transforma-
tion of the Ancient Israelite Festival Year .............218
J.-W. Wesselius, Language Play in the Old Testament and in
Ancient North-West Semitic Inscriptions: Some Notes
on the Kilamuwa Inscription .........................253
P.J. Williams, Are the Biblical Rephaim and the Ugaritic
RPUM Healers? ......................................266
Abbreviations .............................................279
Index of Authors ..........................................281
Index of Biblical Texts .................................... 288
Introduction
This volume brings together papers read at the Winter Meet-
ing of The Society for Old Testament Study in Birmingham,
6-8 January, 2003, and at the joint meeting of The Society for
OldTestamentStudyandtheOudtestamentischWerkgezelschap
in Nederland en Belgi¨e, in Cambridge, 21-23 July, 2003. The
latter meeting was organised in coordination with the Society
of Biblical Literature International Meeting (20-25 July, 2003).
The meetings had as their overarching theme ‘The Hebrew Bible
against its Ancient Near Eastern Background’, and most of the
papers presented in this volume have a Near Eastern as well as
an Israelite-Old Testament dimension.
The benefits of drawing upon the linguistic stock of the neigh-
bouring cognate languages for the illumination of obscure words
andphrasesinthebiblicaltexthavelongbeenappreciated.Inthe
opening essay, however, K.J. Cathcart argues the further point
that it may on occasion be justifiable to emend the Hebrew text
in the course of applying the insightsof comparativephilology to
textual cruces. With the use of worked examples, he illustrates
thewaysinwhichAkkadian,UgariticandOldAramaicmayhelp
to solve problem readings in the Hebrew.
M. Dijkstra is concerned with the content of texts of an his-
torical complexion. He commends Hans-Gustav Gu¨terbock’s dis-
tinction between what kings in antiquity had recorded for their
own glorification and truly historical writing in which posterity
‘selected and wrote what it wanted to remember from the past’.
It was the latter that gave rise to historiography in the ancient
Near East, and Israelite historiography is to be seen within the
contextof this development.Israel did not haveto wait for Hero-
dotus to develop a view on its history.
The conceptions of history held in Israel and in the adjacent
countries are one of several topics that engage R.P. Gordon as
he considers the question of comparativism’ and whether, and in
what respects, it is possible to distinguish Israel from her neigh-
bours. His conclusion is that the comparing and contrasting of
intellectual and religious developments in Israel and among her
neighbours is both legitimate and desirable.
The essay by A.C. Hagedorn reminds us that Israel also had
neighbours to the west. While acknowledging the likelihood of
viii Introduction
migrantcraftsmenfromtheeastsettlinginancientGreece,Hage-
dorn is interested in the reverse process, focussing on the points
of contact between Greek and oriental in Palestine as a means of
discovering something about the social identity of those Greeks
who settled in Palestine.
Egypt, Israel’s most influential neighbour to the south, is the
focus for comparison and contrast in the essay by P.S. Johnston
on death and the dead in Egypt and in Israel. Johnston notes
the positive aspects of death that are popularly associated with
ancient Egypt, but also highlights a problem in that there are
also clear indications that, in practice, the Egyptians failed to
respect the dead, and were to a considerable degree sceptical
and cynical about the afterlife. ‘Egyptian views on death and
the afterlife were altogether more varied than often assumed.’
Such hope as there was and such preparations for death as were
possible were the privilege of the well-to-do. In Israel, to judge
from its scriptures, death was fairly uniformly regarded as ‘the
negation of life, disrupting its activity and bringing separation
from the divine presence’.
K.A. Kitchen, best known for his Egyptological work, is con-
cerned here with the ‘transitional era of Western mini-empires
(c. 1180-950 b.c.)’, which saw the flourishing of the Neo-Hittite
states,theAramaeanstateofAram-Zobah,andtheIsraelite‘em-
pire’ of David and Solomon. The Neo-Hittite states are seen as
important from an Old Testament perspective, not only on ac-
count of their historical interaction with Israel but also for the
cultural background that they provide for the accounts of Israel-
ite history in Samuel-Kingsand Chronicles. Some filling in of the
sparsenarrationofthebiblicalbooksispossibleinthelightofthe
recentlypublishedcorpusofover220inscriptionsinHieroglyphic
Luwian.
M.C.A. Korpel takes us several centuries further on as she
considers the negative effects on the Jewish people of the de-
struction of the Jerusalem temple and the deportation of leading
citizens to Babylonia. She claims that the general preoccupation
with the restoration of Judah after the exile has deprived schol-
arsofaproperappreciationofthedisillusionmentandpessimism
thataffectedJewishcommunitiesintheNeo-BabylonianandPer-
sianperiods.Theliteraryevidence,bothbiblicalandarchival,for
Introduction ix
the state of mind of Jews in Judah, Egypt and Babylon during
thisperiodgivesampleillustrationofthedespairingre-evaluation
of their religious faith and traditions that was going on. There
was no full and instantaneous triumph of strict monotheism’ at
the end of the exile.
N. MacDonald does not address the question of monothe-
ism expressly within a Near Eastern setting, but his conclusion
directs discussion back towards that larger environing world in
whichOld Testamentfaithdeveloped.MacDonaldseeks to apply
insights from Systematic Theology to the discussion of mono-
theism, noting that the term itself is a coinage of the English
Enlightenment. He demonstrates the danger of imposing upon
Old Testamenttexts a ready-made term and therewith a concep-
tualitythat is more restrictivethan, and less truly descriptiveof,
what the texts actually say in relation to Israelite belief about
God.
ItisthetransmissionoftraditionsthatengagesM.E.J.Richard-
son,whoconcentratesonEgyptianliterature,rangingfromCoptic
tradition, in which the Gospel account of the Holy Family in
Egypt develops into a number of links with specific sites, to the
much-cited Merenptah Stele, with its mention of ‘Israel’. It is
suggested that some texts that share motifs with Old Testament
passages are also deserving of recognition as comparative’ ma-
terial and therefore of inclusion in anthologies devoted to the
presentation of such. It is also urged that consideration be taken
ofsuchmattersasthepurposeandthetransmissionofdocuments
when they are cited in illustration of biblical texts.
Though she does pay attention to ancient Near Eastern parallels
occasionally,J.E.TollingtonretainsaspecificallyOldTestament-
Israelite focus in her examination of the relationships between
Abraham and his wives. The accounts of the lesser’ wives, Hagar
and Keturah, are truly ‘patriarchal’ in outlook, but it is not so
in the depiction of Abraham and Sarah: ‘A close reading indic-
ates that neither patriarchy nor matriarchy is the appropriate
authority for God’s people.’
P.J.P. van Hecke, writing on pastoral metaphors, discusses
the depiction of God as shepherd in relation to his people, but
Van Hecke does not limit himself to positive imagery: he is also
interested in negative evaluations of God as sheep-owner and