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THEOLOGICAl SEMINARY
BS 1180 .J4613 1911 v.2 Jeremias, Alfred, 1864-1935 The Old Testament in the light of the ancient East
J
v
THEOLOGICAL TRANSLATION LIBRARY
VOL. XXIX
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THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE ANCIENT EAST MANUAL OF
BIBLICAL ARCHiEOLOGY
BY
/
ALFRED JEREMIAS
r^
\
nov ^.,
3 1911
__.^_, '
LICEXTIATE DOCTOR \^'^/-/ p PASTOR OF THE LUTHERKIRCHE, AND LECTURER AT THE UMVERSITY O F Lfel«^ Ö / Q ^M
ENGL/S// EDITION
Translated from the Second
and Enlarged
üerman
Ijy
Edition, Revised
the Author
BY
C. L.
BEAUMÜNT EDITED
Rev.
Canon
C. H.
};Y
W. JOHNS,
Litt.D.
MASTER OF ST CATIIARINE's COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
VOL. II
NEW YORK:
G.
P.
PUTNAM'S SONS
LONDON: WILLIAMS AND NORGATE 1911
\1 Vi,*V^
SEW^'^^^
*,
CONTENTS CHAP.
14.
ABRAHAM AS BABYLONIAN
15-
ABRAHAM AS CANAANITE
16.
FURTHER
GLOSSES
I
9 THE
UPON
HISTORIES
OF
THE 46
l'ATRIARCHS
....
THE STORIES OF JOSEPH 18.
THE EXODUS
19.
ISRAELri'E
20.
" THE
64 83
AND BABYLONIAN LEGISLATION
TABERNACLE
THE COVENANT
OF
107
COVENANT " AND " ARK
OF
120
'' .
FURTHER GLOSSES UPON THE l'ENTATEUCH
135
22.
GLOSSES UPON THE BOOK OF JOSH(TA
152
23-
THE BOOK OF JUDGES
161
24.
SAMUEL, SAUL, DAVID, SOLOAION
174
.
25- THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE STATES OF ISRAEL AND
.TUDAH IN 26.
THE LIGHT OF THE INIONUMENTS
FURTHER GLOSSES UPON THE BOOKS OF ICLES, EZRA,
27.
KINGS,
192
CHRON
AND NEHEMIAH
GLOSSES TO THE SO-CALLED DIDACTIC BOOKS
28. GLOSSES
.... ....
ON THE PROPHETS
APPENDIX INDEX
—
Note. Several revisions and corrections having been received from the author after the book was in the press, these have been added in Appendix, and the small asterisk * throughout the text marks the passages to which the revisions refer. marlcs passages of astral motifs, as The laige asterisk
^
referred to
above
in preface to the
second German edition.
233 252
266 313
318
INDEX TO FIGURES PAGE
FIG.
126,
Ruins of El-mugayyar (Abraham's home) Letter of Abdihiba from Jerusalem to Amenophis IV, Assyrian guardian angel, from Nimrud Assyrian idol, from Khorsabad Isbtar as the Mother-goddess Store Chamber from Pithom Horoscope of Antiochus I.
127.
Assyrian forced labour
I20. 121.
122. 1-3-
124. 125.
12S. 129. 130.
131132.
.
war j Rameses II. Rameses II. (head of mummy) Merneptah Hammurabi and the Sun-god
Asiatic prisoners of
90 108
.
Arch of Titus
150.
Egyptian sacred bull Sacred cow Egyptian Assyrian seal cylinder. (Human sacrifice ?) Volcanic chasm in Roman Forum Boy vvrestling with serpent relief from Petra 1 Pligh place of Petra
151.
Place for libation
152.
Serpent monument Petra Shekel of Bar-Kochba Calendar picture, Late Egyptian
137138.
139140.
141. [42.
146.
147-
14S. 149.
153154-
79
/
(
U4-
136.
76
.
145.
135-
57 61
84
143-
134-
54
^
Block of diorite containing the laws of Hammurabi from palace of Sargon II. Assyrian sacrificial scene, from Nimrud-Kalach Assurbanipal offering over slain lions ] Drink-offering with music f Sacrificial scene, from Nineveh Seal cylinder. (Sun-god?) Sacred shrine from Egypt Cherubim from Dendera / Ship of the sun temple of Wadi Sebua Assyrian procession of idols
^33-
7
27
Altar,
....
109
114 115
116 117 122
"j
'
'
:
:
'
.
relief
:
.... .... .... .
:
:
Petra :
136 137 138 141
142 143
144
'
'
j
127 131
"
....
145
147 148
.
INDEX Tu FIGURES
Vlll
SS-
Etana's ascension ( Etana's ascension
156.
Seal cylinder.
157-
Apotheosis ofTitus
[58.
59-
:
149
^
Ganymede Teshup
^ ?) J
150
.... ....
j-
.
.
Hittite relief
.
.
156
r6o.
Sculpture from Sueda
r6i.
Assurbanipal as lion-slayer Destruction of idols relief from Khorsabad Player and entranced listener
t62. 163. 164. [65.
[66. [67. 168.
157 170 175
:
179
.
....
E-S.\R, KingofUd-NUNki Relief from gate, Zenjirli Fresco from Pompeii (judgment of Solomon) Black obelisk of Shalmaneser
181
.
1S3
186
IL.
From
IL
obelisk of Shalmaneser
210 211
.
169.
by Sargon
170.
Storming a
[71.
Assyrian battle scene
[72.
176.
Sargon IL and field-marshal Musicians palace of Assurbanipal Sennacherib at Lachish Assurbanipal and \yife in arbour Cameo of Nebuchadnezzar (spurious Greek
[78.
Assyrian king blinding prisoner Bronze carrier for holy vvater vessels
t79-
Mesha stone
[So.
Stele of victory of
r8i.
Double
[82.
Cymbal
S
[83.
Drum
)
'73174'75-
t84. .85.
r86. 187. [88. .89.
fortress,
.... .
flute
Relief, time of
261
.... ......
Eleven-stringed harp, on Babylonian fragment Genius: relief from Nimrud Assyrian demon Merodachbaladan IL rewarding dignitary Band from bronze gate, Balawat Ancient Babylonian contract showing outer cover
[92.
Genius Genius Genius Genius
:
Century
fifth
B.C.
\
with eagle's feet
Medieeval
'
'
'
•
•
•
284
•
j
with body of lion,
map
274 277 2S1 2S2
"j
with body of bull
Mythological Ornaments
263 267 272
2S3
;
with eagle's head
:
dcmons above Nineveh
.
.
...
[97.
[98.
232
Assurbanipal
Business document
f96.
229 j
-38 246
Esarhaddon
Stand, supportcd by cherubim
'95-
"^
portrait)
•\
[91.
[94.
219 223 224
.
:
[90.
'93-
217 218
Assurbanipal
:
of the world
2S5
2S6 288
[99.
200.
Reliefs from city gate
:
Zenjirli
2S9
INDEX TO FIGUHES.
........ ....
FIG.
202.
Seal cylinder
203.
Divining
liver,
204.
Statue of
Gudea
205.
Architectural plan, froin statue of Gudea ?^Ieasuring rod, from statue of Gudea
206.
with magic lines
208.
Gern, with story of Jonah Conquest of city by Assurbanipal)
209.
Conquest of a
207.
210.
211.
(.A.GF.
292
294 297
)
29S f
)
Nineveh Assyrian archers and spearsmen city
:
relief,
.... •
•
•
.
"|
Assyrian military emblem Assyrian military emblem
213.
Relief
214.
Combat I.
II.
:
Map
/
prisoners led before Darius
•
'
•
....
oftriad against monster (wolf.^} to
Table of Nations, Genesis
Canaan
in the
Amarna
period
x.
j
310 ^12
.
]
306 30S
^^
^"^ °^
'''^^
ABBREVIATIONS,
Etc.
^.i?.^.,Das Alter der Babylonischen Astronomie; A. Jeremias.
(Hinrichs,
1909.) -,4.^.,
Assyriologische Bibliothek, by Delitzsch and Haupt, 1881
by Hinrichs, A.O.,
A.O.
Der Alte I.,
ff.
(pub.
Leipzig).
Orient.
Publication of the Vorderasiat.
Gesellschaft.
(Hinrichs, 1899 ff.) Alter Orient, I. Jahrgang.
B.A., Beiträge zur Assyriologie, by Delitzsch and Haupt.
(Hinrichs,
1889 ff.) B.N.T., Babylonisches im
(Hinrichs,
Neuen Testament;
A. Jeremias.
1905.)
CT., Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets 1896 Hattdzij.,
in
the Brit.
Museum,
ff.
Handwörterbuch Delitzsch. (Hinrichs, 1S96.) Geographie und Geschichte des Alten Orient ;
G.G.G.-, Grundrisz der
Hommel. H.C., Hammurabi Code. I-N., Izdubar-Nimrod, A. Jeremias.
altbabylonische
eine
;
Beschwörungslegende;
(B. G. Teubner, 1891.)
K.A.T., Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, 3rd ed., 1903; Eberhard Schrader. (English translation 1885-1888.) Ä'.Ä, Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek Eberhard Schrader. (Reuther, 1889.) K.T., Keilinschriftliches Textbuch zum Alten Testament; Winckler. ;
(Hinrichs, 1903.) Lex.,
Lexikon
der
griech.
und
römischen
Mythologie
;
Röscher.
(Teubner.)
M.D.P.V., Mitteilungen des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins. M.V.A.G., Mitteilungen der Vorderasiat. Gesellschaft. (Peiser, O.L.Z., Orientalistische Literaturzeitung.
(Peiser, 1898
Berlin.)
ff.)
P.S.B.A., Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archseology. R.P.Th., Realencyklopädie für Prot. Theol. und Kirche, edited by Hauck. (Hinrichs, 1896 ff.) V.A.B., Vorderasiatische Bibliothek. "Winckler,
F.,
(Hinrichs, 1906.)
Altorientalische Forschungen
1897
ff.)
Z.A., Zeitschrift für Assyriologie
;
Bezold.
;
H. Winckler.
(Pfeiffer,
ABBREVIATIONS
xii
Z.A.W.
^
Zeitschrift für Alttest.
Zimmern,
Beit., Beiträge zur
Wissenschaft B. Stade. Kenntnis der Babyl. Religion ;
\^A.B., xii.].
(Hinrichs, 1901.)
Z.D.M.G., Z.P. I.
R.
Zeitschrift der
V., Zeitschrift II.
Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft.
des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins.
Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, Brit. Museum. der lVzssefisc/ia/'/e/i = Ahhandlungen der philologisch-historischen Classe der Königl. Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften. Delitzsch = English, The Chaldean Account of Genesis, 1876.
R.
etc.,
Ab]i. phil.-hist. Cl. Köiiigl. Sachs. Gesell,
Ge^iesis,
New
ed.,
Sayce.
(G. Smith.)
Stucken = Astralmythen der Hebräer, Babylonier und Aegypter. Hölle uJtd Paradies^ English translation, The Babylonian Conception No. IV. of a series of short studies of Heaven and Hell. called the " Ancient East,'" published by D. Nutt, Long Acre. Ast7-almythe7i,
;
THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE ANCIENT EAST CHAPTER XIV ABRAHAM AS BABYLONIAN
The
from chapter
stories in Genesis
xi.
26 onwards give the
founded upon various documentary sources, current in pious circles of Israel in regard to the primeval history of the tradition,
We
nation.
may
Isa. Ixiii. 16, h. 1
f.
consider, ;
and Gomorrah), Arnos
iv.
In the form before
us
incomplete and idealised.
11,
Genesis, Joshua
besides
Jer. xxxiii.
26
and
;
and
Isa.
i.
(in
was verbally related.
2
Sodom
9.
the histories of the Patriarchs are
We
do not know how the documentary
sources ran from which the stories are gathered, eise
xxiv.
regard to
The author
and how much
of the so-called Priestly
Document had two sources before him, agreeing together in main facts. He made excerpts from them according to certain points of view, probably also adding, besides his genealogical sketch, something from other sources. But his excerpts are incomplete.^
From
suppositions contained in the traditions of the Mosaic
period, we should expect, for example, 1
We may
more vivid references to
surely Supplement the tradition from legends of extra-Biblical and
Islamic traditions.
(Islamic religion
is,
like Biblical,
founded upon Abraham.)
In both spheres we find material independent of the Biblical sources, and which
The New Testament writers also (for a B.N.T., II2 comp, also Heb. xi. 21, p. 57) use sources which rank with the Bible and which have the same
cannot have been simply invented.
summary
of these passages, see
for ancestral history
right to
;
be observed as those portions of the tradition retained for us by the
is, for example, not out of the question that in some cases they descend comp. from portions of the sources which were dropped out in the editing
editor.
It
;
Th.L.BL, voT..
1906, pr. 348.
n.
1
1
ABRAHAM
2
Arabia
we should
:
God
of the
AS BABYLONIAN
especially expect records of a place of worship
of the Hebrews.^
That they had relations with the Arabian deserts is shown by the history of Lot, and the emigration of Abraham with Sarah
in
The
of faniine.
tinie
scene
of the
of
sacrifice
2, was probably, according to the original text, " lipon a mountain in the land of Muzri "" (the Mas. text
Gen.
Isaac,
writes
xxii.
Moriah, see
it
tradition
Also about the
Exod.
xii.
Bot
the
ofhlood^ which the Feast of the Passover,
Patriarchs
the
age
pre-Israelite
the houses
in
rites
assumes as well known, nothing
7,
of
stories
upon Sinai-Horeb.
48),
p.
vague.
is
it
however,
is,
said in the
is
affirnied
in
a
Canaan by the discovery of the column
of
(p.
;
344,
which were sprinkled with blood on
i.)
the posts.
in
The stories of the Patriarchs bear signs P circinncision is introduced into the
of idectUsdtion.
these docuinents a .specially sacred character, whilst at the tinie
it
is
But just the
uncircumcised.-
not made an
is
the story.
An
same
sons were
his
that idealisation in itself
fact
object, answers idealistic
Moses and
that
expressly affirnied
Thus
story in order to give
a
for
nucleus to
historical
legend with no background of fact
would certainly not have made the Patriarchs dwell as strangers the land, obliged to bargain with barbarians for a burial-
in
They would
place.
Jacob
to
strong
two
sisters,
human
further
xviii.
18.''
showing as blemishes
features,
populär heroes, would fables of
have suppressed the marriage of
forbidden in Lev.
be inexplicablc
in
the
But, above
populär ideal characters.
in
Also maiiv the brilliant
composition all,
of
the correct-
we are dealing with tradition, not with of conteuiporary history and the details of manners and custonis agree with those we find recorded upon the monumeiits of these periods, and aiiswer for it that the Biblical tradition was drawn from good sources.
ness of
poetry.
iniVieii testifies
The background
See Exod.
iii.
in refereiice to
the
•
i8, x.
map
3,
9
;
comp,
i
Kings
xix. 8,
of the country (see p. 94,
where the
forty days
Deut, xxxii. 2
is
not
Judges v. 4. - Exod, iv. 24 ff. This contradiction between tradition and the law was once iised in a remarkable way by Jesus in controversy with the Pharisees see i.);
;
;
Juhii
vii.
22.
'
Comp.
p.
37.
ABRAHAM The
AS BABYLONIAN
3
objection has been raised that it is not possible fov such a been transmitted through centuries. In proof, it
tradition to have
has been tried how far back war traditions and such like can be traced amongst the peasantry. Neither the objection nor the proof holds good The isolated memories of the present cannot be compared to the populär memory of decisive, or even supposed, religious events. The Odenwald, for instance, is to the present day füll of ancient
Germanic remembrances. But we must have lived amongst the people (perhaps as pastor) for many years to gain the confidence of these old peasants of the Odenwald, who still love to name their sons Siegfried, before the}^ will teil secretly what they have learnt from their forefathers. And in the Wendel or East Prussia may still be found " witch " women who, at the " witches' sabbath " or night of the solstice, otfer the old heathen sacrifices, and guard secrets they have inherited from their mothers of ancient times. We must remember that three generations are always living together, and that amongst hardy tribes there would not be so very many generations to the thousand years. And in addition, we have to do here with the Oriental memory. Anyone reading the Thousand and One Nights, with some knowledge of the Ancient East, sees with amazement the strength of the tradition in the East. Besides this, we may assume that the sources of the Elohist and Yahvist were not only verbal, but that also written traditions ^ were available, like the stories which in the modern Babylonian period gave records of the heroes of the Hammurabi age, being themselves transcripts or newly composed poems from ancient documents comp. pp. 232, i. ff.';
Compare now Erbt, Die Ebräer, pp. 6i ff. "Abraham appears in the flesh in Hammurabi age.'" Erbt thinks that historical documents existed from the Canaanite age. The sanctuaries of Penuel-Mahanaim and Sichem may have had archives with records from the Hammurabi age. Also in Jerusalem written traditions may have been preserved (comp. Melchizedek in Ps. ex. see p. 29). 1
:
the
;
According
law of ethnographical research, family history cannot be the starting-point for a national history. Nations and tribes arise by the amalgamation of families and houses, not by multiplication and division of families. But, "also families did not drop out of the heavens " (Nikel, Genesis, and K.F., 211). The namesof most of the tribes of Israel were originally personal nouns (Hommel, G. G. G., pp. 185 f. ). In Arabia at the present day many tribes descend from one ancestor (comp. Cornill, Geschichte des V., i. 37 f., where Turkish statistics upon -
Bedouin 58).
to the
and Hauran are pointed out, and Z.D.P.V., xxiii. would not in any case prevent us laking from one family, but the tradition itself does not assert the
tribes of the Jaulan
Besides, the laws of ethnography
the descent of Israel as
autochthonistic descent of the Children of Israel.
The same laws
shut out the descent of
man from one
pair,
which from the
we hold fast. Laws are categories of human thought. there is much for which there is no analogy in history or
Christian point of view
In the history of Israel religion. if
we
We
might quite well allow the origin of the nation to be an exceptton,
recognise the special part given to Israel in the history of the education of
ABRAHAM
4
Abraham appears the familv."
It
is
tribe, like the race,
from one
in the
AS BABYLONIAN presentment before us as " Father of
characteristic of all ancient history that the
appears as a family, tracing back
descent
its
But in this tradition itself we may see to be undevstood as an ethnological meant not
forefather.
that the family
is
division. It
is
historical only in so far as the family desigu retains the
leaders of the " Children
traditions of prominent
amongst whom there was
of
Israel,''
also a Jacob, with twelve sons.
The
genealogical tables have been artificially composed later.
Every-
one wished to be descended from primeval aristocracy.
Further
upon
Abraham was not but
42
this subject, see pp.
ff.
father of the family in
in a spiritual sense
" Father of the
:
" to become a great nation,"'
an
ethnological,
faitliful."''
When
he
must be understood of a is religious communitv, as in Numb. xiv. 12, where Moses is to be the father of a new people, since the old must be it
rooted out.
The
misunderstanding,
ethnographical
e
lumbis
Abrahce,
John the Baptist and All the more emphatically do we
has been the misfortune of the Jews. Jesus had to combat
emphasise
the
it.
religious
signification
of
the
descent
from
Abraham. Israelite religion, which later assembled itself round It is founded the name mn\ does not begin first with Moses. special a sense a bearer of this upon revelation. Moses was in revelation, but the revelation itself had stages in the pre-Mosaic And in those stages also it could only work through age. The leading religious individualities and bearers individuals. of revelation in the primitive ages of Israel are the Patriarchs.
We
may gather from
the Biblical tradition that the beginning known later as the " Chiklien of
of the religious conununity, Israel," took its rise in
the
human
race.
Upun the man is held
a imgration
^
out of Babylonia, therefore
groiind of axioms, accoiding to which the probleni
it is customary, certainly, to brand such Some day this may be changed. But, as has deductions as a/;7ö;7 unscientific. been said, the assertion of an autochlhonic descent of the " Children of Israel"
of the origin of
unsolvable,
does not agree with the sense of the tradition. Klostermann, in his Geschichte Israels, 31, holds a similar view in regard to We have the migration of Abraham being an historical migration of a tribe. '
ABRAHAM «FATHER OF THE FAITHFUL" a kind of religious hegira.
Abraham
-vvas
the
people that they had won in
"The
Mahdi.
quite well taken to
mean
adherents.^
5
leader, like a
Haran^may
In that case, we see
be
how
he could equip 318 people also the stoiy of the Separation from Lot (Gen. xiii. 6 fF.) shows that it is a question of still larger Later we find recorded reinforcements from Egypt, bands. ;
Muzri (Gen. xii. 15 f. and xx.), and from Gerar.'Even though these were primarily slaves (Hagar, (Gen. XX. 14). Gen. xvi. 1, and IshmaePs wife, Gen. xxi. 21, belonged to them) still they could be included in the religious community, and later in the national community, then called " Children of that
is
Israel.''
to say,
Also
in
Gen. xxxii. 4
f.
there
is
explicitly another
reinforcement from Haran.
According to other Oriental oceurrences of the
like
(Mohammed), we must take the march of Abraham been, even though in the mildest form, a march to make In idealising the Biblical records
conquest.
has been veiled.
this
type
to have
The
Oriental tradition outside the Bible, according to which " Abraham (whose father was a Babylonian General) overthrew
army of Nimrod, and seized upon the land of Canaan for himseUV is certainly not pure invention.-^ Gen. xxi. 22 prethe
same conclusion by difterent ways. Klostermann has won much At honour by a new critical examination of the histories of the Patriarchs. pp. 42 ff. his tiaces are followed. 1 In Gen. xii. 5 it is haniuphesh (Kautzsch, like Luther, translates thisas jö^^A). According to Ezek. xxvii. 13, nephesh may mean " slaves " (here, however, it is itephesh-adam), and is then equivalent to the Babylonian napishttt, which, so far The translation "slaves vv^hich they had as I am avvare, has not been observed. And why is it nephesh here, which bought'" (li;';') is very questionable. designates man as a Spiritual being (in special antithesis to the beasts) ? In other Why should not nephesh, if it should be called places the slave is called 'ebed. "slave," be reckoned before the other possessions, or, as elsewhere (comp. p. 264, arrived at the
n.
3),
be included in possession {reknsh) as real property? The mysterious meaning being "adherents," Gen. xiv. 14 see
hanikiin, moreover, argues for the
;
p. 27.
That these were " Philistines" (Gen.
2
The
understanding.
entered the country. n.
I
;
II, n.
i
;
xxvi. i), is founded upon a later mis(remnants of the seafaring tribes) had not yet the inclusion of such Jewish traditions, see p. i, also Boeklen, Archiv /. Rel. 65, n. 2, and p. 67
Philistines
Upon
B.N.T.,
p.
;
IVtss., vi. p. 6. ^ See Beer, /.eben J/osis nach Auffassung der judischen Sage, Leben Abrahams, p. i.
p.
40,
and
his
ABRAHAM AS BABYLONIAN
6
Abraham
supposes the ability of
Gen.
in
xiv. clearly describes
to
him
make
war, and the episode
as a leader in battle, exactly
Egyptian fugitive Sinuhe, who (about 2000
like the
leader in Syria of the tribes in their wars.
joined an alliance of the tribes (called
was a
b.c.)
In Sichern
Abraham
ba''aie-be?it), .see p.
30.
Perhaps the change of name to Abraham " Father of tamult
(=Sin qarid
iläni,
war-hero of the gods),
may
"
be interpreted in
this sense.^
MlüRATIOX OF THE PeOPLE OF AßRAHA^f In Gen.
P
'^
as
xi.
the
28 Ur Kasdim (Ur of the Chaldees)
original
the land
(Kautzsch, Pseudepig?:, 189). writings
;
the
name
the
of
starting-point
books speak of
Sibylline
This
Ur Uru
of is
is
named in The
migration.^
of
the
Chaldees
of the cuneiform
includes both city and country.
After the patesi of Lagash, the best-known being Gudea, " kings of Ur " lield supremacy in Babylonia in the first half of the third millennium. They call themselves also kings of Kingi and Urtu.'* The most ancient king known to us of a kingdom in Ur is Ur-Gur. He built and venewed uiany temples. Though up to the present inscriptions relating to him are only known in South Babylonia, undoubtedly his kingdom also included North Babylonia. His son Dungi, who reigned for over fifty years^ calls himself " King of the four quai'ters of the earth." His followers (the so-calied "second dynasty of Ur " must be abandoned) have Semitic names. After
Hommel, .-l/u. Heb. Trad., takes cniax lo be an older orthogiaphical foim. But the double name of both ihe Patriarchs Abram-Abiahani and Jacob-Israel must certainly have some special meaning. - Gen. xi. 28 is held to be a gloss from the P. The descent, according to '
Elohist sources, has been
lost. According to latcr hints the starting-point was in neighbourhood on the right of the Euphrates. The Yahvist makes the migration start from Harran. All three points are upon the road leading from Babylonia to Canaan. The uniformity of the tradition is shown by Ur and Harran belongitig together as the two places of moon-worship see pp. 9 f.
the
;
''
Many
legends of
Abraham
should not mislead into looking
are also connected with for the cities
of
Ur
Urfa.
This naturally
therc (Kassam, Joh. Lepsius).
Another tradition names Arpakshad as the original home. Those would be the consonants for Urfa Kasdim but Urfa is probably only a modern name (according to Hommel, G.G.G,, 193, n. 3, to be separated formally from Orrhoe Syrian Urhoi, 'i.mN Arabic Ruhä = Edessa 'Urfa = nsij;, ridge of land). In political geography, that is, like Sumer and Akkad, South and North Babylonia. According to the vocabularies, Kingi specially is = Sumerand Urlu = ;
;
;
''
Akkad.
;
MIGRATION OF THE PEOPLE OF ABRAHAM
7
the dynasty of Ur follows a dynasty of Isin (to this belongs IshmeDagan with the Canaanite name), then one of Larsa, which linder Rim-Sin was overthrown by Hammurabi_, who says of himself upon '• who makes Sin^ who makes Ur rieh, one of bis stele of laws who briiigs the kingdom to Gish-shir-gal (temple of the moon in Ur)." The city of Ur has been rediscovered in the riiins of ElMugayyar (el-Mugheir) in South Babylonia, upon the right bank of the Euphrates. Here Royal seals with the name Uru have been foundj inscriptions of Dungi, Kudur-Mabug, Ishme-Dagan, but also more of Xabonidus. The city was chief place of worship of the South Babylonian moon cult.^ :
Gen.
xi.
31
:
northern
the
The people of Abraham journey towards Harran moon city, chief place of Mesopotamia proper.-
Fig. 120.
— Ruins of El-mugay)-ar (Ur Kasdim
of the Bible,
Abraham's home).
Should their goal have been even then Canaan, this was the usual Caravan route out of Babylonia, in spite of the enormous detour.-^ 1
Eupolemos (about i6o 211
iii.
many moon,
f.),
says that
call Giipirj. is
of a city
B.C.), in Eusebius, PrcBp. cvang., \\. 7 (Müller, Fragiit.,
Abraham was born
Kamarine, probably
also to be read in the Sibylline
in the
Babylonian city Kamarine, which by the Arabian Kamar
to be interpreted
books (Kautzsch, PscuJepy., 189) as name
"in the land of Ur."
from the old point of view of the primitive life in the desert of Israel when Gen. xii. I, Abraham's forefathers, were not thought of as dwellers in cities when they were described as going out But when Guthe, Geschichte Israels, 10, says: "they or their from Harran. fathers turned their backs upon civilisation for the sake of the freedom of the -
It is
QwnV'sS. {Genesis, 150) says that, according to
desert," this
is,
in fact, contradicted not only
by the circumstances of the
Israelite
contains in general an impossibility in the history of civilisation. • The migration of Esau, which is related in the same words as that of Abraham (Gen. xxxvi. 6, comp. xii. 5), has another motif, but it was also viewed as the primitive age, but
it
migration of a Community, as Klostermann has seen, Geschichte Israels, 30.
ABRAHAM
8
AS BABYLONIAN
The special narae of the Moon-god here_, side by side with Sin^ was Bel-yarnirij and as such he exercised a strong influence lipon Syria.i The reforms of Islam are largely connected with Harran. Right into the Middle Ages ti*aces of moon-worship were i'etained amongst the Sabaeans of Harran, in this stronghold of heathenisni.
From Harran
the road led by Biredjik over the Euphrates. In the Thousand and One
Sachau found traces of the old road. Nights an interesting journey is
The way
Samaria.
of the people
related
of
primeval caravan and military road In fact, Gen. xv.
'i
,
i.
7,
Damascus.^
a.s
chief
the
with
halting-
does hint a connection between the
Biblical stories of the Patriarchs still lives in
Ant.
connecting Egypt
Damascus might be expected
Babylonia. place.^
from Harran to
Abraham was by
and Damascus.
The
tradition
Berossus records, according to Josephus,
that in his time the
name
of Abram was
still
celebrated
in the land of the Damascenes, and Josephus quotes from the
fourth book
of the Histories of Nicholas
following story
of Damascus
the
:
In Damascus reigned Abram^ who came there with an army from the land of the Chaldees/ bordering on the upper half of Babylon. And not long after he moved out again from there with his people toAvards Canaan, which is now called Judea, where he greatly increased. ^
A
relief
from Zenjirli
in Syria gives
evidence of the civilisation of that country.
In Nerab near Aleppo two gravestones were
Moon-god
of Harran.
found, erected for priests of the
In a treaty between Mati-ilu, Prince of Arpad (see
p. 49).
and the Assyrian king Ashurmirari, Sin of liarrän is invoked in the first passage. - Assyrian Dimashqi, Timasqi in the lists of Thothmes from the sixteenth Century (comp. pp. 328, i. f.). ' The Jebel Qasyun rising above Damascus
is held sacred by the Moslems, It was here that Abraham reached the knowledge of the unity of God see Baedeker, * This is certainly a later addition, which confounds Harran with Ur, or reckons Ur with Chaldea, Otherwise Lepsius, who holds Urfa for the home, might have ;
appealed to
it.
CH AFTER XV as canaanite
abraham
The
Religion of the People of
Mosaic period has, according to
The Yahveh
religion of the
the
tradition, previous stages
Biblical
Exod.
Patriarchs (comp. tradition
this
16).
iii.
corresponds
Abraham
a
to
in the religion of the
We fact
are
of opinion that
of rehgious
historj.
Abraham's migration brought the tradition into connection with the two great intellectual cities of the Moon-god (Sin of
Ur and
The
Bel-^Jarran).
Abraham's
of
served " other
tradition of Josephus, xxiv. 2, says
beyond the
forefathers that
gods,"
Euphrates they
therefore the gods of the Babylonian
^
We
have seen the monotheistic undercurrent These underthis astral religion. underlay which for initiates regions of the in strong particularly currents must have become
astral
relig-ion.
moon-worship before the age of Hammurabi. Moon-worship ruled the age tili the worship of Marduk of Babylon brought solar
phenomena
That the moon should be held it is the abstract to say, by initiates
to the fore.^
as sum7?ius deus (that
is
:
divine power) followed naturally in niore than one respect from the systeni (see my article on " Sin " in Roscher's Lexikon Beneath the heaven of the seven planets, der Mijthologie).
of
all
that of the
for med the
moon
heaven of Ann.
Therefore Sin
" king of the gods," p. 109, 1
Comp. Sura
vi.
76
:
i.
topmost stage, leading into the
= Anu as " father of the gods " and In the trinitarian conception of
" Say Truly my Lord hath led me in the right way, to Islamism is the Abraham, who was no idolater." :
the faith of the orthodox religion of -
P. 86,
Abraham. i. Comp,
further,
and 1904 Monotheisvnis, Tübingen, 1906. Relio-ion,
Leipzig,
;
Monotheist. Strö/mmgen innerhalb der babylon. Baentsch, Altorientalischer und israelitischer
9
;
;
;
ABRAHAM
10
AS CANAANITE
may gather from The conception Ab,
the clivine power which we nioon was held as father.^ father,"
(comp.
moon
in
name Ab-rcun
the
bears
the zodiac, the is " (divine)
that
reference
to the
nioon.
We pos.^ess a hymn to Sin of Ur which praises the " merciful father.'' We reproduce here a passage of
p. 16).
as
hymn
this magnificent
:
Mighty Guide, wliose deep mind no god may penetrate Swift One, whose knee -wearieth not, who openeth the
;
way of the gods, his brothers. Wlio moveth glittering from the foimdatioii of the heavens to the height of the heavens, who openeth there the gutes of the heavens, bestowing hght ujjon all
mankind
;
all, who looketh upon all things living, .... who upon .... thinketh Lord, who holdeth the fate of heaven and earth, %vhose command
Father, begetter of
none (changeth) fire and Avater, \vho guideth all things living, what god is like unto thee } Who in heaven is exalted.'' Thou, thou only art exalted Who upon eai-th is exalted ? Thou, thou only art exalted
who holdeth
!
!
At thy Word,
thine, "when
it
resounds in heaven, the Igigi cast
themselves upon their faces -when it resounds upon earth, the Anunnaki kiss the ground. At thy word, thine^ Avhen it goeth forth above like the tempest, prosper food and drink at thy word, thine^ when it cometh down upon the earth, the green things arise. Thy word, thine, maketh fat both stall and herd, increaseth all ;
at thy Mord, thine,
;
things living
thy woi'd, thine, maketh truth and justice to arise, so that men speak truth. thy word, thine, is like unto the chstant heavens, the hidden underAvorld, which none may penetrate thy Avord, thine, who may understand it, who is like unto it.^ () Lord, in dominion in the heavens, in rule upon earth, amongst the gods thy brothers, hast thou no rivals King of Kings, Mighty One, w'hose command none may dispute, there is no god like unto thee. ;
We led
can naturally only conjecture the religious motives which
to the
phenomena of ^
By analogy with
migration of Abraham.
P. 109,
i.
religious history in -
Zimmern, A.O.,
the Ancient-East, we vii.
3,
13; comp, also p. 17.
other
may
ABRAHAM
RELIGION OF THE PEOPLE OF take
it
that
it
11
had to do with a movement of reform, protesting Accord-
asainst the relisious deo;eneration of the rulinor classes.^
ing to circumstances,
may
it
tion in moon-wor^hip, or
either
have been against degenera-
may have been
it
a protest against
the cult of the new astronomical age (worship of Marduk, see p.
73,
case
i.),"
would
introduced by the Hamniurabi dynasty. it
in question,
have to do
In neither
Avith a total denial of the astral
System
but only with a protest against the polytheistic The teaching itself was well
worship founded upon the system.
known
to the holders of the
age, just as
This shows
religion).
so far as they are see
later,
in
Yahveh
religion in the patriarchal
was at later stages
it
made
and more than
use of ;
symbolism
the
Mosaic and prophetic
(in
the astral-mythological motifs,-^
itself in
of
all,
worship,
the
in
as
we
shall
which the
elements of the astral system were retained."* In
Abraham,
we
therefore,
see a
ment under Mohammed analogy.
The
in many Mohammed,
move-
religious
points an historical
öfters
Like the religion of
The march out
Mahdi.
from Babylonia appears to us a hegira.
so that of
Abraham
a reforming advance upon the current intellectual
is
ideas.-^
and Islamic legends uiake Abraham a martyr under Nimrod. We are it is not treating of phantoms and mere speculations, bat of a truth of religious history brought forward in legendary form and endowed 1
Jevvish
of opinion here also that
with mythological motifs. -
Thus now Winckler,
Abi-ahatii als
Babylon ier, pp. 24
ff.
;
the
Laws
of
Ham-
niurabi, p. xxxi. '
Upon
the traditions of
Abraham,
see pp. 16
ff.
Baentsch,
loc. cvV., p.
60, over-
meaning of these poetic motifs, when he assumes that they are a sign that the patriarchal religion was unwilling as yet to indicate any break in principle with the astral religion, though it presented a step beyond the Ancient-Babylonian religion. ^ We shall include in this symbolism the meaning of the mountain of divine revelation, Smai, which, according to Exod. iii. (it is here called Horeb), was estimates, in our opinion, the religious
already held as a place of worship in the patriarchal age. ' Acts vii. 2 seem to refer to a tradition according to which
already carried on a religious propaganda from
passage states that
Abraham
received the
command
Abraham had Mesopotamia. The migrate "in Mesopotamia,
Ur to
into
before he dwelt in Haran."
name Mesopotamia could not allow of Haran, The apocalyptical history of Abraham does, in fact, seem to be aware of an earlier journey to Fandana, i.e. Padan Aram (see " Apok. Abrahams" in Studien zur Geschichte der Theologie und Kirche, The most perverted
use of the
Chief city of Mesopotamia, as
its
antithesis.
i.
ist ed.,
Bonwetsch)
;
comp,
article
on Mesopotamia
in
Hauck, R.P. Th.
,
3rd ed.
ABRAHAM
12
The
AS CANAANITE
tradition teils of visionary events in
Haran (Gen.
xii.
Following
1).
the
Westland
led his people towards the
;
Ur
(Neh.
divine
T) as in
ix.
command, he
towards, as
it
appears,
the region lying beyond the realm of Babylonian dominion.
His whole
Canaan
in
life
Gen.
ecstatic events:
particularly xv. 12
Now
xii.
by visionarv and
characterised
is
17;
xiii.
14; xv.
1
ff.;
xvii.
1
ff.;
ff.
appears a fact
in
force,
füll
which can
neither
be
proved nor refuted by means of historical-critical investigation.
Abraham recognised, in his own life and in the edacation of the human race, the power of the living God.^ God revealed His way to Abraham and the working of His power to the people of Abraham.
who
He showed
Himself as the merciful God This was the beginning the Biblical sense, which finds its goal in
hears prayer and forgives
of " revelation
"
in
sins.
and which, in its beginnings and development, could ahvays only work through individuals. Only religious experience can unravel the mystery of the method. But one law of this revelation we do know. It never falls direct from heaven, but is always closely joined on to what has been already given, and works by refining upon a gradual religious and moral Christianity,
We
development.
The next
tions that have schluss)
can only offer conjectures as to other detail.
question that presents itself
come down
is,
whether the tradi-
to us permit of a conclusion (Rück-
upon the nature of the religion of Abraham^s time. names for God are in the traditions of the
Characteristic
Patriarchs, which cannot be set
The
down
to later revision.-
The
this must be taken in the sense meant in later But that '\% petitio prhicipii. Besides, if God revealed Himself to the prophets, why should He have been silent in the beginning of the Israelite religion ? If it is asked Where, then, was His revelation before Abraham ? we reply with Acts xiv. i6 " He suffereth all nations to go their own way," but ^
nalurally says
critic
religion of the prophets.
:
:
in the
same sense
aöpara, that
TO.
as in is
Rom,
i.
19
ff.,
where the author included the KadopäaSat
to say, the Bwap^is Kai Qiv6rr\s of
" Father of the Faithful " began the new
God
With the
in nature.
era, a revelation
tending towards a
dispensation of salvation. -
Baentsch,
or an abstract in
loc.
cit.,
Elohim
56: " They would scarcely have invented an
specially for
Abraham.
^
El shaddai
It is precisely this point, therefore,
which we must see an ancient, truly historic tradition, not to be lightly set and a theology which so inlentionally niarks itself as being one of religious
aside,
history should be very scrupulously valued."
;
RELIGION OF THE PEOPLE OF God
of
Abraham was
of Beer-sheba,^
"el
ABRAHAM
13
called V/ (Gen. xxi. 33) at the sanctuary
^olam
—
is
it
possible that
in
this
ancient
name 'olam, " world is denoted, as later in the Jewish ? Space and time are identical to the Oriental mind "God from Ever'''
—
and V/ shaddai (Gen. xvii. 1, Exod. vi. 3 comp. Gen. f.), for which no satisfactory interpretation has yet been found. The divine designation Uu does not in itself mean anything more than a general conception of God. Besides, the same divine name is also often to be found evidencine a monotheistic tendency upon Babylonian and Canaanite ground the plural 'elohim is found also in the Amarna Letters, ii., as lasting," xlix.
;
25
;
designation for a
Possibly divinity
God
in majesty
hint
to
pluraUs
{iläni).
the nature
of their conception of given in the epithet V/ 'olam applied by Abraham to
is
as
god when making his alliance with Abimelech.' '£"/ 'olarn mean " God from Everlasting/' or " God of the World " {'olam used for time and space), as specially the divinity who his
inay
siimrnus
(as
deus)
enthroned at the
is
The meeting
universe.^
north point of the
with Melchizedek
is
also characteristic.
Melchizedek, priest of Jerusalem (for the historical view of this character, see pp. 27
Creator
Abraham
ff.),
nanies the
God
of
Abraham
V/
'•elyoii,
of heaven and earth (Gen. xiv. 19). makes use of the same name in speaking with the
(jl^'p,^
not
Sl'l)
It is therefore the name by which the God of Abraham was worshipped in Sichern see Gen. xiv. 22. In regard to the name Yahveh in the history of Abraham. From the form of the tradition we may naturally quite justifi-
King of Sodom.
;
Well of the "seven," Underworld. '
the Pleiades, which represent the powers of the
i.e.
ÄÄ/., 4th ed. 75 Ilu-amranni, " Ilu, look upon me " Ilu-turam, turn thou again " Ilu-ittia, " Ilu with me '" Ilu amtahar, " I cry unto Ilu " Ilu-abi, "Ilu is my father " Iluma-ili, "Ilu is god " Shuma-ilu-la-ilia, " If Ilu -
"
Delitzsch,
:
;
,
Ilu,
;
;
:
were not god," and so on.
On
Milki-ilu, Ili-Milku, Yabni-ilu
;
;
;
the
Amarna
tablets there are
with this comp.
Hommel,
names
like Shabi-ilu,
Aliist: Uberl., chap.
iii.
and now, above all, Ranke, Early Baltyloiiian Personal Names, Philadelphia, 1905. " See Klostermann, Gesch. Isr., p. 35, where he rightly contradicts the conjecture of D^ii' in iv'^i', and supposes the name shows a recognition of the eternal god of all. ^ 'Oin7>i, antithesis to Qedem as south point (primeval ocean from which the see Winckler, F., iii. 305 f. (also upon time = space). This is meaning of ''olani in Ps. xxiv. 7. ^ Compare the name El-kana, and the fact of the name of God, by which Elieser must swear, Gen, xxiv. 3. Or nip = owner. It is a motif word
World proceeded)
also the
;
ABRAHAM
14 ably refer
it
AS CANAANITE At
back to an original scripture.
must be allowed that
the same tinie
Babylonian nomenclature a corresponding name also existed, in the form Ya\i.^ In passages like Exod. XV. 2 (" my father's God is Jah "), Isa. xii. 9, (Jah together
it
in
!
with Yahveh), in the cry hallelu-jah, in personal nouns joined
on to
in"',
present
this
Babylonian form of the name of
But even
itself."
if
the designation for
God seems to God existed
previouslv in the patriai'chal age, that would give no evidence
about the conception of God in the primitive period of Israel. The name gives no clue to Besides, " What's in a name.^" the idea contained in the conception.^
Chief emphasis
is
laid
by the tradition upon the moral relation to divinity, indicating an absolutely new position, in Opposition to polytheism and astral
Gen.
" Walk before me, and be thou perfect," " Yahveh, before whom I walk,"' Gen. xxiv. 40.
religion. xvii.
1
;
In every part of the tradition the story gives prominence to the
way
in
which Abraham's circumstances made him the friend of
God and
Now
imparter of blessings to the future.
what way did Abraham carry out his propaganda ? would be in the same manner as St Paul in Athens, Surely He joined or the Christian missionaries in heathen Germany. in
it
on to existing sanctuaries and cults, having a special preference for the " sacred trees"" (pp. 207, i. ft'.).^ The oracle tree of it
Moreh, Gen. holy
cities
xii.
Hebron, Gen. '
neighbourhood of the Canaanite and the oracle tree of Mamre in Hei-e 18, represent the Tree of the World. 6, in
the
of Shechem, xiii.
See Delitzsch,
/>./>.,
'^
i.
74
f.
;
comp. Kampf
um
Babel u)id Bibel, 4th ed.,
p. 20.
ni.T we see a ceienionious diffeientiation from the name, which was the signal for a reliyious concentration at Sinai. See Kampf tun Babel und Bibel, 4th ed., p. 20 Hommel, Die altor Detikmäler und das Alte Testament Supplement. ' Our Word "god" also comesdown from heathendom, just as does the 9n al-tair (Wellhausen, Skizzen, iii. 73, recalls in regard the " bird-feeder" Possibly
^
still
is
veiled
in
it.
:
to
it •'
our passage, Gen. xv. 11).
Comp. Rev. The Bedouins
i.
VOL.
II.
xiv. sit
f.
upon
their heels to eat.
3
ABRAHAM
34
AS CANAANITE
VVe have already noted the same motif, p. 26, n. 2. The antithesis the plague as punishment for violated right of hospitahty, comp.
is
4-0.
}).
;|c
Legal Gen.
thk Abraham Pkriod
has no children, gives " concubine. " This same her handmaid Hagar as
xvi.
Abraham
Cl^sto:ms of
1
ff'.
Sarai, because
:
custom, of which there repeated in Gen. xxx.
1
is
.shc
no trace to be found in later Israel, is where Rachel gives Jacob her maid
ft".,
Bilhah.
who according to Gen. xiv. 1, " of the " Babylonian contemporary have to been appears p. 23, Abraham, it is said H.C., 146 In the Code of Hannnurabi,
:
When a man takes a wife, and she gives a maid (as wife) to her husband, and she (the maid) bears him children, then if this maid makes herseif equal to her mistress, because she has borne children her mistress shall not seil her for money, she shall put the slave's mark upon her/ and count her amongst the servants. :
This exactly corresponds to the case of Abraham with Hagar. Hasar was siven as wife to Abraham.^ As soon as .she had
"^
good hope of a
child, " her mistress
spoke to Abraham, Gen.
Sarai
'
Abiittani ishshakaiishi.
"
The
xvi.
was despised 5:
"
following deeds of contract from the time of the
in
her
eyes.'"'
Yahveh be judge
first
(Canaanite) dynasty
Bu. 91-5-9, 374 {Ciui. Inscr., viii.), it Bunini-abi and Bell shunu (his wife!) bought Shamash-nur, daughter of
of Babylon serve for further illuslration. is
said
:
Ibi-Sha-a-an, from Ibi-Sha a-an her father, as wife for Bunini-abi, as
Beli-shunu.
not
my
If
maid
for
Shaniash-nur should say to Beli-shunu, her mistress: " Thou art
mistress,
then she shall shave her and
seil
her for money,
etc.
By
the
of HainiiiHj-abi." Bu. 91-5-9, 2176 A. [Clin. Inscr., ii.) refeis to the same circumstances " Arad-Shamash has taken Taram-Sagila and Iltani, the davighter If Taram-Sagila should say to Arad-Shamash, (daughters) of Taram-Sagila as wife. i'aws
:
her husband
:
Thou
art not
my
husband, then shall they cast her forth from the
Thou art not my to Taram-Sagila, his wife Iltani shall wash the feet of house and household. Taram-Sagila and carry her in her chair to her temple, and he shall sit in the shadow of Taram-Sagila, and enjoy her peace (but) not open her seal." See
....
If
Arad-Shamash should say
:
wife, ihen she shall leave the
Winckler, Gesch.
Isr.,
ii.
58.
According to a Talmudic tradition (Feuchtwang, Z.A., vi. 441), Ilagar was a Since vho ^.^^B', a maid whose labour belonged to the husband as usufruct. inulügu means " dower " in Assyrian, the Talmud therefore assumes that she was Therefore like the second of the e.xamples cited given to Abraham from the first. '
in n. 3.
LEGAL CUSTOMS OF THE ABRAHAM PERIOD
35
between me and thee." She claimed the right sanctioned by Yahveh. In Babjlonia the plaintiff would have called upon Shaniash, that is to say, upon the code containing the laws for "judging disputed points,"' and in the conclusion of which it says
my
:
" The oppressed party, who has a
claini, shall
come before
statue as king of justice, and niv inscription shall justify
bis claim, he shall Sarai's words, "
have his rights and
Yahveh be
bis heart shall be glad."
judge,'' correspond to the
con-
tinually used expression inahcn- iliw, " before the Divinitv,"" in
the H.C,
"Before the Divinity'" legal decisions are
Abraham acknowledged
the point of law.
He
settled.
allowed
the
and actually again in the sense of the law as held in the H.C, when he said, Gen. xvi. 6: "Thy maid is in thy power: deal with her as seems good to thee." Hagar had, therefore, forfeited the privileges which belonged to her and her children through her ad vancement to being her master^s concubine claim,
(comp. slave.
H.C,
146, 171), and her mistress could treat her as a
Sarah took harsh advantage of the right
;
thereupon
Hagar fled (Gen. xvi. 6)} The laws of Hammurabi draw a sharp distinction between the " concubine,"" the slave who might be given to the man for the purpose of getting children, and the secondary wife, of
higher social standing,
who could
together with the legitimate wife,
if
only be taken by the
much man
he had not already accepted
a concubine.
H.C, 144 When a man takes a wife, and that wife (because she has no children, comp. 145) gives a maid to her husband, and this maid has children, should the man, however, propose taking (besides the inaid) a secondary wife, this shall not be allowed, and he shall not take a secondary wife. H.C, 145 When a man takes a wife, and she bears him no children, and he purposes taking a secondary wife, he may take the secondary wife, and bring her into his hoiise this secondary wife, however, shall not be eqiial to his first MÜfe. :
:
;
^
Edm. Jeremias
(student of law) directs attention to the fact that this appeal
by Sarah to the law presupposes in the mind of the chronicler that ihe idea of the We family had developed from the social ranks amongst the people of Abraham. must notice too that in this presiipposed Community the wife had a separate right. To her belongs the execution of the judgment Gen. xvi. 6, as in If.C., 146. In this lies a confirmation of oar view of the " history of the Patriarchs," p. 4. ;
"
ABRAHAM
36 So
is
it
AS CANAANITE
distinctlv sfated that also this secondarv wife niay
ünly heie there
not be equal uith the chief wife.
punishnient incurred in pride of
The soLirce,
wife.
in
is
no special
the event of her boasting over the other
her motherhood.
story in Gen, xxi. 9
fF.,
which
is
drawn
froni
another
seems to say that Hagar was not a slave, but secondary It says nothing about any claini made by Sarah or any
deo-radation of Hasar.
That
quarrel.
she
is
Abraham
sends her awav to end the
looked upon here as secondary wife
is
perhaps shown by the mention of the rights of inheritance of After the birth of her own son Isaac, Sarah Hagar 's son.
becomes jealous of Hagar's son, because he should "be heir with
The secondary
her son."^
however, according to the H.C.^
wife,
thoiigh not equal to the chief wife,
is
protected by the laws of
marriage in regard to the laws of Separation
comp. H.C., 137, from which secondary
wife
is
it
and property
;
niay be concluded that the
considered as a free woman.
From
this it
follows, as at least very probable, that the child of the second
wife ance.
would be legitimate, and therefore have rights of inheritIf, notwithstanding, we take it that Hagar, according
to Gen. xxi. 9
ff.
also, is represented as
case the .supposition
Hammurabi. Abraham had said to
laws of
of Sarai's jealousy
Only
it
Ishmael,
a slave, even in that fits
the sense of the
must then be presupposed that
"Thou
art niy son,''
i.e.
that he
had adopted him.
When
has had chiklren borne to him by liis ;i man maid, and the father says, during liis lit'etime, to borne to him by his maid, " My chiklren " (this
H.C., 170: wife,
the
and by
liis
children
legal formula for adoption),'' and includes theni then wlien the father dies, the children by his wife children of the wife and of the maid shall divide their father's The wife's child shall divide l)ossessions equally between tliem. it and shall have the choice.
betokens
amongst
tlie
tlie
;
Gen. xxi. 9, "because he was a scoffer" has beer» interpolated afterwards by an interpieter who did not understand the Situation, see Gunkel, Genesis, loc. cit. It has also an pnsD, " to jest," is explained in Exod. xxxii. 6 as idolalry. '
obscene meaning besides.
See Kohler and Peiser, De)- Codex Hainintirabi, \>. 221. possiMy in in any case fuller and niore cerenionious " Thou art my son, this day have l Ps. ii. 7 there is again an echo of the furmula begotten Ihet: " see Köhler and Peiser, loc. cit., p. 123. ^
The proper formula was
;
:
;
LEGAL CUSTOMS OF THE ABRAHAM PERIOD
37
It is i-emarkable that here there should be chiklren by the maid togethei- with chiklren by the wife. Perhaps it was only in such case that adoption was necessary. whereas in the case of the maid having been given for the purpose of propagatio by the childless wife, the füll rights of the son of the maid would natuvally follow from the purpose of the institution this would explain why there is no mention of an adoption of Ishmael. The maid was often included in the sale of a wife, and H.C., 170, probably beavs ;
reference to such a case.
Gen. xxix.
reports that Jacob, during the lifetinie of bis
fF.
married her
wife,
In later law (Lev.
sister also.
xviii.
18) this
comp. p. 2. We know from the reports upon Ancient-Babylonian civil law that the two wives of one man were sometimes called ahätu, " sisters."' I therefore assumed earlier (A/F.J.O., 2nd German ed., p. 358) that it was dealing with a similar case of marriage law as in Gen. xxix. was accounted as incest
Br. Meissner calls to
may
called ahätu
my
attention that the two
in these cases also
of mistress and maid.
would certainly,
;
A
women who
are
stand in the relationship
poet of later time writing legends
in the interests of the authority of the current
law, have avoided reverting to such ancient rules.
At
contraction of a marriage the bridegroom paid (besides
the other presents) the price of a
woman {mohar)
to the
woman's
father (Gen. xxxi. 15; xxxiv. 12; Exod. xxii, 16; Deut. xxii. 19), which in the case of Jacob and Laban was paid in Service. Gen. xxiv. 53, Eliezer paid such a marriage portion to the brother and to the mother of Rebecca. In the same way the
H.C. shows a price for a woman (tirJjätic) which, according to 139, amounts to a mine and more, and this even together with a slieriktu (present, dowry to her family for example, ^ but which may also omitted finally, be 137), the nudumin, § the husband's '• Morgengabe," * for example, H.C, 112a. We add to these two cases of law, which may be taken as
H.C,
;
;
weighty evidence for the authenticity of the inUieu of the history of Abraham, mention of other legal customs which are not especially Ancient-Babylonian but also correspond to that
is
partially, ^
upon which, however, at thrown by the H.C.
to say, inter-tribal laws
an interesting light
See Kohler and Peiser,
(paid in labour)
;
loc. eil.,
Gen. xxxi. 15
f.
is
p. iiS.
Jacob pays
to
Laban
.such
later,
least
a tiihätu
:
ABRAHAM
38 Gen. XX. 16 for
by a
The
:
AS CANAANITE woman was atoned
violation of a married
" covering of the eyes" (accentuation of the
veil
a bridal dowry to the injured woman, see
in
Gen. xxiv. 4
14); upon the
paid to the husband (Gen. xx.
fiiie
The
:
),
which consists
p. 20, n. 5.
father chooses a bride for the son.
wise in Babylonia, according to H.C.^ 155
betroths a niaid {kallätu) to his son."
f.
'' :
Like-
When
a
man
In the H.C., the bride
is
xxxi. 15 (Rachel bought by the man; comp. Gen. xxiv. 5] and Leah •' Our father hath sold us"). H.C., 159 ff., presupposes that the maiden as bride {kallat but this, de facto, has the same meaning as wife) will remain in her father's house, and that the son-in-law may live there, as Jacob did with Laban and Moses with Jethro.^ The marriage portion was brought to the father-in-law's house, H.C., 159-161 it was thus in the wooing of Rebecca, ;
:
;
;
Gen. xxiv. 10, 53. Gen. xxxi. 32 pi-esupposes a theft of sacred things, punishable with death H.C., 6 (k.ing),2
:
he
:
If a nian steals the projierty of
2
shall
God
(temple) or cuurt
be killed
Gen. xxxi. 39 presupposes that the hired shepherd was quired to
make good any
loss to
the herd only when
re-
had
it
occurred by his neglect H.C., 267 to the lierd,
If the shepherd neglects something, and n then the sliepherd shall replace the loss.
:
The Patuiauchs The Bedouin
as Posskssors of Flocks
theory mentioned at
p.
loss
occurs
axd Heuds
15 held good
in
sup-
port of the idea that the primitive "Patriarchs" appear to be
shepherds so long as the records of the Ancient-East were unknown. It was not taken into consideration that the part of the Near East which was the scene of the story was in those '
Winckler, A.O.,
iv. 4-',
26.
The
peculiar siluationsof Jacob and
Moses are not
sufficient cxplanation. -
Upon
this
ed.,p. 44. Conipare •'
and the
H.C.,
8,
follovving, see J.
and compare with Gen. xliv.
brother from the Egyptian couit serious theft, see p. iio.
Jeremias, Moses
;
und Hainnntrabi, 2nd
this the piotendecl 9.
Upon
theft
by Joseph's
the death penalty for other
SODOM AND GOMORRHA much higher
days in a
state of civihsation than
39 it
now, and
is
that the Bedouins also of those days were in close intercourse
The owners
with the great civilisations.^
of Hocks and herds
were connected with the rulers of the lands, as
They were
the story of Sinuhe. their flocks
and
their shepherds,
The H.C. presupposes
and ruled over
Gen. also
22
xviii.
with
fits
illustrated
on
Abraham
:
the
their properties.
Babylonian
seal cylinders
;
GocV
Stands before religion.
see figs.
tenant,
rights.
^'"Abraham stood hefore
who
by
hired out
We
The
pre-
the Divinity, offen
find
it
35 and 70.-
entertained celestial visitors, then he might express
He
a wish.^
fF.
a petitioner,
of
illustrated
who
a relation between owner and
and regulates the respective duties and
sentment
is
princely rulers,
Abraham speaks men (zedeK\ one who has fulfiUed his down to ten. This jnotif of hargaining
prays for the rescue of Sodom.
of from fifty righteous
duty to the Divinity)
found also in the Arabian legend as an intentional counterpart to this story of Abraham, in the journey of Mohammed is
through the seven heavens, which exactly corresponds to the Ancient-Oriental presentment of the seven stages described at p. ]6,
i.
Allah requires
f
however, are lessened to
fifty
five
prayers from
Mohammed,
upon Abraham^s
which,
intercession.
SoDOM AND Go.MORRHA AND THE FlRÜ-FLOOD
The whole we have
it,
storv of the
judgment of Sodom and Gomorrha, as Like the motifs of the fire-flood.
presents the
Deluge, the fire-flood intimates a return to original conditions. Therefore in Gen. xix. 31 the whole race of mankind is assumed With the to be annihilated, except Lot and his daughters. ^
lux, -
See upon the foUowing, Winckler, Allor. Geschichlsanffassung, i6 ii.
ff.
{Ex
or.
2).
In Interviews with theking, the " minister "
is
the intercessor (nazäzit i>iapdni,
"stand before," is the technical expression). The king was not addressed personFor this reason the king praying is accompanied by a priest who takes him ally. by the hand {sabit käf). 3 His first wish is for the birth of a child (comp. p. 33). We would expect to Compare with this and the following, Winckler, /)/. V.A.G., find three wishes. 1901, 353
ff-
—
ABRAHAM
40
a new world.^
begins
fire-flood
AS CANAANITE
storv of the destruction of
Biblical
Sodom with
history
eiidows
the
the motifs of the
fire-
flood in Order to indicate the inausuration of a
new
afire
— the
The historian avails himself of the ages of the universe motifs. The district where the scene is laid is a universe in miniature. The source of the material appears to Canaanite period.-
be from an Ammorite Moabite primitive story about Paradise, the Fall, and the Deluge (fire-flood). Gen. xviii. 25 ff., in addition, shows that Jewish historians took this view, looking
upon the
Sodom
fire-flood of
in particular as
the Deluge, and as a tragedy of the universe. flood
cause of the
violation of the rights of hospitalitv.
is
Judges 19
f.
is
a counterpart to
Sodom and Gomorrha.^
23
is
f.
the
judgment upon
fierv
In Gibeah the rights of hospitalitv
were violated in the same way as Violence xix.
the antithesis to
The
in
Sodom and Gomorrha.
done to the guests (comp. Gen.
8
xix.
f.
with Judges
certain fornis of expression are exactly the same).
;
The punishment
for the violated guest-rights
was the destruc-
by fire of the city of Benjamin Judges xx. 40, 48. Only six hundred men save themselves on the rock of Rimmon (1), like Lot with his people upon a mountain Gen. xix. 17. A Buddhist story shows the same motifs * tion
;
;
:
The
Hiouen Thsangfrom China (seventh Century Halaolokia which was rieh, biit heretical. Once when an Arhat came to the city they gave him no food, but pelted him with eavth and sand. Only one man took pitv upon him and gave him food. Then the Arhat said to him :" Save thyself in seven days there will fall a rain of earth and sand and will smother the city, not one man shall escape and only because they have pelted me with earth." The man went into the city, and told his relations, but no one Avould helieve it, and they mocked at it. But the tempest came, the city feil, and only the man rescued himself by an undergound passage. Buddliist pilgrim
A.D.) teils of a city
;
—
' Comp. pp. 70, i. f., 268, !., 270, i. Protect from the fire-flood (cn ha 'jus).
also Jastrow,
AW. of Bab.,
In the Jalkiit Rubeni the tower was to
507, and Z.A.,
Upon xiii.
Sodom, compare The bunung of Troy also
the fire-flood of
288
ff.
has the motifs of the fire-flood, as the embellishing myths show. - Comp. Erbt, Ebräer, p. 70. '^
Compare
which falls upon Babylon Rev. .wiii. 8, iS xix. 3. Mischte Sindbad, p. i, noled the echo of the Lot story (quoted according to Stucken, Astralmythen, 115). also the fire-flood
P. Cassel,
;
;
,
SODOM AND GOMORRHA The Phrjgian
41
Philemon and Baucis (Ovicl, Met.^ vi. Zeus and Hermes find no hospiThe iwo old tality. people take them in. For punishment comes a deInge, from which the two are rescned. There the apotheosis ^ consists in (a) their house is changed into a Temple in which they rule as priests, (b) that at the end of their lives they are changed into trees (Philemon into an oak, Baucis into
616
a lime
fable of
deals witli a deluge.
ff.)
tree).
The
following motifs are to be noted in the story of
Sodom
and Gomorrha. 1. Destruction falls upon Sodom and Gomorrha^ which once resembled Paradise (Gen. xiii. 10^ " like a garden of God," see p. "like the land of Egypt " is a gloss), because of the 206, i. wickedness of men. ;
is
man
2.
One
3.
As place of refuge
righteous
with his family is rescued. a mountain is indicated^ Gen. xix. 17 that to say^ the city of Zoar.4. Those selected for rescue are mocked ; Gen. xix. li. 5. It is represented to the divine judge that only the wickcd ;
should be overwhelmed by the judgment; Gen. xviii. 25. 6. The new epoch and the new generation are begun by the action of Lot's daughters and by Lot's drmikenness.^
Instead of the fire-fiood, sometimes a rain of stones appears, fiery stones; comp. Rev. xvi. 21.
which one must take to be
This the
is
also motif of re-creation of the world,
Summer
solstice of the universe.
solstice that
meteors
We
fall.
It
is
and
is
in fact in
at the time of the
find such a rain of stones falling
from heaven, as an event at the beginning of a new epoch, in
Joshua '
X. 11, after
Compare
252,
i.
the defeat of Adoni-zedek of Jerusalem by
Noah and his wife, pp. 240, i. 246, i. are indebted for the reference to the analogy,,
the apotheosis of the Babylonian
Stucken, to
whom we
,
incorrectly thinks of Lot's wife in connection with the transformation into trees. -
play
Gunkel has, in reference to upon words which belongs
portant, however,
is
:
i.
and otherwise, pointed out the wealth of
More
im-
the recognition of their mylhological meaning, as indicated
A
by Stucken and Winckler. the future. ^ Travesties
this
to the art of Oriental story-telhng.
dictionary of motifs
The new generation
is
much
travestied as in
to be desired
Ham's conduct
in
for
the
Deluge Story see p. 272, i. n. 3, and comp. B.N. T., 120. Compare with this the Nyctimene with her drunken father Nycteus Ovid, Me(.,\\. 589 ff., and Myth. Vai., ii. 39. 2. The vine as symbol of the new age by the intoxication of Lot (comp. Noah, p. 272, i.). 3. Drunkenness as motif of the new year (compare the epic Enuma ehsh and the conduct of the gods at the renewal of the world). ;
,
;
ABRAHAM AS CANAANITE
42
Accordino;
Joshua.
to the
defeat of the " five kings,"
coherence
who
it
the
of
treatincr
is
represent the conibined inimical
power of Canaan, in the sanie way as does the Dragon of Winter, and as formerly Egypt, appearing as the defeated Dragon.^ The five kings creep into the cave (" and they are there unto this day, " Joshua x. 27).-
In the campaign of
Abraham
there conies, in the same way, a rain
Mighty kill
Mecca (Ihn Hisham)
against
of stones to
birds bring stones in their beaks
help.
his
and their claws and
the eneniy.
Fire and brinistone as a means of destruction has become a
stereotyped figure of speech fall
upon
further,
with
his dwelling
Luke
Judices
ix.
?)
:
The
;
I.
Ps. cvii.
34
5
xviii.
:
brimstone
and brimstone "
fire
;
is
to
comp,
destruction of a district
equally
with
the
In
motif.
Likewise on the Assvrian
strewed salt over l^anusa, and
Unfruitful land
Assurbanipal over Susa.^
Job xxxix. 6
"
found.
is
Tiglath-Pileser
inscriptions
land),
comp. Job
agrees
45 the custom
ix.
;
Ps. xi. 6
54, Rev. xx. 9.
(brimstone
Salt
;
;
is
called meleha (salt
Jer. xvii, 6.
The Details
of the Stories of the Patria hchs axd THE Scheme of the Twelve Tribes
The
story of the Patriarchs
is
in the
form of the history of a
from which the twelve tribes are descended, who then became known as the " Children of Israel."' The aim of the tradition in this is to indicate that the people of Israel show an unbroken course of development. The historians found in the traditions of certain places clear landmarks showing the coher-
faniily,
ence of the ancient stories.
Later, the descent from one fore-
Motif of the expulsion of the tyrants.
^
in the calendar
myth
Winter, which
is
driven away, appears
as concentrated in the iive additional days at the
end of the
beginning of spring), or as a giant (fall of Orion) who is When the mutif is applied to historical events, conquered, or as a water dragon. year
(before
the
cnemy appears as five in number, or embodied as a giant, who then takes the number five, or five and a half (see the sons of Goliath). Comp. p. 93, i. - A variant upon this is the myth of tlie seven sleepers, The seven sleepers, who enter the cave in the time of Decius, wake to the new agc. the
^
79
Tigl. Pil. (salt
and
Fr.,
vi.
14 (see
shijjlu herb).
Hommel, G.G,G.,
602,
n.
i)
;
Assttrb.
Pr., vi.
;
THE TWELVE TRIBES dogma
father took the fonu of a religious
*' :
43
When
he was but
2 — a fatal dogma, leading to a particucombated in the preaching both was energetically which larism, one, I called him,'' Isa.
of
li.
John the Baptist and of
The
family history
Jesus.
'^
certainly not
is
pure invention.
quite correct in looking
The
upon Isaac and
tradition was probably Jacob-Israel as the most prominent wandering sheikhs of the primitive epoch, who could be held to be legitimate descendants
become the foundation scheme for the ancient history of Israel, and it certainly does just extend over the 215 years of the patriarchal period."-
But
of Abraham.
this family history has
Jacob was also certainly an historical personage, a religious leader of past ages.^
" Shaddai hath made of the strong (that is to say, bull) Jacob a shepherd for the foundation stone of Israel" (Gen. xlix. 23 f.).^ He apparently also had about twelve sons,^ whose destiny
brought them for the most part into Egypt, with the neighbouring Arabian districts of which country they had long had active business relations.
of later times are for the
Isolated records and genealogies
pm-pose of identifying certain tribes, or social corporations of the Community/' with the ancient families (Gen. xxx., xxxv. 25 ff. 1
Already
reiigiouss\äe
Isa. ;
li.
i,
" Abraham, the rock whence ye were hewn," emphasises the Isa. Ixiii. 16 is also to be
likewise Ezek. xvi. 33, comp, xxxiii. 24.
xxxi. 15) is undeistood so. Neither here nor anywhere eise (Duhm upon Jev. there any trace of a " cult of Abraham." - Klostermann, p. iS. His life is filled up here and there with - There is more difficulty about Isaac. with x. ff. ff.=xii. shadowy pictures from the story of Abraham. Gen. xxvi. i ;
comp.
comp. xxi. 25 read thus with Klostermann, p. 19
xxix. 2
ff.
;
xxvi. 5
ff.
;
xxvi. ff=xxi. 22
ff.
ccs-c (" in that he placed ")• of regard for the scheme it has been out agree not The number twelve does is clear evidence made to fit -the division of Joseph into Ephraim and Manasseh to which Jacob had three according tradition a been have seems to There of'this. the (Simeon and Levi who avenge their injured sister Dinah). In itself ^
We
5
:
;
children
number twelve might also be historic. History Kaiser Wilhelm has six sons and one daughter
builds a
scheme thus :-the German
the seven planets includmg Venus. had seventy sons is also mterestwhich Jacob to according The later speculation swarmed. Many say Midrash Sehern. Rabba upon Exod. i. 7 says "They ing. It bore sixty at a birth. woman every say many birth a at twelve were there seventy." bears scorpion would be no marvel, the ;
:
;
^
Klostermann.
p. 30.
ABRAHAM
44 Gen.
xlvi.
AS CANAANITE
8-27) whicli lived through the Exodus, or specially
with Dinah,^ or with the fainily of Nahor (Gen. xxxv. 23
Each one of the
" twelve
tribes
""
— which,
exactlv, never actually existed contemporaneously
the Patriarchs given as "
forefather.'""
-
The
ft'.)-
however, speaking
— had
one of
traditions of isolated
clans were woveii into the faniily history of the sons of Jacob.
The numbers used in the sclieme are those of the astral system, twelve and seventy, seventy-two, according to whether it is hmav or solar system. The table, Gen. xvii. 20 xlvi. 8-27, is constructed As there are counted twelve tribes according to both reckonings. of Israel, so according to Gen. xxv. 13 ff. there were twelve tribes of Ishmael and in Gen. xxv. 2 ff., according to the original text, there were twelve sons of Abraham and Keturah.^ That the idea of the zodiac lies at the root of the number twelve goes Avithout saying in the Ancient-East. It is abundantly proved by Jacob's blessing, which alliides to the Abulfaraj, Hisf. Di//i., 101, says the zodiacal signs see pp. 77 ff. Arabs hold themselves to be descended from twelve tribes, and each of the twelve tribes is under a zodiacal sign."* ;
;
;
According to traces found
in
the Biblical tradition, we
gather the following historical particulars
:
may
—The nucleus of the
itself round Abraham settled in South Canaan, in Negeb, in the neighbourhood of Arabia Peti'aea, and from thence came repeatedly into connection with the districts which were under the rule of Egyptian viceroys
rehgious community grouping
The southern
(Pharaohs).
.Settlements are distinguished in the
by the (originally seven) wells of Jacob, and by the sanctuaries consecrated by Jacob at Mizpah, Gilead, Then this community, which had Penuel, and Mahanaim. religion of later times
gathered together under the influencc of a rehgious idea, spread '
Gen.
-
The
xlvi.
15
;
see Klostermann, p. 30.
derivation of the Moabites and Ammonites,
who
settled in the country
the east of Jordan and the neighbourhood of the Dead Sea, likewise of the Edomites and Arabian tribes who by circumcision and other elements of vvorship
to
approached the family of Abraham,
later
"
scientific investigation," •'
Klostermann.
(Hommel, Ak/s. *
Gen. tc,
rests, like
the genealogical
taliles,
upon
not upon tradition. x.
had originally probably also twelve sons of Joktan
Ad/i., 316, n. 6).
Jalkut Rubeni, 171, says the twelve tribes correspond to the twelve temples Steinschneider {Z.D.M.G iv. (18S0), is, " houses," p. 11) of the zodiac.
(that
,
xxvii. (1903), 474 ff.) has collected numerous examples of the system of 145 ff. twelve which could be added to at pleasure comp, also Krauss, Z.A. '/'. iV., xx. ;
;
38
ff.
;
Kampers, Alex, der
Grosse, pp. 107
f.,
and above, pp. 67,
i.
ff.
THE TWELVE TRIBES A
further abroad.
large part
of
45
was forced towards the
it.
Egyptian frontier by famine.i Here also tradition links itself on to a marked personality— that of Joseph. Then the religious
Community received a new and mighty impulse through Moses. It moved victorionsly out and coüected together the scattered parts of the ancient conununity.
At
Sinai the
Community represented by Jethro, which was
in possession of the ancient place of worship, united itself with
theni
;
came from the
clans
frontier districts of Negeb,
reminded
of their religious relationship by the old places of worship and by the " Hebrew "" migration from Egypt.-
We
have shown how the milieu of the stories of the Patriarchs
agrees in every detail with the circumstances of Ancient-Oriental civilisation of the period in c[uestion, as
The
monuments.
actual existence of
proved by them.
cally
In any case,
the picture. ancient.
time.
It
borne witness to by the
Abraham
is
not histori-
might be objected: it is included it must be allowed, the tradition
in is
cannot possibly be a poem with a purpose of later In view of the situations described, we might say the It
story could
more
easily
have been composed by an intellectual
writer of the twentieth Century after Christ,
knowing Oriental antiquity by means of the excavations, rather than by a contemporary of Hezekiah, who would have used the civilisation of
own time
his
and certainly would not have any Wellhausen worked out from the opinion
in descriptions,
excavated antiquities.
that the stories of the Patriarchs are historically impossible.
now proved that they
are possible.
Abraham
It
is
it
could only have been in surroundings and under conditions
If
such as the Biblc
describes.
content with
And Wellhausen may
own
Historical
lived at all,
research
must
be
be reminded of his words {Komposition des Htwateuch 346) " If it (the Israelite this.
:
tradition) were only possible,
it
would be
follv to prefer
any
other possibility." ^
The Amarna
Letters repeatedly niention such events
and i Sam. quest of the land were not -
with in
Exod.
whom
xxi.
I
the Israelites
feil
them descendants of the
;
see pp. 71
f.
and
74.
speak of " Hebrews" who also after the conpolitically connected with the Children of Israel, yet themselves to be related. We may perhaps recognise xiv. 21
religious
Community
of the patriarchal period.
CHAFrER XVI FLUITHER GLOSSES UPOX THE HISTOUIES OF THE l'ATRIARCHS
Gen.
37
xix.
developed
The Moabites.
:
itself
into
eleiiients, pressed, like
tribe,
which gradually
the Israelite tribes, conquering into the
couutiy east of Jordan. the
This
a nation by the annexation of related
According to the Biblical tradition
in the land when the Israehtes and friendly relations arose between Moab and Against this, in the pre-Israelite (Deut. ii. 18 ff.).
were ah'eady
^Moabites
settled there, Israel
Canaanite traditions known to
us,
they are not mentioned, also
the Situation of their dwelling-place, close to the desert, points to the probability that they
first
nioved in when Israel was
already in possession of sonie stronghold.^
38 The Anunonitcf, in cuneiform writing Anmianu,were a tribe on the boundary of the Israelites, only partially living in the desert as noniads, recognised for the most part in the Bible from earliest times as a civilised state under the governorship of a king. Their chief city, Rabbah,^ lies under the Gen.
xix.
:
Isr.^ i. 189 ff., therefore assumes that a reminiscence of the development of the Moabite power presents itself in Judges iii. 15 ff., and that the Moabites in the story of Balaam (comp. Numb. xxii. 4, wheie it says " chief See 2 of the Midianites") aie confused wiih the Midianites who came in later. Kings iii. for further history of the Moabites. - The cuneiform vvritings name, under Shahnaneser II., Baesa ben Rehob, the Ammonite (niat A-ma-na-ai), with a thousand people, together with Ahab of Israel (with ten thousand people), amongst the vassals of Damascus, who were defeated Under Sennacherib, 701, Pudu-ilu of Amnion (bit Amat Qarqar (A". T., 16). ma-na-ai) pays homage and Esarhaddon names the same Pudu-ilu as a contemporary of Manasseh amongst the vassals who were forced to labour with basket and hod in building the arsenal at Nineveh (A'. 7'., 44, 52). Upon forced labour, comp. p. 83, and fig. 127 f. Rabbath Amnion, situated on the upper Jabbok, the present Wadi 'Amman. '
Winckler, Gesch.
first
•'
46
;
MOABITES—AMMONITES ruins of
'Amman
47
of to-day, the magnificent ruins of which,
however, mostly date from
Roman
times.^
Saul Avon his fame in the wars against the Ammonites (l Sam. xi. comp. xiv. 47). He relieved the city of Gilead, Jabesh, besieged by King Nahash. Amongst the plunder was the royal crown (2 Sam. xii. 30, it is correctly translated by Luther)^ and he had a diadem made foi' himself from it. Under Solomon, in whose time objects of the cult (" abomination of Moab/' like the statue of Chemosh of Moab, see 2 Kings xxiii.) were misused in idolatry, the Ammonites were still tributary he had Ammonite women, the mother of Rehoboam amongst them, in his harem. Accordino- to 2 Chr. XX. 1 the Ammonites later supported King Mesa against Israel-Judah and invaded Judah. The record is not an invention and must not be judged as a "midrash," rather it entirely corresponds witla the Situation described in 2 Kings iii. onlv the campaio-n of Jehoshaphat appears here as an independent one, whereas he must be considered as amongst the followers of Jehoram. Arnos i. 13 fF. shows that later the Anunouites remained bitter enemies to ;
;
Israel.
What
the Baal of xA.mmon was called Me do not know. The contains the divine name Ilu = El. The name Milcom is possibly an eai-ly misundei'standing of 2 Sam. xii. 30. Erbt, Hebräer, 23.5, explains the abomination (2 Kings xxiii. 13 tö'eba) of the Ammonites' "Milcom" as mcdkä-milkä (Ashera as Queen of Heaven). Hommel, Aufs, vnd Abk., 1.5.5, compares with the name bene Anmion the designation of the Catabanians as walad '^Amm that is, 'Amm children, and explains it as worshippers of '^Amm. 'Amm signifies '^'uncle," and a])pears in Babylonian names in the same way as Ab, "father," and Ah, brother," as designation of the divinity, and really 'Amm (ammu hammii, for example, in Hammurabi) is not essentially Babylonian, but is a " West Semitic " foreign word (see K.A.T., 3rd ed., 480). Accordinoto Hommel, G. G. G., p. 85, 'Amm denotes the Moon-god compare the name 'Amm-ner, " ^Amm is the giver of light," /.
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