Midterm Flashcards
Amara letters
Letters from vassals in Canaan to the Egyptian court, in the time of Akhenaten.
Amarna–on Nile river. where Akhenaten had his court.
Akhenaten
Pharaoh Amenophis 4. 1350bc
Devotion to Aten.
Precursor to monotheism?
Closest thing.
Haribu
People on the fringes of societyin 2nd millennium BC. Possibly related to Hebrews.
Seems to refer to people on margins of society rather than an ethnic group.
Most philologists say this parallel doesn’t stand.
Amorites
Interchangeable term in bible for Canaanite.
People in promised land when it’s promised to Abe. In deut and ex, it is much more clearly an issue of conquest.
Shows god’s preference for one person, one people, over others.
15:16–is this saying it’s based on I iniquity of Amorites–“you’ll only get this land when their iniquity has reached this level.”
But very few mentions of iniquities of Canaanites.
Note most all agree that the land promised was more aspirational than literal. Even during Solomon, most wou.d agree that the kingdom never reached this size.
AmoriTe hypothesis–Abraham was one of the Amorites we read moved into ur in Canaanite texts.
Hammurabi
Ruler of Babylon. Received his code from Marduk. Famous code predating the biblical laws that bears a resemblance to many of the provisions in the Sinai revelation and deut. One notable similarity–provision for an ox that gores someone to death. Greater emphasis on monetary compensation than in biblical law. Some have posited that this serves as a basis for the biblical law.
Hittites
People from Asia Minor in 2nd millennium BC. Examples of Hittite treaties were for a long time the only ancient near east treaties we had examples of. Once it was argued that these treaties were the basis of the revelation of the law on mt Sinai.
They present a narrative prologue with a reminder that this is not a treaty between equal parties. Then stipulations. Including demand for oath to overlord and ‘you shall love my son’–meaning absolute loyalty.
Later Assyrian treaties found. Current consensus is that treat form and covenant gets shaped that way happens later in Assyrian period.
Curses. Then provision to call gods to witness.
Mari
Ancient Sumerian city on Euphrates, sacked by Hammurabi. where important texts from 2nd c were discovered. Tablets in Akkadian.
Dimorphic society. Compared to Patriarch behavior.
Ugarit
Modern rad shamra.
In northern Syria where tablets were discovered in 1929
Newly discovered language. Ugaritic. Closer to Hebrew.
Canaanite lit. A lot of the same imagery in Hebrew Bible. For instance, Baal epic.
Led some to posit that Hebrew was originally a Canaanite dialect and bible comes from these stories. High god El from Canaan. Sometimes identified as Yahweh, but prob 2 gods.
Nuzi
Ancient Mesopotamian city. Founded during Akkadian empire. Later conquered by Assyrians. A large number of legal documents discovered there. Over 50,000 tablets. Noted in biblical studies in that many codes and customs align with the practices of the patriarchs in genesis and exodus. Including issues such as inheritance rights, and notably, issues pertaining to conduct in the case of the death of a spouse or infertility.
Akkadian
The language of ancient babylon and Assyria.
Cuneiform writing style
Deciphered in mid 1800s. Gave access to huge corpus of bear east lit.
Marduk
Main god of Babylon. Depicted as having given Hammurabi the code of conduct, famous for some close similarities with biblical law in exodus.
Tiamat
The mother goddess of the Babylonian creation story in enuma elish
In psalms and a few other places seem to be references to God slaying a dragon, or dragons, and conquering the waters as part of act of creation. Some have suggested that in genesis 1 the word for the deep “tahoum” has a relationship to Tiamat, the God killed to create he waters by Baal in the Babylonian myth.
Gunkel
Form criticism
Commentator on genesis. Legends of genesis Genre Folk literature more like poetry Q: not did this happen but why is it being told? 'Situation in life'
Local legends tied to particular place
Wellhausen
Source criticism
Different sources of Pentateuch
Frame. Literary editing
Said P came last. Anti catholic anti Jewish. Said religion of patriarchs then priests get ahold of it.
Ishtar
Goddess enamored with Gilgamesh. Insults her by recounting misfortunes of her lovers. Gets Anu to Sends bull of heaven to punish G. But E subdues and G kills.
Goddess of t storms and rain, also battle. Identified with Sumerian God inanna. Also sexual attraction. Probably the goddesses venerated as queen of heaven in Jeremiah.
