The place of the name in Deuteronomy

Vetus Testamentum

Volumn 57, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 342-366

  Richter, Sandra L ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

Central cult site; Deuteronomy 27; Ebal; Monument; Name; The place

Indexed keywords

EID: 34548010802     PISSN: 00424935     EISSN: 15685330     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1163/156853307X215518     Document Type: Article

References (147)

1. Sandra Richter, The Deuteronomistic History and the Name Theology: lěšakkēn šěmô šām in the Bible and the Ancient Near East (BZAW 318; Berlin, 2002).
2. This conclusion builds upon the work of Benno Jacob, In Namen Gottes: eine sprachliche und religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchung zum Alten und Neuen Testament (Berlin, 1903);
3. Roland de Vaux, "Le lieu que Yahvé a choisi pour y établir son nom," in Das ferne und nahe Wort, Festschrift L. Rost (ed. F. Mass; Berlin, 1967);
4. S. Dean McBride, "The Deuteronomic Name Theology," (Ph. D. diss., Harvard University, 1969).
5. See Richter, DH and Name Theology, pp. 45-49, 199-205.
6. In the current Assyriological typologies, any commemorative item bearing an inscription may be referred to as a "monument." For a discussion of the corpus of royal monumental inscriptions, classification of texts, and nomenclature, see Richter, DH and Name Theology, pp. 130-153;
7. cf. William W. Hallo, "The Royal Inscriptions of Ur: A Typology," HUCA 33 [1962], p. 8.
8. Richter, DH and Name Theology, pp. 130-135; cf. 153-160.
9. Ibid., pp. 160-170.
10. Deut. xii 5, 11, 21; xiv 23, 24; xvi 2, 6, 11; xxvi 2. Although in the MT Deut. xii 5 contains both, lěšakkěnô and lāśûm šěmô šām, bringing the total occurrences of "placing the name" in Deuteronomy to ten, it is likely that one of these occurrences was intended as an interlinear, external gloss (see Richter, DH and Name Theology, pp. 62-63).
11. For bibliography see Richter, DH and Name Theology, pp. 58-63.
12. HALOT s.v. "in Qal meaning 5 means "to be carried off from" ([p. 2]). The Piel factitive equivalent for this Qal meaning would be: "to cause to be carried off from," i.e., "to efface."
13. As the monumental tradition developed, the "name" placed (Akk šumu, šumu šatru/šitir šumi, and musarû) came to mean the larger inscription and/or the inscribed object (Richter, DH and Name Theology, pp. 128-135);
14. cf. AHw, s.v. "šumu(m)" meaning 2, and CAD Š3, s.v. "šitirtu": "inscription, text" (p. 144).
15. The word expected here is massebot. But as these stones are portrayed as orthodox expressions of Israelite religion (unlike the massēbot forbidden in Deut. xvi 22), 'ǎbānîm gědōlôt seems a strategic choice.
16. Space prohibits discussion. See Emanuel Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible (Minneapolis, 1992), pp. 82-83, 94-95, 266 n. 37,
17. and Richard Nelson: "it is unlikely that 'Ebal' is an anti-Samaritan reading as suggested by BHS" (Deuteronomy [OTL; Louisville: John Knox, 2002], p. 314, n. e).
18. This is contra E. C. Ulrich, "4Q Josli' [Pls. XXXII-XXXIV]," in Qumran Cave 4. Vol. 9, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Kings (eds. E. C. Ulrich, F. M. Cross, et al. DJD 14; Oxford, 1995), p. 146.
19. Deut. i 5; xvii 18, 19; xvii 3, 8, 26; xxviii 58, 61; xxix 29; xxxi 9, 11, 12, 24; xxxii 46.
20. "You shall not erect (qûm) for yourselves a pésel or a massēbāh, nor shall you place (ntn) a figured stone in your land"
21. (cf. HALOT"meaning 12 [p. 734] and DNWSI s.v. "ntn" 2:770, meaning 2).
22. Nelson, Deuteronomy, p. 320.
23. Von Rad, "The Form-Critical Problem of the Hexateuch," p. 37;
24. cf. Studies in Deuteronomy, pp. 40-41;
25. and Nielsen, Shechem, p. 85.
26. See among others: S. R. Driver, Deuteronomy (ICC; Edinburgh, 1902), p. 295;
27. G. von Rad, Deuteronomy: A Commentary (OTL; Philadelphia, 1966), p. 165;
28. Albrecht Alt, Essays on OT History and Religion (trans. R. A. Wilson; Garden City, N.Y., 1968), p. 162;
29. Martin Noth, The Deuteronomistic History (JSOT 15; Sheffield, 1981), pp. 37-38, 87, 95;
30. Nielsen, Shechem, pp. 39-85;
31. Moshe Anbar, "The Story About the Building of an Altar on Mount Ebal" in Das Deuteronomium, ed. Norbert Lohfink (Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium LXVIII; Leuven, 1985), p. 309;
32. Lawrence Stager, "The Fortress-Temple at Shechem and the 'House of El, Lord of the Covenant'," in Realia Dei: Essays in Archaeology and Biblical Interpretation in Honor of Edward F. Campbell Jr. at His Retirement (eds. Prescott H. Williams, Jr. and Theodore Hiebert; Atlanta, Ga., 1999), pp. 245-246.
33. Gen. xxxvi 23 and 1 Chr. i 40 (the genealogy of Esau); Deut. xi 29; xxvii 4, 13; Josh viii 30, 33 (the stelae). 1 Chr. i 22 should probably be rendered "Obal" with Gen. x 28, not "Ebal."
34. "It is quite unlikely that Deuteronomy at last revealed its secret here... it must be assumed from the outset that Deuteronomy considered its central place of worship to be one of the great and famous sanctuaries" (Von Rad, Deuteronomy, p. 165;
35. cf. Eissfeldt "Gilgal or Shechem?" p. 95).
36. See Tov, Textual Criticism, pp. 82-83, 94-95, 266 n. 38. Cf n. 12.
37. Cf. G. J. Wenham, "Deuteronomy and the Central Sanctuary," TynBul 22 (1971), p. 115.
38. "Fortress-Temple at Shechem," pp. 246, 234; cf. Amihai Mazar, "Temples of the Middle and Late Bronze Ages and the Iron Age," in The Architecture of Ancient Israel: From the Prehistoric to the Persian Periods (eds. Aharon Kempinski and Ronny Reich; Jerusalem, 1992), pp. 169-173.
39. Adam C. Welch (The Code of Deuteronomy: A New Theory of Its Origins [London, 1924], pp. 174-85) was one of the first to voice the incongruity of a book supposedly focused on the centralization of worship in Jerusalem portraying Moses commanding the Israelites to perform sacrifice and worship at Mt. Ebal.
40. Adam Zertal excavated this site from 1982-1989. See A. Zertal: "Has Joshua's Altar Been Found on Mt. Ebal?" pp. 26-43,
41. "Mount Ebal," IEJ 34/1, (1984), p. 55, "How Can Kempinski Be So Wrong!" BAR 12/1 (Jan-Feb 1986), p. 52,
42. "A Cultic Center with a Burnt-Offering Altar from arly Iron Age I Period at Mt. Ebal," in Wünschet Jerusalem Frieden (ed. Matthias Augustin; Frankfurt, 1988), pp. 137-147,
43. "Ebal," NEAEHL 1: 375-377,
44. "To the Land of the Perizzites and the Giants': On the Israelite Settlement in the Hill Country of Manasseh," in From Nomadism to Monarchy: Archaeological & Historical Aspects of Early Israel (eds. Israel Finkelstein and Nadav Na'aman; Jerusalem, 1994), pp. 47-69.
45. Cf. Pekka Pitkänen, Central Sanctuary and Centralization of Worship in Ancient Israel: From the Settlement to the Building of Solomon's Temple (Gorgias Dissertations Near Eastern Studies 5; Piscataway, N.J., 2003), pp. 167-185.
46. Driver Deuteronomy, pp. 294-295.
47. One rationale for this caricature of Deuteronomy xxvii is the shift in time, place, genre, and covenant from chapters xii-xxvi to xxvii (Nelson, Deuteronomy, p. 315).
48. E. W Nicholson summarizes: Deuteronomy xxvii "is widely regarded as secondary. It is closely related to Joshua viii 30-35 and may therefore have been inserted into the book by the Deuteronomistic historian" (Deuteronomy and Tradition, pp. 19, 36).
49. In contrast, M. Noth considered Deut. xxvii 1-8 as pre-Dtr because it serves as the historian's source for his interpolation of Josh, viii 30-35 (The DH, pp. 16, 37-38, 87, 95).
50. For a recent summary of Noth and von Rad on this topic, see William T. Koopmans Joshua 24 as Poetic Narrative (JSOTSupp 93; Sheffield, 1990), pp. 31-39
51. and Hill, "The Ebal Ceremony as Hebrew Land Grant?" pp. 399-400;
52. cf. Eissfeldt, "Gilgal or Shechem?" pp. 90-96; Nelson, Deuteronomy, pp. 316-317.
53. Nielsen Shechem, pp. 37-50.
54. Among others, see Duane Christensen, Deuteronomy 21:10-34:12 (WBC 6B; Nashville, 2002), p. 653.
55. Anbar, "The Building of an Altar on Mount Ebal," p. 304.
56. Space prohibits discussion except to note that much of the support for the suggested birfur-cation of the Deuteronomy xxvii ceremony arises from an ancient debate regarding the geographical relationship between Ebal and Gilgal per Josh. viii 30-35 and Joshua iv (see Josephus, Ant. 5,20; 5,69-70;
57. Pseudo-Philo, Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 21:7-10;
58. Christopher Begg "The Ceremonies at Gilgal/Ebal According to Pseudo-Philo," ETL 73/1 [April 1997], p. 79;
59. cf. OTP 2: 330-332;
60. Ed Noort, "The Traditions of Ebal and Gerizim: Theological Positions in the Book of Joshua," in Deuteronomy and Deuteronomic Literature [eds. M. Vervenne and J. Lust; Leuven, 1997], pp. 161-180;
61. and the Samaritan Chronicle No. II). The placement of Josh, viii 30-35 within the extant versions of the Book of Joshua complicates the debate (cf. LXX, the Codex Vaticanus, and 4Q Josh";
62. E. Tov, "Some Sequence Differences between the MT and the LXX and Their Ramifications for the Literary Criticism of the Bible," JNSL 13 [1987], pp. 152-57;
63. Eugene Ulrich "4Q Josh" [Pls. XXXII-XXXIV]," in Qumran Cave 4, pp. 143-148;
64. Nelson, Joshua [OTL; Louisville, 1997], p. 117).
65. As the patristic writers were notoriously naïve regarding the historical geography of the holy land, and the textual problems involve Joshua viii, not Deuteronomy xxvii, the unity of Deut. xxvii 1-8 deserves new consideration (Nelson, Deuteronomy, p. 316, n. 2
66. and Joshua, pp. 116-120;
67. cf. Noth, The DH, pp. 37-38;
68. Nielsen, Shechem, pp. 77-80;
69. Tov Textual Criticism, p. 332).
70. See Nielsen, Shechem, pp. 47-48.
71. In all but two of its occurrences, the noun gilgāl (used to identify any locale having a ruin, memorial stones, an altar, or a burial) occurs with a definite article, indicating that it was used as both a noun and a proper name (Wade Kotter, "Gilgal" ABD 2: 1022-1024;
72. G. Münderlein " TDOT 3: 20-23).
73. Viable candidates for the "Gilgal" of Deut. xi 30 include: Khirbet Jiljiliya-frequented by Elijah and Elisha and located 12 km north of Bethel (2 Kgs. ii 1; "Gilgal," p. 1023); Khirbet Juleijil-situated, a mile or so southeast of ancient Shechem; and El-Unuk - located four miles east of Mt. Ebal (Tigay, Deuteronomy, p. 419;
74. George Adam Smith, The Historical Geography of the Holy Land [25th ed.; New York and Evanston, 1966 {1894>}], map 5;
75. A. Zertal, "Israel Enters Canaan-Following the Pottery Trail," BAR 17/5 [1991], pp. 38-45).
76. Any of these Gilgals would have afforded Israel the opportunity to reach Ebal within a day of travel (cf. David A. Dorsey, Roads and Highways [Baltimore and London, 1991], p. 13).
77. Nielsen makes a similar suggestion in Shechem, pp. 41-44;
78. cf. Time and Place in Deuteronomy, pp. 23-31.
79. "Along the entire length of this road the surveyors found various ancient remains, including an Iron Age fort... which testifies to the use of this route during the biblical period [cf. J30]" (Dorsey, Roads and Highways, p. 202).
80. Dorsey suggests that this may be the "Wilderness Road" mentioned in josh. viii 15 and Judg. xx 42, and it might also be the road assumed in the story of Elisha's journey from Jericho to Bethel in 2 Kgs. ii 23-24
81. (ibid., pp. 202-204;
82. cf. A. Mazar, D. Amit, and Z. Ilan, "The 'Border Road' between Michmash and Jericho and Excavations at Horvat Shilhah," EI 17:236-50).
83. Dorsey, Roads and Highways, p. 204.
84. See Map 11, specifically S 11 "The Bethel - Aphek Road" (ibid., pp. 164, 171-73).
85. This highway between Bethel and Shechem is mentioned in Judg. xxi 19 (cf. Dorsey, Roads and Highways, pp. 132-40, Maps 7 & 8).
86. E.g., Gen. ii 4 and Num. iii 1; cf. Gen. xxxv 3; Exod. vi 28; Num. vii 1; 2 Kgs. iii 6. See HALOT s.v. "meanings 3, 4, 7, 10 (pp. 400-401).
87. See among others G. von Rad, "The Form-Critical Problem of the Hexateuch," The Problem of the Hexateuch and Other Essays (trans. E. W. Trueman Dicken; New York, 1966), pp. 26-40;
88. Beyerlin, Origins and History of the Oldest Sinaitic Traditions, pp. 14-18, n. 91; pp. 36-48;
89. Anbar, "The Building of an Altar on Mount Ebal," 305-309, and Otto Eissfeldt, "Gilgal or Shechem?" in Proclamation and Presence: Essays in Honour of G. Henton Davies (eds. John Durham and J. R. Porter; London, 1970), pp. 90-101.
90. See Mazar "Temples," pp. 165, 170-72, 182, 186; see also Stager, "Fortress-Temple at Shechem," pp. 228-249 for late MB temples at Tell el-Hayyat, Timna, and Tel-Kittan evincing stelae and altars. Cf. Biran's Tel Dan Iron II gate sanctuary with five standing stones ("The High Places of Biblical Dan," in Studies in the Archaeology of the Iron Age in Israel and Jordan [ed. A. Mazar; JSOTSupp 331; Sheffield, 2001], pp. 148-155).
91. A. Mazar, "The 'Bull Site'-An Iron Age I Open Cult Place," BASOR 247(1982), pp. 27-42;
92. G. Ernest Wright, Shechem: The Biography of a Biblical City (London, 1965);
93. Itzhak Magen, "Shechem," NEAEHL 4: 1345-1359;
94. Stager, "Fortress-Temple at Shechem," pp. 228-249.
95. Cf. Michael Coogan, "Of Cults and Cultures: Reflections on the Interpretation of Archaeological Evidence," PEQ 119 (Ja-Je 1987), pp. 1-8.
96. The altar was made of earth and stone, 1.65 m wide × 2.2 m long × .35 m high (Wright, Shechem, p. 83;
97. Stager, "Fortress-Temple at Shechem," p. 232).
98. Even in its present state, Massēbâ 1 (as it has come to be called) is enormous, 1.45 m. high, 1.48 m wide, and .42 m thick. Stager hypothesizes that in antiquity, it was probably more than twice this height (Stager, "Fortress-Temple at Shechem," pp. 232-233;
99. cf. Wright, Shechem, pp. 30-31, 80-85).
100. Wright, Shechem, p. 86.
101. Stager, "Fortress-Temple at Shechem," p. 233;
102. cf. Mazar, "Temples," p. 165.
103. Tov, Textual Criticism, pp. 201-202.
104. Not only is this clear evidence for the practice of ink on plaster as an inscription method in Palestine, but H. J. Franken and Jo Ann Hackett state that both the find spot of the fragments and the disposition of the plaster suggest that the inscription may have been attached to a stele (Franken, "Archaeological Evidence," in Aramaic Texts from Deir 'Alla [eds. J. Hoftijzer and G. van der Kooij;
105. Documenta et Monumenta Orientis Antiqui; Leiden, 1976], p. 10,
106. cf. Plate 17; H. J. Franken and M. Ibrahim, "Two Seasons of Excavations at Tell Deir 'Alla, 1976-1978," ADAJ 22 [1977-1978], pp. 65-68,
107. and Hackett, The Balaam Text from Deir 'Alla [HSM 31; Chico, Calif., 1984], pp. 2-4.
108. Cf. A. Lemaire's dissent, "La disposition originelle des inscriptions sure plâtre de Deir 'Alla," Studi epigrafci e linguistici 3 [1986], pp. 79-93).
109. In the "bench room" fragments of these inscriptions "included two Hebrew inscriptions written in Phoenician script. A part of a third inscription was found in situ about 1.5 m. above the floor level on the N doorpost of the entrance leading to the main courtyard of structure A... parts of another two, written in ancient Hebrew script, were found in the debris of the entrance to the W storeroom" (Zeev Meshel, "Kuntillet Ajrud," ABD 4:105, 107;
110. cf. Meshel, "Kuntilat Ajrud, 1975-1976," IEJ 27/1(1976), pp. 52-53).
111. "Most of the sandstone cippi bore no inscriptions, but many of the limestone stelae did. The earlier cippi once had them also; but they were inscriptions painted in ink on plastered surfaces, and the plaster has eroded away" ("Fortress-Temple at Shechem," p. 233;
112. cf. Stager, "The Rite of Child Sacrifice at Carthage," in New Light on Ancient Carthage [Ann Arbor, Mich., 1980], pp. 1-11;
113. Stager and R. R. Wolff, "Child Sacrifice at Carthage-Religious Rite or Population Control?" BAR 10 [Jan-Feb 1984], pp. 30-51).
114. Personal communication, September 2004;
115. cf. Hershel Shanks, Frank Moore Cross: Conversations with a Bible Scholar (Washington, D. C., 1994), pp. 89, 91.
116. Mazar, "Temples," p. 186. Cf. Yohanan Aharoni, "Excavations at Tel Arad: Preliminary Report on the Second Season, 1963," IEJ 17/4 (1967), pp. 233-249,
117. "Arad: Its Inscriptions and Temple," BA 31 (1968), pp. 2-32;
118. Z. Herzog, M. Aharoni, A. Rainey, S. Moshkovitz, "The Israelite Fortress at Arad," BASOR 254 (1984), pp. 1-34;
119. Herzog, Aharoni, Rainey, "Arad: An Ancient Israelite Fortress with a temple to Yahweh," BAR 13/2 [Mar-Ap 1987], pp. 16-35;
120. Miriam Aharoni, "Arad," NEAEHL 1: 75-87.
121. Aharoni, "Tel Arad: 1963," p. 248. Although this stele was not plastered, (personal communication with Ze'ev Herzog, November 2004), the red paint does indicate that the stele was decorated in some fashion.
122. "What if anything was originally painted or inscribed on this stele we have no way of knowing" (Herzog, Aharoni, Rainey, "Arad," p. 29).
123. See Stager's discussion of the "triad of altar, sacred tree(s), and pillar" in Israelite religion ("Fortress-Temple at Shechem," p. 242).
124. See Richter, DH and Name Theology, pp. 130-153; 184-203.
125. See in particular the OldAkk triumphal statuary installed at Nippur and the victory stelae of the Amanus Mountains (Richter, DH and Name Theology, pp. 153-170).
126. See Zertal, "Hill Country of Manasseh," pp. 47-69, and Finkelstein, The Archaeology of the Israelite Settlement (Jerusalem, 1988), pp. 80-91.
127. Cf. Zertal "Hill Country of Manasseh," p. 50.
128. Israelite Settlement, p. 81.
129. "Fortress-Temple at Shechem," p. 245.
130. See Finkelstein, "Shiloh Yields Some, But Not All, of Its Secrets," BAR 12/1 (Jan-Feb 1986), pp. 22-41:
131. "our survey indicates that population density in the immediate vicinity of Shiloh was two and even three times greater than at other places in the territory of Ephraim. Some 100 sites of Israelite settlement have been found so far in our survey, of which 22 are apparently within a radius of about three to four miles of Shiloh" (p. 40; cf. Israelite Settlement, pp. 205-341).
132. Magen, "Shechem," 4: 1346.
133. See G. A. Smith, The Historical Geography of the Holy Land, p. 94.
134. See n. 24.
135. Zertal, "Has Joshua's Altar Been Found?" p. 33.
136. Zertal, "Ebal," 1:375.
137. Even Zertal's most vocal detractor, Aharon Kempinski, states: "I am ready to suppose there was cultic activity here" ("Joshua's Altar-An Iron Age I Watchtower," BAR 12/1[1986], p. 45).
138. Cf. Coogan, "Of Cults and Cultures," p. 2; Finkelstein, Israelite Settlement, pp. 82-85; .
139. ekem Judg 9 and the Artifact on Mount Ebal," in Wünschet Jerusalem Frieden (BEATAJ 13; Frankfurt, 1988), pp. 115-119;
140. A. Mazar, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, p. 350
141. and "Jerusalem and its Vicinity in Iron Age I," in From Nomadism to Monarchy, pp. 85-86;
142. Gösta W Ahlström, Ancient Palestine: An Historical Introduction (Minneapolis, 2002), p. 366.
143. Liora Kolska-Horwitz in A. Zertal, "How Can Kempinski Be So Wrong!" pp. 51-52.
144. Pitkänen, Central Sanctuary and Centralization of Worship in Ancient Israel, p. 167.
145. Zertal, "Ebal," 1: 375. It is tempting to link the date of abandonment at Ebal to the founding of the cult center at Shiloh which Finkelstein states occurred "not before the second half of the 12th century BCE" (Israelite Settlement, 231).
146. "Deuteronomy and the Central Sanctuary," p. 115.
147. Moreover, the probability is that somewhere in Israelite history there existed large plastered and inscribed stelae at a cult site in need of explanation. The continuance of the sentence title within the centralizing formula in the DH and in Jeremiah - "the place in which Yahweh your God will choose to place his name"...