The Neo-Assyrian royal lion hunt and Yahweh's answer to job

Journal of Biblical Literature

Volumn 125, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 243-270

  Dick, Michael B ^a  

^a SIENA COLLEGE   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 67650155589     PISSN: 00219231     EISSN: 19343876     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/27638360     Document Type: Review

References (104)

1. M. Liverani, International Relations in the Ancient Near East, 1600-1100 BC (Studies in Diplomacy; Houndsmill: Palgrave, 2001), 18.
2. Ian Hodder, The Domestication of Europe: Structure and Contingency in Neolithic Societies (Social Archaeology; Oxford: Blackwell, 1990), 85-86.
3. See D. P. Wright, The Disposal of Impurity: Elimination Rites in the Bible and in Hittite and Mesopotamian Literature (SBLDS 101; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1987), 26, for the wilderness in Israelite purification rituals, similarities as well as differences.
4. This polarity seems more a feature of the Akkadian Gilgamesh stories than the Sumerian (Chikako E. Watanabe, Animal Symbolism in Mesopotamia: A Contextual Approach [Wiener Offene Orientalistik 1; Vienna: Institut für Orientalistik der Universität Wien, 2002], 152).
5. B. Oded, War, Peace, and Empire: Justifications for War in Assyrian Royal Inscriptions (Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 1992), 101-20.
6. Watanabe, Animal Symbolism, 15, 65, 67.
7. 3. I suspect, however, that this goes back to a nineteenth-century taxonomic confusion between two rival names for the same Asiatic lion subspecies: Panthera leo goojratensis and Panthera leo persica.
8. Janusz Meuszynski, Die Rekonstruktion der Reliefdarstellungen und ihrer Anordnung im Nordwestpalast von Kalhu (Nimrûd), vol. 2, Räume: B.C.D.E.F.G.H.L.N.P (Baghdader Forschungen 2; Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 1981), room B (Tafel 1);
9. and Samuel M. Paley and Richard P. Sobolewski, Die Rekonstruktion der Reliefdarstellungen und ihrer Anordnung im Nordwestpalast von Kalhu (Nimrûd), vol. 2, The Reconstruction of the Relief Representations and Their Positions in the Northwest-Palace at Kalhu (Nimrud) (Baghdader Forschungen 10; Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 1987), West Wing WFL 13, 14, 29 (plate 5).
10. I. J. Winter, "Royal Rhetoric and the Developments of Historical Narrative in Neo-Assyrian Reliefs," Studies in Visual Communication 7, no. 2 (1981): 17-19;
11. idem, "The Program of the Throneroom of Assurnasirpal II," in Essays on Near Eastern Art and Archaeology in Honor of Charles Kyrle Wilkinson (ed. P. O. Harper and H. Pittman; New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983). Also see Watanabe, Animal Symbolism, 70.
12. S. Herbordt, Neuassyrische Glyptik des 8.-7. Jh. v. Chr. (SAA 1; Helsinki: Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, 1992), 123-45;
13. S. Maul, "Das 'dreifache Königtum': Überlegungen zu einer Sonderform des neuassyrischen Königssiegels," in Beiträge zur Kulturgeschichte Vorderasiens: Festschrift für Rainer Michael Boehmer (ed. U. Finkbeiner et al.; Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 1995), 395-402.
14. 3 ka duhcombining caron below-hcombining caron belowa ("lion with open mouth") of the šulgi royal hymns.
15. See G. R. Castellino, Two Shulgi Hymns (BC) (Studi Semitici 42; Rome: Istituto di Studi del Vicino Oriente, 1972)
16. E. Unger, "Über zwei Jagdreliefs Assurbanipals und über die Stele Assarhaddons aus Sendschirli," Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie 31 (1917/1918): 231-39.
17. Maul, "Das 'dreifache Königtum,'" 396.
18. 1 is actually at the elevation of the rest of the palace and formed a bit hcombining caron belowilāni. The portal of S might well have led out to the actual ambassu ("park") for the hunt. E. Unger had already noticed this almost cinematographic pattern of Assyrian bas-reliefs ("Über zwei Jagdreliefs Assurbanipals," 235). Hormuzd Rassam's enthusiasm at excavating the hunt in room C (his "Saloon") is conveyed in his letter to Layard of January 1, 1854. The letter appears in Barnett, Sculptures, 11.
19. T. Bauer, Das Inschriftenwerk Assurbanipals: Vervollständigt und neu bearbeitet (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1933), 87-89;
20. M. Streck, Assurbanipal und die letzten assyrischen Könige bis zum Untergange Niniveh's (VAB 7; Leipzig, 1916), 210-14;
21. R. Borger and A. Fuchs, Beiträge zum Inschriftenwerk Assurbanipals: Die Prismenklassen A,B,C = K,D,E,F,G,H,J und T Sowie Andere Inschriften (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1996), 330-31.
22. On this royal epithet, see M.-J. Seux, Épithètes Royales Akkadiennes et Sumériennes (Paris: Letouzey et Ané, 1967).
23. The hunts begin with the end of the reign of Shalmaneser I (1274-1245), when Assyria conquered Hanigalbat; certainly by the reign of Tiglath-pileser I (1115-1077) the hunts were a definite part of royal ritual. See M. Vieyra, Les Assyriens (Paris: Seuil, 1961), 114-15.
24. IM 54669, IV 40-42 in G. G. Cameron, "The Annals of Shalmaneser III, King of Assyria: A New Text," Sumer 6 (1950): 18;
25. see M. Elat, "Mesopotamische Kriegsrituale," BO 39 (1982): 18 n. 6. For similar statements from Tiglath-Pileser I, Assurnasirpal II, see Vieyra, Les Assyriens, 115-17. It is ironic that Nergal and Ninurta gave the command for the lion hunt, since they (together with Ištar) are themselves described as the leonine gods (Cassin, "Le roi et le lion," 388). Like these gods, the king himself is a lion (so portrayed since the third millennium), but he also fulfills the royal prerogative of the lion hunt. This is Cassin's "dialectique du chasseur et du chassé que le rapport entre le roi et le lion nous apparaît sous un jour different" (Cassin, "Le roi et le lion," 388).
26. Streck, Assurbanipal, 308 δ; and Barnett, Sculptures, 53.
27. Cassin, "Le roi et le lion," 394.
28. U. Magen, Assyrische Königsdarstellungen - Aspekte der Herrschaft: Eine Typologie (Baghdader Forschungen 9; Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 1986), 34-35;
29. Magen, Assyrische Königsdarstellungen, 26, 128.
30. lúSANGA Aššur als Königstitulatur in nA Zeit durchgängig als išši'ak Aššur zu lesen ist, wie M.-J. Seux, RA 59, 104 es vorschlägt."
31. See also A. Berlejung, "Die Macht der Insignien: Überlegungen zu einem Ritual der Investitur des Königs und dessen kö nigsideologischen Implikationen," UF 28 (1996): 1-36.
32. Chikako E. Watanabe, "A Problem in the Libation Scene of Ashurbanipal," in Cult and Ritual in the Ancient Near East (ed. H. P. T. Mikasa; Bulletin of the Middle Eastern Culture Center in Japan 6; Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1992), 91-104.
33. See B. Batto, "The Divine Sovereign: The Image of God in the Priestly Creation Account," in David and Zion: Biblical Studies in Honor of J. J. M. Roberts (ed. Bernard F. Batto and Kathryn L. Roberts; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2004), 182. For a current study on Ninurta, see A. Annus, The God Ninurta in the Mythology and Royal Ideology of Ancient Mesopotamia (SAA 14; Helsinki: Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, 2002).
34. In Lugale-e, Ninurta seems to begin with a loftier status: he already has a throne, a boat, a wife, a palace, and a great name. See M. E. Vogelzang, Din šar dadmê: Edition and Analysis of the Akkadian Anzû Poem (Groningen: Styx, 1988), 172.
35. This myth is undoubtedly the prototype for Marduk's cosmogonic victory in the Enuma Eliš (see W. G. Lambert, "Ninurta Mythology in the Babylonian Epic of Creation," in Keilschriftliche Literaturen: Ausgewählte Vorträge der XXXIII Rencontre assyriologique internationale [Berliner Beiträge zum Vorderen Orient 6; Berlin: D. Reimer, 1986], 55-60).
36. Jerrold S. Cooper, The Return of Ninurta to Nippur: An-gim dim-ma (AnOr 52; Rome: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum, 1978), 9 n. 6, for bibliography; T. Jacobsen, "Religious Drama in Ancient Mesopotamia," in Unity and Diversity: Essays in the History, Literature, and Religion of the Ancient Near East (ed. H. Goedicke; JHNES; Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975), 73.
37. A. Livingstone, Court Poetry and Literary Miscellanea (SAA 3; Helsinki: Helsinki University Press, 1989), 85 n. 34, lines 57-58.
38. Vogelzang, Bin Šar Dadmē, 199.
39. Maul, "Das assyrische König," 210.
40. Riekele Borger, Die Inschriften Asarhaddons, Königs von Assyrien (AfO Beiheft 9; Graz: Im Selbstverlage des Herausgebers, E. Weidner, 1956), 65, Nin. E, col. 2, 6-13. See Maul, "Das assyrische König," 211.
41. Tallqvist, Akkadische Götterepitheta, 424.
42. S. M. Maul, "Wenn der Held (zum Kampfe) auszieht.': Ein Ninurta-Eršemma," Orientalia Nova Series 60 (1991): 329.
43. M. Elat, "Mesopotamische Kriegsrituale," 5-25, esp. 18.
44. Livingstone, Court Poetry and Literary Miscellanea, 100-102; Maul, ""Wenn der Held (zum Kampfe) auszieht.,'" 329.
45. Jean-Jacques Glassner, "A propos des jardins mésopotamiens, " Res Orientales 3 (1991): 10.
46. Magen, Assyrische Königsdarstellungen, 35.
47. Several divine rituals involving a hunt took place in the ambassu (Menzel, Assyrische Tempel, 1:100, for reference to a ritual involving Nabû and the hunt of a rīmu, "wild bull"). The garden, with its plants from all over the empire, symbolized the universality of Assyria; its trees could also recall the combats of Gilgamesh (Glassner, "A propos des jardins mésopotamiens," 17). Lions could be kept in the ambassu-park.
48. Weissert, "Royal Hunt and Royal Triumph," in Assyria 1995, 351 n. 53; Streck, Assurbanipal, 2:306.
49. Gregory Mobley, "The Wild Man in the Bible and the Ancient Near East," JBL 116 (1997): 230-33.
50. Pauline Albenda, "Landscape Bas-Reliefs in the Bit Hilani of Ashurbanipal," Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 225 (1977): 29-48.
51. K. Deller, "Assurbanipal in der Gartenlaube," Baghdader Mitteilungen 18 (1987): 236.
52. R. Riech and B. Brandl, "Gezer under Assyrian Rule," PEQ 117 (1985): 46.
53. For a comment on this seal, see Othmar Keel and Christoph Uehlinger, Göttinnen, Götter, und Gottessymbole: Neue Erkenntnisse zur Religionsgeschichte Kanaans und Israels aufgrund bislang unerschlossener ikonographischer Quellen (QD 134; Freiburg: Herder, 1995), 330 n. 293.
54. Assyrian kings can refer to defeat of both lions and human enemies as dabdāšunu (written ŠI.ŠI, which sumerogram can also be read dīktu, "military defeat" ), "their defeat." See Bauer, Das Inschriftenwerk Assurbanipals, 88 line 11. Likewise the activities of the lion are called epištu, usually reserved for humans or gods (Cassin, "Le roi et le lion," 385). Significantly, however, although human enemies can be mutilated and beheaded in their defeat, the lion is always treated with respect; this may stem from the identification of lion and king (Watanabe, Animal Symbolism, 145).
55. K. Deller, "2. Neuassyrische Rituale für den Einsatz der Götterstreitwagen," Baghdader Mitteilungen 23 (1992): 341-46 (+ plates). On the back of K9923 there is reference to a hunt ritual involving a libation before a lion (rs 1'-5').
56. On this Nabû-priest and his relation to Esarhaddon, see G. W. V. Chamaza, Die Omnipotenz Assurs: Entwicklung in der Assur-Theologie unter den Sargoniden Sargon II., Sanherib, und Asarhaddon (AOAT 295; Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2002), 208-9,210 n. 1727.
57. Chamaza, Die Omnipotenz Assurs, 46
58. A. L. Oppenheim, Letters from Mesopotamia (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967), 168-69. In Neo-Assyrian texts Nabû is often identified with Ninurta (RlA 9:21, 518).
59. Weissert, "Royal Hunt and Royal Triumph," 357.
60. V. Turner, Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors: Symbolic Actions in Human Society (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1974), 196.
61. Karel van der Toorn, "The Babylonian New Year Festival: New Insights from the Cuneiform Texts and Their Bearing on Old Testament Study" in Congress Volume: Leuven 1989 (ed. J. A. Emerton; VTSup 43; Leiden: Brill, 1991), 331-44.
62. Pongratz-Leisten, Ina šulmi īrub, 78.
63. Meuszynski, Die Rekonstruktion der Reliefdarstellungen, Tafel 1 (see B 17-18).
64. Mēlulû means "actor." See C. H. Toy, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Proverbs (ICC; Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1977), 178n.
65. Bendt Alster and A. Westenholz, "The Barton Cylinder," Acta Sumerologica [Japan] 16 (1994): 15-46;
66. Annus, God Ninurta, 12-13.
67. On the royal significance of the verb, see Ps 72:8 (H.-J. Zobel, in TDOT, 13:333).
68. For see S. Wagner, in TDOT, 7:52-57.
69. See Batto, "Divine Sovereign," 179 n. 77. The Akkadian cognate kabāsu ("to trample") is frequently used of the god Ninurta and of the Assyrian king, who both "trample" on their enemies to assure their kingship (Annus, God Ninurta, 97).
70. Matitiahu Tsevat, "The Meaning of the Book of Job," in Sitting with Job: Selected Studies on the Book of Job (ed. R. B. Zuck; Grand Rapids: Baker, 1992), 189-218.
71. D. Cox, "The Desire for Oblivion in Job 3," SBFLA 23 (1973): 42.
72. The bibliography on the legal language in the book of Job is extensive. I wrote on this topic years ago: M. B. Dick, "The Legal Metaphor in Job 31," CBQ 41 (1979): 37-50;
73. idem, "Job 31, the Oath of Innocence, and the Sage," ZAW 95 (1983): 31-53.
74. See also H. Strauss, "Juridisches im Buch Hiob," in Recht und Ethos im alten Testament-Gestalt und Wirkung: Festschrift für Horst Seebass zum 65. Geburtstag (ed. Stefan Beyerle, Günter Mayer, and Hans Strauss; Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1999), 83-90;
75. R. Egger-Wenzel, Von der Freiheit Gottes anders zu sein: Die zentrale Rolle der Kapitel 9 und 10 für das Ijobbuch (FB 83; Würzburg: Echter, 1998);
76. S. H. Scholnick, "The Meaning of Mishpat in the Book of Job," JBL 101 (1982): 521-29;
77. idem, "Poetry in the Courtroom: Job 38-41," in Sitting with Job, 421-39;
78. J. J. M. Roberts, "Job's Summons to Yahweh: Exploitation of a Legal Metaphor," ResQ 16 (1973): 159-65.
79. J. B. Frye, "The Legal Language of the Book of Job" (diss., University of London, 1973);
80. B. Gemser, "The rib- or Controversy-pattern in Hebrew Mentality," in Wisdom in Israel and in the Ancient Near East (ed. M. Noth and D. W. Thomas; VTSup 3; Leiden: Brill, 1955), 120-37;
81. H. Richter, Studien zu Hiob (Berlin: Evangelische Verlaganstalt, 1959). Strauss, whose work is more recent but lacks awareness of the non-German literature on the topic, wisely cautions against reducing the entire book of Job to the legal.
82. For a bibliography on the YHWH speeches, see J. Lévêque, "L'interprétation des discours de Yhwh (Job 38,1-42,6)," in The Book of Job (ed. W. A. M. Beuken; BETL 114; Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1994), 203-22. It is interesting to note that in these speeches the earlier legal vocabulary is missing: (Tsevat, "Meaning of the Book of Job," 212).
83. See Keel, Jahwes Entgegnung an Ijob, 30 n. 84, for a survey of the literature and views on YHWH'S speeches in the book of Job;
84. also see P. J. Nel, "Cosmos and Chaos: A Reappraisal of the Divine Discourses in the Book of Job," OTE 4 (1991): 206-26;
85. J. Van Oorschot, Gott als Grenze: Eine literar- und redaktionsgeschichtliche Studien zu den Gottesreden des Hiobbuches (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1987);
86. A. Van Selms, Job: Een praktische bijbelverklaring (Kampen: Kok, 1984);
87. Veronika Kubina, Die Gottesreden im Buche Hiob: Ein Beitrag zur Diskussion um die Einheit von Hiob 38,1-42,6 (Freiburger theologische Studien 115; Freiburg: Herder, 1979).
88. N. Habel presents a good analysis of YHWH'S speeches and their balanced literary structure (N. C. Habel, The Book of Job: A Commentary [OTL; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1985], 526-27).
89. R. A. F. MacKenzie, "The Purpose of the Yahweh Speeches in the Book of Job," Bib 40 (1959): 436.
90. D. Robertson, "The Book of Job: A Literary Study," Soundings 56 (1973): 462.
91. Gene M. Tucker, "Rain on a Land Where No One Lives: The Hebrew Bible on the Environment," JBL 116 (1997): 13;
92. Scholnick, "Poetry in the Courtroom," 422 n. 1.
93. Dale Patrick, "Divine Creative Power and the Decentering of Creation: The Subtext of the Lord's Addresses to Job," in The Earth Story in Wisdom Traditions (ed. N. C. Habel and S. Wurst; Earth Bible 3; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001), 111.
94. D. J. A. Clines, "The Shape and Argument of the Book of Job," in Sitting with Job, 137.
95. See a survey of opinions in Marvin H. Pope, Job: Introduction, Translation, and Notes (AB 15; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1973), 320-34;
96. Scholnick, "Poetry in the Courtroom," 423, 428.
97. See Scholnick's treatment in the Excursus in Egger-Wenzel, Von der Freiheit Gottes anders zu sein, 69.
98. Maul, "Der assyrische König-Hüter der Weltordnung," 203: "Recht und Gerechtigkeit im Sinne einer politisch-sozialen Ordnung, die zu erhalten und wiederherzustellen Aufgabe des Königs ist, sind nur dann möglich, wenn sie im Einklang stehen mit der Ordnung des Kosmos, wie sie im Schöpfungsakt errichtet wurde. Die Ordnung und 'Rechtmäß igkeit' im Kosmos ist ein Zeichen des Wohlwollens der Götter und Grundvoraussetzung für das Funktionieren des irdischen politisch-sozialen Gefüges."
99. Dick, "Legal Metaphor in Job 31," 37-50; Scholnick, "Meaning of Mishpat," 521-29.
100. The lion serves a similar role in early Christian writings about Paul. In a Coptic papyrus about St. Paul's stay in Ephesus, he encounters a "great and terrible lion out of the valley of the burying ground." Paul converts the lion and then proceeds to a nearby river: "I took 〈the lion〉 by his mane and in the name of Jesus Christ immersed him three times" (W. Schneemelcher, "Acts of Paul," trans. R. M. Wilson, in New Testament Apocrypha vol. 2, Writings Related to the Apostles; Apocalypses and Related Subjects [ed. W. Schneemelcher; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1965], 389). Here as in the lion hunt, the lion represents the savage and wild, whose conversions and baptism signify the spread of Christian faith to all elements of the cosmos.
101. N. C. Habel, "Earth First: Inverse Cosmology in Job," in Earth Story in Wisdom Traditions, 77;
102. J. G. Williams, "The Theophany of Job," in Sitting with Job, 369.
103. Tsevat, "Meaning of the Book of Job," 215.
104. For the justification of this different translation, see Scholnick, "The Meaning of Mishpat in the Book of Job," 528.