A N C I E N T P R O P H E C Y Ancient Prophecy Near Eastern, Biblical, and Greek Perspectives M A R T T I N I S S I N E N 1 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University ’ s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries © Martti Nissinen 2017 The moral rights of the author have been asserted First Edition published in 2017 Impression: 1 Some rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, for commercial purposes, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. 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In memory of my teachers Ilmari Soisalon-Soininen (1917 – 2002) Timo Veijola (1947 – 2005) Oswald Loretz (1928 – 2014) Heikki Räisänen (1941 – 2015) Preface and Acknowledgments It is a pleasure to write a preface to a book that has been in the making for a long time. Any reader somewhat familiar with my earlier publications will fi nd out that the book at hand is the result of decades of interpretation and reinterpretation, contextualization and recontextualization, redaction and Fortschreibung — almost like a biblical prophetic book, with the exception that this book demonstrably has only one author. Ever since the late 1980s when I was doctoral student in Old Testament studies it has been my conviction that prophecy was a phenomenon common to the ancient Near Eastern cultural sphere. Thanks to Simo Parpola who taught me Neo-Assyrian using prophetic oracles as teaching material, I became acquainted with the Assyrian prophecies which I could use already in my 1991 doctoral thesis. At that time, these texts were still unpublished and had been studied by just a few scholars such as Manfred Weippert and Herbert Huffmon. It was only much later that I began to recognize the Greek side to the picture. It is no secret that I am not a classicist, but the lack of exchange between biblical, Near Eastern, and classical scholarship started to bother me to the extent that I ventured into studying Greek sources myself, hopefully not with all too fl awed results. This book is written in favor of the following ideas resulting from my research over the past decades. First, the word “ prophecy ” refers to the category of non- inductive kind of divination that can be found in different parts of ancient Eastern Mediterranean. It is always based on the notion of divine – human communication; however, it is organized differently in different historically contingent divinatory systems. Secondly, ancient prophetic performances are unreachable, and knowledge of them is available only through secondary inter- pretation in written sources which yield only a partial view of the historical phenomenon. Thirdly, prophecy is socio-religious agency, serving the purposes of human communities and their religious and political structures and author- ities. Prophets are a class of diviners with patterned public behavior recognizable to the communities witnessing their performances. My book is divided into three parts, the fi rst of which discusses the theoretical premises of constructing prophetic divination, the second gives an overview of the sources, and the third consists of comparative essays on a few crucial topics. Each of the nine chapters can be read as a self-sustaining unit; I hope the reader will tolerate some overlaps in the content of the chapters caused by this structure. The presentation of the threefold source materials including biblical, Near Eastern, and Greek texts attempts a comprehensive view of prophetic divination in the ancient Eastern Mediterranean sources. However, this book is still far from being a full compendium of the subject. The reader will easily notice important sources that my book does not discuss properly, such as apocalyptic writings, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and early Christian sources. I can only apologize for this failure and refer to some earlier publications that may compensate these shortcomings in a small part (Nissinen 2003c, 2008b, 2009b, 2010a, 2015). The book itself contains partially rewritten and expanded text of four articles published earlier: Nissinen 2000b, 2010c, 2012, and 2013a. I thank the pub- lishers of the original articles, Eisenbrauns, Labor et Fides, and the Society of Biblical Literature, for permission to republish this content. In addition, frag- ments of several prior publications can be found in different parts of the book. This book is essentially the product of the academic environment of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Helsinki. The inquisitive and open- minded atmosphere of the Department of Biblical Studies, represented by colleagues such as Raija Sollamo, Outi Lehtipuu, Ismo Dunderberg, Risto Uro, Antti Marjanen, and Petri Luomanen, has had a formative in fl uence on my own work. In particular, the Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence “ Changes in Sacred Texts and Traditions ” (CSTT) has provided an unpreju- diced international meeting place for different theoretical approaches and methodologies. It has been a pleasure to work together with the team leaders Anneli Aejmelaeus, Jutta Jokiranta, and Juha Pakkala, members of my own team (Tero Alstola, Izaak de Hulster, Helen Dixon, Sanae Ito, Raz Kletter, Raija Mattila, Katri Saarelainen, Sanna Saari, Jason Silverman, Saana Svärd, Emilia Tapiola, Joanna Töyräänvuori, Tuula Tynjä, Kirsi Valkama), as well as many other CSTT members who have worked on topics related to prophecy (Katri Antin, Reinhard Müller, Urmas Nõmmik, Mika Pajunen, Hanna Tervanotko, Elisa Uusimäki, Hanne von Weissenberg). Another institution I owe a great debt of gratitude to is the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, where I have had the privilege of doing my research in 2008 – 9, 2011, and 2016. I have greatly enjoyed the scholarly ambiance at the Institute, as well as the support of colleagues in Classics such as Michael Flower (Princeton University), Angelos Chaniotis, Caroline Walker Bynum, and Christopher Jones. I also had the opportunity of visiting the Humboldt University of Berlin in 2015, for which I thank Bernd Ulrich Schipper. Inspiring scholarly exchange on prophecy with Ehud Ben Zvi, Dominique Charpin, Lester Grabbe, Esther Hamori, Reinhard Kratz, Christoph Levin, Simo Parpola, and Jonathan Stökl has contributed decisively to the develop- ment of my own image of prophecy. Some of my colleagues have become close friends with whom I have shared much more than just scholarly ideas: Terje Stordalen, David Carr and Colleen Conway, Mark Smith and Elizabeth Bloch- Smith, Kirsi Stjerna and Brooks Schramm, and Peggy Day. A signi fi cant number of colleagues deserve thanks for their support and critiques. I want to mention the following scholars from whom, among many viii Preface and Acknowledgments others, I have learned over the years: Hans Barstad, Bob Becking, Angelika Berlejung, George Brooke, David Clines, John Collins, Walter Dietrich, Chip Dobbs-Allsopp, Göran Eidevall, Daniel Fleming, Christian Frevel, Erhard Gerstenberger, Jan Gertz, Jean-Georges Heintz, Else Holt, Herbert Huffmon, Axel Knauf, Antti Laato, Armin Lange, Mark Leuchter, Ted Lewis, Peter Machinist, Sara Milstein, Hindy Najman, Herbert Niehr, Beate Pongratz- Leisten, Jack Sasson, Leong Seow, Rudolf Smend, Hermann Spieckermann, Marvin Sweeney, Karel van der Toorn, Josef Tropper, and Manfred Weippert. Finally, I would like to thank people who have contributed to the production of the volume: Maarit Kolsi for the cover image inspired by one of my source texts (SAA 9 1 rev.); Nina Nikki for preparing the indexes; the anonymous readers and the staff of Oxford University Press: Tom Perridge and Karen Raith; and Gayathri Manoharan, Michael Janes, and Brian North. The loyal support of my wife Leena has been unfailing, and my daughters Elina and Kaisa have been my source of constant delight. I offer my heartfelt thanks to everyone mentioned above. I dedicate this book to the memory of my teachers: Ilmari Soisalon-Soininen whose seminar on the historical background of the biblical prophets was the starting point of my occupation with prophecy; Timo Veijola who taught me to take theology and scholarship seriously; Oswald Loretz who always reminded me that every scholar should have a method; and Heikki Räisänen who programma- tically transgressed imaginary boundaries, whether those of scholarship or biblical canon. Note to the reader: Throughout the text and notes in this volume, reference is made to original sources of Ancient Near Eastern Documents of Prophecy, by the use of a number preceded by * (e.g. *26; **51 – 3, *118f). A complete catalogue of sources is given in Appendix 2. Preface and Acknowledgments ix Contents List of Abbreviations xiii PART I. THEORY 1. Constructing Prophetic Divination 3 Prophecy as a Construct 3 Prophecy as Divination 10 Prophets as Intermediaries 19 On Comparative Studies 43 Sources, Genre, and Purpose 51 PART II. SOURCES 2. Ancient Near Eastern Sources 57 Lexical Lists and Omen Texts 57 Legal and Administrative Texts 62 Ritual Texts 68 Letters 73 Written Oracles 93 Literary Prophecy 104 3. Greek Sources 116 Epigraphic Sources 116 Literary Sources 127 4. Hebrew Bible 144 Prophecy in the Hebrew Bible 144 Prophetic Books of the Hebrew Bible 150 Historical Narrative of the Hebrew Bible 162 PART III. COMPARATIVE ESSAYS 5. Prophecy and Ecstasy 171 Prophecy and Possession 171 Prophetic Performance in Ancient Near Eastern Sources 173 Prophetic Ecstasy in the Hebrew Bible 183 Prophetic Performance in Greek Sources 191 6. Prophets and Temples 201 Prophets and Temples: Preliminary Issues 201 Ancient Near Eastern Sources: Second Millennium BCE 204 Ancient Near Eastern Sources: First Millennium BCE 214 Prophets and Temples: Greek Sources 224 Prophets and Temples: Hebrew Bible 242 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 15/9/2017, SPi 7. Prophets and Kings 257 Herrschaftswissen and Prophetic Divination 257 Prophets and Kings: Ancient Near East 263 Prophets and Kings: Greece 280 Prophets and Kings: Hebrew Bible 289 8. Prophecy and Gender 297 Gender of Prophets: Taxonomy 297 Gender and Human Agency 304 Gender and Divine Agency 315 9. Keyholes for Comparative Reconstruction 326 Sources 326 Divination 334 Ecstasy 335 Temples 339 Kings 344 Gender 346 The Scribal Turn 348 Family Resemblances 353 Appendix 1 Gender of Prophets and Deities in Ancient Near Eastern Sources 357 Appendix 2 Catalogue of Ancient Near Eastern Documents of Prophecy 361 Bibliography 367 Index of Near Eastern Sources 423 Index of Biblical References 427 Index of Greek Sources 434 Index of Modern Authors 441 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 15/9/2017, SPi xii Contents List of Abbreviations For abbreviations of the Greek and Latin sources, see the Index of Sources A. Tablet signature of texts from Mari AASF Annales Academiae scientiarum fennicae AB Anchor Bible AbB F. R. Kraus (ed.), Altbabylonische Briefe in Umschrift und Übersetzung (Leiden 1964) ABL R. F. Harper, Assyrian and Babylonian Letters (London & Chicago, 1892 – 1914) ABRL Anchor Bible Reference Library ABSA Annual of the British School at Athens AD Abraham J. Sachs and Hermann Hunger, Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from Babylonia. Vols 1 – 3 (Vienna 1988 – 96) ADPV Abhandlungen Des Deutschen Palastina-Vereins AfO Archiv für Orientforschung AHw Wolfram von Soden, Akkadisches Handwörterbuch , Vols. 1 – 3 (Wiesbaden ) AJS Review Association for Jewish Studies Review ALASP Abhandlungen zur Literatur Alt-Syren-Palästinas und Mesopotamiens ANEM Ancient Near East Monographs AOAT Alter Orient und Altes Testament AOF Altorientalische Forschungen AOS American Oriental Series ARM Archives royales de Mari ASJ Acta Sumerologica (Japan) BASOR Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research BCSMS Bulletin of the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies BEATAJ Beiträge zur Erforschung des Alten Testaments und des antiken Judentums BETL Bibliotheca ephemeridum theologicarum lovaniensium Bib Biblica BibOr Biblica et orientalia BJS Brown Judaic Studies BKAT Biblischer Kommentar, Altes Testament BO Bibliotheca orientalis BTZ Berliner Theologische Zeitschrift BWANT Beiträge zur Wissenschaft vom Alten und Neuen Testament BZ NF Biblische Zeitschrift Neue Folge BZAW Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft CAD Chicago Assyrian Dictionary CBET Contributions to Biblical Exegesis and Theology CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly CBR Currents in Biblical Research CDA Jeremy Black, Andrew George, and Nicholas Postgate, A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian (2nd ed., Wiesbaden 2000) CDOG Internationales Colloquium der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft CHANE Culture and History of the Ancient Near East CHD The Chicago Hittite Dictionary CIG Corpus Inscriptiorum Graecarum , ed. August Boeckh. 4 vols. Berlin 1828 – 77 CM Cuneiform Monographs CP Classical Philology CRRAI Comptes rendus de la Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale CT Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum CTH Catalog der Texte der Hethiter CW Classical World DI Albert Rehm and Richard Harder, Didyma II: Die Inschriften, Berlin 1958 DDD 2 Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible . Edited by K. van der Toorn, B. Becking, and P. W. van der Horst. Second edition (Leiden 1995) DMOA Documenta et Monumenta Orientis Antiqui DNP Der neue Pauly: Enzyklopädie der Antike. Edited by H. Cancik and H. Schneider. (Stuttgart 1996 – ) DSD Dead Sea Discoveries EA El-Amarna tablets EPRO Etudes préliminaires aux religions orientales dans l ’ empire romain ErIsr Eretz-Israel EVO Egitto e Vicino Oriente FAT Forschungen zum Alten Testament FD Fouilles de Delphes , ed. Théophile Homolle et al. 5 vols. Paris 1906 – FLP Tablets in the collections of the Free Library of Pennsylvania FM Florilegium Marianum FOTL Forms of the Old Testament Literature xiv List of Abbreviations FRLANT Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments Gilg. The Epic of Gilgame š GMTR Guides to the Mesopotamian Textual Record GR Greece and Rome HANEM History of the Ancient Near East Monographs HeBAI Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel HO Handbuch der Orientalistik HR History of Religions HSCP Harvard Studies in Classical Philology HSM Harvard Semitic Monographs HSS Harvard Semitic Studies HTKAT Herders theologischer Kommentar zum Alten Testament HTR Harvard Theological Review HUCA Hebrew Union College Annual ICos Inscriptions of Cos , edited by W. R. Paton & G. L. Hicks, Oxford 1891 IEJ Israel Exploration Journal IG Inscriptiones Graecae . Many vols. Berlin 1828 – IM Tablets in the collections of the Iraq Museum I.Pergamon Altertümer von Pergamon: Inschriften , 8.2. ed. M. Fränkel, Berlin 1895; 8.3. ed. Christian Habicht, Berlin 1969 Int Interpretation JAJSup The Journal of Ancient Judaism Supplements JANER Journal for the Study of Ancient Near Eastern Religions JANESCU Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society of Columbia University JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society JBL Journal of Biblical Literature JCS Journal of Cuneiform Studies JHNES Johns Hopkins Near Eastern Studies JHS Journal of Hellenic Studies JNES Journal of Near Eastern Studies JNSL Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages JR Journal of Religion JRA Journal of Roman Archaeology JRS Journal of Roman Studies JSJSup Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament List of Abbreviations xv JSOTSup Journal for the Study of the Old Testament: Supplement Series JSPSup Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha: Supplement Series JSS Journal of Semitic Studies JSSEA Journal of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities K Tablets in the collections of the British Museum KAR Keilschrifttexte aus Assur religiösen Inhalts . Edited by E. Ebeling (Leipzig 1919 – 23) KASKAL Kaskal, Rivista di storia, ambienti e culture del Vicino Oriente Antico KBO Keilschrifttexte aus Bogazköi (Leipzig 1916 – ) KTT Manfred Krebernik, Tall Bi ‘ a/Tuttul II: Die altorientalischen Schriftfunde (Saaarbrücken 2001) Lak Texts from Lachish in Johannes Renz and Wolfgang Röllig, Handbuch der althebräischen Epigraphik (Darmstadt 1995) LAPO Littératures anciennes du Proche-Orient LCL Loeb Classical Library LD Lectio divina LHBOTS The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies LKA Erich Ebeling, Literarische Keilschrifttexte aus Assur (Berlin 1953) LKU Adam Falkenstein, Literarische Keilschrifttexte aus Uruk (Berlin 1931) LSJ Liddell, H. G., R. Scott, H. S. Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon. 9th ed. with revised supplement (Oxford 1996) LTBA Die lexikalischen Tafelserien der Babylonier und Assyrer , Bd. I: L. Matous; Bd. II: W. von Soden (Berlin 1933) LXX The Septuagint M. Tablet signature of texts from Mari MARI Mari: Annales de recherches interdisciplinaires MdB Le Monde de la Bible MDP Mémoires de la Délégation en Perse Milet Milet: Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen und Untersuchungen , Berlin: de Gruyter 1996 – 2007 MSL Materialien zum sumerischen Lexikon / Materials for the Sumerian Lexicon MT Masoretic Text NABU Nouvelles assyriologiques brèves et utilitaires NEA Near Eastern Archaeology NRSV The New Revised Standard Version Numen Numen: International Review for the History of Religions OAC Orientis Antiqui Collectio xvi List of Abbreviations OBO Orbis biblicus et orientalis OEAGR Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome OECT Oxford Editions of Cuneiform Inscriptions OIP Oriental Institute Publications OLA Orientalia lovaniensia analecta OPMS Occasional Publications of the Museum of the Sealand Or Orientalia OTL Old Testament Library OTS Old Testament Studies PAWB Potsdamer Altertumswissenschaftliche Beiträge PFES Publications of the Finnish Exegetical Society PIHANS Publications de l'Institut historique-archéologique néerlandais de Stamboul PIPOAC Publications de l'Institut du Proche-Orient Ancien du Collège de France PSBA Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology PW A. F. Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft . New edition edited by G. Wissowa. 49 vols. (Munich) RA Revue d ’ assyriologie et d ’ archéologie orientale RAC Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum RB Revue biblique REA Revue des études anciennes RGRW Religions in the Roman World RhM Rheinisches Museum für Philologie RIBLA Revista de interpretación bíblica latino-americana RIMB The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia, Babylonian Periods RIME The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia, Early Periods RINAP Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period RivB Rivista biblica italiana RlA Reallexikon der Assyriologie RThPh Revue de théologie et de philosophie SAA State Archives of Assyria SAAB State Archives of Assyria Bulletin SAAS State Archives of Assyria Studies SAMD Studies in Ancient Magic and Divination SANER Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records SAOC Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilizations SB Standard Babylonian List of Abbreviations xvii SBAW Sitzungsberichte der bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften SBB Stuttgarter biblische Beiträge SBLAIL Society of Biblical Literature Ancient Israel and its Literature SBLSBS Society of Biblical Literature Sources for Biblical Study SBLSymS Society of Biblical Literature Symposium Series SBLWAW Society of Biblical Literature Writings from the Ancient World SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum SGDI Sammlung der griechischen Dialekt-Inschriften , ed. Herman Collitz et al. 4 vols. Göttingen 1884 – 89 SHCANE Studies in the History and Culture of the Ancient Near East SIG Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum , ed. Wilhelm Dittenberger. Third edition. 4 vols. Leipzig 1915 – 24 SJLA Studies in Judaism in Late Antiquity SJOT Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament SpTU Spätbabylonische Texte aus Uruk STAR Studies in Theology and Religion StAT Studien zu der Assur-Texten STDJ Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah StOr Studies in Oriental Religions SVTP Studia in Veteris Testamenti pseudepigraphica Syria Syria. Archéologie, art et histoire T. Tablet signature of texts from Mari TAD Bezalel Porten and Ada Yardeni, Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt (Jerusalem 1986 – 1999) TCL Textes cunéiformes. Musée du Louvre TCS Texts from Cuneiform Sources ThB Theologische Bücherei ThesCRA Thesaurus cultus et rituum antiquorum TLZ Theologische Literaturzeitung TS Texts and Studies TSAJ Texte und Studien zum antiken Judentum TTK Tidsskrift for Teologi og Kirke TUAT Texte aus der Umwelt des Alten Testaments. Edited by Otto Kaiser. Gütersloh, 1984 – TWAT Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Alten Testament. UC Tablets in the collections of University College London UF Ugarit-Forschungen xviii List of Abbreviations VS Vorderasiatische Schriftdenkmäler der Königlichen/Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin VT Vetus Testamentum VTSup Supplements to Vetus Testamentum W Field numbers of tablets escavated at Warka (Uruk) WAWSup Writings from the Ancient World Supplement Series WBC Word Biblical Commentary WiBiLex Das wissenschaftliche Bibellexikon im Internet WMANT Wissenschaftliche Monographien zum Alten und Neuen Testament WO Die Welt des Orients WUNT Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament WVDOG Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen der deutschen Orientgesellschaft YBC Yale Babylonian Collection YOS Yale Oriental Series, Texts ZA Zeitschrift für Assyriologie ZAR Zeitschrift fur altorientalische und biblische Rechtsgeschichte ZAW Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft ZPE Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik ZTK Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche ZTT Tablets from Ziyaret Tepe List of Abbreviations xix