Baal as a Divine Warrior: Warrior Imagery in Hebrew Bible, Study notes of World Religions

Download Baal as a Divine Warrior: Warrior Imagery in Hebrew Bible and more Study notes World Religions in PDF only on Docsity! REL 101 Lecture 23 1 Hello again. Welcome to another session of Literature and World of the Hebrew Bible. My name is John Strong and this is session 23. Today we’re looking at warrior imagery in both the Hebrew Bible and ancient Israel. We are going to look at this material in three contexts. Number one, we’ll look at it in the context of Ugarit, a city north of Israel located on the Mediterranean coast. It shared many cultural similarities and commonalities with ancient Israel. We will look at it in regard to the Assyrians and how it shows up in them, just as one example. Basically there, we’re looking at how it shows up in Mesopotamian culture. And we’ll look at it in the Hebrew Bible, how it has shown up in some of ancient Israel’s literature. What we’re gonna get a picture of is in the ancient Near Eastern world as a whole, the deity was seen ultimately as divine warrior who fought for the nation, for the king, and was ultimately the one who provided the power by which the king and the nation succeeded. Again, if you go back and think to some of our previous lessons, we talked in regard to Deuteronomy, mentioned Deuteronomy 32 as talking about Yahweh assigning the gods to their different lands, to their boundary. And we talked about the ideology of the land. It was land that belonged to and assigned to the gods, to particular deities, so that when Elisha — or when the Ahriman commander wanted to worship Yahweh in his own land, he took two cartloads of soil back with him. And the boundaries marked off, then, ideologically what they believed to be the land of Yahweh, of what have you. And it was the gods, the warrior gods, who were there defending that land and providing also for its protection but it’s for its prosperity, too. For its fertility. We have seen and noticed and it’s worth reviewing just a little bit, in both the priestly literature and the Deuteronomistic literature, some of the warrior imagery and how that has played out in Deuteronomy 20, for example. There was a passage talking about holy war and it is ultimately God who fights for the nation; therefore, a large army REL 101 Lecture 23 2 is not important. In the priestly literature the central theme that we organized that material around was this idea of a boundary stele or the testimony of Israel that Yahweh defeated the powers of chaos. All of these are centered on this central idea that Yahweh is a warrior god, a warrior deity, who fights for Israel and who fights against the powers of chaos ultimately on the large scale. And provides, therefore, for life and order. Now, let’s look at the broader Northwest Semitic context. And when I talk about the Northwest Semitic context, I’m talking about in the ancient Near Eastern world there were certain cultural similarities and commonalities that were shared by the Semites and the northwest portion of that group. Here I’m talking about, as an example, the texts from Ugarit. Ugarit or the texts were written in Ugaritic and there were many tablets found there. This is a city found in Syria. It talks about the gods El and Baal and Anat and Asherah and many of the other deities in the pantheon deities associated with the Canaanites. It is good source material to have to learn about the Canaanites. To hear the Canaanites talking about their religion themselves and not having that discussion filtered through the eyes of prophets or the Hebrew Bible, people who were really of a different faith who worshiped Yahweh and their allegiance was to Yahweh. So the Ugaritic literature opened up and it was discovered in the 1930s, and really in the 20th century came to play a huge role in biblical studies because it opened up so much of the religion of the Canaanites and provided such a background, a cultural, religious background, a treasure trove really of concepts and images that the Hebrews and the Israelites were in conversation with. Let’s focus, though, upon a large portion of this literature called the Baal cycle. You hear about Baal in the Hebrew Bible. There are the prophets of Baal mentioned in Elijah’s confrontation with the prophets of Baal. The prophets of Baal were associated with the reign of Ahab who had married Jezebel who was a Phoenician, and therefore REL 101 Lecture 23 5 haven’t been filtered out yet. People then, their agricultural science, their understanding of how they go about planting their fields, involves the worship of Baal. And then we also see that this is the religion and the beliefs of the Canaanites. So when the Israelites came in and displaced the Canaanites, and they brought with them — developed at least with them — the allegiance to and the belief in and the worship of Yahweh, that worship displaced the worship of Baal. But they’re dealing with a lot of the same concepts. Yahweh protects his nation, Yahweh brings prosperity and life, Yahweh defeats chaos. Baal protects the nation, Baal brings prosperity, Baal also defeats the powers of chaos. And so it’s two systems that are clashing with one another, which is a lot of what we see in the Hebrew Bible. We see prophetic conflict. Don’t worship Baal. Show your allegiance to Yahweh. So, at any rate, that’s one example of imagery that was central to the religion and the system belief of folks in Ugarit and the Canaanites, and the people who were a part of that northwest Semitic culture and the Hebrews were a part of that as well. Well, let’s look over at imagery from the ancient Near East. What I mean here is from Assyria, really, and from Mesopotamia. What you’re seeing right now is an image of — a fresco that was painted on a wall. You can barely see the king below. Most of his body has been broken off on this, but you can see that he’s at battle. He’s pulled his bow back. He’s shooting the bow. But then, flying up above and a little bit off to the side, you see the symbol of the god who also has his arrow pulled in the same direction, doing the exact same thing that the king is doing. They’re shooting at the same target. Here is a pictorial representation of the warrior god who is fighting alongside and ultimately supplying the victorious power over the enemies of the king. Let’s move to another image. This image hopefully is going to show up clear on your television screen. This image comes from Nineveh. It dates to about the 9th century. It comes from Ashurnasirpal’s palace there and it was a part of the bas reliefs REL 101 Lecture 23 6 along his palace walls. What it shows is that he’s engaged in battle. He’s on his war chariot, fighting hand-to-hand combat. He again has his bow drawn and is taking aim at his enemy. Then floating just above the king and to the right of this picture is a smaller winged figure which represents the god Ashur. This is the Assyrian national deity. Well, Ashur also has his bow drawn and is also taking aim at Assyria’s enemy. In short, Ashur the god is doing the exact same thing as what the Assyrian king is doing. It is again a representation on the bas relief of the walls of the Assyrian king’s palace that says that the god Ashur fights for Assyria, defeats its enemies, and defends its territory. And that’s the power that the king of Assyria represents. These bas reliefs were set in the palace because as foreigners would come, the king of Assyria would want to intimidate those foreigners and say, “Here’s why you need to be subservient to the king of Assyria because the god Ashur has placed his power behind this king.” This shows up in texts that date back to the Assyrian king and let me just give you one example. This is a text from Adad-nirari III. He lived roughly in the 9th and 8th century B.C.E. And this is taken from some of the inscriptions. This one inscription on this stone slab, perhaps a boundary stele like we’ve been talking about — “property of Adad-nirari, great king, legitimate king, king of the world, king of Assyria.” This guy had no ego problems here, did he? “A king whom Ashur, the king of the Agigi, had chosen when he was a youngster, trusting him with the position of a prince without rival. A king whose shepherding they made as agreeable to the people of Assyria as is the smell of the plant of life. A king whose throne they established firmly.” And so basically what he’s saying is Ashur and the king of the divine assembly has selected Adad-nirari to be king over Assyria, and that he has the full support and power of Ashur to be this king. And he goes on and he talks about that. Then it talks in another paragraph about some of his military exploits. “I marched against the country,” such-and-such. “I shut up Mari, king of Damascus in REL 101 Lecture 23 7 Damascus, his royal residence. The terror inspiring glamour of Ashur.” What he’s talking about here — and you see this actually in some pictures represented — is the splendor or the ray — it’s almost like — think of it in terms of rays of sunlight that go out, that radiate out from. You might even think in terms of auras that radiate out from a god or from the sun as it sets behind a mountain. This is how they understood the glamour of or the countenance of — is maybe another way to translate that — or this is the kind of image that they’re thinking of in this literature. That there was this awe inspiring light that shown forth from this god, and it brought terror to the enemy and comfort to the armies of Assyria, and it is a display of the power of the god. So the terror inspiring glamour of Ashur, his countenance, overwhelmed this foreign king, Mari. “And he seized my feet, assuming the position of a slave of mine, and then I received in his own palace in Damascus, his royal residence, 2300 talents of silver,” etc., etc., etc. He goes on to talk on another slab, “In the fifth year of my official rule I sat down solemnly on my royal throne and called up the country for war. I ordered the numerous army of Assyria to march against Palestine. I crossed the Euphrates at its flood. As to the numerous hostile kings who had rebelled in the time of my father, Shamshi-adad, and had withheld their regular tributes.” In other words, Palestine, they should’ve been paying Adad-niriri but they weren’t. “And for that reason, the terror inspiring glamour overwhelmed them. And upon the command of Ashur, Sin, Shamash, Adad and Ishtar, my trust inspiring gods, they seized my feet in submission.” And again, it talks about this terror inspiring glamour, this countenance, these rays of light beaming forth from the god that intimidated the other kings, and so they did obescience to the king. What I want to emphasize here in these texts, though, is that here are written versions of what we’ve already seen depicted upon the palace walls in Nineveh, that the god fights for Assyria and fights for the Assyrian kings. The Assyrian kings move with REL 101 Lecture 23 10 warriors, O Lord.” Yahweh is the leader of this army. “Let the nations rouse themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the neighboring nations. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the wine press is full. The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near” — it’s something that’s coming; it’s not looking back historically — “in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.” Here we see much more mythological kinds of images. The stars and the moon going dark and not giving forth their light. “The Lord roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shake. But the Lord is a refuge for his people, a stronghold for the people of Israel. So you shall know that I, the Lord your God, dwell in Zion, my holy mountain. And Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall never again pass through it. In that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, the hills shall flow with milk, and all the stream beds of Judah shall flow with water,” etc., etc., etc. Again, this is going to happen in the future. There’s gonna be prosperity because of the warrior deity Yahweh. And so all through its history there was a picture of Yahweh as a warrior. It was Yahweh as a warrior who fought and won the battles of the past, will fight and will win the battles of the future. This is a particularly important aspect of apocalyptic literature. When we get to Daniel, we’ll look at this a little bit. In apocalyptic literature you see Israel once again taking up this image of Yahweh as a warrior and looking forward to a final victory, a victory that brings peace. Peace in the sense of the total completion of creation, the total defeat of all that is evil, all that is chaos, all that is an enemy of life and order. That is the kind of peace that’s looked forward to and is hoped for in apocalyptic literature. It was a kind of peace that was talked about, that ancient Israel strove for all through its life and all through its history. When we get to apocalyptic REL 101 Lecture 23 11 literature it is a hope that is placed further in the future as something yet to come. Finally in this regard, I want to mention Numbers, Chapter 6, verses 23 through 25. This is a priestly blessing and it is a blessing for all Israel. It shows up in the biblical text here in number 6 and it reads “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you.” This is — when it talks about His face to shine upon you, it’s talking about this terror inspiring glamour. It’s picking up the same imagery as what we saw in the Assyrian text: that the gods and the army as the sun, for example, might be understood to set behind a mountain or a hill, and then the sun rays shine out — that’s the kind of image that they had in their heads. That God would create this kind of terror inspiring splendor that would intimidate the opponents. :The Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious” so that His splendor will be a blessing to you and will be in support of you. “The Lord life up his countenance upon, and give you peace.” It’s interesting that this text is the earliest extra — it’s the earliest quote of biblical text found outside of the Bible. It was found in — not far from the temple mount in Jerusalem by Gaby Barcai who’s been a part of this class. He discovered a small, silver amulet around a skeleton when he was digging in and excavating a tomb not far from the temple mount in Jerusalem. This little amulet probably dates to about the 7th century B.C.E. It perhaps was worn by a priest or a member of the priestly family or a prominent official. It was a silver scroll that was rolled up. When they unrolled it very carefully, they found this blessing printed upon it. It is the earliest quote of a text found outside of the Bible in the land of Jerusalem. Again, though, it is drawing upon this image of Yahweh as a warrior and it’s because he’s a warrior that Israel will be blessed. That will conclude what we’re talking about today. We’ll come back next time and we’ll kind of wrap up with a little bit of a comparison between Deuteronomistic work and the priestly work, and then we’ll move on to the prophets from there. Thank you REL 101 Lecture 23 12 for your attention.