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Assyrian Archer

It is of no surprise to hear another personal seal has been uncovered in one of the many on-going excavations in the Old City of Jerusalem (the Western Wall Plaza). What may be the twist in this tale is the possibility that the seal may have been planted - a fake.

Anyone who has seen the beautiful depictions of King Sennacherib’s assault on the Judean city of Lachish (701 BCE) will recall the rows of Assyrian archers sending a hail of arrows into the defending city. The depiction of the Assyrian archer is a well-known stylized form - a man walking right with his left hand on the bow as his right hand (the stronger one) pulls back the string. This image is duplicated so two archers appear together side-by-side as in battle formation.

What then becomes interesting and slightly suspicious, is to see this new discovery showing a single archer wearing two quivers of arrows (as if two men were standing together), and he is standing (when impressed into the seal/wax) back-to-front! His weaker arm (the left hand) pulls the string back and his feet are reversed.

Assyrian Archer

One would expect a seventh-century artisan who makes and manufactures artifacts that reflects the images of his own age, would know that the archer needs to be inscribed in the reverse on the stone- thus only when impressed in the wax - does it appear in the stylized format with the right hand on the strong string and his left hand steadying the bow.

This seal has correctly reversed the inscription “for Hagab” - a Hebrew name (appears in Ezra 2:46) - on the stone. The image is not reversed, though! It is a possibility that this seal is the result of a simple and recent sketch of a walking Assyrian archer as lifted from (the inscription of the destruction of Lachish?) any source depicting Assyrian archers.

Let’s wait for more news. After all, there may have been a military commander in Jerusalem famed for his mighty left-handed feats and dexterity!

The seventh century BCE seal uncovered in the excavations (Photo: Clara Amit, Israel Antiquities Authority)

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Statistically, animal forms in Israel predominate those of human shape, and the majority of human forms are those of females. These female figurines have been labeled as the “Mother-goddess” or “Astarte” and since they go against the principal of aniconism (aversion to the use of icons) that the book of Deuteronomy describes, scholars have often placed the use of these figurines into the ‘popular’ religion of the common folk of Israel.

Religious Difference amongst the Israelites?

Many assumptions underline this idea. The first is that human figurines are representative of deities. The other, is that the presence of figurines in ancient houses is evidence of popular Israelite worship. This is contrasted by scholars with the official religion of Israel that claims to hate the production and use of such items as religious icons. Did such a religious divide exist in Israel?

The Bull and the Cherubim

One often cited example of unofficial versus official religion in Israel, is the worship at Dan and Bethel of the Bull that was installed by Jeroboam been Nebat, the first king of Israel. These bulls are interpreted as an image of worship, opposed to the Cherubim inside the Jerusalem temple that served as the throne of the invisible God, for the bible says God is “seated upon the cherubim”. So, from the biblical perspective, worship was different in Jerusalem than in Dan and Bethel.

Religious Ways Begin to Change

When we learn of the religious reform of Hezekiah, King of Judah - how he tore down the standing pillars and removed the Asherim from his land, we also hear how he removed an image of worship from the Jerusalem Temple. It was a bronze serpent and was called the Nehushtan which “the people of Israel burned incense to” (2 kings 18:4).

The bible clearly acknowledges that the worship of images and icons (such as the snake) existed at one time in Israel, and that a King who believed it a breach of proper worship took on the task of removing their presence.

The Call to Worship the Invisible God

The Bible tells us that the prohibition of religious images in Israel dates back to the times of Moses. However, the long use of the Nehushtan (the snake) in the Temple shows that either the Jerusalem priests ignored this religious stance against icons, or that the prohibition had not yet taken root in Judahite worship. What does seem to be sure is the growing awareness and introduction of worship of the invisible God alone, soon after the actions of King Hezekiah. Perhaps words like these drove him in his actions, “You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth” (Deut 5:8).

In conclusion, we see that the official religion in Judah did, at one time, acknowledge the use of images in their worship, and thus one does not see the necessity of classifying figurines and such like icons into the ‘popular’ religion category. It was only a process of time that brought the use of icons to an end.

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Intermarriage

The biblical period shows how marriage to a male Jew was the key for an outsider to enter into the full membership and rights of the Jewish community. Without it, the very offspring of Moses and Boaz would have been called into question.

Intermarriage that is not outlawed in the founding laws in Leviticus came under attack by Ezra and Nehemiah in the Fifth Century B.C.E. Both men had spent the best part of their active lives in the Babylonian courts and became the pioneers that caused and aided a remnant to return to the broken walls of Jerusalem. Living under very different circumstances, where their ancient land was no longer theirs, the tolerance and openness of intermarriage was no longer a luxury this struggling and mixed group of Babylonian Jewry could afford to maintain.

Intermarriage as they knew it, that of a female non-Jew joining and upholding the Israelite laws as the book of Ruth explains, thus ended in very sad circumstances. This abolishment was carried on and enforced in the rabbinic period. In 1983, the Reform movement in the United States reinstated the Jewish status of children in a marriage where any one partner was Jewish and the children were reared in Judaism.

The Ethnic Factor

One side of the argument is that by birth a person may inherit a religious way of life that as an adult they choose not to follow. The country of Israel is a good example of the mix of Jewish people from all walks of life and religious views. However, they are Jews because their forefathers were Jews, and as we read in Genesis 12:7, Abraham was the receiver of a special promise that would be forever passed on to his children. This community known by the name of Abraham’s grandson, Bnei Yisrael, is called by Ezra as the “holy seed” (9:2).

However, when reading the bible closely, we find that birth has not been a guarantee of acceptance into the Israelite community. Look at the varying treatments between the brothers Isaac and Ishmael (who shared the same father) and Jacob and Esau (same father and mother). We see that Ishmael and Esau were dropped from the history and society of the Israelites, and instead they took up position against their brothers.

The silence in the bible about why birth was not sufficient in these cases has caused much debate, and the rabbinic commentaries attempt to fill the silence with a possible faulty idolatrous character of the men. But even this reasoning shows that acting against God, can disinherit you.

The Faith Factor

This idea of removing yourself from the brotherhood, even though you were physically born into it, is a biblical idea and one that stems from the establishment of the covenant of laws as ministered by Moses. When this system was set in place, it established a connection with God that gave to each member the responsibility to respond to God by following His rules. Through disobedience to these laws, each person was putting in danger that membership.

Perhaps the clearest example of this faith factor that runs concurrently with the birth factor in the bible comes from Abraham. When he was living in Ur in Mesopotamia, the term Israelite and Jew had not yet come into conscious thought. He was a solitary man who heard and responded to the voice of God. His faith in and obedience towards God was tested even to the point where his precious son was laid-out to die by his hand. His faith was the door that allowed him into the new community built upon him. One can say he paved the way for those who, not by birth, but through faith can always have a glorious way to enter into the Jewish community.

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Negative Picture of Women in Worship
The silence in the book of Ruth for a female voice is prevalent throughout the entire Bible. In fact, there is evidence that women and worship were viewed in a negative light. We hear of the women who wail over the death of Tammuz (Ezekiel 8:14) and who weave goods for the Asherah (2 Kings 23:7). The women who bake cakes for the Queen of Heaven (Jeremiah 7:17) and infamous characters like the soothsayer known as the Witch of Endor (1 Sam 28). All these activities are framed as illegal in the eyes of the Bible writers, who emphasised the prohibition of idol worship which was a later idea that developed in Israelite thought.

Refocus the Lens
Seeing that this religious history was penned by men (who had grave misgivings of women’s menstruation for example), it is necessary to refocus the lens and try to assess the role of women in religion on its true merits.

Let us take, for example, the first example given above - the illegal activity of wailing for the god Tammuz. Firstly note that Ezekiel 8 records that the women are in the Temple. They are, in fact, performing a religious mourning ceremony that is not only considered acceptable to them but also to those who pass them by in the Temple precinct. Their function plays a large role in the agricultural cycle and the desire for new rain. It can be assumed since this group of women was organized inside the Temple to ensure success for the next agricultural season, that what they were doing was no mystery and was not met with disbelief on the part of the people. Neither the women, nor the general populace wrote this passage. It was written by a man who felt it illegal.

Temple and War in a Woman’s World
Temple and War may seem to be two areas were we can safely say women had no part - but this would not be true. Not only do we have passages that relate of the consecrated women working and worshipping in the Jerusalem Temple (often mistranslated as temple-prostitutes!) but we also see them functioning in the sanctuary at Shiloh and the tent of the Tabernacle in the desert (Hosea 4:13-15, 1 Sam 2.22, Exodus 38:8).

Women also played a huge psychological part in war. It was their role to go out and encourage the men with singing and clapping. We have Miriam and Deborah leading triumphant victory dances (Exodus 15:20-2; Judges 5:12) and history of past cultures shows us how women even followed men to the Battlefields to care and encourage.

Women participated mostly in what can be classified as domestic religion, those issues that touch their lives, reproduction, health and illness, the changing seasons, worship and the affects of war. Unfortunately, these issues never became mainstream and were largely ignored by the writers of the Bible who became concerned with the new One God Alone movement. The writers thus sought to pass judgment on the activities of the past, in light of the new revelation of the oneness of God. The small voice in the Bible of women in religion thus took on its detrimental character and the creative and varied role of women in Israelite religion was forgotten.

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Photo: Gabi Laron, Institute of Archeology, The Hebrew University. Courtesy of Dr. Eilat Mazar

Another biblical personality was unearthed this month in the City of David’s on-going excavation in Jerusalem. This time, it was a Minister by the name of Gedaliah Ben Pashur. His name appears along with three other Ministers in Jeremiah 38:1 (Shephatiah, Pashhur and Yehuchal). Amazingly enough, Gedaliah’s name is not the first to be confirmed through the archaeological record from this verse. Already in 2005, the bulla for Minister Yehuchal Ben Shelemayahu (Jer 38:1) was found, confirming him also as a flesh and blood personality in the first quarter of the sixth Century BCE.

The Ministers

These four men were officials in the court of Zedekiah (597-586 BCE) and are mentioned specifically due to their request that Jeremiah the prophet be put to death. It was as a consequence of their intrusion that Jeremiah was cast into a deep miry pit and left to die (Jer 38:5).

A Brave Eunuch

And thus the story of Jeremiah’s prophetic activity would have ended had it not been for the intervention of the king’s eunuch, an Ethiopian by the name of Eved-Melech. He went before Zedekiah and said, “My Lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon; and he is like to die for hunger in the place where he is: for there is no more bread in the city”. (Jer 38:9)

Jeremiah Continues

Jeremiah’s life was spared, but he lived in constant danger from these four Ministers (Jer 38:1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 27). Shortly after he was rescued from their evil machinations, he was able to deliver to Zedekiah a clear message from God concerning the present woe that beset the besieged city- “Go over to the Babylonians and save yourself and the city; fight them and your family will be lost and this city will be burnt”.

The Last remaining Ministers

It will be interesting to see whether two more bullae will be found in the burnt remains of Zedekiah’s Jerusalem, with the names “Shephatiah ben Mattan” and “Phashur ben Malkiah” (Jer 38:1) - the officials who failed to kill the voice of God.

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In the years prior to the Babylonian destruction of the temple and city of Jerusalem, the Judahites had enjoyed a religious revival and cleansing that had been implemented by the hands of King Josiah (641-609 BCE) and had been encouraged by the voices of the kingdom’s prophets. This period of revival occurred in the lull between the fall of the Assyrians and the rise of the Neo-Babylonians of whom Nebuchadnezzar is perhaps the most memorable figure. From the time of Josiah until the end of the nation we see three of his sons (Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim and Zedekiah) and one grandson (Jehoiachin) sit on the throne of Judah and throughout all this time we have one prominent prophet, Jeremiah, speaking to the kings and the people.

How Jeremiah became Public Enemy Number One

Jeremiah had not been satisfied with King Josiah’s reforms nor the heartening knowledge that the Assyrian Empire had come to an end. His mouth was full of prophecies of doom directed at the Israelites. These messages astounded the people who reacted with fists and imprisonment to his threats (Jer 19:14-20:3; 26). His message went completely against the trust they had, that God would save them as he had done in the days of Sennacherib and Hezekiah. Furthermore his message was a paradox they did not understand- surrender to a heathen king to save yourselves. The call to surrender had nothing to do with sin and repentance, but rather accepting that it was God’s will that every nation should put on the yoke of the Babylonians, and thus survive (Jer 27-28). However the notion of surrendering to the Judeans meant not trusting in God for their salvation and so they ignored and despised him as a raving lunatic. When the Babylonians finally besieged Jerusalem Jeremiah was being half-staved in a miry pit for inciting insurrection amongst the people and army.

Jeremiah’s Unknown End

The hard-necked people of Judea did not surrender and for their insolence, (as seen by the Babylonians), they were dealt with decisively. The age-old temple established by their forefathers was razed to the ground and the population, in a series of waves, was exiled into the east for work-projects. For thirty-eight years Jeremiah had cried a message that had fallen on unhearing ears, his logic being inconceivable to them. In the end he was forced against his will into exile in Egypt where he died in an unknown place.

His life was one of deep service not only to those in Jerusalem- his last recorded prophesy deals with the idolatry he found when he arrived in Egypt. Jeremiah should be remembered as a man whose heart was broken for his people. For he deeply believed in the sanctity of this nation and its covenant with God, and through this conviction was cut by the continuing blindness of the people. However Jeremiah should be remembered for the promise from God he imparted to them, that if they return to God with “all their heart” then God “will give them a heart” to know and fear him (Jer 24:7, 32:39).

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Depending on your preference you can choose a variety of texts that emphasize different aspects of the biblical hebrew text- some highlight the Bible’s roots of Judaism with particular attention to the ways the character and names of God are revealed. Other translations reflect the age we live in with gender conscious attention to the text, while others aim to give a translation of an idea rather than a straight word for word translation. At the end of the day all these materials are enriching for us and allow us to tap into some special resources that scholars have labored over for us to enjoy. However all these materials are but a reflection of the beauty of the original text. How many of us have read poetry in translation? Reading the works of Pablo Neruda or Khalid Gibran are drops of beauty, but reading their poems in the originals (even without understanding), one begins to feel the pace and rhythm that exudes from each sentence, a phenomenon difficult to capture in translation.

“Lost in Translation”
 What then do we in fact lose when we read only in translation? We have spoken about the difficulty with poetry but these problems can even extend into prose. For example when reading of Goliath’s approach to the river bed and his speech against the camp of Saul we feel the anticipation that is built up in the story- and this comes through clearly in the translations, however what we miss is how the text changes its rhythm and pace as it portrays Goliath. The very character of the Hebrew words are telling another story aside from the dual between Goliath and David- they are describing the laborious movements of Goliath in the change of rhythm, the pace of the sentences become short when Goliath is talking which gives us the impression that we are dealing with a giant slow in speech and not the agile and sharp warrior we may have envisioned otherwise.

All the more is to be gained from reading the bible in the original language.

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 Yahweh in the Exile

Ezekiel’s vision of the presence of God in Babylon had been an important step in rejuvenating the religion of Yahweh in the exile. The presence of God no longer rested in a temple or resided within the kingdoms of men, but he was omnipresent. Yahweh had followed his people into Babylon and he had called to himself a prophet from out of his people. Contact had been established.

A New Jerusalem in Babylon

The Jews from Judah were grouped together and settled into a place referred to by a cuneiform text dated to 498 BCE as the “al Yahuda” the “city of the Judahites” in Babylon. From other texts we know already that deportees normally retained the names of their old towns- for example the cities of Ashkelon and Gaza reappeared in Babylon with the arrival of Philistine slaves, as too with the new city of Tyre with the arrival of the Phoenicians. Knowing this, it is not too far to assume that the “city of the Judahites” is nothing less then a referral to the people of Judah living in the New Jerusalem in Babylon! In fact this same phrase “city of the Judahites”, is clearly used in reference to Jerusalem when they mention how they besiege and destroyed the city all those years ago!

 This helps us visualize the new environment of the Judean deportees in exile. They were settled together, meaning that they could rebuild a sense of community again. Furthermore we know that the royal family and the priesthood were taken into captivity- meaning that to a degree we can assume that the royal and religious hierarchies were also involved in the rebuilding work that took place in the New Jerusalem in Babylon and that there was a religious framework in place to help the community through their present-day crisis.

An Old King Freed

Not only were the Jews living together with a religious framework in place but also there was positive news about their imprisoned king, king Jehoiachin. Now king Jehoiachin had been captured and exiled when Nebuchadnezzar first came against Jerusalem in 597BCE. However after 37 years of being in prison he received a royal pardon from the king and was invited to eat and dine at the Kings table daily. This story told in the bible and confirmed from cuneiform texts tells us of the hope this community must have began to establish that one day, religiously and politically, they would be free again.

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 Three hundred and fifty years of kings had ruled over the kingdom of Judah before Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian armies arrived at the gates of Jerusalem. For three hundred and fifty years Jerusalem had been growing as the center of Yahweh worship with temple based worship as its focus. This all came to an end the moment the Babylonians laid a devastating siege on the city, sucking dry the power of Judah, destroying the city and temple and exiling the population into servitude.

End of Temple-sanctioned Yahwism

The religious political and social lives of the people of Judah were over; they were citizens of a country that no longer existed. Israelite Yahwism had essentially ended the moment the temple was destroyed. The temple that represented the House of Yahweh on earth, lay in ruins, and sacrifices could no longer be brought to the altar. Furthermore the borders of Judah, which demarcated in the Judeans minds the domain of Yahweh, were breached. They were pulled away, not only from the place of worship, but also from the realm of God’s influence. In a state of servitude and a feeling of abandonment from their God and hopelessness the Judeans walked from the Mediterranean Sea to the Chebar River in modern day Iraq.

The Future?

If History were on their minds during this long trek into exile, they would surely have recalled the similar fate of their brothers in the Kingdom of Israel who were exiled over a hundred years before by the Assyrians. These “ten tribes” as we fondly recall them today disappeared from history, assimilated into the cultures they were artificially planted in, and lost their religion.

This would be our fate, the Judeans were thinking.

God becomes Bigger?

 Israelite Yahwism at this point offered no hope of redemption- for Yahweh was not present in the lands of Babylon with their multiplicity of gods. This idea however dramatically changed when a Judean priest had a mighty vision of Yahweh by the Chebar river. He saw a mighty chariot with wheels, wings and animals carrying the presence of Yahweh who appeared in the likeness of a human. Yahweh spoke with him and called him to become a prophet to his people, his name was Ezekiel. (Ezekiel 1:1-3:5)

The ramifications of this vision were awesome. For not only was God bigger and more powerful than they had ever imagined him to be- for he could transverse over foreign lands were other gods were worshipped proving himself above them all, but more importantly, he was still speaking to the people of Israel.

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