Biblical Hebrew Blog by ClassicalHebrew.com

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)

Animals and Humans

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.

The Jewish traditional law layouts three criteria for membership into the Jewish fold: birth, marriage to a male Jew, and conversion. However, these three doors into the Jewish community have not been operative simultaneously through history.

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.

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.