Religion in the Ancient Near East

Review: Egyptian irrigation canals

Divine and Human and Reality

Ancient and modern; a site; the complexity of cult

The nature of the evidence: fragment and restoration

1. Intro: Not concerned with ancient religions, but with ancient religion (sing.), to look at the religious phenomena that united ancient society, rather than the details that set societies apart.
2. Must understand difference between reformed and un-reformed religion.
1. All modern religions have received their form and direction from the teaching of a great religious reformer who, according to believers, brought a divine revelation.
2. All of the religions of the ancient world (except Judaism and Christianity) were unreformed religions. That is, they did not have 'articles of faith', dogma, or religious discipline.
3. Because reformed religions were based on divine revelation and because they assertively denied the existence or power of another deity, reformed religions tend to be intolerant. In contrast, all the unreformed religions of the ancient world were by subsequent standards remarkably tolerant.
4. Because of the prevalence of reformed religion, western civilization tends to see religion in terms of doctrines or ethical systems, or even social programs.
3. Reconstruction ancient religious thought. The kinds of questions asked reveal basic assumptions.
1. It makes a difference to ask: Who made the stars? or: How were the stars made?
2. Polytheistic religions evoked ‘meaning’ on a collective and individual basis, through myth and ritual
1. Story myth: traditional, popular, oral (as distinct from conscious literary creation).
2. Ritual myth: the libretto (or text) of religious liturgy.
3. Basic questions: Was there a world beyond the world one could see and touch? All kinds of invisible forces. If so, how did they relate to the visible world? And what were the implications for human institutions and for human behavior? Gods were not only stronger, but could take any form, be invisible, cause events. Note: every event is unique; there is not sense of natural order or 'laws of nature'. How could humans, individually or collectively, affect the divine world for their own advantage?
4. Stages:
1. Numen/numina: mysterious and impersonal forces in natural process.  A numen.
2. With time, a distinction developed between the force itself and the form of expression, between rain and the force of rain. The latter expressed in theriomorphic terms.  
3. In the anthropomorphic stage, when gods begin to take on the appearance and personality of humans (though they are more powerful and immortal).  E.g., Isis and Horus
4. No clear distinction between the natural and the supernatural
4. Regarding polytheism.
1. Though the gods were everywhere, and in everything, there was, concurrently, a clear tendency to syncretism.
2. Tensions in world explained by competition between deities, not so much as representatives of good and evil, but of opposing forces. In this cosmic struggle how were humans to know what was right? Led to fatalism.
5. Israelite religion. Critical is the transformation from a tribal to a universal religion, from particularism to universalism.
1. Genesis
1. shares many notions with other religions of ANE. Creation tale, the great flood being but two examples.
2. Note also that monotheism not clearly established in Gen. and Ex.
3. There are important differences: e.g., all of 'creation' was good.
2. With one god, there is the possibility of divinely revealed ethical system.
3. General observations on Judaism
1. Creation is good; humans have nothing to fear from nature; indeed it is god's gift that humans rule creation.
2. Gifts carry responsibilities to the giver; suffering is the result of neglecting those responsibilities. The contract or covenant.
3. Major contribution especially developed in prophetic period: belief in one god and his moral government of the world. Only with monotheism can ethics and religion be unified.
4. The great weakness was that conviction that ancient Judaism was based on the presupposition that the divine purpose was concentrated on a single people. No recognition that a single moral god produced a single creation but had little or no interest in the overwhelming majority of creation.
6. Synthesis of ancient religion
1. Not empty: people believed; made sacrifices, participated in rituals; were motivated to build temples and ziggurats, just as in middle ages belief encourage people to build cathedrals
2. Creates the illusion of control of natural forces; the more anthropomorphic the deity, the more human can control.
3. Unreformed religion does not provide much to support an ethical system; that must arise out of local tradition.

Selection of Images: The Flood; Noah's sacrifice; Abraham and Sarah; Abraham and Isaac

Selected Texts from the Sourcebook:

[10] God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. [11] And God said, "Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, upon the earth." And it was so. [12] The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. [13] And there was evening and there was morning, a third day. 

[14] And God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, 15] and let them be lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth." And it was so. [16] And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also. [17] And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth, [18] to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. [19] And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day. [20] 

And God said, "Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the firmament of the heavens." [21] So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. [22] And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." [23] And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. [24] And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds." And it was so. [25] And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the cattle according to their kinds, and everything that creeps upon the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 

Exod.8 [1] Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, `Thus says the LORD, "Let my people go, that they may serve me. [2] But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your country with frogs; [3] the Nile shall swarm with frogs which shall come up into your house, and into your bedchamber and on your bed, and into the houses of your servants and of your people, and into your ovens and your kneading bowls; [4] the frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your servants."'" [5] And the LORD said to Moses, "Say to Aaron, `Stretch out your hand with your rod over the rivers, over the canals, and over the pools, and cause frogs to come upon the land of Egypt!'" [6] So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. [7] But the magicians did the same by their secret arts, and brought frogs upon the land of Egypt....

Amos.3 [1] Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up out of the land of Egypt: [2] "You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. [3] "Do two walk together, unless they have made an appointment? [4] Does a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey? Does a young lion cry out from his den, if he has taken nothing? [5] Does a bird fall in a snare on the earth, when there is no trap for it? Does a snare spring up from the ground, when it has taken nothing? [6] Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does evil befall a city, unless the LORD has done it? [7] Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets. [8] The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken; who can but prophesy?" ...

6] "I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me," says the LORD. [7] "And I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain upon one city, and send no rain upon another city; one field would be rained upon, and the field on which it did not rain withered; [8] so two or three cities wandered to one city to drink water, and were not satisfied; yet you did not return to me," says the LORD. [9] "I smote you with blight and mildew; I laid waste your gardens and your vineyards; your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured; yet you did not return to me," says the LORD. [10] "I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I slew your young men with the sword; I carried away your horses; and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me," says the LORD....

Omens/Astrology: Last night a halo surrounded the Moon, and Jupiter and Scorpio stood within it. When a halo surrounds the Moon and Jupiter stands within it, the King of Akkad will be besieged. When a halo surrounds the Moon and Jupiter stands within it, there will be a slaughter of cattle and beasts of the field. (Marduk is Umunpauddu at its appearance; when it has risen for two (or four?) hours it becomes Sagmigar; when it stands in the meridian it becomes Nibiru.) When a halo surrounds the Moon and Scorpio stands in it, it will cause men to marry princesses, (or) lions will die, and the traffic of the land will be hindered.   (refers to the position of the moon in respect to constellations. --jn)

When a halo surrounds the Moon and a planet stands within it, robbers will rage. (Saturn stood within the halo of the Moon.) When Jupiter draws near to Taurus, the good fortune of the land passes away, (or) the generation of cattle and sheep is not prosperous. (Jupiter has entered Taurus: let the king, my lord, keep himself from the storm-wind.)

When the earth quakes in Nisan, the king's land will revolt from him. When the earth quakes during the night, harm will come to the land, or devastation to the land. From Apla.