ARAMAIC A general term used to cover a group of Semitic dialects closely related
to Hebrew & even more closely related to each other. Several chapters worth
of Aramaic is found in the books of Ezra, and Daniel, and a verse in Jeremiah,
as well as isolated words elsewhere. In the New Testament, such phrases as
talitha cumi, Marana tha, & Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani are in contemporary
Aramaic, & much of what is written in Greek was translated literally from Ara-
maic. Aram is mentioned as an area northeast of Syria, as early as 2500 B. C.
We have evidence of nomads called Suti raiding and wandering into this area
at this time & even earlier; they may be the Arameans' ancestors. The Semitic
people found living there were called Arameans by Tiglath-pileser around 1100
B.C., simply because of where they were living.
The Old Testament associates the patriarchs with these Arameans
through the confession that every Israelite is called on to make: “A wandering
Aramean was my father (Deut. 26.5).” In the 1100s B.C. such groups were
establishing more or less settled communities all along the Tigris and Euphra-
tes, across the entire width of the Arabian Peninsula, and into Palestine. By
the 1000s B. C., they had succeeded in establishing little kingdoms, & some in
northern Syria learned alphabetic writing from the earlier settled Canaanites.
At first, they wrote in the Canaanite language; eventually they simply
used the Canaanite alphabet to write in their own language, which we see in
inscriptions dating from the 900s and 800s B. C. In this discussion we will
divide Aramaic into 4 groups: (a) Old Aramaic; (b) Official Aramaic; (c) Levan-
tine (Syrian and Palestinian) Aramaic; and (d) Eastern Aramaic.
Old Aramaic is the language of the inscriptions from northern Syria, da-
ting from the 900s to the 700s B.C. When they ceased writing in the Canaa-
nite language, these Arameans wrote in stone using their local dialect. After
this dialect, Official Aramaic began to appear as a common language in go-
vernmental offices, a simple, standard Aramaic for correspondence through-
out the Assyrian Empire. Once this type of Aramaic was recognized as “offi-
cial,” the Aramaic-speaking people in various parts of the Empire would quite
naturally begin to use it themselves. Evidence of this Aramaiac is found in the
Bible, in Greece, and in Egypt.
This Official Aramaic continued in use throughout the Neo-Babylonian
period (605-538 B. C.) and the Persians, while they used their own language
in royal inscriptions, used Aramaic as the official language from 538-330 B. C.
from the Persian Gulf in the east to Egypt in the west, and from Palestine in
the south to the Ural Mountains in the north. & it was used for writing stories
as well as legal documents. It is highly probable that the book of Daniel was
originally written in Aramaic, for the Hebrew portions show in many places in-
dications that they were translated from Aramaic.
Official Aramaic continued in use throughout the Hellenistic period
(330-30 B. C.). Greek gradually ousted Aramaic, but the Nabateans & Palmy-
renes used Aramaic well into the Christian era, & Palestinians used Aramaic
in resistance to the penetration of Greek culture into their region. In any case,
the Aramaic used in each region was influenced by the native language of
that region.
Levantine Aramaic seems to have come increasingly into everyday
use in Syria and Palestine, so that by the time the exiles returned, it had re-
placed Hebrew as the commonly understood language. This Aramaic was the
popularly spoken language in New Testament times, in spite of widespread
use of Greek. The dialect spoken daily by Jesus and the disciples was Gali-
lean Aramaic, which, as is noted in Matthew, was recognizably different from
the southern dialect spoken in and around Jerusalem.
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Much of the Samaritan religious literature is in Hebrew & Arabic, but
the Samaritans have a Targum to the Pentateuch in their own dialect, which
is close to the Galilean dialect. Palestinian Christians doubtless continued to
use the local dialect among themselves, but the new religion's official lan-
guage was Greek. In Christian villages in the Anti-Lebanon, a Levantine Ara-
maic dialect is still the house language of people who in public use their
neighbors' Arabic.
The nomadic Arameans who invaded the Tigris-Euphrates region had
their own local dialects. There was Babylonian Jewish Aramaic, which we see
in part of the Babylonian Talmud. There is Mandaean, a dialect of a people in
by the same name. And there was Syriac, which became the Christian dialect
of Eastern Aramaic. As the language of the scholarly center at Edessa, parti-
cularly when a Christian school succeeded the pagan school, it developed in-
to a literary language of some importance.
Dialects of Eastern Aramaic still survive among Christian groups in and
near the mountains, although they have been heavily influenced by common
use of Arabic and Turkish, & by the Syriac used in their church. The Aramaic
script, which was developed from the Canaanite script, has in a sense been
parent & grandparent to many alphabets. Among them are the Greek, Latin,
Cyrillic (Russian), Coptic, Mongol, Manchu, Tibetan, Armenian, Georgian, and
Arabic alphabets.
ARAMEANS (ארמים) Arameans were a Semitic people, traditionally regarded as
descendants of Shem. The actual origin of the Arameans is obscure; perhaps
they were part of the nomads' mass migration that moved northward through
the western margins of the Syrian Desert toward Egypt, Canaan, and the
Euphrates. River.
As early as the First Dynasty in Egypt (around 3100 B. C.), the nomads
appeared. Later, around 2700 B.C., the nomads, or Sutu as they were called,
were in Assyria. Sutu was used to describe both Arameans & Amorites. The
nomads were called Ahlame (confederates) around 1400 B.C. “Arameans” is
probably a label the Assyrians gave to a small group of nomads found in the
land of Arame, northeast of Syria in the Armenian foothills. Some nomads
thrusted toward Egypt Lower Babylonia . Most
Arameans raided the Euphrates region from Rapiqu northwestward along the
full course of the river, seeking entrance into Mesopotamia. Many of their
settlements were named beginning with the word Bit & followed by the name
of the tribe's hereditary leader.
From Suhu westward to Carchemish, small Aramean groups settled
along the Euphrates as early as 1132-1115 B. C., & were difficult to keep out
of Mesopotamia. When Assyrian power broke around 990-975 B. C., the
Arameans seized their chance to invade, and by the time the Assyrians came
back to power in the 800s B. C., their states were so well established that they
could resist successfully and not be easily removed.
The kingdom of Bit-Adini
state, located on both sides of the Euphrates river. It blocked Assyria's west-
ward expansion to the Mediterranean and very early became a leader of the
western Arameans. It also contains Haran, which is the ancestral home of
Abraham. Although he settled in Canaan, it was from his Aramean kinsmen
that he chose the Aramean Rebekah as wife for Isaac, and Isaac sent Jacob,
the “wandering Aramean” to the same area for a wife. So the Arameans Rebe-
kah, Leah, and Rachel became the ancestors of the Hebrew people.
By the time of the judges (around 1225-1020 B. C.), there was a strong
concentration of Arameans around the sources of the Jordan. They occupied
the northern & northeastern borders of the land claimed by the Hebrews. The
Aramean kingdom of Geshur provided David with a wife and the mother of
Absalom. Associated with Zobah &Maacah against David were the Arameans
of Aram-beth-rehob. These Arameans were hired by Ammon against David.
Most of the Aramean groups were small city-states relatively weak by them-
selves, entering mostly into temporary alliances to meet an existing threat.
Damascus, a fruitful oasis in the plain below the Anti-Lebanon moun-
tains, was long an important “head of Syria,” a trade center that was econo-
mically & culturally rich & politically strategic. Tradition suggests Abraham
passed through it on the way to Hebron
When it was strong, it demanded commercial concessions from its neighbors.
Proximity to Israel often brought conflicts of interests. When the Jewish
kingdom split into Israel (north) & Judah (south), 1st Judah would hire Damas-
cus against Israel, and then Israel would make an alliance with Damascus
against Judah. Israel was strongly represented as an ally of many Aramean
states against Assyria at the Battle of Qarqar (853 B.C.).
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So long as the large Aramean states still organized and led coalitions,
such tactics were successful. But a series of strong Assyrian kings destroyed
Aramean resistance & ultimately converted their states into parts of Assyrian
provinces. Bit-Adini, mentioned earlier, fell to Shalmaneser III in 856 B. C.
Hamath's Arameans, north of Damascus, were among those who replaced
the Samarians who were exiled. When the Assyrian officer in 701 B. C., before
besieged Jerusalem boastfully recalled the humiliation of mighty Hamath and
Arpad, Aramean political power in the west was gone forever.
The great cultural contributions of the Arameans survived their national
existence. They absorbed cultural elements of their neighbors, and in their
shifting around, spread them wherever they went. They borrowed the alphabet
from the Phoenicians, developed their own peculiar forms of it and transmitted
it to the Persians, Hebrews, Arabs, and others. The simplicity and efficiency of
the Aramaic language & alphabet vanquished the more difficult, cumbersome
cuneiform scripts of the Akkadians & the Persians.
In Babylon, a soldier wrote his report from Babylon in Aramaic, and an
Assyrian officer was expected to be able to converse in the language. When
the Persians came to power, they recognized the value of the Aramaic script
and language, and helped spread their use. Most of the Aramaic writing that
archaeologists have found today was not written by Arameans, but by those
who borrowed their valuable tools. Aramaic was the language spoken in com-
mon by all the people of Palestine in the time of Jesus.
ARAMITESS (ארמיה, Aramean woman) A designation of Manasseh's concubine,
mother of Machir.
ARAN (רןא) The second son of the Horite clan chief Dishan.
ARARAT (אררט) A country in the general district of Armenia; its Assyrian name
is Uratu. Uratu rose in importance as a political unit in the 800s B. C. Ashurna-
sirpal II (884-859) refers to Uratu as the boundary of his conquests. His suc-
cessor Shalmaneser III (859-824) made inroads into Urartian territory on his
campaigns, which are shown on Balawat's bronze gates. During Assyria's
weak period after Shalmaneser, Uratian power expanded considerably. Cita-
dels were ingeniously constructed out of a combination of masonry & rock cut-
tings. Uratia made itself felt as far west as northern Syria; Assyria lost several
provinces to them.
Under Tiglath-pileser, the Uratian king Sarduri was defeated when he
tried to come to the rescue of Arpad in 743 B. C. Assyria re-conquered its
ground in Uratu. Sarduri escaped to his capital Turushpa on Lake Van, which
Tiglath-pileaser failed to capture. The most famous campaign against Urartu
was conducted by Sargon (722-705); he captured Musasir, a city which was
ruled by a King Urzanu. The Cimmerians were also invading Uratu. Attention
was diverted from the Armenian front; and the later history of Uratu is marked
by the further threat of invasions. Although the Uratian kings of the 600s B. C.
were still active in building new citadels, the final destruction was brought
about by Median attacks of the early 500s, after which Uratu ceased to exist
as an independent ethnic and political unit.
Archaeology has learned of Uratian architecture through the cities of
Van, Toprakkale, and Erivan. The architectural style of Uratu found in what is
now eastern Turkey is related to what existed to the west. Uratu had an out-
standing metal industry, which was exported to as far west as Greece. The
flourishing and influence of Uratian art coincided with the opening of oriental
trade to Greece and Italy.
Ararat's fame is connected with the flood story. The mountains of the
north were conceived as the likeliest candidates for an early emergence from
the flood. Sennacherib was murdered by his son, who fled to Ararat (Uratu) in
681 B. C. Uratians, Maneans, Scythians, and Medes were all active preceding
the fall of Babylon in the 500s B. C.
ARATUS (AretoV ) A Stoic poet of Soli in Cilicia who flourished in the mid-
200s B. C. His poem "Phaenomena" is quoted in Paul's Areopagus speech.
“for we are indeed his offspring.”
ARAUNAH (ארונה, nimble) A Jebusite father of four sons, all of whom escaped
the plague; David purchased his threshing floor for the site of an altar to stay
the ravaging plague by sacrifice. When the plague broke out & killed 70,000,
it was considered a judgment of God because of the census of David. The
prophet Gad instructed the penitent king to purchase the threshing floor of
Araunay, where the plague appeared to cease, as a fitting place for sacrifice.
David refused to accept the land as a gift, insisting on paying 50 shekels of
silver for the purchase of the threshing floor. This later became the site of the
temple at Jerusalem.
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ARBA (ארבע, four) Presented as a prominent inhabitant of Hebron
arba, ancestor of Anak and the greatest man among the Anakim or race of
giants. Some scholars believe that this is not actually a personal name but
simply part of the city-name, & that the "Kiriath" was left out when the text
was copied. The original Hebrew text may have referred to the city as the
mother city of the Anakim.
ARBATHITE (ערבתי) A resident of Beth-Arabah, the home Abialbon, one of
David's Mighty Men.
ARBITE (ארבי) A resident of Arab, the home of Paarai, one of David's Mighty
Men.
ARCHAEOLOGY
List of Topics—Introduction; Types of remains; Method of
Excavation; Dating Archaeological Evidence; Contributions of
Archaeology to the Bible; Exploration & Excavation in Palestine
Introduction—The study of material remains, made up of all tan-
gible manmade things of the past. All these things are documents, either
documents written, inscribed on a variety of materials, or unwritten docu-
ments, such as fortifications, buildings of various kinds, sculpture, house-
hold vessels, tools, weapons, & personal ornaments. This past is limited
to the period of human occupation of the earth, from at least 200,000
years ago—the Pleistocene period—to the present. With reference to time,
archaeology is divided into: prehistoric, which deals with the Stone Age;
and historic, which deals with the time from the Stone Age's end to the pre-
sent. The following is a table of Palestine's archaeological periods B.C.:
Mesolithic (Natufian) circa 8000-6000. Early Iron
Pre-Pottery Neolithic circa 6000-5000 a. circa 1200-1150
Pottery Neolithic circa 5000-4000 b. circa 1150-1025
Chalcolithic circa 4000-3200 c. circa 1025-950
Esdraelon circa 3200-3000 d. circa 950-900
Early Bronze circa 3000-2100 Middle Iron
Early Bronze I circa 3000-2800 a. circa 900-800
Early Bronze II circa 2800-2600 b. circa 800-700
Early Bronze III circa 2600-2300 c. circa 700-600
Early Bronze IV circa 2300-2100 d. circa 600-500
Middle Bronze circa 2100-1600 Late Iron (Persian)
Middle Bronze I circa 2100-1900 600-300
Middle Bronze IIa circa 1900-1700 Hellenistic circa
Middle Bronze IIb circa 1700-1600 (300-63 )
Late Bronze circa 1600-1200
Late Bronze I circa 1600-1400
Late Bronze IIa circa 1400-1300
Late Bronze IIb circa 1300-1200
The 3 archaeological periods mainly in the Christian Era (C.E.) are: Roman
(63 B.C.-323 C.E.); Byzantine (323-636 C.E.); Islamic (636- present)
An understanding of archaeology and its discoveries is necessary for
an understanding of the Bible. No one can fully understand the Bible without
knowledge of biblical history and culture, and no one can claim knowledge of
biblical history & culture without an understanding of archaeology. Biblical
events have been illustrated, obscure words defined, ideas explained, and
time lines refined by archaeological finds. Our knowledge of the Bible has
been revolutionized by these discoveries.
Almost every biblical student or scholar experiences a barrier of time
and culture when they seek to project themselves into biblical times. Much
of this barrier is broken down by archaeology; ancient peoples and times be-
come more real than is possible by dependence solely on the written word.
All aspects of material culture brought to light by excavation contribute to this
intimacy. Through excavation the world of the Bible is being resurrected, and
the Bible can be seen in its true background. Archaeology reveals both the
similarities and the differences between Israel & Israel's neighbors. Archae-
ology doesn't & cannot prove the Bible. The Bible deals with man's relation-
ship to God, & is, therefore beyond the proof of archaeology.
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Types of remains—Some ancient remains have always been either
partially or completely exposed, because of their location, size, or state of
preservation (e.g. the Coliseum in Rome, the Parthenon in Athens, the pyra-
mids and temples of Egypt, Baalbek in Lebanon, and Jerash in Jordan. Most
ancient remains are buried beneath tons of debris or drifted sand, and are re-
covered by means of excavation.
Ancient towns vary in size from a cluster of houses occupying as little
as 80 to 120 meters² to planned cities covering as much as 8,000 meters².
Their locations were determined by natural features: good water; a natural
harbor; raw materials; tillable land; or if they were near major trade routes.
These advantages remained the same generation after generation; towns
continued to occupy the same sites for centuries, though occasionally with
gaps in occupation.
Many kinds of tombs were used in antiquity: natural or artificial caves;
individual graves dug in houses or open areas; mausoleums, either stone-
built or cut out of rock. Ancient tombs contain skeletons, & many objects, in-
cluding vessels, weapons, jewelry, & occasionally furniture. Tombs of pro-
minent persons were almost always plundered in antiquity by enterprising
robbers, and aside from pottery, little is found in them.
Frequently tombs were reused by succeeding generations, so that
they contain many burials & hundreds of objects. These objects were more
likely to be found whole or only slightly broken than those found elsewhere.
Except for monumental tomb structures, tombs are generally hard to find,
because they are covered over and their location is unmarked. Frequently
they are discovered by accident. The excavation of tombs is hampered by
small spaces, dust-filled air, poor ventilation, & objects that tend to disinte-
grate when exposed to air. Extremely delicate objects such as wooden uten-
sils and furniture are treated with preservatives immediately; the debris is
sifted for beads, jewelry, and seals. If several layers of undisturbed burials
are found, each layer is cleaned, planned and photographed as a unit before
it is removed.
When the initial settlement was destroyed, the next occupation was
built on top of the remains. This process, repeated time & time again, resul-
ted in formation of mounds or tells, which often reach a height of 23 meters
or more above the natural surface. Generally, these mounds are shaped like
cones with the tip cut off; they contain the remains of the earliest occupation
at the base of the mound, & the latest at the top. They are neither absolutely
level nor uniformly deep, but tend to slope, thin out, or deepen, depending on
the natural shape of the site and the debris on which they lie. Various kinds
of holes were often sunk into earlier layers, & contribute to the unevenness.
In the layers of debris that make up a stratum are found the remains
of buildings & structures of ancient towns. They are built of sun-dried mud
brick or stone & sometimes both. Floors are made of flagstones, plaster,
or packed earth. The most common class of object is pottery, & tens of thou-
sands of sherds are brought to light in the average Palestinian excavation.
Method of Excavation—The choice of where to dig depends on the
excavator's purpose in digging. The site may be of historical importance or
hold the key to unanswered questions. It may help fix a particular culture or
event in time. It may simply be an accessible, available, or easily securable
site. Whatever the case, a permit to excavate must be secured from the go-
vernmental department in charge of archaeological sites; arrangements to
either rent or purchase the site must be made with the owner or owners.
Once on the site, the archaeologist selects the area he plans to exca-
vate and determines the location of dumps. The criteria for selecting the
trench's location is similar to that of selecting the site itself. For example, if
one wishes to study the sequence of fortifications, he will dig one or more
trenches at right angles to the line of the walls along the edges of the site.
1st, the mound area is laid out & surveyed; it is divided into sections,
usually measuring about 5m on a side. The surface of the section is then
cleared of plants and rubble; anything found is recorded as a surface find. If
a clear & true picture is to be gained of a site, it is imperative that the exca-
vation proceed by removing one layer at a time and by not mixing layers.
These layers are distinguished by differences in color and texture.
The excavator always digs one or more small trenches to a depth of 60 or 90
cm and smoothes the sides with a mason's trowel. When seen from the side,
the subtle differences in layers can be seen & provide a preview of the pat-
tern of the layers in the area. The small trench is used as a guide to sepa-
rate and excavate each layer. The objects found in each layer are placed in
baskets & carefully labeled. A careful description of each layer, sketches with
exact measurements of all buildings, and a rough description of the objects
discovered are entered in the field notebook.
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When walls appear, the archaeologist immediately begins to look for
floors, because the objects above the floor must be kept separate from those
below. The archaeologist digs one or more small test trenches at right angle
to the wall, and in so doing usually discovers the floor. Walls & floors are
cleaned, drawn to scale, photographed and are studied in detail. Later, scale
drawings of the sides of the section are made to see the relative position of all
the layers. If this procedure seems time-consuming and unnecessary, it must
be remembered that all excavation is destruction; once a section is dug it is
gone forever.
Accurate recording is absolutely essential. All features of the excava-
ted area, such as room deposits, walls, floors, and ovens are thoroughly
cleaned, planned and photographed. The objects recovered are brought from
the mound in baskets which carry identifying tags. It isn't feasible to keep tens
of thousands of pottery sherds; they are sorted, and only characteristic types
of partial & whole vessels are saved. A pottery notebook is kept with the date,
number of pieces & observations of the pottery of each layer. It depends on
the government involved as to how much stays in the country and must be
studied on the spot, & how much may be taken and studied off site.
Excavators prepare preliminary excavation reports as well as a final,
comprehensive report. Having excavated and destroyed all or part of a site,
they are responsible for making available a full and accurate record and inter-
pretation of their excavation. Based on their findings, as well as the findings
of many scientific specialists, they then fit the site into the political, economic,
& cultural history of the area, & if possible, into the ancient Near East's larger
framework. Because mistakes are inevitably made & problems are left un-
solved, the study of the raw data of an excavation goes on long after the final
report is published.
The use of objects for dating strata presupposes a knowledge of the
principle of change. New styles appear and are popular for a time. They are
modified to suit changing tastes and needs. Ultimately, they lose favor alto-
gether and disappear. Archaeologists will pick out all examples of a single
class from each layer; study them & note all changes in their manufacturing,
form, & finish. The layer in which the class first appears, each layer in which
it undergoes changes, and the layer in which it is last found is also noted.
Few of the objects found have intrinsic value; precious objects have been
found, but only very rarely in a poor country like Palestine
comes in dating the levels, and in describing and comparing cultures.
When all the sites in a region share similar objects, they can be said to
belong to a common material culture. By the intensive study of objects,
archaeologists have been able to isolate and describe the major centers of
material culture in the ancient Near East—Egypt, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and
Syro-Palestine. In ancient times, Palestine & Transjordan belonged to the
same material culture, as shown by many common features, one of which is
ceramics. The discovery of foreign objects suggests trade and commerce or
the presence of a foreign power. Locally made objects that imitate the ob-
jects from other regions also indicates contact with foreign lands.
Objects also throw light on immigration and colonization. Around 1175
B. C., a new kind of pottery, featuring different shapes and decorative styles,
suddenly appears at sites on the coastal plains and the adjoining foothills of
the Shephelah. The place and date of this pottery indicated that it was Phili-
stine. Analysis of its shapes and motifs, and comparisons with other contem-
porary pottery of the ancient world have shown that its ultimate source was
Dating Archaeological Evidence—The Bible & other ancient litera-
ture are the best sources for creating a chronology. The literature found at
sites sometimes supplies information about cities, including names of foun-
ders and conquerors, and allows for a high degree of accuracy in fixing dates,
but only if they are found in the same layer as the one they are writing about.
The signs or letters used in writing changes over time; this change is also
used to supply approximate dates for layers in which written documents are
found.
Although virtually all objects are useful for dating, some are of greater
value than others. Because pottery is the most common & indestructible arti-
fact, and because it is an excellent medium for the expression of change, it is
the most useful class of objects for determining dates within a maximum error
of about two centuries, and most often within a century or less.
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Coins are also valuable evidence in determining dates, when enough
are found to prove that they were contemporary with the layer in which they
were discovered. Since coins were invented in the 600s B.C., they are only
useful in dating relatively late strata. Less common objects can be of use in
fixing dates, but only if a series of them has been found, enough to establish
a pattern and timetable for changes that took place.
In the case of imported objects, if the object can be securely dated in
the place of its origin, it can be extremely valuable for dating the layer in which
it was found. A time lag of perhaps 50 years, but usually far less must be fac-
tored in, as well as the possibility that object was a family heirloom, & there-
fore found in a layer somewhat later than the period in which it was manufac-
tured and imported.
The changing styles of art and architecture are becoming increasingly
useful for purposes of chronology as more is learned about ancient art forms &
motifs. Unfortunately, art objects, and particularly sculpture, are not plentiful
in Palestine, largely because of the overall poverty of the country, & because
of Israelite religious prohibitions. In architecture, dates of changes in methods
of construction and styles of masonry are now known. Architectural styles are
more difficult to recover in Palestine because of the widespread use of sun-
dried mud-brick construction, which lacks permanence, and because of the
common practice of building over and over again on the same site, which de-
stroys the structures below.
The natural sciences increasingly assist archaeology in classification
& analysis of artifacts. Botanists classify samples of wood & grain; zoologists
and anthropologists classify animal & human bones. Conchologists analyze
shells, and geologists can often locate the quarry from which stone was taken
to fashion building blocks, sculpture, beads and other objects.
A number of established scientific techniques are used on objects
found with excellent results:
(a.) petrographic analysis—thin slices of potsherds are studied under
a petrographic microscope to determine the minerals present in
the pottery.
a petrographic microscope to determine the minerals present in
the pottery.
(b.) neutron activation—sherds are placed in a nuclear reactor and
the chemical composition of the clay is determined from the
induced radioactivity.
the chemical composition of the clay is determined from the
induced radioactivity.
(c.) chemical analysis—qualitative and quantitative tests are done to
determine the identity and proportions of the constituents of
clays and metals.
determine the identity and proportions of the constituents of
clays and metals.
(d.) spectrographic analysis—material is burned in an arc and the
spectrum produced is measured to determine the composition of
metals, and to a lesser degree, clays.
spectrum produced is measured to determine the composition of
metals, and to a lesser degree, clays.
(e.) radiocarbon dating—All living things take in carbon. That intake
ceases at death and disintegrates at a fixed rate. Measurements
of the amount of carbon remaining in organic matter provides an
approximate age of the material.
When 2 or more of these tests are used they: provide a means of describing
objects exactly and objectively; they distinguish foreign from locally made ob-
jects and thus supply data on ancient trade.
In sites which have not been excavated layer by layer, the layers of de-
bris cannot be dated precisely, because their objects are hopelessly mixed. At
best, the objects of each building or location can be compared with objects
from accurately dated layers from other sites. It is the only method that can be
used with poorly excavated sites, & permits a cautious use of the findings.
Contributions of Archaeology to the Bible—One of the most impor-
tant contributions of archaeology is the recovery of a number of ancient Near
Eastern languages. A staggering volume of documents written in Akkadian,
Ugaritic, Egyptian, Sumerian, and Hittite have been discovered, which has
aided in the deciphering of these languages. The continuing study of ancient
Near Eastern languages and literatures has made the Bible more easily under-
stood. Many words & phrases in Hebrew which could not be accurately trans-
lated can now be better understood because of discovering identical words &
phrases in these texts. These documents also shed more light on the laws,
religious practices, and theological ideas of Biblical times than can be found
in the Bible itself.
While the Bible is a veritable treasury of historical information, its whole
approach to history is religiously rather than politically or economically orien-
ted. It leaves out details that aren't important in understanding the faith his-
tory of the times, but that are important in understanding political history.
Archaeology has also confirmed many details of biblical history. Various
biblical events have been considered unauthentic by scholars, not because
they contradicted known facts, but because they seemed implausible. For ex-
ample, every Judean site excavated to date, which was inhabited circa 600
B.C., has been found to have been destroyed in this period, reoccupied after a
gap of several decades, if indeed it was ever reoccupied again.
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Similarly, the description of the power, fame and wealth of Solomon
has been considered by some scholars to be a gross exaggeration. Excava-
tions at various sites have illustrated that an elaborate state organization, a
high material culture, and a thriving economy, a Golden Age, existed during
Solomon's reign, more so than in any other Near Eastern power at that time.
There are discrepancies between the Bible and history. Most are small and
can be readily explained; some are more serious and cannot be accounted
for easily. Rather than assume that the Biblical authors are wrong, scholars
usually reserve final judgment until more evidence is forthcoming.
6. Exploration and Excavation in Palestine—Modern surface explo-
ration of Palestine began in 1838 with Edward Robinson and Eli Smith. From
that time, various expeditions traveled through the country, studying topogra-
phy & identifying many biblical places. Scientific excavation in Palestine tra-
ces its origin to W. M. F. Petrie, who dug the mound of Tell el-Hesi (Biblical
Eglon?) in 1890. His contribution was in noticing the existence of layers in
Palestinian mounds, and in the discovery that pottery undergoes changes
over time that can be correlated with the layers to establish a date. The time
between Petrie's excavation and World War I was a pioneering period.
There were flashes of brilliance & some development of good analyti-
cal methods; as a whole though, it was a disappointing period. Excavation
technique was poor overall, & serious blunders were made in interpretation.
After World War I, from 1920 to 1939, places like the Biblical City of David,
Megiddo, and Jericho were excavated. The confusion that prevailed before
World War I was dispelled by this and similar work.
After World War II and the Arab-Israeli conflict excavation resumed.
The 1st group of Dead Sea Scrolls was discovered in 1948, & numerous
excavations of caves followed. Archaeological excavation continues today.
It is safe to say that the rapidly accumulating mass of archaeological data
will vastly enrich our knowledge of ancient Palestine & of biblical life & times.
ARCHELAUS (ArcluoV) Son of Herod the Great and Malthaces. Herod's
will named Herod Antipas & Philip as tetrarchs, but Archelaus as the principal
successor in 4 B.C. Archelaus tried to calm the Jews' hostility before he as-
sumed the throne. Despite his efforts to win over the Jews they showed such
unbroken animosity and rebellion that the force of arms was needed to put
down disorders, such as at the temple on Passover, when Archelaus felt it
necessary to loose his army on the milling throngs.
As to the crown, Herod Antipas laid claim to it based on the body of the
will. Archelaus' claim was based on a later amendment to the will. Both bro-
thers sailed to Rome to lay their claims before Augustus. Their mother first
supported Archaleus then Antipas; she died before a decision was made. The
Romans had to put down disorders in Judea. A third party showed up, asking
Augustus to abstain from appointing anyone from Herod's family king, & allow
the Jews to live by their own laws. When Augustus heard the case, his deci-
sion was to award half of Herod's land, mostly Judea to Archelaus, and the
other half was divided between Philip and Antipas.
Back in Judea, Archelaus interfered with the high priesthood, divorced
his first wife, Mariamne, & married Glaphyra, who had already been widowed
twice; she had been his half-brother's wife. This fact transgressed Jewish law.
The oppression by Archelaus of Samaritans and Jews prompted them to send
deputations to Caesar to denounce Archelaus. In 6 A.D. Archelaus was ba-
nished to Gaul, to a city now known as Vienne. His territory was added to
ARCHER (ירא (yaw raw); קשת (keh sheth)) A soldier equipped with a bow and
arrows. There is a disagreement in translating the Hebrew word machetset-
serim. The King James Version translates it as “archers.” The later Revised
Standard Version translates it as “musicians.” It is not certain whether the
archer corps was a well-developed unit in the Hebrew Army, as it was among
the Assyrians. Saul was wounded by Philistine archers on Mount Gilboa. King
Josiah was shot by the Egyptian archers. The Joseph tribe is represented as
an invincible archer attacked by archers.
ARCHEVITES (ארכוי) Inhabitants of the city of Erech Babylonia that
were resettled in Samaria
ARCHIPPUS (apcippos) One of the persons to whom Paul addressed the let-
ter entitled “To Philemon,” and who is also called Paul's fellow soldier and is
mentioned in the Letter to the Colossians. John Knox suggests that the mini-
stry which Archippus is being urged to fulfill is the freeing of his slave Onesi-
mus, and to become an evangelist in the work of the Christian church.
\
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ARCHITE (ארכי) A clan of Benjamin, established in the territory southwest of
Absalom.
ARCHITECTURE The art of building; herein confined to ancient Palestine
the Neolithic Age (5000 B.C.) until 100 A.D. Modern knowledge is restricted
by ancient writers' lack of interest in architecture, and by so few buildings
surviving, and those with only two rows of bricks still standing.
Throughout most of the period men built their own houses; the villages
in which they lived were the creation of their own unskilled communal labor.
So town walls, gates, & temples, are “homemade” in character. Only in peri-
ods of exceptional prosperity or political expansion do we find ambitious ar-
chitecture which displays the hand of professional craftsmen.
Materials—Native building depended on the materials provided by
the soil—limestone, rocks, wood, reeds, & mud. The fine shaping & carving
of these materials can hardly be found before the Late Bronze Age (1600-
1200 B.C.). Throughout the period mud was used, either raw as mortar for
solidifying or rendering rubble walls, or dried in the sun as bricks; in the Early
Bronze Age wooden molds were used & chopped straw was used to keep
glutinous clay from sticking to the molds.
As to the use of reeds in building, we can be sure that people living in
the low-lying, marshy ground that occurs in the coastal plan, and round the
upper reaches of the Jordan, built their houses at least partly out of what was
the easiest material at hand. To this day, marsh reeds bound together and
packed in mud form the most efficient and economical roofing material for
houses in the Jordan Valley.
In the earliest town we know about, Neolithic (roughly 6000 B.C.) Jeri-
cho, not only mud & reed, but also stone was used for building. As early as
the 6000s B.C., or even 7000s B.C., the town was enclosed in a protective
rampart of boulders, all of which may have been covered in plaster. Even the
most monumental works of thousands of years later, like the city rampart & a
gate at Shechem, or the Bronze Age rampart at Jericho, represent basically
no more than that.
From the earliest times until the end of the period, the native house
was a thing of rubble walls, sealed on both faces with mud mortar. An excep-
tional building of the early Bronze Age was found at Ai, composed of stones
roughly dressed to a uniform size; there were places for heavy columns along
the side of a long hall. The column size implied by the size of these plinths or
platforms suggested the existence of an upper story. It is the earliest example
of the more ambitious planning & construction that sometimes distinguished
individual Palestinian buildings from common village architecture.
Construction & Plan—The crucial problem isn't how to raise walls but
how to roof the area between them. Until the 400s B.C., the Jewish or Canaa-
nite builder had no other way of roofing an area than by laying wooden beams
or long stones across it, resting their ends on walls at either side. He re-
mained limited by the length and strength of the timbers or stones at his dis-
posal and his capacity to lift them until the Persian period (600 B.C.), when we
begin to see vaulted ceilings and arches; they remain rare in Palestine until a
few years before Christ's birth. Until that time, the principle roofing material
was timber, of which the mountains & foothills of Galilee, Samaria, and Judea
would have afforded an ample supply. Such roofs would have been laid flat
across the wall tops, with a gentle slope to run off rainwater.
The normal house throughout the Bronze & Iron Ages, as even today,
was a loose agglomeration of small rectangular rooms, often grouped beside
or around a little open-air yard. The only feature which survives to give an im-
pression of architectural distinction is the post or column. A Neolithic Jericho
building had a roof spanning a room 5.2m wide that was supported by two
wooden columns.
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The architecture of city walls was awe-inspiring to Hebrew spies, and
nowhere did the native rough stone architecture of Palestine
monumental effect than in the gates and ramparts of the Bronze and Iron Age
cities. Most Palestinian cities were perched on considerable mounds of accu-
mulation. Lines of defense would be chosen near the top of the slope, and the
lower parts revetted with a compact glacis of rammed earth. The approach to
these high embanked cities was necessarily up a sloping road, dangerously
flanked by the walls, toward a gate at the top. The gates provided either a
zigzag entrance intothe city, or alternating wide & narrow passages as a way
of protecting the city's entrance. This was an ancient protective device found
not only in Canaan but also throughout the ancient East.
Of the monumental structures we know about, the most famous was
the temple at Jerusalem, built for King Solomon & rebuilt by Herod the Great,
the earliest known masterpiece of a tradition of dressed stone & timber con-
struction. The book of Kings makes it clear that Phoenician masons & joiners,
lent by King Hiram of Tyre around 950 B.C., were the effective creators of the
temple. The temple was a structure of squared stones with a timber roof,
raised on a podium above the enclosure in which it stood. It had 2 chambers
with a porch or vestibule in front; the 2 chambers were surrounded on 3 sides
by adjoining rooms The temple was built to its full height in squared stone.
The enclosure wall was composed of three courses of cut stone with a
row of cedar beams on top. Of specifically architectural ornament at this peri-
od, little has survived, and we have to guess how the temple was built; so we
look to actual buildings at Megiddo and Samaria for clues.
The gates and buildings of the Solomonic city at Megiddo had brick &
timber superstructures resting on foundations composed of narrow piers of
finely dressed & bonded rough-hewned limestone blocks set between lengths
of rubble walling. The jointed masonry at Samaria and Megiddo was laid with
fine precision; whether the surface was chiseled smooth or left with a rustic
boss; masons were careful to smooth meticulously as much of the front mar-
gin of each stone as was needed to ensure perfect alignment & tight jointing.
Much of this work was also done by masons from Tyre after Solomon's reign.
And whenever foreign influences are withdrawn from Palestine, its architec-
ture reverts to the “village” style described above, as when Solomon died in
Judah, and Ahab died in Israel.
The next actual building we know of that displays architecture beyond
the village style is a half a millennium later, the governor's residence at La-
chish. The characteristic method adopted by builders in brick, in timberless
countries, is to use stone vaulting and arched doorways. The occurrence of
that style in this building points unmistakably to Persia or Mesopotamia. Even
tombs displayed foreign influences, with one found in Silwan that reflects the
Egyptian style.
After Alexander's conquest of the East, Greek motifs mingled with
Egyptian and Persian motifs, as in the so-called “Absalom's Tomb,” of which
the cylindrical and conical upper parts are built of finely dressed and jointed
masonry, but which rests on a rock-cut base. The Greek tendencies in Jewish
architecture of the 100 years before Christ coincided with a revival of the art of
finely jointed and squared masonry, a revival promoted most effectively by
Herod the Great (30-4 B.C.). He founded numerous cities within his kingdom,
and endowed them with temples, theaters, hippodromes, & baths, like those
found in Greek and Roman cities.
The greatest of these was Jerusalem's reconstructed temple surroun-
ded in Greek style with porticos. The temple itself followed the old Solomonic
building's plan, but with an extended porch. There was a gigantic doorway
over 30 m high. None of all this can be seen today, except parts of the gigan-
tic enclosure wall of the precinct, built of squared and paneled blocks of im-
peccable jointing and prodigious size. Much of the building under Herod was
cosmopolitan in character, could be matched in any province of the Roman
Empire, but all of it clearly had native oriental motifs. The temple itself, for all
its Corinthian colonnades, followed the lines of its Phoenician predecessor.
Architectural history in Palestine repeats itself. Both Solomon's temple
and Herod the Great's temple reflected the cosmopolitan brilliance of their
reigns. Both Solomon's and Herod's subjects, and neighbors were Orientals
aspiring momentarily to partnership in a Western civilization (Phoenician in
Solomon's case; Greek in Herod's). In Herod's time, the architecture of the
public buildings of Jerusalem & other great eastern Mediterranean cities were
an adaptation of Grecian forms to the brooding purposes antique symbolism
of the Semitic East.
ARCHIVES, HOUSE OF THE ( םבית ספרי (bet se fa reem), house of scribes or
writing) A place where public records and historic documents or decrees are
stored, perhaps in the temple area or in the royal treasury; things like Jere-
miah's scroll, the scroll of the law, and annals of the kings. Archaeologists
have found archives of tablets, & scrolls at Persepolis, Nineveh, Ras Sharma,
Elephantine, and Cairo.
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ARCTURUS (עש (ash), “moth”, עיש (a yeesh)) The designation of a group of
stars. The Bible versions yield a variety of evidence showing that the transla-
tors knew nothing of the original term. The Hebrew word ayish has been rela-
ted to the Arabic word for wagon. The 4 central stars have 3 lesser stars,
known as “children” in the Book of Job, which form the Bear's tail, or the wa-
gon's pole.
ARD, ARDITES (ארד) A descendent of Benjamin, among the seventy persons of
the house of Jacob, that came into Egypt
ARDON One of the sons of Caleb in the genealogy of Judah
ARELI (אראלי) Son of Gad; ancestral head of the “family of the Arelites.”
AREOPAGUS, AREOPAGITES (AreioV pagoV (air ee os pay gos),
Areopa-githV) A rocky hill at Athens
tween the Acropolis & the Pnyx. The Panathenic way ran between the Are-
opagus and the Acropolis. A “council in the Areopagus,” or “council of the
Areopagites” originally met on it.
There were 2 stones on the Areopagus: the Outrage; & the Ruthless-
ness stone (the accused stood on “Outrage,” the accusers stood on "Ruth-
lessness"). The court’s functions varied from time to time; sometimes it heard
mostly capital crimes cases; at others it dealt with legal, political, education-
al, & religious affairs. The council sometimes met in places other than the
hill, (e.g. the Stoa Basileios in the Agora). Paul may have come before the
council and made his speech, or they may have met on the Areopagus.
ARETAS (AretaV) The name borne by kings of Arabia at Petra Damascus
In Genesis, Nabaioth was the first born of Ishmael; the Nabateans are the
descendants of Nabaioth. Their capital city and stronghold was Sela, “the
cliff,” which the Greeks of that time called Petra, the name we know it by to-
day. Though the inhabitants were of the Arab race, Aramaic was the language
of their writing and inscriptions. (See also the entry in the Old Testament Apo-
crypha / Intertestamental section of the Appendix).
In New Testament times we find Nabateans still exercising authority
in Damascus. Paul says that “the governor under King Aretas guarded the city
of Damascus in order to seize me,” but Paul escaped. It is hard to explain how
Aretas' officer of . The Aretas who posed such a threat to Paul was Aretas IV
(9 B.C.-40 A.D.) At that time the Nabatean kingdom extending from the Eu-
revenge for the divorce of his daughter by Herod.
ARGOB (ערגב, mound) A part of the Og kingdom
in northern Gilead . It was assigned by Moses to the tribe of Manasseh and
was conquered by Jair the son of Manasseh. Its actual location is uncertain.
ARIDAI (ארידי, delight of Hari) One of Haman's 10 sons, slain in the Jews' purge
of their enemies in the book of Esther.
ARIDATHA (ארידתא, given by Hari) One of Haman's ten sons, who was slain in
the Jews' purge of their enemies in the book of Esther.
ARIEL (אריאל, lion of God; hearth of God) 1. One of the “chief men” summoned
by Ezra. 2. A cryptic name for Jerusalem as the “hearth of God.”
ARIMATHEA (Arimaqaia) A town which most locate about 16 km northeast
of Lydda and around 32 km east of Jaffa, in the hills of the Shephelah. Arima-
thea is named in the story of Joseph of Arimathea, who obtained the body of
Jesus and interred it in his own unused rock tomb.
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ARIOCH (אריוך, lion-like) An ally of Chedorlaomer who joined a punitive campaign
against 5 kings in southern Palestine
dorlaomer were later defeated by Abram. The place where Arioch ruled remains
uncertain, as does what name Arioch was known by outside of the Bible.
ARISAI (אריסי, lion-like) One of Haman's ten sons, who was slain in the Jews'
purge of their enemies in the book of Esther.
ARISTARCHUS (AristagcoV, best ruler (?)) A Macedonian from Thessalonica
who was a Gentile associate and a valued and intimate companion who tra-
veled with Paul in Macedonia; he was arrested with Paul in Ephesus. He was
also probably a fellow prisoner of Paul's in Rome. Tradition says that he was
martyred in Rome under Nero.
ARISTOBULUS (AristobouloV ) 1. A Christian whose family is mentioned in
the letter to the Romans. He is otherwise unknown. (See also the entry in Old
Testament Apocrypha / Influences Outside the Bible section of the Appendix.)
which he, his family, and a pair of all living creatures floated in during the great
Flood. The ark described in Genesis is nothing more than a floating house; its
sole function was to stay afloat. Biblical description is too meager to permit
reconstruction; it measured 300 cubits long (about 150 m), by 50 cubits wide
(about 25m), by 30 cubits high (15 m high). The Sumerian-Babylonian story of
the Flood bears marked resemblance to the Genesis account.
to the ark in the Old Testament in the form of 22 different phrases (e.g. “the
ark, ark of Yahweh, ark of God, divine ark, ark of the covenant,” etc.) Nearly
one-third of the references and 7 different phrases appear in two books (I & II
Samuel), or one-sixteenth of the Old Testament (OT).
The simple wooden chest of the earlier stories & the elaborate golden
shrine of the Priestly document are viewed variously as: embodiment of the
presence of Yahweh; a counterpart to the divine soul; an object essential to
success of the Israelite army in the tribal government days before the monar-
chy; as a container, either of a sacred stone from a sacred place like Sinai, or
of the Ten Commandments; or a portable throne for the presence of Yahweh.
What we have here is several parallel ancient ideas, none of which excludes
the others, but which overlap & receive different emphasis in different parts of
the literature.
The ark 's origin is unclear, though it likely goes back to Moses. In the
book of Deuteronomy, Moses made an ark [or box] and put the 2 stone tab-
lets of the Ten Commandments inside. Other traditions used to tell Moses'
story confirms that the ark goes back to Moses, and that it was actually con-
structed after the golden-calf incident. 2 of the 4 traditions used to tell Moses'
story regard the ark as a container from the beginning, though there is little
evidence of this in the Samuel stories. There, the ark is more of an extension
of Yahweh's personality than it is a container. There is no reason to say it
had to be either a container or an extension of Yahweh; it is not a distinction
that the nation of Israel made.
The ark first appears in the wilderness wanderings, in the so-called
Song of the Ark in the Book of Numbers. It is an ancient military poem of Yah-
weh & the ark which could well belong to the desert period. In this song, the
ark is not only seen as the leader of Israel's host, but it is directly addressed
as Yahweh. The ark is conceived of as an extension of Yahweh's personality.
The ark led Israel in the crossing of the Jordan into Canaan in the book
of Joshua. The account we have was adapted from the original account so
that it could be used in a worship setting to celebrate the anniversary of the
crossing & the founding of the sanctuary at Gilgal, where it took place. The
story & location of the ark becomes obscure until its reappearance at the
Shiloh sanctuary in the care of Eli and his family; it may have been at Bethel
until then. The Israelites are defeated by the Philistines without the ark being
present. They went into battle a second time with the ark, & the Philistines,
although portrayed as fearful, won again and captured the ark; its departure
from Israel is described as the exiling of glory from Israel.
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The sojourn of the ark in the Philistine cities brought only disaster to
them, such as the bubonic plague in Philistia. It was sent back to Israel in an
unguided, new cart, pulled by newly calved cows. They went directly to the
village of Beth-shemesh, which also suffered misfortune. The ark was taken
farther into the hill country, finally stopping at Abinadab's house at Kiriath-
jearim; it stayed there and was ministered to for 20 years, all through Saul's
reign and until the 8th year of David's reign.
3 ideas are prominent in these stories. 1st, there is the virtual associa-
tion of Yahweh and the ark. 2nd, there is the military and cultic use of the ark.
3rd, there is the use of the ark as the rallying point of Israel. The meaning of
these legends is that Yahweh let the ark be captured in order to punish Israel
and its chief priestly house, and in order to show that Yahweh could overcome
the Philistine by his own power and make them return the ark to Israel. Yah-
weh regained liberty; Yahweh saved Yahweh.
Historically, the ark did journey to Kiriath-jearim via Beth-shemesh, but
this may not mean that it passed beyond Philistine control. Even though
Kiriath-jearim is in Israel, the nation still lamented; this suggests that the ark
was still very much under Philistine control. Saul's neglect of the ark may well
have been the historical reason for the estrangement between Samuel and
Saul. David's resolve to seek the ark and remove it to Jerusalem reveals a
religious spirit and an attitude toward Yahwism, which are the foundation of
the messianic idealization of David and his house.
By means of a religious procession David begins to bring the ark to his
new capital. One of Abinadab's sons, Uzzah, inadvertently shoots out his
hand to steady the ark, & the shock of realizing what he had done in sacred
procession and before everybody's eyes kills him. David misinterprets the
death to be Yahweh's anger at the removal of the ark to Jerusalem. David him-
self carries the ark instead to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite, rather than
risk the death of any of his soldiers.
Obed-edom had good fortune with the ark in his possession, so David
changed his mind & tried again to bring the ark to Jerusalem. Probably volun-
teers were asked for, and they were instructed to lift the ark and to try to walk
6 paces in the direction of Jerusalem. When nothing happened, David pro-
ceeded, along with all the house of Israel to the city of David, with sacrifices,
with a royal dance in priestly garment, and with shouting and trumpet. Thus,
David put Israel's most treasured religious emblem at the heart of Israel's life.
The ark and David were united in Israel's new capital at Jerusalem.
In Jerusalem the ark remained in a tent, and was used on a military ex-
pedition against the Ammonites. During Absalom's revolt, David orders the
ark returned to Jerusalem. Some take this to mean that David freed himself
from the view that the ark was the guarantee of Yahweh's presence. He con-
cluded that if he was ever to enjoy his kingship again, it was to be in Jerusa-
lem or nowhere. He therefore resigns himself completely to the will of God, &
sends the ark back to Jerusalem.
Finally, Solomon removes the ark from Zion to its place in the holy of
holies, the inner sanctuary of the temple. No more mention of the ark is made
in the historical books of the Bible. Shisak may have removed it; Manasseh
may have replaced it with his image of Astarte; and Josiah restored it to the
temple. Most likely it was destroyed or stolen during Nebuchadnezzar's inva-
sion. The actual fate of the ark is a bigger mystery than its origins.
Psalm 132 is the only Psalm that has an explicit reference to the ark.
The story in II Samuel and this Psalm are closely related. The first is the his-
torical tradition of the removal of the ark to Jerusalem; the second is the adap-
tation of the story to a worship setting for the annual celebration of that remo-
val. David did recover the ark, and did thereby signal the national liberation
from the Philistine yoke. Ark, Yahweh, royal house, & Israel existed in a new
unity in Jerusalem. This unity transformed and was enriched by the existing
El Elyon cult of old, Jebusite Jerusalem; it broke down through and after the
reign of Solomon. The unity survived spiritually in the messianic prophecies
of Isaiah.
Since the ark was so important, it's strange that there's only one Psalm
that refers directly to it. There are many places where the ark could be im-
plied by a phrase used in the word's place. The phrase used most often
(225 times) in the OT is “before Yahweh,” & in many of its uses the ark may
be easily substituted, especially in the cultic contexts. Also, in II Samuel, the
name of the ark was the name of Yahweh of hosts, who dwells between the
cherubim. This could mean that Hebrew words for “Yahweh of hosts” were
actually inscribed upon the lid of the ark. The use of “Yahweh of hosts” could
then be used in some cases as a veiled reference to the ark. When all the
veiled references to the ark of the covenant are taken into account, the ark
figures far more largely in the Psalms than has previously been supposed.
A-69
ARKITE (ערקי) A person living in or coming from the town of Arqa
of Tripolis in Syria
(Astarte) cult.
ARM (זרוע (zer o ah); braciwn (brakh ee own)) In the Bible, it is used most
often as a metaphor for strength, since it is the part of the body most often
used for putting into effect the dictates of one's will, for fighting & for building.
Although the word “arm” must have been commonly used in ancient collo-
quial Hebrew to designate the strength of men, most of the time in the Old
Testament, it is used for God's strength (e.g. lightning as the “descending
blow of his arm;” and “ outstretched arm”). Only in rare instances is it used in
its common literal meaning, & it occurs only 3 times in the New Testament.
ARMAGEDDON (הרמגדו, Mount Megiddo; Armagedwn) In the book of Zecha-
riah, it is said to be a “Hebrew” word for the scene of the last struggle of good
& evil against each other. Unfortunately, the word does not occur anywhere in
Hebrew. There are many interpretations of the word or phrase, depending on
how the letters might have been miscopied down through the ages. It may
have to do with the city of Megiddo, or it may be a misprint for the word har
migdo (his fruitful mountain,” or Mount Zion). It is used in the New Testament
in the Book Revelation. It appears likely that in both this book and Zechariah,
abounding as they do in symbolic language, this term also should be meant
to carry a symbolic meaning like the one suggested here.
ARMENIA. The King James Version translation of Ararat.
ARMLET (אצעדה (ets ah daw); צעדה (tseh ah daw)) A ring or band worn on
the upper arm, as distinct from a bracelet worn on the lower arm.
ARMONI (ארמני) One of 2 sons of Rizpah, Saul's concubine. David delivered
him & his brother to the Gibeonites to be hanged in order to fulfill vengeance
for the bloodguilt of Saul's house.
ARMOR OF GOD (panoplia tou qeou (pan op lee ah tau thay oo)). The
word for armor is a fusion of two Greek words: pan (all); & opla (weapons).
The phrase “armor of God” refers to a soldier’s full combat gear, and is used
to indicate all the resources that God makes available to those who follow
his commands.
The whole armor, panoplia, is mention in 2 writings. In Luke, it de-
scribes all the equipment with which the devil fights to protect his property
from seizure. But when a stronger power enters the battle, the devil's full
armor is seized & his possessions are despoiled. In the Letter to the Ephe-
sians, the warfare also rages between God and the devil. To win, one must
rely on God's strength. The armor of God includes: truth, righteousness, the
gospel of peace, faith, salvation, & the Spirit. With these, along with prayer,
trust in God, vigilance, & devotion to God's cause, Christ's army can over-
come every subtlety & every onslaught of the devil, but only if soldiers fully
utilize these weapons.
The battle isn't a matter of virtue's overcoming vice, nor is it self-righ-
teous crusade against human enemies. It is also not a way to gain mental
and psychic poise; it is a way of vindicating God's power over Satan in every
situation where the believer encounters the craftiness of primal evil. What
weapons are effective depends, not on the part of the soldier being protected,
but on the force & weapon being used by the enemy. God's weapons will re-
sist all the devil's attacks.
ARMOR-BEARER (נשא כלים (na si ka leem)) A personal attendant of a warrior
chieftain. The armor-bearer is attested to only in early times, being mentioned
in the Old Testament as a servant of Abimelech, Jonathon, Saul, & Joab.
Jonathon's finished off his chief's opponents. Both Abimelech & Saul ordered
their armor-bearers to kill them in order to avoid capture. Joab's armor-bearer,
Naharai of Beeorth, was himself a mighty warrior, being one of David's Mighty
Men.
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ARMORY (אוצר (o tsar); בית כלי (bet ke lee); נשק (nay shek); תלפיות (tal
pee yote)) An official storehouse for military weapons. With the establishment
of a standing army came the necessity for storing arms. Armories existed in
Solomon's, Athaliah's and Hezekiah's reign, and still served as a landmark at
the time of the re-building of Jerusalem
ARMY (חיל (khah yil), force; צבא (tsa bah), host) The Monarchy marks the begin-
nings of an organized army. In patriarchal times a crisis would promote a levy
on the male membership of a clan by its chieftain. Abram led out his trained
men against a coalition of kings and in typical Bedouin fashion pursued them
by night, divided his 318 followers into 3 groups, & brought back his relatives
and all the spoil. Various clans would co-operate to meet a common danger.
The period of the judges saw irregular troops organized along tribal
lines for defense &/or plunder, volunteers serving under some popular leader.
Before the time of David, soldiers had to provide their own weapons & food;
on foreign soil, they would live off the land. In times of peace, such groups
might pillage the countryside, or go into service of some alien power. David
led such a group and who eventually changed the peasant kingdom of Saul
into an empire with an organized army. Saul began as charismatic leader, but
after his victorious return from battling the Ammonites, he became king in ear-
nest, choosing 3000 men for a standing army. He led the army personally
along with his son, Jonathon. Later, Abner was commander of the army, but
his exact duties were not clear.
David's military genius was apparent long before he became king.
David appointed as commander in chief Joab, whose tactical brilliance revolu-
tionized Israelite warfare & changed them from a defensive to an offensive
force. David set about to consolidate his own position by the creation of a
bodyguard of mercenary troops composed partly of old comrades from his
outlaw days, and partly of Philistine, Cherethite & Pelethite mercenaries.
They were paid directly from the royal purse, and served not only as
body guard, but also to uphold the Davidic house's central authority. When
David had to flee because of Absalom, their loyalty remained unquestioned,
and it was they who eventually put down the revolt & re-won the crown for
David. Hired troops became a fixed institution with the Davidic dynasty, as the
ordinary Israelite was by nature anti-militaristic & ill-disposed to army disci-
pline; later, in the Northern kingdom, army rule and army-led revolts only too
often characterized palace government.
The Israelite army essentially remained an army on foot throughout its
history. Since the Philistines were masters of chariot warfare, as were Syr-
ians, David knew about chariots; he wisely avoided it, mainly as impractical in
Palestine's hilly terrain. With the establishment of an empire and the conse-
quent occupation of the Aramean plains, however, cavalry and chariot corps
became necessary. His son's introduction of these expensive and impractical
elements into his army certainly contributed to the eventual disruption of the
kingdom; later kings had to abandon chariots & cavalry. In the Northern King-
dom, chariot and cavalry was part of the army at least under the kings of
Ahab's line.
After the dissolution of the Palestinian kingdoms, separate national
existence, & with it the army, came to an abrupt end. Not until the wars of
liberation under the Maccabees was a Jewish Army again a reality. This army was originally scattered guerrilla bands. Under the later Hasmoneans, paid
Jewish and Gentile soldiers constituted a standing army. Herod the Great as
a loyal vassal to Rome not only put his forces at Rome's disposal but also
modeled his own troops on that of his sovereign. The presence of Thracian,
German, and Gaul undoubtedly helped to fan the hatred which the Jews felt
for Herod.
ARNA An ancestor of Ezra; apparently parallel to Zerahiah.
ARNAN (ארנן, nimble) A ancestor of Jesus ( I Chronicles 3).
ARNON (ארנון) A perennial stream flowing from the Transjordan plateau through
a deep canyon into the Dead Sea from the east at a point just north of its mid-
point. The Arnon divided the kingdom of Sihon from Moab, and later was the
southern boundary of the tribe of Reuben. Its source is near Lejjun; it flows
north-northwest for about 24 km and then west about an equal distance to the
Dead Sea. The canyon of the Arnon is 4 km wide in places, with the riverbed
500 m below the top of the cliffs.
AROD (דאﬧו, hunchbacked) Son of Gad; ancestral head of the Arodites.
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AROER (ערוער, juniper(?)) 1. A well-known city situated on the Arnon Gorge's northern rim, which marked the southern extremity of the Amorite kingdom of
Sihon. It was fortified by the sons of Gad, though originally assigned to Reu-
ben, for whom it served as the southernmost sentinel. It was the logical star-
ting point of David's census. It's a short distance east of the main north-south
route across the Arnon. From its magnificent vantage point on the canyon's lip,
it commanded all crossings of the forbidding gorge. Ruins of fortresses from
the Iron Age and the Nabatean periods can be seen there.
2. A Gilead town on the border of Gad's inheritance, near modern
Amman. the exact location is unknown. 3. A town in the southern country of
Judah, about 19 km southeast of Beer-sheba. David sent a share of the spoil
taken from an Amalekite band to the elders of this town.
AROMATIC CANE (קנה בשם (kaw neh ba shem), sweet (fragrant) cane) A spe-
cies of fragrant reed used by the Israelites as a perfume. It is commonly identi-
fied as the sweetflag. The roots are still employed in confectionery, distilling, &
brewing.
ARPACHSHAD (ארפכשד) The 3rd son of Shem, the grandfather of Eber, and an
ancestor of the Hebrews.
ARPAD (ארפד) A city and a minor state in the northern part of Syria
about 40 km north of Aleppo
destroyed by the Assyrians in the mid to late 700s B.C.
ARRAY, BATTLE
sheem)) The arrangement of forces on a field of battle in readiness to launch
or withstand attack.
ARRAY, HOLY (הדרת קדש, (ha dar at ka desh)) An expression indicating “proper
attire.”
ARSENAL (תלפיות (tal pee yote)) A store of battle weapons. The meaning of this
Hebrew word is unknown.
ART We are concerned here with the processes of painting, carving, engraving,
etc., and with the origin and evolution of decorative themes & pattern, rather
than the objects thus decorated.
Prehistoric and Canaanite Art—The earliest manifestations of artistic
creativity, date from the Middle Stone Age (around 8000 B.C.), when cave
dwellers of Mount Carmel carved and engraved their bone implements. There
are attempts at representing the human figure; the skulls of several individuals
are decorated with shell diadems. Neolithic Jericho around 6000 B.C. has yiel-
ded several human masks. These masks occurred apparently in groups of 3—
man, woman, and child. All these objects had a ritual or magical significance.
Skulls found nearby had been partly completed with fine clay so as to repre-
sent human features.
The earliest, & outstanding, examples of wall paintings were found in the
ruins of Teleilat Ghassul of the Chalcolithic period (around 3500 B.C.). The
artists used mineral pigments, black, dark red, red, and yellow ocher, & white.
One of the frescoes represents an eight-ray star around which geometrical
designs were distributed irregularly.
Before Palestine's settlement by Israelites, Canaanite artists drew their
inspiration and techniques from Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Anatolian, and
Aegean style. Ancient Asia Minor's art resulted from the modification of Meso-
potamian themes in Hurrite, Mitannite, and Hittite workshops. No one style
came out of this exchange of artistic influence between the Aegean & the east
Mediterranean coast. Canaanite art flourished during the Late Bronze Age (around 1600-1200 B.C.).
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Ras Shamra's art from the 1400-1300s B.C. is good illustration of the
composite art which flourished in Canaan. On the image of the thunder-god
of Ugarit, the Egyptian influence is obvious from the left shoulder seen full-
face, while the head, body & legs appear in right profile. But the helmet, the
pigtails, and the curved dagger are definitely borrowed from the art of Asia
Minor. The same mixture of Egyptian and Asian features appears, in varying
proportions, in other reliefs and statues.
Decorative patterns also reveal the composite nature of Ugaritic art.
On a golden plate with a hunting scene, the well-balance composition & dyna-
mic character of the animal representation are typically Aegean; the artificial
combination of profile as described above belongs to the Egyptians, while the
chariot, the harness, & the manner of hunting seem to originate in the art of
Asia Minor.
The few monuments which can be ascribed to the Canaanites, are
generally uninspiring imitations of foreign models and patterns. Stone carvers
from Beth-shan had sculptured steles and votive plaques of limestone for the
local god Mekal's temple. One stele represents the god in right profile. The
sculptor did his best to give the “Egyptian” look to his god. But the full beard,
the horns, and the high pointed bonnet substituted for the white crown of the
Pharaohs would never have been dreamed of on the Nile. A stele found at
Khirbet Balu'a, carved around 1200 B.C., shows a similar combination of
Canaanite & Egyptian elements used by local craftsmen.
A bronze statuette from Megiddo
shows a Canaanite deity on a throne, wearing a conical tiara. The influence of
Asia Minor and northern Syria on Canaanite art is undeniable in the case of a
stone panel of a lion and a mastiff fighting found in Beth-shan and tentatively
dated from the 1300s B.C. Affinities with Asia Minor's art may be recognized
also in the decoration of the so-called “altar” of Taanach.
As for the countless clay figurines, the nature, typology, and even the
chronology of which are far from being well defined, they can scarcely be
considered as works of art, as there isn't much evidence of creativity & genius
in these objects or the earthenware vessels modeled in the shape of gro-
tesque human figures by local potters. The crude Palestinian substitutes for
the golden masks on the royal tombs of Mycenae date from the end of the
Late Bronze and the Early Iron Age.
The Canaanite ivory carvings are abundant & unusually attractive.
They reveal an able technique and a great ingenuity in the combination of
patterns drawn from different ethnic sources. An ivory box from Tell el Far'ah
in the Negev has Egyptian figures in Syrian costumes surrounded by Meso-
potamian palm trees and the Aegean symbolism of bullocks standing at a thicket's edge. The object is no older than the 1100s B.C.
Most important is a collection of sculptured and engraved ivory inlays
from Megiddo. They show a variety of decorative themes, from geometrical
patterns to the palmated ornaments and spirals so common in the art of Cy-
prus and the Phoenician coast, to Egyptian religious figures, to naturalistic
animal figures & scenes. One such treasure is an ivory casket decorated with
sphinxes & lions carved in high relief. The sphinxes resemble more the Asia
Minor sphinxes than the Egyptian ones. Ivory carving suffered a long artistic
vacuum during the time of the Israelites conquest of Canaan.
The art of Canaanite ivory carvers revived with the rise of the various
western Semitic kingdoms. Occasionally references of the decoration of hou-
ses & furniture by means of ivory inlays are in the Bible. The ivories of Arslan
Tash shows many images such as sphinxes, female winged figures facing one
another on each side of a tree. The images showed the influence of Egyptian
art from the New Empire, which itself was influenced by oriental and Mediter-
ranean sources. The Samarian royal palace was also decorated with ivory.
Next, there is the art found on Canaanite painted pottery, specifically
the patterns used, their sources and development. Around 1500 B.C., there
was a pottery class that showed a combination of stylized motifs with realistic
animal representations within panels separated by straight or wavy lines, rows
of triangles, checkerboard designs, etc. The motifs inside the panels, which
gradually spread from Cyprus to the Syro-Palestinian coast, go back to old
Mesopotamian prototypes like the stylized tree, the antelope or goats, and the
fishing or fighting cranes found in the 1000s B.C. Another class of painted
jugs and craters made around 1200 B.C., with spiral decorative patterns and over-stylized large birds turning their heads to smooth their feathers were
found on the coastal plains and thereby attributed to the Philistines.
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Hebrew Art—The Hebrews had no artistic tradition of their own. The
troubled period which followed the Conquest, and which was brought to an
end by the rise of the Davidic dynasty, wasn't favorable to artistic creativity.
Not until Solomon's reign of did art flourish again in Palestine, & still the Isra-
elites had to rely largely on foreign craftsmen, resources and techniques.
Our description of the temple's art comes to us through the eyes &
hands of scribes who were more concerned with conveying the “house of Yah-
weh's splendor,” than a technical or even artistic description. It is even pro-
bable that at least some of those responsible for the final redaction had not
actually seen the monument. The Bible records suggest that the sanctuary's
inner walls, doors, passages, etc., were covered with sculptured panels of
wood brightened with gold inlays. The Hebrew terms used in the description
of the panels' ornamental patterns and motifs are broad & not always consis-
tently translated.
There were ornaments from the plant world geometrically arranged and
cherubim. The cherubim of the temple were composite creatures, with human
faces & wings, akin to the winged figures guarding the doorsteps of the gods
in the temples of Mesopotamia and Asia Minor, while the cherubim of the ark
may be closer to the winged figures painted on the panels of Egyptian deities'
shrines. The capitals of the pillars were also decorated with ornaments from
the plant world in geometrical patterns.
Animal figures decorated other items in the temple, such as the “Molten
Sea” and the bronze wagons carrying water. What is distinctive in the sacred
art of the Hebrews is that it involves a certain amount of removing the element
of myth from foreign symbols, or at least an adaptation of the same into Yah-
weh worship. The construction and the furnishing of the temple and of the
palaces of the kings of Judah Israel
artistic potential of the Hebrews.
Jewish Art—Jewish artistic achievements were understandably rare
Jewish Art—Jewish artistic achievements were understandably rare
& poor in the postexilic period, when homecoming exiles struggled for exis-
tence. They are more numerous & for the most part mediocre when the Jews
obtained a limited autonomy under their own rulers. Jewish art, however was
never entirely original. The influence of Greek artistic expression on even
Jewish artists was pervasive. Herod's temple decoration may have been
Greek art's paramount achievement, but nothing of it is left. The richest
Jewish rock-cut family sepulchers toward the end of the pre-Christian era
were often adorned with columns imitated from classical architecture.
Some Galilean synagogue facades were lavishly decorated with sculp-
tured vegetable ornaments similar to those seen on gables of Jewish rock-cut
tombs, along with seven-branch candlesticks, the six-pointed “Star of David,”
the Torah-shrine, and the wheeled chariot of I Chronicles. Human and animal
figures are common of the Palestinian synagogues' mosaic pavements of the
300 & 400s A. D. Originally pagan motifs from mythology such as the sun-
god’s chariot, the zodiac & season figures, were borrowed without qualm by
Jewish artists. Some Jews were against such symbols and destroyed them.
Wall frescoes executed in a technique & style similar to those of Roman
and Alexandrian paintings, decorated the synagogue of Dura-Europos on the
Euphrates in the 200s A. D. They represent miscellaneous episodes from the
entire Bible, from Moses to Elijah, as well as apocryphal scenes. This was a
highly appropriate use of art in a synagogue, which was above all a place of
instruction.
ARTAXERXES 1. Artaxerxes I (465-425 B.C.), son of Xerxes I. He overcame
revolts in Egypt. By the peace treaty of Callias (449), signed at Susa, relations
between Athens and Persia were stabilized. Artaxerxes I authorized Ezra's
mission to Jerusalem
and with his permission, the first in 445.
2. Artaxerxes II (404-359 B.C.), Darius II's son & Artaxerxes I's grand-
2. Artaxerxes II (404-359 B.C.), Darius II's son & Artaxerxes I's grand-
son. He crushed the rebellion of his brother Cyrus at the Battle of Cunzxa in
401. He lost Egypt probably in 402 or 401, repelled the meddling of Sparta in
the affairs of Asia Minor, and suppressed other rebellious movements led by
local satraps. 3. Artaxerxes III (359-338 B.C.), son of Artaxerxes II. By the
use of skillful diplomacy and military force, he succeeded in maintaining a
superficially strong empire until he was murdered in a conspiracy.
ARTEMAS (ArtemaV ) An early Christian. Paul expected to send Artemas or
Tychicus to Titus in Crete, so that Titus could join Paul in Nicopolis.
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ARTEMIS (ArtemiV ) A goddess of the most diverse characteristics, worshiped
more than any other female deity in Greek communities; the equivalent of the
Roman Diana. She is Apollo’s sister, daughter of Leto and Zeus; the virgin
huntress, protector of the chastity of nymphs and her devotees; a moon-god-
dess; the patroness of maidens of marriageable age, helper of women in
childbirth, and the giver of a gentle death to women. Even so she retains stri-
king aspects of savagery. She is pre-eminently a goddess of wild nature.
The Artemis of the Ephesians mentioned in Acts is not the Hellenic or
Latin goddess. She is really a form of the Asian mother-goddess. She was a
local goddess of Ephesus, taken over by the Greeks. The Ephesian Artemis
wasn't a virgin huntress, but a fruitful mother; not a moon-goddess, but a god-
dess of fertility. Her temple was a huge landholding corporation served by
eunuch-priests; by other attendants called Essenes; and by thousands of fe-
male slaves.
She was worshiped not only in Ephesus, but also in most Asia Minor
cities, in southern Gaul, in Syria, and in Rome. It is probable that her primary
image, which was preserved in the Ephesus
“silver shrines of Artemis” made by Demetrius, were not images of Artemis,
but were probably replicas of the primitive sanctuary which was replaced by
the great temple of the later period.
ARTILLERY (כלי (kel ee)) See Weapons and Implements of War.
ARTISANS See Crafts.
ARUBBOTH (ארבות, ambush) A town in one of Solomon's 12 administrative dis-
tricts, which probably approximated the old tribal territory of Manasseh
hesed, an official of Solomon's court, was charged with the responsibility of
collecting provisions here.
ARUMAH (ארומה, lofty) Abimelech's place of residence, after he had been driven
from Shechem. The exact location of the city is unknown; it is perhaps halfway
between Shechem and Shiloh.
ARVAD (ארוד, a wandering) A city and a minor state in northern Syria
of the same name, near the coast between Tripolis & Ladhigiyeh. Arvad Resi-
dents are famous as sailors and warriors and served in the navy & the army of
the rich city-state of Tyre.
ARZA (ארצא, gracious) Elah's chamberlain at Tirzah, in whose house Elah was
assassinated by Zimri.
ARZARETH (אחרת ארצ, another land) A distant region beyond the Euphrates
from which they will return in the last days.
ASA (אסא, (God?) has given (healed?)) 1. Son of Maacah & King of Judah (sou-
thern Israel) around 913-873 B.C. Asa reigned 41 years. Asa was Yahweh's
loyal supporter & a religious reformer. He undertook to remove pagan wor-
ship & practices and to restore the worship of Yahweh to its rightful place
climaxed with a great sacrifice in Jerusalem in the 15th year of his reign. He
removed Maacah from being queen mother because she had made an image
for Asherah, the Canaanite fertility goddess, and worshiped it.
The border warfare with (northern) Israel continued throughout the
reigns of King Asa and King Baasha. Baasha moved against Judah & fortified
Ramah in the territory of Benjamin. Asa took what was left of the temple trea-
sure and sent them to Ben-hadad, king of Syria with the appeal that he should
break his league with Baasha, king of Israel. Ben-hadad responded by captu-
ring several towns & some territory in Galilee. Baasha withdrew from Ramah
and returned to Tirzah. Asa used Baasha's building materials to fortify Geba
& Mizpah. The fortifications belonging to this period were very strong.
The Chronicler records an undated invasion of Judah by Zerah the Ethi-
opian, commander of the Egyptian frontier city of Gerar. It was beaten back,
and much booty was taken. The Chronicler adds a further note in the form of
a prophecy of Hanani the seer, condemning Asa for his reliance upon Syria;
Asa put Hanani in prison. Toward the end of his reign he contracted dropsy.
The Chronicler saw in this the punishment of God. Asa was buried with royal
honors in a tomb which he built for himself in the city of David.
2. A Levite son of Elkanah, ancestor of Obadiah, who lived in one of
the villages of the Netophathites.
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ASAHEL (עשהאל, God has made) 1. Joab’s and Abishai’s brother, Zeruiah’s
(David’s sister) sons. After the Battle of Gibeon, when Abner and his forces
were routed by Joab, Asahel “swift of foot as a wild gazelle,” pursued relent-
lessly the fleeing Abner. After warning him off twice, Abner speared him. This
started a blood feud with Zeruiah’s sons and resulted in Abner’s murder at
Hebron. Chronicles has Asahel serving as the commander of 24,000 men for
the 4th month (i.e. after his death), possibly to honor him posthumously.
2. A Levites who, in company with the princes of Judah & priests,
instructed the people in the law in an itinerant teaching mission in Jehosha-
phat's 3rd year of rule. 3. A subordinate overseer who assisted in religious
collections during Hezekiah's reign. 4. The father of Jonathon, who opposed
the formation of the Jerusalem commission to consider the cases of the Jews
who had married foreign wives in the time of Ezra.
ASAIAH (עשיה, Yahweh has made) 1. An official under Josiah; in the delegation
sent to Hulda the prophetess regarding the law book. 2. One of the “head
of families” or chieftains, in the tribe of Simeon. 3. Son of Haggiah; chief of
the Levitical group called the sons Merari and thus among those who helped
David bring the ark to Jerusalem. 4. The first-born of the Shilonites, as lis-
ted in Chronicles among those who returned from the Babylonians captivity.
Nehemiah lists him as Maaseiah.
ASAPH (אסף, possibly Yahu has gathered to himself) 1. Apparently the father or
ancestor of the Joah, who was King Hezekiah's recorder.
2. The founder of one of 3 chief families or guilds of temple musici-
ans. Whether or not Asaph was himself was actually a Levitical remains un-
known; he was possibly a contemporary with David, according to the Chroni-
cler. In his history of Judah, Asaph’s sons participated in nearly every major
temple celebration. Because of their evident importance in the Chronicler's
view, it has been suggested that he was a member of this guild. Their musi-
cal function was referred to in some instances as prophesying.
3. Someone mentioned in I Chronicles, whose name should probably
read “Abiasaph.”
4. The “keeper of the king's forests,” probably in Lebanon, to whom
the Persian king sent a letter by Nehemiah, ordering in timber for Jerusalem's
reconstruction.
ASAREL (אשראל) One of four sons of Jehallelel in the genealogy of Judah
ASCENSION. (עלה (aw law); anabainein (an ab ah ee nay een); 9 other
Greek words are translated as “ascension,” rising up or being taken up) A
voyage from the earth to heaven above; Christ's exaltation after humiliation,
on which the transcendence of Christian existence is based.
A divinity's ascension is a widespread mythological idea. It appears in
2 Old Testament books, 16 apocryphal books, and 6 New Testament books.
This tradition merged with that of the soul's ascent in ecstasy, or at death,
which developed in the Zoroastrian Avesta, Mithraism, Mandaeism, and
Gnosticism into a detailed voyage through several spheres or levels of
heaven. Theology which blended all the above religious disciplines together
developed the pattern of descent from heaven & ascent to heaven for descri-
bing the Gnostic “Redeemer,” as well as the divine men of the Greek age.
When earliest Christology identified Jesus with the Son of man expec-
ted shortly from heaven, the theological necessity of the Ascension was ap-
parent. In order for the Son of man to have dominion, glory, a kingdom, &
subservience of all, ascension was necessary. As these functions progres-
sively transferred from the future to the present, Ascension became Jesus'
decisive subjugation of & revelation to the spirit world controlling the cosmos.
The Ascension becomes the key to all spiritual gifts—i. e. the reli-
gious experience—of the church. It thus tends to replace the Second Co-
ming as the beginning of Christ's kingdom. When the Ascension is cast in
the Greek pattern of descent & ascent, it becomes the form in which Jesus
finds a place within Gnosticism. In the humiliated Christ's transcendence
over the world is humankind's hope of rising to true selfhood.
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The perversion of the true Christian meaning by heretics in Paul's con-
gregations focuses on the need to clarify Ascension’s meaning. They took
Christ's enthronement for the finality of God's victory and ignored the persis-
ting ambiguities of human existence; they rejected the world's end and the
Second Coming. Since baptism meant union with Christ, they interpreted
their dying with Christ as the end of their finitude. They assumed they had
moved beyond the historicity of human existence and were above suffering
service.
In opposition to this, Paul kept the idea of the end of the world and the
Second Coming, not as an inconsistent vestige of mythology or of Jewish
thinking, but rather a position which in his situation was necessary to pre-
serve a valid understanding of man's situation in the world. Within this life,
our union with Christ identifies us with his position in this life (i.e. being on the
way to the Cross).
His enthronement in heaven as Lord of the cosmos means that human
existence is ultimately under the control of the Humiliated, the Crucified, the
Obedient One. Faith in Christ's ascension thus means not only that his ser-
vice and suffering were his freedom and his victory, but that in his “obedience
unto death,” the path of transcendence within service & suffering is revealed
as a reality for us. Paul's position that our ascension hasn't already hap-
pened so as to remove us from historical involvement, but rather awaits us,
gives transcendent meaning to our service and suffering in the world.
ASCENT (מעלה (ma ah le); katabasiV (kat a bas sees)) An ascending road
stairway; specifically, a mountain pass. The terms “ascent” & “descent” apply
in general to any roadway by which one goes up or down. Thus David left
Jerusalem by the “ascent of the Mount of Olives,” and Jesus came toward
the city by the descent of the same mountain.
The principal Israelite occupation of Palestine was in the rugged moun-
tains west of the Jordan & the passes by which the roads entered the moun-
tains were of great economic, geographic, & military importance. They were
usually called “ascents,” since they were entrances to the mountain range.
The Jordan’s rift valley has steep cliffs through which travel is possible along
secondary rifts that run into the valley at right angles. Three of these rifts into
the Judean mountains are called ascents: Ascent of Acrabbim; Ascent of Ziz;
Ascent of Adummim (blood), so called because of the red soil; it formed the
northern boundary of Judah.
ASCENTS, SONGS OF. (המעלות שיר (sheer ham ma ah lowt)) The title of the
Psalms forming the group of Psalms 120-134, which is part of the canonical
psalter. The meaning of “Ascent” is not clear. One possibility is that they are
songs of procession, either for ascending to the temple, or for pilgrims ascen-
ding to Jerusalem
ASENATH. (אסנת, belonging to, the servant of Neith (goddess)) Daughter of
Potphera, priest of On. The Pharaoh gave her to Joseph, son of Jacob as a
wife, and she became the mother of Ephraim and Manasseh.
ASER Taken as a misspelling for either “Hazor,” or “Asher.”
ASHAN (עשן, smoke) A city about 2.4 km northwest of Beer-sheba, located in
the Shephelah and originally assigned to Simeon. It was later designated as
a Levitical city of Judah in David's reorganization. It is mentioned as one of
the places David roamed with his men during his outlaw period.
ASHARELAH (אשראלה, upright towards God) One of the sons of Asaph who
prophesied with musical instruments in the temple under the direction of the
king.
ASHBEA (אשבע) In the King James Version, the name of an otherwise unknown
family of linen workers. In the New Revised Standard Version, it is the name
of their hometown, Beth-ashbea, an otherwise unknown town, most likely in
the Shephelah.
ASHBEL (אשבל, having a long upper lip) The second or third son of Benjamin,
ancestor of the family of Ashbelites.
northern most of the three coastal cities. It lay about 5 km inland, halfway
between Gaza and Joppa. It was reputed to be a very old city, once occu-
pied by the primitive Anakim. While assigned the Judah tribe, it remained
in Philistine control.
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When the ark was captured, it was taken to Dagon’s temple in this
city. Because of ill omens, it was moved to Gath. Judah's king Uzziah (783-
742 B.C.) conquered Ashdod and the surrounding territory. They were soon
independent again, and revolted against Sargon II. Even after a forced king
change, the city still revolted, and Sargon launched a campaign to conquer
it and Gath and make it into an Assyrian province.
nacherib and received some of Judah's territory. Esarhaddon (680-669)
and Ashurbanipal (668-633) collected tribute from Ahimilki, king of Ashdod.
The Egyptian king Psamtik I (663-610) laid siege to Ashdod for 29 years. In
spite of problems, Ashdod seems to have been the strongest of the Philistine
cities in the Persian period. (See also the entry in the Old Testament Apocry-
pha / Influences Outside the Bible section of the Appendix.).
During the revolt against the Romans of 66-70 A.D., there was appa-
rently enough Jewish influence in Azotus (Ashdod) for Vespasian to march
against the city and leave a Roman garrison there. Eusebius mentions it as
still being an important town at the beginning of the 300s. It had Christian
bishops from the 300s to the 500s. Today it is only a small village.
ASHDOTH-PISGAH (הפסגה אשﬢות, springs (or slopes) of (Mount ) Pisgah).
ASHER (אשר, happy, blessed) The 8th son of Jacob, born of Leah's maid Zilpah,
the younger brother of Gad, and ancestor of one of the twelve tribes.
As part of the Leah group of tribes, its territory laid on the western
As part of the Leah group of tribes, its territory laid on the western
slopes of the Galilean highland with Zebulun and Naphtali as neighbors to
the east. It had close contact with the seacoast and the maritime state of
Tyre and so wasn't safe from foreign influences. Asher was considered half-
caste and not truly Israelite, and so it was not loved or respected by other
Israelites.
It is not surprising that the Song of Deborah criticizes Asher for sitting
still at the seacoast instead of taking part in the struggle for freedom against
Canaanite kings. It did respond as part of Israel's tribal government to expel
the Midianites under Gideon's leadership. Asher was the only tribe to imme-
diately recognize Ishbaal's kingship instead of David's. It was a district in
the reign of Solomon. The later Old Testament literature mentions Asher
only in lists and in list-like material. The New Testament names Asher after
Gad in the Revelation & ascribes the prophetess Anna to the tribe of Asher.
ASHERAH (אשרה) A Semitic goddess, and the cult object by which she was
represented. Scholars are not certain as to the meaning or origins of this
word, so there are a variety of words used to translate it. Sometimes it is
translated as “groves” or “trees;” it could refer merely to a sacred area or ob-
ject. The New Revised Standard Version uses the word for both the god-
dess and the cult object & makes no attempt to distinguish between the two.
Asherah” was considered either a confusion with “Astarte,” or not
even the name of a goddess until it was found in the Ras Shamra Texts
that there was a goddess distinct from Astarte worshiped by Amorites or
Canaanites in various parts of the Near East . Babylonians worshiped Ashra-
tum; southern Arabians worshiped Athirat as the consort of the moon-god.
It is probable that Asherah also appears in an Aramaean magical text from
Arslan Tash. As the Ugarit goddess Athirat, she was the mother-goddess,
consort of El, mother of 70 gods including Baal.
In the Old Testament (OT), it is apparent that the Hebrew writer didn't
always make a distinction between the deity & its images. The form of the
cult object and its use in the worship of Asherah are not described in the OT.
No object has been found by archaeology that could be called with certainty
an Asherah. From a study of the verbs used in connection with the Asherah
it is clear that it was an object which could be constructed and destroyed by
man; it was not a tree, but was made of wood or contained wood, & could be
burned; it was an object that stood upright. Various proposals are: a plain
pole, a carved pole, a staff, a triangle on a staff, a cross, a double axe, a tree,
a tree stump, a headdress for priests and a wooden image.
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Asherah was not known to the patriarchs and was not the invention of
the Hebrew people but was adopted from neighboring people. The object
appears to have been known in Palestine from the 900s to the 500s B.C. In
Judges, there was an association of worship between Baal and Asherah.
They were usually referred to as “Baals” and “Asherahs,” which indicates that
each locality had its Baal and its Asherah. There is no mention of Asherah
during the reigns of the United Monarchy (Saul, David, and Solomon).
Asherah worship and objects existed in both the southern and northern
kingdoms after the splitting of the United Monarchy at places such as Samaria,
Bethel, and Jerusalem. As an important fertility deity of the Phoenicians and
Canaanites, she would represent a formidable rival to Yahweh under the spon-
sorship of the Phoenician princess Jezebel, wife of King Ahab of (northern)
Israel in the mid-800s B.C. She had 400 prophets of Asherah who ate at her
table. During Rehoboam's reign, people built for themselves high places, and
pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree. Josiah's
reformation in the 600s B.C. attempted to stamp out this goddess-worship, for
whom vessels had been made.
In the OT, Asherah are mentioned either in order to condemn her or to
praise men like Elijah, Asa, and Josiah, who attempted to destroy her cult
among the Israelites. The antipathy towards Asherah by Hebrew leaders was
due to the fact the goddess and the cult object were associated with a foreign
people’s fertility religion. They involved a mythology & cult practices which
were obnoxious to the champions of Yahweh.
ASHES ( a. אפר, (ay fer); b) דשן (daw shane); c) פיח (pee akh))
The uses of ashes for ritual purposes was not peculiar to the Hebrews;
it has been observed among the primitive Arab tribes, and perhaps could have
been found among the Phoenicians.
a) This Hebrew word is used most often and refers to ashes as a sign
of mourning and penitence, a way of hiding the face. A word with the same
consonants but different vowels referred to burnt offering ashes having a puri-
fying effect, and in designating ashes produced by the burning of vessels used
in pagan worship.
b) This word was used to refer to the ashes formed by a mixture of
burned fuel and fat resulting from sacrifice at altars and from burnt corpses.
c) This word means the kiln ashes that were used by Moses to produce
boils among the Egyptians.
ASHIMA (אשימא) A deity worshiped by the colonists from Hamath, settled in Sa-
only one of the five located on the seacoast. The site is about 19 km north of
Gaza and 16 km south of Ashdod.
Ashkelon has had a long and rich history. It is first mentioned in the
Execration Texts of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom around 1850 B.C., along
with Jerusalem as one of the rebellious elements in Egypt's empire. In the
Amarna age, around 1375 B.C., the city, though affected by the rebellion,
seems to have remained loyal to Egypt
II, who took it by storm around 1220 B.C. There was Egyptian religious influ-
ence in the city as late as 1200 B.C.
At this point the Philistines came and the biblical record begins. Ashke-
lon & her sister cities were in territory Joshua didn't take. During the Judges'
times, Saul, and David, Ashkelon was definitely a Philistine city. Nothing more
is heard of the city until the Assyrian period. Mitinti of Ashkelon revolted
against Tiglath-Pileaser III & then went insane & was succeeded by his son
Rukibtu. Later we find Siqia in control of Ashkelon & several nearby places.
He refused to yield to Sennacherib and was deported with his whole family to
Assyria. Shar-ruludari, son of Rukibtu, was restored to the kingship as an
Assyrian vassal in 701 B.C. Later, King Mitinti paid tribute to Esarhaddon and
Ashurbanipal.
After the Egyptians' defeat at the battle of Carchemish
and Nebuchadrezzar demanded submission and tribute of all the Palestinian
states. Apparently Ashkelon alone refused on this occasion. Nebuchadrezzer
“turned the city into a mound and a heap of ruins.” In the Persian period, the
city was under the control of Tyre in the Persian period. (See also the entry in
the Old Testament Apocrypha Influences Outside the Bible section of the
Appendix.).
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In 66 A.D., when the war against Rome broke out, the Jews attacked
and partially destroyed Ascalon; but the city recovered & repulsed with great
slaughter a later Jewish attack. By the 300s, Ascalon's enthusiastic paga-
nism had given way to Christianity, and the city had become a bishopric. For
Moslems it became the “bride of Syria” in the 600s. It held out against the
Crusaders until 1153. Saladin regained it in 1187, after the battle of the Horns
of Hattin, & broke down its walls in 1191 to prevent it being used as a strong-
hold; what remained was dismantled by Sultan Baibars in 1270. Since then it
has been a largely uninhabited ruin.
ASHKENAZ (אשכנז) The son of Gomer and a kingdom or province associated
with Ararat and Minni. The people of this kingdom were known as Scythians
to the Assyrians, whom they fought in conjunction with the Manneans. They
were responsible for the fall of Uratu and Assyria.
ASHNAH (אשנה, fortified) The name of 2 cities in Judah, both in the Shephelah
below the mountains. Their location is uncertain; one was probably on the
edge of Judah and its coastal plain while the other was probably between
Lachish and Hebron.
ASHPENAZ (אשפנז) Nebuchadnezzer's chief eunuch, who was commanded to
bring handsome, intelligent Jewish youths to his palace in the book of Daniel.
ASHTAROTH (עשתרות) 1. The plural form of “Ashtoreth,” the name of the Cana-
anite fertility-goddess; this shows that each locality had their own Astarte, in-
stead of the goddess Anat worshiped elsewhere in the Near East. In the He-
brew settlements, it is said that the Israelites practiced the cult of Baalim and
Ashtaroth, which might mean that they observed seasonal rituals of the fertility
cult without actually worshiping the god and goddess. Samuel and Israel's
confession of apostasy probably refers to this practice.
2. A place name compounded with the goddess Ashtaroth's name. It
is the name of a town in the Transjordan. It was one of the Israelite cities of
refuge and was also known as Rephaim.
3. A common noun meaning either “young” or "breeding stock.
ASHTEROTH-KARNAIM (עשתרות קרנימ) An important fortress city in Gilead,
about 32 km east of the Sea of Galilee and 4.8 km north of Ashtaroth. Exca-
vation of both ruins shows that the two cities seldom flourished at the same
time; most often only one site was populated in any given period.
This city was occupied by the Rephaim or prehistoric inhabitants of
Canaan before 1600 B.C., when it was attacked by Chedorlaomer & his con-
federate kings. It was so thoroughly destroyed that it wasn't occupied for over
300 years, from 1600 B.C. until the time of the Israelite conquest. Either Syria
(Aram) or Israel rebuilt it; occupation of it went back & forth between the 2
nations. King Jeroboam II of (northern) Israel (781-741 B.C.) captured it toge-
ther with the nearby Lo-debar.
ASHTORETH (עשתרת) The deliberate mispronunciation of the name of the
Canaanite fertility goddess Athtarath. It was customary for Hebrew scribes to
label a pagan deity as shameful by combining the consonants of the deity's
name with the vowels of the Hebrew word bosheth (shame).
Solomon patronized this goddess' cult; later, her cult place on the
“Mount of Corruption” was abolished. In Canaan the goddess is first encoun-
tered in the Ras Shamra Texts & is associated with Baal as the giver of life or
death. Apparently the functions of Ashtoreth as the patroness of fertility were
taken over by Anath, Baal's sister. There is a later version in an Egyptian
papyrus from the Nineteenth Dynasty, wherein Athtarath is the bride claimed
by the tyrant Sea
sculpture; one such piece from the Ptolemaic period at Edfu depicts her with
the head of a lion. In another, the goddess wears her hair in the fashion of
stylized horns characteristic of the Egyptian cow-goddess Hathor; Ashtoreth
is also associated with the Phoenician god of healing, Eshmun.
In Palestine, fertility cults used figurines, usually made of clay to repre-
sent nude females with their sexual anatomy emphasized. They may repre-
sent Ashtoreth, or they may be models of concubines to be placed in the tomb
along with the deceased. Judging from the great number of these figurines
that were found, they appear to have been associated with home use, such as
to ask for children, rather than for use in sanctuary.
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ASHURBANIPAL (Assur is the creator of the heir) King of Assyria (668-629(?)
B.C.); son of Esarhaddon. He prided himself on his literacy & had an exten-
sive library. He succeeded in penetrating Egypt beyond Memphis and in
destroying Thebes around 663 B.C. His eastern frontiers in Asia Minor were
threatened by Cimmerians, and his northern borders by Manneans.
Ashurbanipal was the last of Assyria’s great kings. The main event of
his reign was his long-drawn-out fight with the coalition which his brother
Shamashshumukin king of Babylon had set against him. In 652 B.C., Sha-
mashshumukin apparently thought that the time had come for a rebellion
against his brother. He revolted even though his capital was surrounded by
strong, loyal Assyrian garrisons, and his allies were unreliable Elamites, and
Chaldean tribes whose military value against disciplined Assyrian troops was
questionable.
First, the army of Shamashshumukin and his allies failed to conquer
such essential cities as Ur and Uruk. Then, the Elamite king was defeated by
the Assyrians & unable to continue fighting. The Babylonian king was forced
into a defensive fight, which sealed his doom. An expeditionary force of Arabs
was defeated and driven into Babylon. The city was under siege for 2 years;
although it was defended with courage and tenacity, it surrendered due mainly
to famine in 648 B.C.
Ashurbanipal punished first the Arabs & then Elam, the latter ending
with the destruction of Susa. The written history of Assyria seems to end in
639 B.C., although Ashurbanipal ruled well beyond this time; no one knows
why. The Assyrian Empire disintegrated suddenly under his son Sinsharish-
kun (627-612). Babylonia fell to Nabopolassar & in 612, the Assyrian capital,
Nineveh, was destroyed by the Medes.
ASHURITES (אשורי) A people in northern Israel Gilead and
Jezreel as part of the kingdom of Ishbosheth
ASHVATH (עשות) One of the sons of Japhlet in the genealogy of Asher.
Pentecost, there were Jews in Jerusalem who had come from Asia. On Paul's
2nd missionary journey he & Timothy were forbidden by the Spirit to preach
in Asia. During his 3rd journey Paul spent over 2 years in & around Ephesus.
An important development for early Christianity was the rise of emperor-
An important development for early Christianity was the rise of emperor-
worship, which became popular & powerful in Asia, the 1st province to ask
permission to worship the living emperor. Augustus granted this request to
non-Romans in 29 B.C. By the end of the first 100 years after Christ, emperor
worship had incited hostility toward the Christians, who refused to participate.
Asia is the center of interest for the author of the book of Revelation.
The 7 churches which he addresses are all in the Asia province's western por-
tion and probably the churches he knew best: Ephesus, Symrna, Pergamum,
Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, & Laodicea. Other Asian cities mentioned in the
New Testament are Colossae, Hierapolis, Adramyttium, and Assos.
ASIARCH (Asiarch) The precise meaning of this word is not clear, and it may
have changed over time. It may be stated with assurance that the Asiarchs
were men of wealth & public influence in the cities they represented or served,
and that some may have been of provincial importance. Although the term of
office was one year, reelection or reappointment was possible; the title might
survive the term of office. They were not technically a part of the structure of
Roman provincial government, but were accepted, appointed, or elected as
protectors and promoters of the expanding imperial cult. This meant they
would often pay a large portion of the expenses of the cult festivals, or that
they might repair a public bath at their own expense.
It was an Asiarch who, in defiance of the mob refused to let loose a lion
on the theologian Polycarp, on the grounds that he had already closed the
sports. And if Luke and his first readers were familiar with Asiarchs, mentio-
ning their support of Paul lends credence to the Christian cause. Luke also
mentions their support of Paul against the Ephesian rabble.
ASIEL (עשיאל, may God be what he's made of ) Great-grandfather of Jehu in a
list of Simeonite chieftains and their conquests in the time of Hezekiah. (See
also the entry in the Old Testament (OT) Apocrypha/ Influences Outside of the
OT section of the Appendix.)
ASMODEUS (AsmodeuV ) The Destroyer and demon of anger. An evil being
described in later Jewish tradition as “king of the demons;” sometimes identi-
fied with Beelzebul ((See also the entry in the Old Testament (OT) Apocry-
pha/ Influences Outside of the OT section of the Appendix.)
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ASNAH (אסנה, he who belongs to Nah) The head of a family of temple servants
who returned to Palestine
ASP (פתן (peh then)) English term for one of several poisonous snakes, perhaps
the common European viper or adder, & with special reference to the cobra.
Asp is used poetically as in the wine of the enemy is the “cruel venom of
asps” and the venom of the asps is under the tongue of the unrighteous.
ASPATHA (אספתא) One of the ten sons of Haman who were killed by the Jews in
retaliation.
ASRIEL (אשריאל, God has filled with joy) A descendant of Manasseh; one of the
Gileadites found in Moses' second census. He is the founding ancestor of
the Asrielites, who were allotted land by Joshua.
ASS (חמור (kham ore)) Centuries before Israel
mesticated the ass and it had become part of the civilized life of Western Asia .
As a work animal the ass was used for carrying burdens, and also for
agricultural operations. The proverbial strength of the ass was appropriately
used to describe Issachar's strength. There was a prohibition against plowing
with an ox and an ass together. As a riding animal, the ass was controlled by
a bridle and was the animal normally ridden by people. Even people of influ-
ence used the ass; the fact that Zion's future king would come riding an ass
emphasizes his essential peaceableness. The Bible indicates that the He-
brews of the 800s B. C. were familiar with the meat of the ass. But the dietary
norms treated the ass as unclean and therefore unacceptable as food.
Possession of an ass was almost the bare minimum for existence; and
wealth was indicated by the ownership of large numbers of animals. In the
summary of the resources of the early post-exilic Judean community, the
numbers of asses far exceed those of all other animals. The ass, like the ox,
shared in the rest of the Sabbath day. The ass on the Sabbath received the
care necessary for its survival.
ASSASSINS (sikarioi, (si kar ee oy), dagger men) In Palestine this term was
used by the Romans with reference to those Jews who engaged in organized
political killings in which surprise was a key element. The Romans considered
such killings criminal.
Josephus uses the name to identify a particular revolutionary party in
Josephus uses the name to identify a particular revolutionary party in
the war of 66-70 A. D. He traces their origins back as far as the national reac-
tion against the Roman census. Those who submitted to the census were
treated as criminals by the sicarii. The sicarii of Josephus held out until the
last against Romans at Masada, who did not breach their defenses until 73
A.D. When the Romans broke through they found that the sicarii had syste-
matically carried through a mass act of self-destruction. Even Josephus re-
presents this deed as motivated by patriotism and devotion to God and God's
Law.
The sicarii are probably best understood as patriotic Jews living in the
main stream of the Phineas-Maccabean tradition of zeal for the law in re-
sponse to Roman occupation. There are ample examples in the history of
occupation of similar behaviors of others as assassins, robbers, and martyrs.
ASSAYER (בחון (baw khone), examine, test) One who tests ores for their gold &
silver content. Jeremiah's prophetic task is to be an assayer of the people.
He finds them entirely base metal.
ASSEMBLY See Congregation.
ASSHUR (אשון) 1. One of Shem's sons; the founding ancestor of the Assyrians.
2. The chief god of the Assyrian pantheon; the name appears as part
of many proper names (e.g. Ashur-banipal).
3. A city in Assyria along the banks of the Tigris; one of 4 that were
Assyria’s capital during its history.
ASSHURIM (אשורימ) An obscure tribe, probably northern Arabian, living in the
south of Palestine
ASSIR (אסיר, prisoner, captive) 1. A son of Korah and a great-great-grandson of
Korah, as listed in I Chronicles.
2. A son of King Jeconiah; perhaps he was born in captivity. But he is
2. A son of King Jeconiah; perhaps he was born in captivity. But he is
mentioned nowhere else.
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ASSOS (AssoV ) A seaport of Mysia in the Roman province of Asia . The city
was ideally located on the terraces of a steep volcanic cone with a beautiful
view about 0.8 km from the sea. It was naturally protected by the steep as-
cent; its defenses were strengthened by a city wall two miles long and almost
20 m. high. Its harbor was formed by a long arm of land built out into the sea.
Paul traveled south overland to Assos from Troas, while his companions went
on the longer sea route.
before the Christian era. They take their names from their capital cities,
Asshur and Babylon. Their civilizations rivaled in age that of Egypt, which ex-
isted at roughly the same time. They surpassed Egypt in respect to the influ-
ence they had on surrounding civilizations.
Topic List—1. Assyria and Babylonia's Impact on the Bible
2. History of Babylonia 3. History of Assyria 4. The Country
5. People & Language 6. Writing System and Materials
7. Nonliterary Texts 8. Religious Texts 9. Omen Literature
10. Secular Literature 11. Institutions 12. King & Palace
13. City & Temple 14. Arts and Sciences 15. Historical Sources
16. Archaeological Notes
1. Assyria & Babylonia's Impact on the Bible—These civilizations' direct impact on the events of the Bible began with Ashurnasirpal II (884-
860). From the reign of Omri (876-869) and his son Ahab (869-850), to Heze-
kiah (715-687 B. C.) and Manasseh (687-642), Assyria posed an immediate
threat to Judah & Israel, but one that varied with the fluctuations in Assyrian
military might. Ashurna-sirpal II's son Shalmaneser III (859-824) laid siege
to Damascus & reached the Mediterranean; both father and son collected tri-
bute from Israel and the Phoenician coastal cities.
The next Assyrian king to threaten Israel was Tiglath-pileser III (745-
727). His son Shalmaneser V (727-722) laid siege to Samaria; his brother &
successor, Sargon II (721-705) finished conquering it, thereby putting an end
to the northern kingdom of Israel. Sennacherib (704-681) overran the sou-
thern kingdom of Judah, which had risen in revolt; Esarhaddon (680-669) de-
stroyed Sidon. Ashurbanipal (668-626?) counted on a subservient Judah for
men and supplies in his successful campaign against Egypt. Nabopolassar
(626-602 B.C.) began the Babylonians' 2nd rise to political power. Babylonia,
under Nebuchadrezzar, was to take up Assyrian policy and to rule the Near
East as far as Cilicia and Egypt, & even to conquer Jerusalem in 586, which
had thus far escaped conquest.
2. History of Babylonia —Assyria & Babylonia had been long-lasting
& far-reaching civilizations long before they influenced Bible events. Babylo-
nia had climaxes of political power near the beginning and end of its 2,000
years of history. The names of Sargon of Agade (around 2350 B.C.) and Ne-
buchadrezzar (605-562 B.C.) characterize these 2 periods, but not much is
known about either them or their time periods. The best-known period of
Babylonian history was right before, during, & after Hammurabi’s reign (1792-
1750 B.C.).
With Uruk’s downfall & the Sumerian civilization under Lugalzaggisi,
the Dynasty of Agade, founded by Sargon, achieved for the first time Mesopo-
tamian unification. Sargon's aggressiveness, reaching beyond the borders of
Babylonia, was based upon the maintenance of a standing army supported by
taxes levied & collected by a central bureaucracy. His reign of 55 years & Na-
ram-Sin's reign of 56 years might have stabilized the country if an invasion of
the Guti mountaineers had not brought about its ruin.
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The Guti’s rule was broken by Utuhegal of Uruk (2125-2025 B.C.); the
Neo-Sumerian Empire picked up where the Agade tradition left off, with an
elaborate administration, & provincial governors residing as far east as Elam
and as far north as Asshur. This collapsed in spectacular fashion under an in-
vasion by the Elamites. Political power shifted slowly northward from Ur—
first Isin, then Larsa, and eventually Babylon.
Babylon, the youngest of these cities, gained the upper hand under
Babylon, the youngest of these cities, gained the upper hand under
Hammurabi. He defeated Larsa to the south, Eshnunna to the east, and Mari
to the north with wars, alliances, and political maneuvering. All participants
were non-Akkadian and ready to change sides or to outmaneuver the enemy,
bent on ensuring their hold over the city folk. Only Shamshi-Adad (around
1812-1780 B.C.) of Assyria and Hammurabi of Babylonia attempted to inte-
grate the warring city-states.
The famous Code of Hammurabi shows us his carefully and efficiently
organized administration. His main political achievement was the successful
change of his realm into a territorial state ruled from a capital, with all other
cities on the provincial level. This system survived the Dark Ages' chaos.
After Hammurabi, political power in southern Mesopotamia was firmly estab-
lished in Babylon. Yet, with all the obvious prosperity and security of his reign,
the year names begin to reflect an alliance of "Sumer and Akkad" against him.
Towards the end of his reign, the year names of his last years show him clearly
on the defensive.
Hammurabi's successors seem to have been restricted to Babylonia
proper. The southernmost region, where the Sea Country was protected by
its marshes, was able to survive the disaster that befell the Fertile Crescent
and ended with the conquest of Babylon by the Hittite king Murshili around
1600 B.C. Then the Dark Age set in, not only over Babylonia but also over
nearly the entire Near East.
The next king we have documents for is Burnaburiash II (around 1370-
1340 B.C.) of the dynasty set up by the invading Kassites. The documents
show a royal palace well organized with regard to the administration of es-
tates. Kassite & Assyrian letters to Egypt show Babylonia as a minor political
power, but the Babylonian kings did enjoy a certain prestige. There was, after
nearly 500 years of rule, an increasing decline of royal authority, judging from
the frequency of royal land grants to officials. There was increasing infiltration
of Arameans into open country, & a subsequent interruption of communica-
tion; this further reduced the power of Babylon's kings. Shutruk-Nahhunte of
Elam invaded Babylonia; this spelled the end of the Kassite Dynasty around
1151 B.C.
Babylonia's slow comeback began with Nebuchadrezzar I's (1146-1123
Babylonia's slow comeback began with Nebuchadrezzar I's (1146-1123
B.C.) victory over Elam. The next 500 years were nearly as dark as the Dark
Ages. Babylonian nationalism stayed alive by taking root in the open country,
while the city dwellers preferred Assyrian rule, which granted Babylon the
right to do world trade through caravans that passed through it. Such trade
must have brought to Babylon riches that allowed for rebuilding & sumptuous-
ly redecorating the sanctuaries. When Babylonia was incorporated into the
Persian Empire much later, it was the richest province.
Nabopolassar (626-602 B.C.) became the first king of a new dynasty
that was to become heir to Assyrian supremacy. The last ruler of Babylonia,
Nabonidus (555-539 B.C.) provides an odd ending to a political unit that
spanned nearly 2000 years. He rose to power as a middle-aged general in
the confusion created by the conflicts between the short-lived successors to
Nebuchadrezzar II, even though he was a native of Assyria. He tried to stress
the worship of the god Sin in Babylon, which may have led to conflicts with the
priests. He went to visit the large cities of Arabia, perhaps to promote trade,
staying away from Babylon for years at a time. At any rate, Cyrus suddenly
invaded Babylonia and moved, without encountering resistance, into Babylon.
This was the end of Babylonian sovereignty, not her aspirations to greatness.
3. History of Assyria—In Assyria's history, an essential difference can
be observed between the periods before & after the Dark Age (around 1600-
1350 B.C.). Before the Dark Age, there was less military aggressiveness than
there was after it; there was more efficiency in organizing trade relations &
activities. After the Dark Age, the Assyrian kings under Asshurubalit (around
1365-1330 B.C.) succeeded by means of institutionalized annual campaigns,
in building up a series of more or less short-lived empires; they often col-
lapsed suddenly but were quickly reconquered. Assyria's key strength was
their ability to recuperate and gain strength politically and militarily; their key
weakness was the curious instability of that strength.
Assyrian civilization was patently dependent upon Babylon for the bulk
of its religious concepts, its literary traditions, etc. But under the surface of
that dependence, Assyrian remained alien. The Assyrian king's position is
quite different from a Babylonian king. His relationship with high officials, feu-
dal lords, the people, & the policy of the royal administration shows evidence
of an utterly different attitude.
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Assyrian history begins with a governor the Ur III Empire (up to 2025
B.C.) in Asshur. After the empire's collapse, the city, ruled by a series of kings,
rose to be a center of commercial activity; Assyrian merchants lived through-
out Asia Minor. The Assyrians bought and sold copper and also provided tin to
Asia Minor for the production of bronze, and enjoyed freedom of movement
and communication.
Most important for the history of Assyria is the person of Shamshi-Adad
(around 1812-1780 B.C.), a foreign conqueror who seized Asshur soon after
the above-mentioned period and strove to create a territorial state, relying on
his nomadic and energetic followers to rule a population of different social and
ethnic backgrounds, improving their living conditions and relying on them to
provide the economic basis for running his empire. With his death, his empire
disintegrated quickly. His son, Ishme-Dagan, could not hold it together.
During the Dark Age, Assyria proper was incorporated for quite some
During the Dark Age, Assyria proper was incorporated for quite some
time into the Mitanni Empire. Other rulers use the names of Shamshi-Adad
and Ishme-Dagan again during this time. The Hittite king Shup-piluliuma took
over Babylon around 1380, right before the end of the Dark Age. Ashur-uballit
was the first king of stature after the Dark Age. Early on, Assyria developed a
body of foreign-policy concepts that determined to a very large extent the his-
tory of the ancient Near East. They fought on fronts. 1st, they fought the
mountain people to the north and east, attacking and exterminating whenever
possible. They also used forced urbanization combined with building strategic
roads. Tragically, they eventually lost that battle by destroying the Urartean
state that stood between them and the Medes and other tribes.
2nd, they attacked Babylonia, which proved equally difficult and even-
tually fatal. At first they conquered Babylon
1208). On the other hand Babylon invaded Assyria, not with their army, but
with their culture. Assyrian nationalists reacted violently against this cultural
invasion, which created a dangerous ambivalence in Assyria's attitude toward
Babylonia. The 3rd front in the West influenced world history much more than
the other 2. Carchemish was conquered by Asshur-uballit and Tukulti-Ninurta
I. Tiglath-pileser I (1115-1076) advanced as far as Palmyra.
The 1st point in Assyria's rise to power was attained when Ashur-uballit
and Tukulti-Ninurta reached out to the West & the South. History records
many invasions, defeats, marriages between the dynasties, treaties made,
boundaries set. The Aramaic invasion from the South disrupted this fragile
political & economic structure. Tiglath-pileser conquered Babylonia & fought
the Arameans along the Euphrates.
With Tukulti-Ninurta II (890-884) and Ashurnasirpal II (884-860), a new
spirit of aggressiveness and cruelty becomes evident in the royal inscriptions.
Ashurnasirpal II and his son Shalmaneser III pushed into Syria and the entire
Mediterranean coastal region, in spite of the Aramaic kings' fierce resistance.
Another outstanding conqueror among Assyrian kings was Tiglath-pileser III
(745-727), King of Babylon and the originator of large-scale deportation of
conquered people. His son Shalmaneser V (727-722) laid siege to Samaria;
his brother and successor, Sargon II finished conquering it.
Meanwhile, Egypt stirred up Palestine, Syria, Elam Babylonia, & Uratu.
Sargon 1st conquered & destroyed Uratu, then Babylonia before he fell in bat-
tle in a mountain campaign. His death again brought general defection & re-
bellion. Sargon's son Sennacherib (704-681) had to fight for his empire for a
long time on all 3 fronts. He attacked Elam with Phoenician ships brought
down on the Tigris and destroyed Babylon after many battles. He made his
son Esarhaddon (680-669), who was very pro-Babylonian, governor there.
In the anti-Babylonian rebellion which this step caused, Sennacherib
was killed and Esarhaddon had to pacify Assyria. He was the first Assyrian
king to attack Egypt. He destroyed Sidon in Palestine & conquered the Nile
Delta, but he could not stay, as he had to return and fight the Scythians and
Cimmerians in the mountains. He died on the march to Egypt on another
campaign. Before he left, he made Ashurbanipal king of the realm (668-626?)
& Shamashshumukin king of Babylon; the transition of power went smoothly,
which is unusual in Assyrian history. After 16 years, the Babylonian king
formed an alliance with Assyrian enemies; it took 6 years of civil war to sub-
due the rebels and destroy Babylon again.
There is a strange silence about the last 20 years of Ashubanipal's
reign; after that Assyria fell into obscurity with appalling suddenness. Nabo-
polassar, representing a new aggressive Babylonia, attacked old Babylonian
cities still loyal to Assyria. He from the south and Cyaxares the Median from
the north attacked & destroyed first Asshur and then Nineveh (612). Babylo-
nia, under Nebuchadrezzar took up Assyrian policy & ruled the Near East as
far as Cilicia and Egypt. They even conquered Jerusalem in 586, which had
thus far escaped conquest. As mentioned earlier, the last ruler of Babylonia
was Nabonidus (555-539 B.C.)
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4. The Country—Geographically Mesopotamia is separated from
Arabia deserts & the Syrian Plateau in the south & west by the course of the
Euphrates. Toward the north and the northeast, however, the political and
cultural frontiers were always unstable in the northern foothills & valleys.
Mesopotamia's eastern border extended a short distance beyond the Tigris'
east bank. The southeastern limit is the Persian Gulf and its islands & coas-
tal regions, which made up a link between the “Fertile Crescent” & the East.
Both Assyria & Babylonia lay within the borders of today's Iraq. Assy-
ria originally occupied only the region to the east of the middle course of the
Tigris as far as the foot of the mountains to the east. Later its holdings
spread north & west across the land between the rivers. Babylonia occupied
the land formed by the soil deposits from both rivers, south of Assyria and
near the Persian Gulf.
The Tigris and Euphrates are fed by a number of mountain streams in
Armenia. The sources of these 2 rivers are only about 24 km apart in one
place. The Tigris flows east & then southeast in a swift course; it is navigable
in its lower reaches only by reed floats supported by inflated skins. It flows
past Nineveh, Calah, and Asshur—all capitals of Assyria at one time—to enter
the plain near Samarra. The changing course of the lower river discouraged
permanent settlement.
All of the tributaries of the Tigris begin in the Zagros Mountains. The
Euphrates, after leaving the mountains, runs first southwest to reach a point
only 150 km from the Mediterranean. It then turns south and eventually east;
it has only the Hagur and the Belikh for tributaries. Its course is about 800 km
longer than that of the Tigris; it carries less water, but its current is much slo-
wer, permitting navigation farther upstream.
Both rivers flood annually. The rivers begin swelling with the autumn
rains & increase in volume through winter & spring till the snow melts in the
Armenian mountains. The flood wave reaches the plains in April & especially
May; it subsides in June. The timing of the flood in Mesopotamia isn't as favo-
rable for agriculture as it is in Egypt. The flooding is late and requires work to
prevent thefields from getting too much water. The soil increases in salt con-
tent, making frequent relocations of farming land necessary. As a result, the
digging of new canal systems was essential to a good king’s economic and po-
litical program.
2 types of landscape can be seen. 1st, there are the plains piled up by
the 2 rivers, which push their silt into the Persian Gulf. Sinking of the tectonic
plates counteracted this process of raising the level of the land. This land's
upper levels is suitable for pasture; the lower levels were swamps & yielded
cane which was used with great ingenuity. 2nd, there are the fertile valleys
between the hills or along the tributaries of the Tigris, where rain is sufficient
to grow barley and to raise sheep and goats. The area around the sources of
the Habur River, a Euphrates tributary, makes for the most fertile land between
the two rivers because of its volcanic soil.
In Assyria, agriculture could reasonably rely on the October & Novem-
ber rains which made it possible to prepare the fields for the next harvest. In
Babylonia, irrigation, if properly managed, could secure a good harvest every
year. The main cereal grown was barley, emmer (primitive wheat), & wheat.
Sesame seeds were the only source of vegetable oil, & dates were the main
source of sugar. Onions, garlic, and leeks are the vegetables most often men-
tioned. Vineyards were cultivated only in Upper Mesopotamia.
Meat was provided by goats and sheep, the latter also supplying the
wool that was the raw material for textiles, exported from Babylonia as far
away as Anatolia. Cattle were used for plowing, and the donkey was the main
beast of burden. Horses, Bactrian camels, dromedaries, and elephants were
well known. Horses acquired military importance by pulling chariots and in
the cavalry; they were introduced into the Assyrian army after the 800s B.C.
5. People & Language—The region's Settlement history shows many
very old cities in southern Babylonia along the Euphrates ’s lower course, and
very few cities elsewhere. Northern cities of this cluster were Borsippa; Baby-
lon, Kutha, Kish, and Sippar; the central cities were Nippur; Isin; Adab; and
Shuruppak, with Umma & Lagash to the east; the southern cities were Eridu,
Ur, Larsa, & Uruk. Asshur's position over 200 km to the north of Babylonian
cities on the Tigris could have been because it was a sacred location.
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Cultural contact took place primarily through the Zagros Mountain in
the east, & along the accesses to the Mediterranean in upper Syria to the
west. Through the mountain passes came metals & precious stones; the
early settlers along the rivers became increasingly aware that they needed
these materials. However, the settlers and the mountainfolk rarely lived in
peace. The mountain men entered the valleys variously as workmen, sol-
diers, bandits, & kings. Only Assyria attempted to colonize and pacify these
tribes, which resulted in a series of hybrid civilizations in the mountains and
adjacent valleys. Coming in from the south, out of the Arabian deserts, the
Semitic nomads contributed their language to the Mesopotamian culture.
The inhabitants of Mesopotamia proper are referred to successively as:
Sumerians; Babylonians; Hurrians; Assyrians; and Chaldeans. Invaders of
these lands included the Guti, the Amorites, and the Kassites; Raiders inclu-
ded the Hittites and the Elamites. Most important among the foreign ethnic
groups that passed through or penetrated Mesopotamia were the Hurrians or
Horites around 2000 B.C.
Hurrians rose to primary importance in the West even before the Dark
Age. How they influenced Assyrian civilization is still difficult to evaluate, be-
cause it isn't yet possible to gauge how much Assyria owes to other contacts
with the mountain peoples. Once the Medes conquered Nineveh (612 B.C.),
and the Persians conquered Babylon (538 B. C.), the political independence
of Mesopotamia came to an end. When Alexander conquered Babylonia, it
was a satrapy, a province in the Persian Empire.
Sumerians were the first to create a civilization in the region. In an
very short time, they created a civilization that was to leave its imprint on
succeeding civilizations which rose in and around Mesopotamia. The city of
Uruk in the south seems to have been the place where Sumerian civilization
reached its peak. The role of the Semites throughout the region's history, &
and especially at this time was very important. The Semite immigrants who
chose to move into cities brought their Akkadian language with them. They
also sought political power; the first to do so was King Sargon of Agade
(around 2350 B.C.). By the time the Sumerian rulers created an empire from
Ur, the Sumerian & Akkadian languages seemed to have fused, judging from
the number of Akkadian words in Sumerian at that time.
Akkadian is the earliest recorded Semitic language & is commonly
assigned to the eastern branch of this family of languages. Its development
shares certain things in common with the old South Arabic dialects, but its
vocabulary shows important links with the West. Akkadian developed mainly
into the Babylonian & Assyrian dialects. Each of these dialects had their Old-,
their Middle-, and their Neo- periods. The best-known work in Old Babylonian
is the Code of Hammurabi. The Babylonian language increasingly influenced
the development of the Assyrian language at various stages to the extent that
Babylonian language was used for the writing of royal inscriptions, royal let-
ters and other official documents.
Akkadian first began to take over as the language of the region outside
the official literary forms. The rise of the dynasties of Isin, Larsa, and Babylon
(1894-1592 B.C.) saw the spoken Sumerian language clearly on the decline.
Other aspects of Akkadian and Sumerian culture had already blended, so that
the changeover to the Akkadian language was only one in political outlook and
aspiration. The scribes of Sumeria succeeded in keeping Sumerian alive as a
scholarly and sacred language, & in keeping it from oblivion until the disap-
pearance of the entire Mesopotamian civilization.
The history of the Akkadian language doesn't parallel the ups & downs
The history of the Akkadian language doesn't parallel the ups & downs
of Mesopotamian political power. Before the Dark Age (around 1600-1350
B.C.), Akkadian and the cuneiform system of writing spread into Anatolia,
where it was adapted to write the Hittite Empire's Indo-European language.
After the Dark Age, Akkadian achieved its maximum extension, reaching Cy-
prus and Egypt to the west and south, and Asia Minor to the north. Palestine
and Syria used it as the diplomatic language in the west, as did Hurrians and
Hittites to the north. Later, other nations used the Akkadian alphabet to write
their own language. One set of Semitic migrants moved into the cities &
spoke Akkadian.
Another set of Semitic migrants preferred to drift between the existing
cities or to settle in small villages, and were reluctant to pay with taxes, military
service, & labor. They first spoke Eastern Canaanite or Amorite up to the Dark
Age; after that they spoke various kinds of Aramaic. They succeeded in con-
quering a few cities. While the Arameans failed to have any political influence
upon Assyria & Babylonia in the 1000 years before Christ, the Akkadian tradi-
tion gave way to the efficient alphabetic system of writing in Aramaic.
Akkadian's eclipse by Aramaic toward the 500 years before Christ, pro-
gressed naturally from the fields marginal to literary & scholarly production,
such as the language of everyday life, to letters, and later to administrative &
commercial, and finally legal documents. Along with this, and in contrast to the
sedentary and absolute rule of the city-state, the nomadic background and out-
look of all these non-Akkadians were favorable to the growth of intercity and
international political and commercial relations.
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bal craft, there is no Akkadian reference to this topic. In Middle and Neo-
Assyrian texts, the city scribe appears among the highest officials. The craft
was handed down in families, as shown by the names appearing at the end of
legal texts. The teaching method consisted in the teacher's writing a sign or
word or short sentence on one side of the tablet while the pupil copied it as
best he could on the other.
Motivated by personal scholarly interest, individual scribes could accu-
mulate a large number of literary texts to build up a personal collection of tab-
lets. It should be stressed that a library in the strictest sense of this term exis-
ted only in Nineveh, instituted & supervised by King Ashubanipal. A large seg-
ment of the tablets, numbering more than a thousand, come from this king's
conquering Babylon Nineveh
In order to teach cuneiform writing, the scribes needed a staggering
number of texts usually called syllabaries or vocabularies, which were a list of
signs, as well as lists of objects, & names of gods, stars, canals, rivers, perso-
nal names, etc. More complicated is the development of the sign lists. One
had the syllables following each other according to the vowel sequence u-a-i,
one which arranged the signs according to their form, & one which is termed
Ea by Assyriologists, and contained all the Sumerian signs and the many
sounds each one represented. Once the list had become accepted as a form
of scholarly presentation, a number of works for the training of the scribe were
cast in this mold. These were grammatical texts, used to teach Sumerian
grammar to Akkadian scribes.
There can be no doubt that the traditionally enforced bilingualism of
the scribal tradition kept interest in grammar & lexicography alive in Mesopo-
tamia. Sumerian religious texts were provided with Akkadian translations
somewhere on the same tablet. These translations are not always reliable,
but they do shed light on both the Sumerian and the Akkadian. In early times,
the kings of the Akkad Dynasty had both Akkadian and Summerian versions
of the inscriptions made. Hammurabi had them written side by side in one in-
scription. In Persian times, trilingual inscriptions appeared in Old Persian, Late
Babylonian, and Elamite.
The written documents in cuneiform yield an unparalleled insight into
nearly all aspects of the complex Mesopotamian civilization. The variety, time
span, and volume of the contents create a body of evidence which no other
dead civilization can rival. We can see in the Sumerian a change from using
symbols to represent words, to using symbols to represent sounds. Use of
word symbols was essential for accounting and recording in a bureaucratic
setup. When using these symbols for proper names, the Sumerians use the
word signs stripped of their original meaning to write syllables of the names.
This system's complications caused it to disappear when it had to compete
with a far more efficient & easy alphabetic system.
The principal of using word signs seems to have been invented by non-
Sumerians. Sumerians developed the practice of using signs to express sin-
gle syllables rather than entire words. When the Akkadians took over the Su-
merian system of writing, the Akkadian scribes used a large number of Sume-
rian word signs to render corresponding Akkadian words. The use of word
signs was later reduced to certain frequently used nouns, like "god," "king,"
"city," etc. However, the sounds of quite a number of signs remained uncer-
tain, & certain signs had more than one use and meaning; this made for a
complicated system. Still, the system was elastic enough to be used for fo-
reign languages such as Hittite, Elamite, Hurrian, and Urartean.
Clay can be called the best writing material ever used because of how
permanent the record is. It was extremely cheap and could be found every-
where. Clay was used in Mesopotamia in 3 main forms: tags safeguarding the
contents of bags; tablets of many sizes and shapes; and larger prismatic and
rarely barrel-shaped forms which held more & were less fragile than tablets.
The wedge-shaped cuneiform letters were impressed with a stylus, usually of
reed, but sometimes of wood or bone. In the earliest period words were writ-
ten, always from left to right, in boxes arranged in vertical columns. Later they
were arranged across the tablet. If a composition is too long to be contained
in one tablet, the first line of the next tablet is indicated.
Official clay tablets used by palaces and temples, & for legal transac-
tions have very characteristic shapes, from postage-stamp size, to the size
and shape of small cushions. Each period or region is characterized by its
preference for a specific shape. The form & content of a tablet often went
hand in hand. Tablets were often imitated in stone or metal, especially when
used for foundation deposits. In spite of the obvious advantages of clay, the
Mesopotamian scribes sometimes wrote on wooden tablets with a thin layer
of wax.
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7. Nonliterary Texts—When officials with limited tenure run a com-
plex bureaucracy, written records are essential. Sumerian bureaucracy left
an immense number of texts which are records covering the movement of
goods & animals into or out of the custody of an official. Their bureaucratic
techniques followed cuneiform writing outside of Mesopotamia to places like
Elam, Mari, Chagar-Bazar, Nuzi, and Alalakh.
Sumerian letter formula, which was used primarily for administrative
purposes, represents an order given to the messenger to recite the message
to the addressee. Another place letters were used was in international rela-
tions. There were letters exchanged between Ibbi-Sin, Ur III dynasty's last
king, and Ishbi-Irra, the first king of the Isin Dynasty. There are also letters
from Hammurabi to the kings of Mari.
These diplomatic letters are far overshadowed by the Amarna Letters,
found in the new capital of Akh-en-Aton's. Egyptian ruins, which contained
letters to and from Babylonian, Assyrian, Hittite, Mitanni, and Cypriot kings.
It sheds light on a period of Near Eastern history which otherwise would have
remained completely dark. Similar texts were found in Palestine—in Sichem,
Lachish, and Ugarit. Another archive was found at Quyunjiq, consisting of
more than 1200 letters; 200 of them are from Sargon II to Ashurbanipal.
Assyrian kings began their letters with “order of the king” (abat sharri).
When the king would ask for an interpretation of an omen, the scholar would
begin his letter by quoting a passage from an omen text which fit the circum-
stances that had prompted the king to ask the scholar for information; at the
end he gives his name. Kings also had a literary use for these letters; they
would address letters to various gods, to Asshur, to other gods of the
capital, & to its citizens to report victories. Private citizens also wrote letters
to the gods as an act of piety. Letter writing is an art that was greatly appreci-
ated in the Sumerian scribal schools.
A number of law codes have survived in tablet form: two Sumerian
codes; 2 Old Babylonian codes; and a Middle Assyrian from the 1000s B.C.,
of which we have only fragments. 2 Sumerian codes are those of Ur-Nammu,
king of Ur, and Lipit-Ishtar, king of Isin. The code of Lipit-Ishtar may have
contained around 1200 lines, including an introduction & a lengthy epilogue,
and was found among the tables at Nippur. The first of two Old Babylonian
codes is from Eshnunna, beyond the Tigris and also has an introduction.
The tall stone tablet containing the Code of Hammurabi is the best
known and largest of the surviving codes. It has an introduction & a lengthy
epilogue, but in spite of its size fails to cover essential fields of the law, such
as murder and sales. What is interesting and important are the facts that, 1st,
there are few allusions in other legal texts or letters or even royal inscriptions
to these collections of laws; and secondly, those legal texts dealing with topics
regulated by these laws don't show that they were ever actually in force. They
do give us insights into the Babylonian kings' social concerns & interests.
Contractual arrangements between kings or cities to terminate a state
of war are known from the Sumerian period but are quite rare in Babylonia.
Allusions to international treaties occur at times in the diplomatic correspon-
dence from Mari. Most treaties we now have were found in the Hittite capital,
and were written in Akkadian or Hittite. There was an international treaty be-
tween the Hittite king Hattushili III and Pharoah Ramses II, and there are
treaties between a number of Hittite kings & their vassals, which spell out
the duties of the vassal and what he could expect for protection from the king.
They end with an invocation to the gods of both parties to serve as witnesses.
The Neo-Assyrian treaties of Ashurniarari VI and Esarhaddon are much
more primitive in their appeals to the gods. They describe symbolic acts which
illustrate in a very crude manner the fate of the offender. Since the treaties
were with Western Semites, their customs of sacrificing animals, etc. had to be
respected in sanctifying treaties. The Charter of Asshur is a treaty-like arrange-
ment between Sargon and the inhabitants of Asshur, which grants them tax
exemptions that his predecessor had abolished. We also have an loyalty oath
that Assyrian high officials had to take, requiring them to report everything to
the king. There are also official instructions by the king to high officials, which
the Assyrians had in common with the Hittites.
Royal land grants used boundary markers called kudurru stones to
make the grants official. They were oval or longish cylindrical stones or stone
tablets. The kudurru stones were set up on fields, while tablets were deposi-
ted in temples, and include or consist of divine symbols of all kinds. We also
find reliefs carved on them representing kings, either alone or with the gran-
tee. There is a curse placed on any who would remove the stone. These
stones give us unique information about language, legal practices, and history.
All private legal documents, be they Sumerian or Akkadian, show the
same pattern. They first mention and identify the object of the transaction;
then they give the names of the persons who are concluding the transaction.
To these minimal requirements may be added a number of clauses dealing
with details of payments and secondary points. They all list the present wit-
nesses' names at the transaction and nearly always, the name of the scribe
who wrote the tablet, although he never served as notary.
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In the earlier periods, in both Assyria and Babylonia, the tablet was
placed in a clay envelope on which the entire text was repeated to protect the
original against fraudulent alterations. The kinds of legal transactions include:
sale of slaves; sale of houses and fields; sales on credit; obligations regarding
delivery dates; rent of all kinds of things; hiring; divorce settlements; wills; ob-
ligations regarding the raising of children; apprenticeship contracts; court set-
tlements and warranties. Criminal proceedings were apparently not recorded
on tablets.
8. Religious Texts—Paramount among religious cultic texts in the stric-
test sense of the term is the Creation Epic, some 7 tablets with 115 to 170
lines a piece, that was recited in the Marduk temple in Babylon on the fourth
day of the New Year Festival. It tells of the sequence of the generations of the
primeval deities up to Ea, the first-born of Anu. The young god Marduk saves
the elder gods from an emergency that even the eldest Ea could not handle,
after exacting a promise that he would fully enjoy the fruits of his victory. It is
obvious from the writing that the priestly poet could muster little enthusiasm
for Marduk's battle. He showed much more interest in the organization of the
cosmos by its new ruler. The 6th tablet ends with the assembled gods in their
newly built heaven solemnly recognizing the superiority of Marduk. The 7th
contains the 50 honorific names given by them to Marduk.
There are also ritual texts, which prescribe in detail the activities priests
in certain ceremonies. One from Babylon, written on at least 23 tablets, de-
scribes in elaborate detail the rituals for the 2nd to the 5th day of the New
Year's festival. It gives the time and place for every act of the priest, and often
quotes verbatim the prayers and benedictions to be said, instead of giving
them by title only.
The main body of religious texts are prayers, most of which were reci-
ted with lifted-up hands. Each prayer begins with an invocation and the praise
of the deity addressed, followed by the worshiper’s complaint and ending with
thanks and blessings. In Akkadian terms it is viewed as a “conjuration.” Cer-
tain prayers serve expressed religious feelings, or imparted magical effective-
ness to the objects used in those conjurations.
2 important series, called Surpu & Maqlu were designed for the incanta-
tion priest & for the patient who doesn't know either what evil influence on
somebody else's part, or what mistake of his own caused his suffering. Surpu
first identifies the cause, then magically transfers the cause to a carrier, & final-
ly burns the carrier. There are also conjurations that address the torch, the fire,
& the sulphur to ensure their effect in annihilating the sin.
In the Maqlu, the suffering caused by evil magic is dealt with; the sorce-
rer or sorceress is burnt in effigy along with the conjurations that are used. The
conjurations vary greatly in style and literary value, from the “Prayer to the
Gods of the Night,” to hackneyed repetitions of the customary phrases. In the
case of mortal danger to the king, a substitute king might have been installed
under appropriate ceremonies to carry the brunt of the attack and to be put to
death in order to spare the real king.
For theology, early Sumerian and Old Babylonian have their god lists.
The largest was found in Ashurbanipal's library. In 12 columns of minute wri-
ting, it lists 1500 deities in elaborate groups according to rank and their rela-
tionship with each other. Cuneiform religious literature rarely allows the sub-
jective lyricism which Western tradition expects as part of an expression of
personal piety. 2 of the rare exceptions are the “Prayer to the Gods of the
Night,” & “Let Me Praise the Lord of Wisdom,” which has a suffering prince
that is reminiscent of Job.
9. Omen Literature—The belief that whatever unusual things happen
within human perception occur for the benefit of those who know what to look
for as messages from a supernatural agent is shared by many civilizations.
We have collections of omen texts that record such ominous events from the
Old Babylonian period all the way up to the Seleucid. They all first state the
“case” or event and then foretell the future based on it. Only in exceptional
cases is there any logical relation between portent and prediction, and the
prediction contained in the apodosis (the "then clause of an "If... then" sen-
tence) is considered only as a warning, regardless of how specific and de-
tailed it is worded.
Dream omens are not often represented. Faced with the difficult task
of writing a dream book, the scribes resorted to organizing tablets on the
basis of certain definite activities of the person in the dream (e.g. eating, drin-
king, traveling, etc.). The divination technique that made Mesopotamia fa-
mous is astrology. Some astrological omen tablets come from Asshur and
Calah; the majority of them come from the Nineveh library. The series first
treats the moon, then the sun, then meteorological events, and eventually the
planets.
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Even the physician had a omen texts collection made up for his use.
The omens were based on the appearance of parts of the patient's body,
beginning with the skull and ending with the ankles and toes. The diagnostic
omens do not refer to specific diseases in our sense but rather give the name
of the god or demon who inflicted the symptoms upon the patient. The prog-
nostic omens bluntly predict survival or death, length of illness or length of
time left. Only in a few instances is even a magical treatment prescribed.
The largest omen series known is called summa alu in mele sakin (“If a
city is situated on a hill”) & was made up of at least 107 tablets. Only a quarter
of the 107 are preserved at all, and many of those poorly. This series seems
to have been compiled as a collection to incorporate all the numerous large
and small groups of omen texts which existed by themselves in the Old Baby-
lonian period.
Once a connection between an ominous event or feature & a subse-
quent happening is discerned & expected, one wants to change this one-way
communication between god and self to a two-way system & to elicit divine
responses to situations created for this very purpose. From accidental omens
one progresses to provoked omens. There are indications that birds were re-
leased for the purpose of observing their behavior and that dreams were ex-
pected and movements of animals were induced & omens derived from them.
Both practices fell into disuse after the Old Babylonian period.
One practice that continued was the reading of omens in the organs of
sacrificed animals. There is evidence that it was used in all periods in Meso-
potamia and exclusively for the king and the army. The body of texts on this
subject surpasses in size all other omen texts. There existed a very compli-
cated and elaborate technical terminology which referred to specific features
of the individual parts. The positive and negative features were added up and
a good or bad omen was pronounced depending on whether there were more
positive or negative features. If the answer was not positive, the examination
could be repeated.
10. Secular Literature—There are 4 other kinds of texts that had no-
thing to do with cult or personal piety: epics; royal inscriptions; wisdom texts;
and miscellaneous texts. Foremost among the epics—and not only in size—
is the Epic of Gilgamesh. Its 12 tablets & 3,000 lines were found in the library
of Ashurbanipal. Tablets 1-11 tell the story; tablet 12 gives, as a kind of ap-
pendix, a description of the nether world.
First, the Akkadian poet expresses the intention and scope of his opus,
then the listener is invited to admire the walls of Uruk, built by Gilgamesh; the
story ends with Gilgamesh showing these same walls, using identical words
to refer to them. The story proceeds with stately grace, elaborate descrip-
tions, & lively dialogues alternated with episodes that are well told & integra-
ted into the flow of happenings.
The basic topic is the all-powerful king who is descended from the gods
but is mortal, and who rebels against the idea that he must die like everyone
else. In the Sumerian version, his expedition to Cedar Mountain represented
his first attempt to obtain immortality. The Akkadian poet changed it into one
of several famous deeds, such as the rejection of Ishtar's love, the oppression
of Uruk, and the fight against the Bull of Heaven.
The character of Enkidu is instrumental to the story; he is the friend of
Gilgamesh in the Akkadian version, while in the Sumerian version, he is Gilga-
mesh's servant. Enkidu may have been instrumental in bringing about the tri-
umph of Gilgamesh over Huwawa, the guardian of the cedar, because here
he commits an act for which he has to pay with his life later on. It is precisely
his death that starts Gilgamesh on his quest.
In the “Fortunate Isle,” he finds Utnapishtim, the only man who had
succeeded in becoming immortal. In his quest for immortality, Gilgamesh is 3
times given the opportunity to realize his goal, but every time he fails or is
cheated of it. He fails to stay awake for six days; he washes himself and his
clothes in the “Fountain of Youth” and fails to drink of it; he loses the Plant of
Life to a snake. Defeated, he returns to Uruk; it was his destiny to become
judge of the underworld.
Yet, for all its sweep, from heaven to the nether world, & all its intense
human appeal in the themes of friendship and the horror of death, the epic of
Gilgamesh apparently failed to appeal to the Akkadians. No copies survived
from the scribal schools of Nippur, Uruk, or elsewhere; none was found in the
large collections of Asshur. Not only that, but it is not even referred to any of
the other cuneiform texts that we have.
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The Epic of Zu deals with the heroic exploits of a junior god, Ninurta,
who succeeded where all other gods failed. He recaptures from the mythical
Zu-bird, the all-powerful charm of Enlil, which ensures the universe's correct
functioning. There is also the famous short text called Ishtar's Descent to the
Nether World. It describes the entrance & the exit of the goddess through the
7 gates of the nether world, as well as the god Ea's ruse to save her from im-
prisonment there.
There are many fragments surviving from the Etana story. Etana is the
king of Kish but without offspring. He is sent by Shamash in search of “the
plant of birth.” The conflict of an eagle and a snake are also part of the story.
The snake imprisons the eagle; Etana frees the eagle and rides upon his back
to the heaven of Anu. We don't have the story's end, but one can safely as-
sume that Etana obtained the plant of birth. In another story Adapa is a hero
in the Greek sense of the word. He shares with Gilgamesh divine ancestors,
a mortal body, and a failure to obtain immortality. Adapa breaks the wings of
the South wind, and is called before Anu to answer for his deed.
There is a lot of evidence of the practice of writing epics to be used as
charms. The Epic of Era was found written on amulet-shaped tablets that
were hung up to protect a house from Era's rage . The god himself bestows
blessings on those who praise it, from king to scribe, & assures the house
where the text is kept freedom from pestilence. The content of the epic is still
rather obscure. It seems to be about how the god Marduk left the city of Baby-
lon in the care of Era and Ishum and of the subsequent destruction of Babylon
by the Elamite Shutruk-Nahunte. We have bits & pieces of many stories that
survived, but in most cases too little has survived to be able to say very much
about them.
The inscriptions of the Assyrian and Babylonian kings are primarily
considered source material for the historian, & their literary merits have hardly
been investigated. In Assyria, Arik-den-li (1319-1308 B.C.) and Shalmaneser I
(1272-1242 B.C.) are the first kings to arrange their records in the form of an-
nals. Characteristic of royal inscriptions of the Babylonian kings are highly de-
scriptive titles they give themselves, titles which describe their piety & achieve-
ments. The kings of the Hammurabi Dynasty started the Akkadian practice of
listing the blessing they expected in return for their pious deeds. The kings of
the First Babylonian Dynasty of Babylon like to name their adversaries and
refer in some detail to their victories.
The Sargonide branch of the Assyrian kings produced by far the most
royal inscriptions that still survive. Tiglath-pileser produced reports on hunting
expeditions and reports on the care given to botanical gardens and to rare &
foreign animals. Some kings were poetic (Sargon) and some kings were very
technical (Sennacherib). Interest in royal inscriptions is further shown by the
numerous copies of old inscriptions on statues, bricks, etc., made by later
scribes. Included in these are legends that attached themselves to famous ru-
lers, to Sargon the founder of a dynasty, and to Ibbi-Sin, whose empire was
crushed by invasions. Sargon's legend includes his birth, floating down a river
in a basket, and his rescue and rise to power.
Others of these copied inscriptions refer to historical events and kings
of the present or the more recent past. In one, the scribes and poets take
great pains to explain why Marduk abandoned his city to the Hittites. In ano-
ther, a poem directs a vigorous criticism of Nabonidus, one of the last kings
during Babylon's political independence. It criticizes his building of new tem-
ples and creating new images of old gods. The priestly author takes pains to
point out that Nabonidus was not at all the scholar and inspired diviner of the
truth he is purported to be but, in fact, an ignoramus and a blasphemer. The
Persian King Cyrus, on the other hand is described in glowing terms, partly
because he restored the clergy to power.
Wisdom texts are an important source for the study of the moral and
social attitudes of Mesopotamians. There is a large quantity containing Su-
merian proverbs and a smaller collection of Akkadian proverbs, which are
related to the Sumerian. By their very nature, they represent one of the most
difficult text categories to be investigated. Quite a few proverbial sayings and
colorful phrases can be found in letters.
The imagery of these proverbs is mainly rooted in the context of the
daily life and worries of the Mesopotamian people, & represents a very prac-
tical wisdom. Like the proverbs, the Akkadian fables have to be related to
the Sumerian texts, with their disputes between plants, animal, and even ma-
terials. In Sumerian we have dialogues between Winter and Summer, Silver
and Bronze, the Pickax and the Plow and others. From Akkadian we get dia-
logues between the Date Palm and Tamarisk, the Bull & the Horse, etc.
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Four texts deserve special mention. 1st, the Theodicy consists of a
dialogue written as an acrostic poem. The skeptic elaborates on the eternal
topic of his misfortunes, which contrasts with the success of the ungodly.
He writes on the worthlessness of all human endeavors, on a lack of social
justice, etc. His pious adversary extols the virtues of devotion to the gods,
whose wisdom in distributing success and failure remains beyond human
understanding, and suggests that the skeptic resign himself to accepting
good and evil as the gods have allotted them. 2nd, we have part of the
Speculum Principis, only one short, 60-line tablet. It contains very brief po-
litical precepts meant as a guide to the king in preserving lights and dispen-
sing justice to the “free” cities and people under his rule.
3rd, on a Seleucid tablet and an Assyrian one, we have a comical dia-
dialogue between a Master and a servant, where the master gives an order,
and the servant dissuades him by quoting proverbs. When the master
revokes the order, the servant makes exactly the opposite case by quoting
from the same source of proverbs. Everywhere, the servant is shown to be
much brighter than his master. 4th, there is the folk tale of the Poor Man of
Nippur about a poor man who takes his revenge on an unjust official by a
series of roguish pranks. It sheds light on everyday speech, mores, and work-
aday life of the lower classes.
11. Institutions—In order to understand the Assyrio-Babylonian civili-
zation, we need to look at the social structure and at the 3 most important in
stitutions that coordinated that society. In Assyria, there was little, if any, genu-
ine urbanization; & agriculture, dependent here on rainfall, was primarily a vil-
lage affair. The population consisted basically of poor farmers living in village
communities, & of a thin layer of a ruling class of feudal lords or foreign con-
querors. The village units showed a definite and tenacious resistance to urba-
nization but adapted themselves easily to a feudal organization. They were
willing to pay with products & work for the support of a feudal lord, who might
be replaced overnight or be permanently absent at court.
These feudal lords demanded a kingship quite different in concept from
that of Babylonia. With their king they went to war annually and made raids
upon the enemy after the harvest. The king obtained wealth & power by con-
quest; internal colonization centered in newly built royal cities populated with
displaced conquered peoples, prisoners of war, and natives forced to settle
there. All this was kept together and functioning by sheer force, and any poli-
tical change caused immediate disintegration and collapse.
Villages were quite rare in Babylonia, because the irrigation required by
their climate and their production of cereal grains can only operate on a large
scale with an overall authority in place. The annual flooding's timing was not
advantageous; much protective work was required, & the increase of salt con-
tent in the soil had to be counteracted by digging new canals that dislocated
the arable territory's boundaries. The consequences for Babylonia were far-
reaching, for they materialized in a movement away from a central location,
which could break the economic prosperity of a city, & move political power to
marginal regions. Only when a city had become the seat of a dynasty & could
live off the spoils of war or on tribute could it survive such changes.
On the matter of trade, the Assyrian traders were active up to the time
of Shamshi-Adad I (1812-1780 B.C.) in Asia Minor. The Babylonian export of
textiles produced by slaves created the means of importing metals for essen-
tial and prestige purposes & stone for decoration before the Dark Age. After
the Dark Age we find a different situation. The traders who once traveled
along the Euphrates, through Syria, and to the Hittite capital were now royal
emissaries, enjoying royal protection. Not much is said about trade after that.
It may have been that Mesopotamian trade had changed from export-
import activity to the more profitable carrying trade linking the East with the
Mediterranean countries. It is clear that the trader profited & may well have
grown rich, but the trader's part was only participation in profits, pooling of
funds, and sharing of responsibility. Apparently the trader never held sole
financial responsibility or enjoyed freedom of action.
12. King & Palace—From the Mesopotamian point of view, there exis-
ted only one institution in our sense, and that was kingship. It was of divine
origin and therefore sacred in nature. Grammatically the name of the king was
in the same class, & was indicated by the same sign that was used to indicate
gods and objects of worship. But to speak of “deification” is a gross rationali-
lization. In Assyria, the royal person's sanctity was expressed by its superna-
tural & awe-inspiring radiance, which was also a characteristic of deities and
all things divine. This sheen or halo terrified his foes but was taken away from
the king when he lost divine support. The special relationship existing be-
tween king & god, which materialized in the successes of the ruler in war &
the prosperity of his country in peace was often expressed in terms of family
relations.
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There are deep-seated differences between the Babylonian and Assy-
rian concepts of kingship. The Assyrian king was the god Asshur's high
priest, while the Babylonian king was admitted into Marduk's room only once
a year, and then without royal insignia. The Assyrian king had to be crowned
anew every year, whereas this wasn't necessary in Babylonia. The annual
crowning in Assyria & the custom of having the king representing all the peo-
ple before the gods suggests that he was originally the first among equals
in a loose tribal union of sheiks.
The king’s person had to be carefully protected from disease and evil
magic influences. So, adjoining the throne room of each Assyrian palace
there is a room for ritual ablutions. And the personnel of the Assyrian and
Babylonian courts differed widely. The Assyrian king was surrounded by
officials whose task it was to execute his orders; the Babylonian king was
surrounded by the administrators of his palace. The Babylonian king had a
vizier, and service to the king was put on the same level as service to the
gods. The Assyrian kings were always careful not to offend their high officials,
whose loyalty to the dynasty they had to secure by oaths and agreements to
ensure the crown prince's succession. The palace redistributed the wealth
coming into the country and came into stiff competition and conflict with the
similar system used by the temple.
13. City & Temple—While the economic importance of the temple in
Mesopotamia constantly declined, the conflict between the palace & the free
city gained in importance. There were royal attempts to restrict the freedoms
of the old cities & the creation of new cities under the king's control. They de-
veloped early in southern Mesopotamia, with suburbs, and a harbor that had
a specific political status connected with trade.
Each city contained a palace & at least one temple. The city was a
legal person & a political body in our sense. The growth or decay of this city
depended on the importance of the 2 institutions it harbored: temple & palace.
Each city had a definite individuality which often reflected in its history. Nippur
was a sacred town. Sippar occupied a unique position in the Old Babylonian
period commercially, and as a link with semi-nomadic tribes of the Upper Eu-
phrates. We don't know what part Borsippa played; archaeologists have not
excavated there yet.
From the point of view of urbanism, the Babylonian cities built on the
plains formed by soil deposits from the annual floods show significant separa-
tion between the temple & the palace. Each was situated in a separate walled
enclosure within the entrenched city; the city government was in the city gates,
where the inhabitants of the city quarters met in assembly.
The pattern was different in Assyria. There temple and palace moved to-
gether; one wall enclosed them, the treasury and the barracks of the royal
guard; this formed a city within a city. The compound could be situated either
in the center of the city or on a high artificial terrace straddling the city wall.
The peripheral emplacement of the inner city & the fact that its buildings were
placed on a terrace show the king as high priest separated in a sacred city by
an enclosure. At the turn of the 2nd millennium of their culture, the inhabitants
of the oldest cities began to acquire a special status and require a special
deference from the king, beyond the exemptions from taxation, work details,
and military service.
We don't know much about the history of the Mesopotamian temple as
an institution. Economically the temple would take in gifts and rents and dis-
pense rations and other payments. In the community, the temple had the func-
tions of administering oaths, establishing weights, measures and the interest
rates for loans. The building of sanctuaries and providing them funds was a
royal privilege at all times.
The sources we have to work with offer an extremely complex picture
of the gods of the Mesopotamian people, not only because of the length of
their civilization, but because it represents a fusion of Sumerian and Akkadian
deities. The result is best illustrated by a god list that contained more than
1500 names and yet still failed to mention names well known from other sour-
ces. This fusion of the gods of different cultures led to a blurring of the indivi-
dual personalities of all but the most outstanding and characteristic figures.
The gods fall into the categories of old gods and young ones. Anu is the
oldest god; his realm is remote heaven. Enhil, when he developed from the
god of the city of Nippur to ruler of the gods, assumed much of the remote-
ness of Anu. Ea shared the rule of heaven and earth with Anu and Enhil; his
realm was the waters surrounding the earth and those below it; he was the
patron god of exorcism. Marduk was at first a young god, but Babylon's politi-
cal importance moved him into the rank of the rulers of the cosmos. Ninurta,
Enhil's son, had no city of his own. Nabu, Marduk's son, became Borsippa's
god and was the patron god of the scribes.
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The foremost astral deities were, of course Shamash, the sun-god, and
city god of Larsa and Sippar and Sin, the moon-god and city god of Ur and
Harran. Shamash was the judge of heaven and earth & was concerned with
protecting the poor and the unjustly treated. Unique among the gods of Meso-
potamia is Asshur god of the city of Asshur. Asshur was provided by his
theologians with all the trappings of a lord of the universe, creator and organi-
zer of the cosmos, father of the gods, when Assyria became the region's domi-
nant power. He was connected with a mountain sacred to him and had a
sanctuary there.
The god Nerga was the city god of Cutha and along with his wife Eresh-
kigal, the ruler of the realm of the dead. Ishtar stands in stark contrast to the
various other mother-goddesses of the region as both the battle-loving warrior-
goddess who gives victory to the king she loves, and as the goddess of sexual
life. There is remarkably little foreign influence on the Babylonian or Assyrian
gods.
While gods were thought to reside in various cosmic localities, a vary-
ing amount of sanctity was considered inherent in a number of localities on
earth. The sacredness of mountains is well attested, especially in Assyria. The
2 rivers Tigris and Euphrates were likewise considered sacred, especially their
sources. While there were sacred mythical trees, nothing is known of the sa-
credness of actual trees.
Fundamentally, the deity was considered present in his image, living in
the temple much in the same way as the king resided in his palace. Most ima-
ges were made of precious wood plated with gold, with staring eyes of preci-
ous stone. Assyrian kings state repeatedly that they had images made of im-
portant deities according to their own ideas, while in Babylonian the conser-
vatism there caused even the slightest change in an image's appearance by
the king to trigger great opposition from the priest and the city.
The images were constructed or repaired in special workshops of the
temple. In the morning, the statues of the minor gods were brought before the
temple. In the morning, the statues of the minor gods were brought before the
important ones. Meals were “served,” platters were passed before the image;
sometimes the food was set on the table and curtains were drawn around it
and the image. The “leftovers” were at times sent to the king, to have him par-
take of the food blessed by the god. The food itself was to be ritually clean &
prepared in prescribed ways. The images were often carried in procession
through the temples' spacious yards to visit other images in elaborate ceremo-
nials. There were the sacred ceremonial marriage festivals in which the god
met his spouse.
The functions of the personnel of such a sanctuary followed the pattern
of the palace. The god had a staff for housekeeping and food preparation.
There were priests concerned with the performance of cultic obligations, from
those officiating to exorcists, singers, and musicians. It shouldn't be forgotten
that importance and size of these temples differed greatly from such world-
famous temples as Esagila in Babylon, down to dilapidated sanctuaries in de-
caying provincial cities. Thus, the temple served to house the city's deity in a
dignified way. It was the king's duty to keep the temple in good repair & provi-
ded with funds. Since the image guaranteed the divine presence, victorious
conquerors would want to carry it off in triumph.
It is difficult to establish what the temple meant for the private citizen in
the frame of his personal religious life. The participation of the private person
was pretty much restricted to the cycle of those annual cultic events when the
image was moved outside the temple; the private person was far removed
from any intimate or personal contact with the gods cult. Whatever comfort or
help they could expect from charms, exorcists, & omens, the Mesopotamians
had developed the idea that each human being was endowed with a unique
and personal nature. This nature circumscribed one's life in terms of luck or
misfortune, survival or death. Although they were ever ready to turn to the un-
seen powers with prayers to change their natures, a dignified resignation
characterized the outlook of the Mesopotamian as an individual.
14. Arts and Sciences—Mesopotamian art showed major achieve-
ments and originality in only two mediums of artistic aspiration. First, there
was the monumental architecture of temple and palace. The use of bricks and
roof beams limited the range of technical possibilities. Bricks were joined with
mud instead of mortar and hidden behind a mud facing, and the length of the
beams determined the width of rooms, since columns, etc., were not used. In-
stead, the brick walls had rhythmically distributed stepped recesses & buttres-
ses in strategic locations. The mud layer hiding the bricks was decorated with
white and colored plaster with painted designs, with mosaics made of colored
clay cones, or by cutting stone slabs in relief.
Temples were built with a major entrance provided with buttressed to-
wers which led into a spacious paved yard, surrounded on 3 sides by rows of
auxiliary rooms. Somewhere within that space was an altar or well. In the 4th
side was a buttressed or intricately recessed entrance that opened into the
small room that sheltered the god, whose image was placed on a slightly ele-
vated podium before a recessed niche.
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the temple tower. These garishly colored, staged & crenellated towers rising
high above the white-faced temples made Mesopotamia famous, as their men-
tion in the Bible shows. In Babylonia, the structures were made of an earthen
core, and placed apart from the temple. They were accessible by outside stair-
ways. In Assyria, temple towers were within the temple, placed so that the im-
age's niche penetrated into the core of it. It either had no means of access or
held the stairs within its confines. The purpose and the function of these im-
pressive structures are unknown.
Temples and palaces were similar. The essential part of the palace was
the throne room, where the king received ambassadors and tribute-bearing
vassals. The throne's placement corresponded to the image's preferred posi-
tion in its room. In Babylonia, one had to turn 90 degrees to face the image or
throne after entering the room; in Assyria, the image or throne faced the en-
trance. Assyrian palaces had a characteristic topic on their murals-representa-
tions of the king as a protégé of the gods and as an ever-victorious warrior
shown slaughtering the defeated in battle scenes. These scenes were first
captured on murals and later on stone panels cut in shallow relief. They lined
the courts, the throne rooms, and other important halls for roughly the last
third of this civilization's 1800-year existence.
Mesopotamia's 2nd major achievement was small-scale engravings on
the precious stone of cylinder seals. Here we meet a fairy-tale world of mon-
sters & demons, with enthroned deities, numerous animals in procession be-
fore a king or god, pious worshipers and battling heroes. They act as a sensi-
tive barometer of foreign influence, & of the native artistic creativity that would
otherwise not have broken through the heavy crust of traditional or conventio-
nal thinking. The spirit and superb technique of this art managed to survive
nearly 2,000 years of delicate refining & becoming the conventional way of re-
presenting human beings.
Few of the other art objects from Mesopotamia appeal to Western aes-
thetic conventions. There is a marble face, the bronze, elegant head of an
Akkadian king, and a few statues. The rest seems too mechanical and stuck
in the formalism of the period. What most stelae & reliefs seem to portray be-
yond their subjects is the artist's boredom with the extremely traditional way
of thinking. The exception to this is the array of monstrous beings that Meso-
potamian artists knew how to endow with startling persuasiveness.
In science, Mesopotamia's achievements in mathematics & mathema-
matical astronomy can well stand comparison with the accomplishments of
other civilizations up to Newton's time. The earliest texts we have are from
the Hammurabi period. First, we have multiplication and division tables, and
secondly mathematical problems, sometimes with a detailed solution, some-
times with no solution at all.
The rise of Babylonian astronomy took place in the 400s B. C. Before
that we have observations of the appearance and disappearance of Venus.
Then we have observations on the arrangement of the fixed stars in three
ways, and on the planets, the moon and seasons around 700 B. C. There
are also reports to Assyrian kings on eclipses and movements of planets.
Then however, begins with amazing speed the development of mathemati-
cal astronomy in Babylonia. A workable fixed lunar-solar calendar was nee-
ded, so a zodiac was created for the movements of the sun and the planets.
Observations were made of the varying lengths of the days & nights during
the year, and arithmetical progressions were used to express the variations
in the movements of heavenly bodies.
Babylonian medicine was primitive and crude compared to Egyptian
medicine, relying on exorcism, rituals, and a rather confused use of medici-
nal herbs. There is no evidence available that their physicians practiced sur-
gery. Mesopotamian technology is likewise unimpressive. They knew enough
to admire the achievements of those that they conquered, but nowhere can
one observe any marked advance beyond the level at which we meet them
in the Sumerian civilization. There are indications of Babylonia losing various
manufacturing technologies, and resisting, nearly always with success, any
outside stimulus.
Mesopotamia, & in particular Assyria maintained contacts with foreign
civilizations in varying degrees of intensity over the 3 millennium of its known
history. These contacts were far more effective in the earliest periods than
they were later on. Mesopotamia, in respect to technology, received from the
East and gave to the West. From India, Mesopotamia received its feathered
animals, the chicken & eventually the peacock. From Central Asia it received
horses, camels, etc.; both were passed on to the West.
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In respect to culture, Mesopotamia exercised influence upon its neigh-
bors to the North, Northwest, and West by means of its language and system
of writing. Elam to the East, Armenia to the North, the Hittites & the Hurrians
to the West, & Syria & the eastern Mediterranean to the South all felt Mesopo-
potamia's influence. Their influence even reached Egypt in the form of the cy-
linder seal, a desire for a system of writing, and certain features of monumen-
tal architecture. In the contact of the Hebrews with this civilization, we have
the unique instance of a deported nation returning to its homeland. & we cer-
tainly may mention the Bible as a vehicle for a number of religious and literary
concepts of Mesopotamian origin.
15. Historical Sources—In the strictest sense, deliberate recording of
Mesopotamia history is properly set in the period from Tiglath-pileser III (745-
727) and his Babylonian counterpart Nabu-nasir to Antiochus I, Soter (280-
261 B.C.). Not very many years of this stretch of nearly 500 years are repre-
sented in the Mesopotamian Chronicles. Their style is factual and terse, but
they are of great importance not only for their own history, but also for the Old
Testament & even Greek history. Some of these texts record in similar style
events before the Dark Age. Their content is necessarily more legendary but
still an important source of information for the time from Sargon of Agade to Sumuabu of Babylonia.
Another sign of historical awareness is the king lists, which reach from
the mythical moment “when kingship descended from heaven” to the Diado-
chi. They give the kings’ names and the lengths of their reigns, divide them
into dynasties, & provided remarks which show the influence of various politi-
cal concepts. For the last centuries of Assyro-Babylonian history, there is one
list that coordinates the reigns of the kings of the 2 lands. Awareness of histo-
ry expresses itself in royal inscriptions and in references to kings of the past.
Although they were not intended as such, there were Assyrian and
Babylonians lists that are now of historical value. In Assyria, the years of a
king's reign were identified with a high official’s name; that name was used in
a consistent order. In Babylonia, every year was named after an event that
had occurred in the year before, with name changes occurring in the mid-year
to reflect an actual event. The deaths of foreign kings are mentioned at times.
The main body of historical information, however, is contained in the
so-called royal inscriptions, beginning with Mesannepadda of Uruk, and en-
ding with Antiochus I, Soter. They range from a few signs on votive offerings
to rock inscriptions of Gehistun, from small clay cones to prisms containing
many hundreds of lines. Very few of them were written primarily to inform us
of a king's achievements; most of them were buried as foundation deposits,
placed in dark corridors or on inaccessible rocks.
As essential as these texts are to reconstructing Mesopotamian history,
it must be remembered that they are written in highly stylized, sometimes poe-
tic, language. Events are sometimes arranged geographically, and sometimes
chronologically. They are extended, embellished, reduced, or telescoped to fit
the requirements of space or of the specific purpose of the inscription. It is
even possible to discover personal preferences and mannerism of the kings.
Assyrian kings seem to have had a love of details & exact figures, while Baby-
lonian kings avoid a factual format, preferring old-fashioned and vague terms.
The timing of events can't be placed with certainty any further back
than the 700s B.C. For anything further back than that, the historian has to
rely on dead reckoning & on the comparing of events that occurred at that
same time. The key events being used to date other events are the beginning
of Hammurabi's reign & an astronomical event that happens every 64 years.
Three years are suggested for his reign—1856, 1792, and 1728 B.C, none of
which fit all the evidence we have today. This article uses the date of 1792.
16. Archaeological Notes—The first travelers interested in ancient his-
tory began to pass through this area in 1576. Their curiosity was naturally sti-
mulated by the Bible stories about the tower of Babel, which they saw in the
impressive ruins of Aqar Quf, & the destruction of Nineveh. The spectacular
ruins of Persepolis—outside of Mesopotamia—have to be credited with attrac-
ting most of the attention through their inscriptions on stone, which led to deci-
phering of the cuneiform script. Diplomatic personnel & interested amateurs
sent their respective governments Assyrian reliefs and colossi, cylinder seals,
etc.
In the last 25 years of the 1800s, great expeditions from France, Eng-
land, America, and Germany began. The French started in 1842; their exca-
vations at Telloh (1877), the American's at Nippur (1889), and the German's
at Asshur (1903) yielded many tens of thousands of tablets which shed light
on nearly every phase and aspect of Mesopotamian civilization. After World
War I came the period when the deep south and the region beyond the Tigris
began to yield their information.
Once the process was begun, the deciphering took over 50 years. This
is because the pioneers were faced with 3 rather different systems of cunei-
form writing: Old Persian; Elamite; and Babylonian, with some texts in two or
even all three languages. Those working to decipher this writing included: G.
Grotefend; Anquetil du Perron; I. R. C. Rask; E. Burnouf; H. Rawlinson; J.
Oppert; N. L. Westergaard; E. Norris; F. H. Weissbach; I. Lowenstern; and E.
Hincks. J. Oppert gets the credit for first naming the Sumerian civilization.
A-97
The Semitic character of Akkadian proved both a boon and a draw-
back. While it stimulated interest in the newly discovered Semitic language
when the cuneiform tests started to reveal historical material bearing directly
on the Bible, this attitude overshadowed appreciation & investigation of Akka-
dian as a language with quite unique & distinct characteristics, and of Meso-
potamian civilization as an integrated whole.
Besides the linguistic approach to the study of Assyria, there is the field
of cultural anthropology Very little understanding has been achieved so far in
this field. The vast subject of social institutions has hardly been touched, & the
social & economic structure remains obscure. The field of religion remains
largely unknown and only barely explored. So much data has been amassed
on all these subjects, that a period dedicated solely to digesting & coordina-
ting this material would be a blessing.
ASTONISHMENT (שמה; sham mah; ekotasiV, (ek o ta sis); qamboV, (tham
bos)) tham bos) In the Bible, it is a reaction of humans to an act of God within
history.
Astonishment in the Old Testament combines wonder, dread, & horror,
brought on by an expected divine act. It is awakened by the “otherworldly,” by
an act of God which man cannot understand, and by a turn of divine purpose
seemingly dissonant with the past. A person who has been visited by Yahweh
in judgment becomes an object of horror, & astonishment comes when one is
confronted by a jealous God.
In the New Testament, it is aroused by Jesus Christ; it contains the
element of surprise, of being met by the unexpected, and of dread. In the
New Testament, astonishment includes not only dread, but also fascination &
attraction. The moment of dread before God is overcome in the love and sub-
mission of faith.
ASTROLOGER (אשף (ash shawf); הברי שמים (hoe beh ray shaw mah yeem),
dividers of the heavens)
The longing to ascertain what the future has in store for the individual
or society gave rise to the pseudoscience of astrology. The heavenly bodies
were minutely observed by the Babylonian and Egyptian astrologers in the be-
lief that conjunctions foretold future events that will take place on earth. Astro-
logy, to judge from the evidence of the Old Testament, was unknown & gene-
rally disregarded in ancient Israel. All references to it refer exclusively to the
Babylonian practice. The earliest horoscope in Mesopotamia dates from 410
B. C.; the earliest horoscopes in Egypt are from the reign of Augustus. “Astro-
logy” as a designation for the art based the relationship between the celestial
bodies and earthly events was not officially at home in Israel.
ASTRONOMY. The sum total of elementary observations of celestial phenomena
found in the Bible can be summed up briefly. The sun was fashioned & placed
in the firmament on the 4th day of creation, to light the earth in daytime and to
regulate the seasons. The moon was also fashioned and placed in the firma-
ment on the 4th day of creation, to light the earth in the nighttime and to regu-
late the seasons. Its light is represented as independent of the sun, and its
movement as being controlled entirely by God's will. The standard calendar in
Israel was lunar, and the major seasonal festivals of spring & fall commenced
at full moon.
Eclipses of the sun and the moon may be alluded to in the expressions
“to become dark, to be darkened.” Stars are created by God; their multitude is
mentioned in Genesis and their height in Job. Star worship was explicitly for-
bidden. As to constellations, there is a clear reference to Orion and the Pleia-
des. There are several far less certain references to constellations in Job,
Chapters 9, 37, and 38.
The deficient nature of Egyptian arithmetic acted as a retarding force on
the development of astronomy. The Egyptian year consisted of 12 months of
30 days each; to the total of 360 days, 5 were added at the end of each year.
The 12 months were divided into the inundation, winter and summer seasons.
The calendar's origin seems to be from observing the fairly close coincidence
of the Nile's annual rising with the rising of Sirius. Lunar calendars were in use
for liturgical purposes.
25 civil years are almost equal to 309 lunar months. Until the Greek
period there is no evidence of an Egyptian zodiac. However, the year is divi-
ded into 36 “decans,” which corresponds to 10 days, 10 degrees of the eclip-
tic, and represents a star or groups of stars which rise at a specific hour of the
night during that particular 10 day period. The day was divided into 24 hours,
12 for the time of daylight & 12 for night. The Greeks modified this by making
the hours of equal, 60 minute lengths.
A-98
Our knowledge of Mesoptamian astronomy comes mostly from texts
found in Uruk and Babylon. The first texts based on observation date from
1650 B.C. One ancient period conceived the universe as 8 concentric circles
with the moon in the center. Around 700 B. C., texts copied from an older peri-
od mention fixed stars, planets, the moon, the seasons, etc. From these and
other texts, it is safe to assume that Babylonian astronomers used the zodiac
of 12 times 30 degrees as a reference system for solar and planetary motion,
and a fixed luni-solar calendar. They also probably used some of the basic
period relations for the moon, the planets, and had an empirical insight into
lunar and planetary movement and the varying lengths of day and night.
It seems that from the beginning the Mesopotamian calendar has been
It seems that from the beginning the Mesopotamian calendar has been
lunar at all times. The beginning of the month was counted from the begin-
ning of the new moon. The length of the month varied between slightly over
29 days to nearly 30 days. Because the lunar and solar year had a different
number of days in them, a periodic adjustment of a thirteenth month became
necessary, & was achieved by royal decree; Hammurabi is known to have
done this. The Mesopotamian scribes had two very complex & precise tables
explaining the variations of the length of the lunar month. They could accu-
rately predict a lunar eclipse, but could only answer whether a solar eclipse
was possible or impossible. The planetary theory of the Mesopotamian scribes
seemed to be modeled after the lunar tables.
ASTYAGES (AstuagaV ) The last ruler of the Median Empire (585-550); son of
Cyaxares. He helped make peace by marrying Aryenis, the daughter of Alyat-
tes king of Lydia. His daughter Mandane married Cambyses I; Astyages'
grandson Cyrus grew up with a shepherd and his wife after being exposed.
Cyrus turned against his grandfather, as did his general Harpagus, whose son
Astyages murdered. In the 2nd battle between the Medes and the Persians,
Astyages was made prisoner.
ASUPPIM (אספים) The name is correctly rendered as the temple “storehouse,”
and not as a proper name.
ASYNCRITUS (AsugkritoV ) A Christian greeted by Paul in Romans.
ATAD (אטד, thorn) A place in Canaan, perhaps between Jericho and the Dead
Sea, where Jacob's funeral cortege stopped on its way to Hebron. The
Egyptians observed seven-days mourning; as a result, this place received the
additional name Abel-mizraim.
ATARAH (עטרה, crown or wreath) Jerahmeel's 2nd wife of ; mother of Onam.
ATARGATIS (AtargatiV ) The great female deity of the Aramaeans, consort
of Hadad. Her name is a compound of Atar (i. e. Ishtar or Astarte) and Attah
(a male deity otherwise unknown). In origin, she is one of the mother-god-
desses of Asia Minor; she had castrated priests & a throne mounted on lions.
After her adoption by the Syrians, she acquired many of the Babylonian
Ishtar's traits. She had temples in many other Near Eastern places. Her
temple at Carnaim in Gilead is mentioned in Maccabees as the scene of a
slaughter by Judas Maccabeus of the inhabitants who had fled to it for
refuge. In the Greek world, her cult was carried as far west as Britain.
ATAROTH (עטרות, crown, wreath) 1. One of the towns requested by the tribes
of Reuben and Gad for their possession, around 13 km northwest of Dibon
& 16 km east of the Dead Sea. 2. One of the boundary towns of the tribe
of Ephraim, located on its eastern border.
ATAROTH-ADDAR (עטרות אדר, glorious crown) A town on the boundary be-
tween Ephraim and Benjamin. There is confusion and disagreement as to
the location of this town.
ATER (אטר, crippled one, left-handed one) The head of a family that returned
to Palestine after the Exile. Some of the family were gatekeepers, and Ater
alone is mentioned as one who sealed Ezra's covenant.
ATHACH (עתך) A city in southern Shephelah to which David sent part of the booty
taken from the Amalekites.
ATHAIAH (עתיה) A man of Judah; son of Uzziah; included in the list of post-
exilic inhabitants of Jerusalem.
A-99
ATHALIAH (עתליה, Yahweh is great, exalted) 1. Jehoram's wife, king of Judah;
daughter of Ahab and Jezebel; granddaughter of Omri; mother of Ahaziah.
She reigned over Judah for 6 years, around 842-837 B.C. She represents a
northern intrusion into the otherwise uninterrupted Davidic dynasty in Judah.
She became as zealous & and capable a proponent of Baal-Melkart as her
infamous mother. Her son was killed during a palace coup while visiting the
north. Athaliah destroyed all surviving male heirs & managed to stay on the
throne for 6 years—a tribute to her cold-blooded competence. She was de-
posed & slain by Jehoiada the priest, through mercenary soldiers an infant
son Joash of Ahaziah whom he and his wife had hidden and secretly reared.
The priest then presided over a covenant between Yahweh, king & people.
The populace was badly split between the Baalist and Yahwist party.
2. One of the sons of Jeroham from the genealogy of Benjamin.
3. Jeshaiah's father, head of Elam's sons who returned with Ezra.
3. Jeshaiah's father, head of Elam's sons who returned with Ezra.
ATHARIAS (AtqariaV (at thar ee as) An official title of Judah's Persian governor.
ATHARIM (האתרים) The way along which the Israelites under Moses were mar-
ching at the time they were attacked by the king of Arad.
ATHBASH (אתבש) A Hebrew cryptographic scheme in which the letters of the
alphabet in reverse were substituted (The English equivalent would be substi-
tuting “zxyw” for “abcd”). The word is constructed by the first, the last, the
second, and the second from last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The use of
Athbash is recognized in the Talmud, Midrashim, and Kabbala.
ATHENS (Aqhnai (ath ay nah ee) The chief city of the ancient district of Attica.
The name of the city was probably derived from that of the goddess Athena.
Paul visited Athens and spoke in the synagogue, in the market place, and in
the Areopagus; but he established no church there.
Discovery of Neolithic pottery on the Acropolis shows there was a set-
tlement at this place in the Late Stone Age (before 3000 B.C.). In the Late
Bronze Age (around 1600-around 1100) the Acropolis was a strongly fortified
citadel. At the beginning of the 500s B.C., Solon the Lawgiver is credited with
doing much to establish the democratic organization of Athens. In northwes-
tern Athens, the foundations of the oldest known public buildings & sanctua-
ries were discovered, buildings which included the predecessor of the Old
Bouleuterion (council building), and the archaic Temple of Apollo; in the mid-
500s, law courts & an executive committee building were built.
At the end of the 500s came the democratic reforms of Kleisthenes.
The Boule or advisory council was increased to 500 persons, 50 from each of
the 10 tribes into which Kleisthenes also divided the people of the state. In
each of ten periods of the year, fifty councilors served as Prytanes, or presi-
dents of the council, and met continuously as an executive committee.
At the beginning of the 400s, Athens was enclosed by a strong wall,
which was constructed or repaired by Themistocles around 525-460 because
of the threat of a Persian invasion. By the time the Persians actually de-
stroyed Athens in 480/479, the Older Parthenon and the Old Propylea had
already been founded on the Acropolis. When the Persians were driven
away, an extensive program of rebuilding and of new building was instituted.
Under Pericles (461-429), the famous Parthenon & Propylea were erected, &
the Erechtheion was built soon afterward. Meanwhile Pheidias (died around
432) and his pupils further beautified the city with a wealth of friezes and a
forest of statues. At this time, Athens had reached its glorious age.
In the 300s, the financial minister of Athens, Lycurgus (338-326) was
probably responsible for what we know as the Dipylon, the building of the ear-
liest known stadium at Athens, & the Theater of Dionysus. In the Hellenistic
period the Syrian king Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175-164) rebuilt the Temple of
Olympian Zeus; King Attalus II of Pergamum (159-138) gave the large Stoa of
Attalus, which still stands on the east side of the ruins of the Agora.
A-100
The sack of Athens by the Roman general Sulla in 86 B.C. did damage
chiefly to private quarters, and in the reign of Augustus (27 B.C.-14 A.D.), new
public buildings were added. By the time of Augustus, the old Agora was filled
with buildings, and accordingly a new Roman Agora was laid out a short dis-
tance to the east. The ruins of a large structure just north of the Augustan Mar-
ket are identified as the Stoa and Library of Hadrian (117-138 A.D.).
ATHLAI (עתלי, Yahweh is exalted) One of those compelled to put away their for-
eign wives in Ezra's time.
ATONEMENT (כפר, kaw far) From the phrase “at one”; to be “at one” with some-
one is to be in harmonious personal relationship with someone. Originally
“atonement” meant “reconciliation,” but in modern usage “atonement” means
the process by which the hindrances to reconciliation are removed.
In the Old Testament (OT) the word “atonement” occurs frequently, &
In the Old Testament (OT) the word “atonement” occurs frequently, &
especially in relation to sacrifice. In the New Testament (NT), the word is
largely absent, but the idea t he word seeks to express is constantly present.
The Bible assumes that humans are estranged from God, and solely responsi-
ble for that alienation, due to their disobedience. The barrier raised by human-
kind’s past sins must be removed.
In the ritual of the Day of Atonement the first of the 2 goats is slain, but
the second is driven out into the wilderness, laden with the sins of the people.
Not only can the live scapegoat make atonement, but also the offering of mo-
ney for the temple may be an offering “to make atonement for yourselves.”
So, usually it is humans who must make atonement to God, but sometimes it
is God who is said “to make atonement,” to pardon or forgive.
There is a difference in sacrifice between “propitiating”—appeasing God
in God's anger—and expiating or atoning—removing the hindrance to a per-
son's right relationship with God. Since it's God who sometimes “makes atone-
ment,” & since it was God who provided sacrifice as the means by which his
forgiveness could be obtained, we should be reluctant to say two things: first,
that sacrifice was merely a human device for over-coming God's reluctance to
forgive; & 2nd, that the hindrance to reconciliation lies in God's reluctance to
forgive. Sacrifice, therefore, should probably be interpreted as an way to re-
move the barrier of sin.
In the NT, atonement is related entirely to Jesus Christ and his coming
to earth, & especially with his death upon the cross. The NT declares that in
Christ and his death is all that one needs in order to find his sins forgiven.
The NT assumes the human need of being put right with God, and their own
helplessness to put themselves right, whether Jews or Gentiles.
The cause of human estrangement from God is human sin & persistent
disobedience to the will of God. God stands ready to forgive and to heal the
penitent sinner. But where humans continue deliberately and defiantly in their
wrongdoing, God by his very nature can't be complacent, but ordains dreadful
penalties as a consequence of sin. What God does not do is hold aloof in
cold contempt from sinners, or turn from them with implacable resentment.
Especially in the coming of Jesus, God's purpose was to seek and save the
lost.
The atoning work of Christ is particularly associated with his death on
the cross. “We were reconciled to God by the death of God's Son” (Romans
5.10). The New Covenant, the possibility of a new relationship between hu-
man and God is in Christ's blood, inaugurated and made effective in his self-
giving on the cross. This utter self-giving of Christ, even in death, is the
means of a person's return to God. This access, is ours only “through our
faith in Christ.” (Eph. 3.12).
This new means of atonement is proclaimed as the gift of God to hu-
mans. Christ's coming to earth & his self-giving on the cross for human sin
are God's doing. The immediate consequence of atonement is that human'
relationship with God is restored. All kinds of other good things come from
this: a cleansed conscience, new moral power, and freedom from the self's
tyranny. The NT does not explain how Christ is able to cancel out the effects
of human sin & reconcile them to God. It is content to affirm the truth of it with
an abundance of metaphors.
The atoning power of Christ’s death is frequently expressed in terms
taken from Judaism’s sacrificial practices. The “blood” of Christ is actually
Christ’s life as it is yielded up to God in complete obedience to God's will. It's
the task of theologians to decide whether this metaphor implies that Christ's
death is best understood as a sacrifice to God, or whether they declare that
what the Jews sought to achieve by sacrifice was accomplished in Christ.
A-101
The Lamb of God is also understood as sacrificial. If Jesus is thought
of as the paschal (Passover) lamb, his death heralds our great deliverance
from bondage, and his blood delivers us from destruction and secures our
salvation. Or he can be thought of as the goat released into the wilderness,
taking away our sins in the process. Jesus giving “his life as a ransom for
many” is taken literally by some to mean that his life was an agreed price for
human freedom from bondage to Satan. Or it could be just a vivid metaphor
by which our Lord declares his purpose of setting all free from their present
bondage. Redemption is also used as a metaphor for the forgiveness of sins.
There is disagreement over certain Greek words which can mean pro-
pitiation (appeasement) or expiation (barrier removal). The words as used
by pagan Greeks mean propitiation. When they are used in translating the OT
from Hebrew to Greek, they mean expiation & forgiveness. There is no clear
case for insisting that any of these words in its NT context implies that God's
anger needs to be placated by Christ's sacrifice on the Cross. Using “bought”
as a metaphor for atonement may be thought of not as the means of freeing
us from sin, but rather as confirmation of the fact that we belong utterly to
God.
It is sin which has created the need for atonement, because sin, be-
sides corrupting the heart & deadening the conscience, causes people to be
estranged from God, separated from God by an unseen barrier. This barrier
of separation God in Christ has broken down. Neither the church nor the NT
offers a precise explanation of how this was done, but both agree that God
has prepared the way by which all may be reconciled to God, through the At-
onement offered in Christ.
ATONEMENT, DAY OF (כפרים (ה) יום , yome kip poor) The great annual fast
day of Judaism, the tenth day of Tishri, described in Leviticus, on which, when
the temple stood, the high priest entered the holy of holies to atone for the sins
of all Israel; now known as Yom Kippur.
The annual Day of Atonement is the only fast day prescribed in the Mo-
The annual Day of Atonement is the only fast day prescribed in the Mo-
saic Law. Although it developed late in Judaism, it played a formative and in-
fluential role in all of Judaism. In the New Testament (NT), the passion narra-
tives, the Letter to the Hebrews, & the writings of Paul are all in various ways
under its impact. This vitality helps also explain the fact that the Day of At-
onement survived the destruction of the temple, even though its rites epito-
mized the sacrificial system. The function of the sprinkling of blood & of the
dismissal of the scapegoat was the same: to cleanse Israel, its priesthood,
and its temple from sin's pollution.
The whole exilic and postexilic period of Judaism was increasingly trou-
bled by the people's sinfulness & the holy justice of God. This produced an
intense mood of moral and legal obligation in the rabbinic community. In the
the priestly movement, it led to new developments in worship so that contri-
tion, confession, and especially propitiation became increasingly prominent.
The Old Testament (OT) references to the Day of Atonement are con-
fined to the Priestly writings. As is true of the rituals as a whole, we are told
Moses instituted it. The death of Nadab and Abihu serves as a warrant for the
Day. Ezekiel provided the climate in which the Day of Atonement could deve-
lop. But the Day as described in Leviticus doesn't seem to exist. The obser-
vances in Ezekiel are very likely to be thought of as New Year ceremonies.
We must conclude that while a day of atonement was emerging, the
Day of Leviticus didn't yet exist. Special fast days were becoming increasingly
frequent, but in even in the days of Nehemiah, the Day was not yet generally
recognized, but only by the temple priesthood. It seems probable that the Day
began as a priestly rite of propitiation that became a day of penitence and
atonement for all.
Preparation for the Day of Atonement began on the first day of the
Preparation for the Day of Atonement began on the first day of the
month. The day itself began on the evening of the ninth day. The strict absti-
nence included eating, drinking, washing, anointing, putting on sandals, and
marital intercourse. The preparation of the high priest was intense. 7 days
before the Fast, he left his home to take up residence in his temple apartment.
He officiated at the daily burnt offering and rehearsed the solemn rites he
was to perform on the Great Day. On the eve of the Day he ate very lightly, for
he was to maintain an all-night vigil. During the night, younger priests kept him
awake by reading. In the morning, having bathed and in his finest array, he
offered the burnt offering which was elaborate on this day.
A-102
There seemed to be 3 distinct rites of atonement: the sacrifice for the
priests; the sacrifice for the people; and the scapegoat. The sacrifice for Aaron
and his house was a young bull. Before slaying it, the priest placed his hands
on its head and confessed his sins and the sins of his house. At this point, the
Lord's name “Yahweh” is pronounced. Saying “Yahweh” here continued long
after the priest or the people stopped saying it anywhere else. With incense
and the blood of the slain bull the high priest enters the holy of holies. He set
the smoking censer on the poles in the ark. He then took the blood & sprinkled
blood on the mercy seat once, and 7 times he spattered the ark with blood in
front, to “cover” the pollution of the sins of the priests.
The sacrifice for the people's atonement was a goat chosen by a lot
The sacrifice for the people's atonement was a goat chosen by a lot
which said “to the Lord,” from 2 identical specimens. This goat was slaugh-
tered; its blood was used to sprinkle the ark 7 times. Then, the bull's blood,
the goat's blood and a combination of the 2 were sprinkled on various instru-
ments of the ritual, thereby ridding them of Israel's uncleanness. While the
blood was made holy by the Lord in sacrifice, it was not holy otherwise and
was sold for fertilizer.
The other of the 2 goats was “for Azazel” and had a red ribbon tied to it.
If the blood sacrifices of the bull and the goat effected the removal of Israel's
pollution of the instruments & altars in its holy place, the scapegoat rite “For
Azazel” serves to remove the guilt of the people themselves. After the confes-
sion of sins on behalf of the people, accompanied by laying on of hands, the
high priest turned the goat over to a man appointed to lead him away; the peo-
ple participated in the goat's departure, one of which was urging it to be gone.
At the edge of a cliff, the attendant tied an end of the scarlet thread
around the goat's neck to a rock and then pushed it over the cliff to its death.
The announcement of the completion of the rite was relayed to the temple by
stations set up along the route. This ended the rites of the Day of Atonement.
The priest made a burnt offering and then went home to celebrate with his
friends. The people danced and rejoiced.
It is evident in all this that the Day of Atonement was a tremendous
It is evident in all this that the Day of Atonement was a tremendous
moment of renewal that permeated all Israel and united it in a solemn joy. On
this day, it was said, for 3 hours Satan does not accuse Israel before God.
It was a moment when the covenant relationship was pure and God's interven-
tion was anticipated. The Day of Atonement was the most solemn expression
of faith & worship developed by the priestly movement in postexilic Judaism.
In its basic outlook it was profoundly theocentric, & its central function
was to mediate the grace of God in forgiveness & redeeming action. Since the
were elaborate & meticulously performed, there was a danger that they would
be performed for their own sake. In Israel, the blood's effectiveness in media-
ting forgiveness did not depend on any “magical power;” it depended on the
people's faith that God had chosen to use it. Likewise, in the New Covenant,
the blood of Christ avails, not because it is human blood, but because it is the
blood of God's chosen one.
ATROTH-BETH-JOAB (יאב עטרות בית, crowns (sheepfolds) of the house of Joab)
A village near Bethlehem, listed as one of the “descendants” of Judah. The lo-
cation is unknown.
ATROTH-SHOPHAN (עטרת שופן) A city built by the Gadites in the territory con-
quered from Sihon. It was probably on a lofty hill about 2.7 km NE of the site
of Ataroth, so located as to protect the latter.
ATTAI (עתי, timely) 1. Son of Jarha, an Egyptian slave belonging to Sheshan;
father of Nathan; mentioned in the genealogy of Jeraheel. 2. Sixth in the
list of warriors from Gad who went over to David at Ziklag. 3. One of the
sons of Rehoboam by his favorite wife, Maacah.
ATTALIA ('Attaleia (at ta lay ah) A harbor city on Asia Minor's southwest
coast. Attalia was founded by and named after Attalus II of Pergamum (159-
138 B.C.) to be the chief outlet on the coast of Asia Minor. Fragments of the
Hellenistic defenses can still be seen in the surviving medieval city walls of
what is now Antalya. The most impressive ancient landmark is a triple gate
built by Hadrian.
ATTHARIAS (Attarath (at ta ra tah)) An official, named with Nehemiah, as
giving orders to the priests among the returning exiles.
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AUGURY (נחש, nakh ash) A form of Divination. The term properly refers to the
practice of the Greeks and Romans of foretelling future events by the flight,
chattering, or singing of birds.
AUGUSTAN COHORT (opeira Sebasth, o pay ra se bas te) A term of disputed
meaning. Inscriptions attest to the presence of an Augustan cohort in Syria
after 6 A.D. and at Batanea in the time of Agrippa II (around 50-100 A.D.),
which is the one Acts 27 is probably referring to.
We may suppose 2 things about Luke: that he was aware of the fact
that one of the five auxiliary cohorts stationed in Caesarea bore the honorary
name of Augusta; & that he uses the name less to define Julius than to pro-
mote the prestige of Paul by placing him in “Augustan” custody. The Roman
troops stationed in Caesarea were for the most part local people from Caesa-
rea and Samaria, known locally as Sebaste.
There is confusion and controversy over whether Luke confused Seba-
stene (of Sebaste) with Sebaste (Augustan). It is this article's conclusion that
Luke is concerned with the prestige which falls upon Paul from the bright im-
perial name of Augustus, so that the weight falls wholly on the fact Paul was
put in the charge of a Roman centurion, of the Augustan cohort, Julius by
name.
AUGUSTUS (AugoustoV (aw goo stos); born September 23, 63 B.C., died
August 19, 14 A.D.) The title given by the Roman Senate on January 16, 27
B.C. to Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, founder of the Roman Empire & ruler
of the Mediterranean world at the time of Jesus' birth. The title means “reve-
rend” and in Greek bears implications of divinity. Others used the title, but as
a name it refers to its most famous bearer. (See also entry in the Old Testa-
ment Apocrypha/Influences Outside the Bible section of the Appendix.).
AUTHOR OF LIFE (ArchgoV (ar ke gos) ) An expression referring to Jesus.
The Greek word for author is also translated “leader” and “pioneer.” In
Acts 3, Christ is recognized as the author or founder of a new life.
AUTHORITY (שלט (shel ate), exousia (ex oo see ah)) In the Bible, authority is
closely connected with power, though usually, but not always, distinguished
from it. It covers the actual possession or use of power, the legal or moral
right to exercise it, the place it can be exercised, and its source. The focus of
biblical usage is in the authority which belongs to God alone, all other autho-
rity being subordinate to and deriving from it.
In the Old Testament, it is used of the seizure or exercise of political
power; it can be distinguished as the legal right rather than the power to do a
thing. When these ideas are applied to God, it is seen that his authority is ab-
solute. But in God's steadfast love, God has imparted some authority to the
natural order (the sun “rules” the day, the moon & stars the night.) The rela-
tionship of human authorities to the absolute divine authority is in the mutual
relationships of king, priest, and prophet and judge.
Surrounding peoples regarded their kings as divine beings. But in
Israel and Judah, the power of the monarch was always recognized as part, &
not the supreme part, of a manifold delegation of authority by God. Kings
must rule in righteousness, judges deal justly, and priests must make due ex-
piation for sin. The watchman over all was the prophet, bound to no earthly
master, God's servant only, speaking with divine authority judgments on
church & state alike.
In Jesus Christ there has been a new disclosure of what divine autho-
rity is like. As the incarnate Son of God he taught with authority, saying not
“Thus saith the Lord,” but “I say to you.” He claimed to have the authority of
life and death over himself, which rightly belonged to God alone. He gave his
followers rights as sons of God, which they would not otherwise possess.
Even his trial showed that his sentence by human authorities was within the
authority of God.
The New Testament claims all other authority is subordinate to God's
authority. The authority of the human magistrate, and even the authority of
the whole world of supernatural beings, including Satan, were entirely subor-
dinate to God. Christ gave to his followers his own authority to forgive sins,
heal diseases, expel demons, and to proclaim the coming of the kingdom.
AVEN (און, wickedness) A term used in Hosea, in the phrase “high places of
Aven.” This phrase is probably a figure of speech referring to the pagan
sanctuaries at Dan and Bethel. Hosea was calling the high places wicked
and implying a comparison with other well-known and idolatrous shrines.
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AVENGER OF BLOOD (גואל הדם (go el had dam), redeemer of blood) The kins-
man of a slain man who, as his redeemer, was duty bound to claim back his
life from the slayer by killing him.
In societies that lack a strong central authority, the defense of private
property and life is the task of the kinship group. If a person is slain, his kin
take vengeance for him upon the slayer, or on one or more of the slayer's kin-
ship group. This in turn may give rise to counter-vengeance, & a blood feud is
set in motion, sometimes terminating only with the extinction of a family.
In biblical Israel, kinship's sovereignty was just beginning to be super-
seded by communal authority. Biblical law still recognizes the kinsman as re-
sponsible for prosecuting homicide, but only “a life for a life,” and only on the
actual culprit. Moreover, the law seeks to control the redeemer through the
agency of the asylum, which protects the culprit & allows community-justice
systems to become involved.
Once they are involved, the redeemer has no further say in the matter.
If the culprit is found guilty, the redeemer may carry out sentence, but he isn’t
free to pardon or accept money instead. Under the monarchy, it appears the
king had the power to intervene & grant immunity to a slayer from actions of
the avenger. The kinsman's duty of redeeming blood isn't to be confused with
persons in authority undertaking to remove imputed bloodguilt (e.g. David's
execution of Ishbosheth's assassins, and Solomon's execution of Joab.)
AVITH (עוית, ruins) Hadad's home in Edom, he was King Bedad's son. Hadad
apparently became king as a result of his father's defeating Midianites in
Moab.
AVVA (עוא, overturn) One of the towns from which colonists were sent to Samaria
to replace the Israelite natives deported after the city's capture in 722 B.C.
AVVIM (העוים, overturned) 1. An aboriginal people of the Canaanites, who lived
in villages near Gaza, and were destroyed by the Philistines. 2. A city in
Benjamin, located near Bethel.
AWL (מרצע (mar tsay ‘ah); ophtion (oh peh tee own)) An instrument mentioned in
connection with piercing the ear lobe to mark one who voluntarily took a vow
of perpetual slavery. It might be made of wood, bone, flint, or metal and was a
very common tool beginning with the Stone Age.
AWNING (מכשה (mik seh), to cover, conceal, spread over) Literally, covering &
perhaps a reference to the deck awning used to cover the ship's passengers
from the sun.
AXE (גרזן (gar zen); מעצד (mah ats awd); axinh (ax ee nay)) A cutting tool
placed on a shaft, usually of wood, & used for work in wood & stone; it also
saw use as a weapon. The axe blade was parallel to the shaft, which dis-
tinguishes it from the adze, whose cutting edge is perpendicular to the shaft,
and the mattock, which was a combination of axe and adze, or sometimes
pick and axe. The axe was one of the earliest tools invented by humans, the
head being made of bone, ivory, flint, or stone, before the advent of metal.
The use of the axe as a weapon in the Bible may be inferred from Judges
9, where Abimelech & his men cut brushwood with axes probably doing dou-
ble duty as tool and weapon, to burn the stronghold of Shechem.
AYYAH (עיה) One of the towns which were the possession of Ephraim. It could be
the same as the town of "Ai," or it could be located less than one mile from Ai.
AZAL (אצל) It is found in Zechariah 14 and was once translated as the name of an
unidentified city. The word is now translated as “the side of it.”
AZALIAH (אצלהו, Yahu has set apart) The father of Shaphan, Josiah's secretary,
who figured prominently in the publication of the celebrated Book of the Law.
AZANIAH (אזניה, Yahu has heard) A Levite; the father of Jeshua, a witness to the
covenant.
AZAREL (עזראל, God has helped) 1. A Korahite warrior who came over to David
at Ziklag. 2. A musician among the sons of Heman at the time of David.
3. Son of Jeroham; leader of the tribe of Dan under David. 4. One of the
sons of Binnui who married a foreign wife. 5. A priest; the father of Ama-
shai, who came to live in Jerusalem after the Exile. 6. A priest; a trum-
peter in the procession at dedication of the wall of Jerusalem.
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ZARIAH (עזריה, Yahweh has helped) 1. Alternate (probably personal) name for
Uzziah, king of Judah.
2. Son of Nathan, or possibly nephew of Solomon, who was in charge
of the 12 officers that administered the kingdom's 12 districts. He probably
saw to the prompt delivery of provisions to the royal household.
3. The prophet who encouraged Asa, king of Judah, to undertake a
religious reform.
4. Son of Judah's king Jehoshaphat, who was slain when their elder
4. Son of Judah's king Jehoshaphat, who was slain when their elder
brother, Jehoram, became king.
5. A high official under Solomon; son of Zadok & brother of Ahimaaz.
6. High priest under Uzziah, who led the priests who opposed the
5. A high official under Solomon; son of Zadok & brother of Ahimaaz.
6. High priest under Uzziah, who led the priests who opposed the
king's exercise of the priestly office.
7. High priest under Hezekiah, who prepared storerooms for the contri-
bution of the people.
8. A priest included in the list of those who lived in Jerusalem after the
8. A priest included in the list of those who lived in Jerusalem after the
Exile; son of Hilkiah and probably chief officer of the House of God.
9. There are 3 uses of this name in the Chroniclers list of high priests
9. There are 3 uses of this name in the Chroniclers list of high priests
which might be in reference to some of those priests listed above, but they
cannot be reliably identified with any specific person.
10. An ancestor of Heman the musician among the Kohathite Levites
10. An ancestor of Heman the musician among the Kohathite Levites
and the father of Joel.
11. The father of a Kohathite named Joel in the time of Hezekiah.
12. A man of Judah; son of Ethan as listed in the genealogy of Zerah.
13. A man of Judah; son of Jehu and grandson of Obed as listed in
11. The father of a Kohathite named Joel in the time of Hezekiah.
12. A man of Judah; son of Ethan as listed in the genealogy of Zerah.
13. A man of Judah; son of Jehu and grandson of Obed as listed in
the genealogy of Jerahmeel's sons.
14. A Judahite army officer; son of Obed. He took an active part in the
conspiracy to overthrow Athaliah and make Joash king.
15. An officer who conspired to overthrow Athaliah; son of Jeroham.
15. An officer who conspired to overthrow Athaliah; son of Jeroham.
The name is probably not the same as the previous entry, since they
have different fathers.
16. A chieftain of Ephraim; son of Johanan; among those who persua-
ded Pekah to release captives.
17. Son of Jehallelel; a Merarite Levite in the time of Hezekiah.
18. Son Hoshaiah; one of the opponents of the prophet Jeremiah in
17. Son of Jehallelel; a Merarite Levite in the time of Hezekiah.
18. Son Hoshaiah; one of the opponents of the prophet Jeremiah in
the Old Testament's Greek version.
19. A Levite who instructed the people in their understanding of the
Law in the time of Ezra.
20. A priest included among those who set their seal to the covenant
in the time of Nehemiah.
21. A man of Jerusalem who repaired the wall beside his house; son
of Maaseiah.
22. A leader of group in the postexilic period; listed among those who
returned with Zerubbabel. In the parallel list he is replaced by Seraiah.
23. A prince or priest of Judah, among those who marched at the
23. A prince or priest of Judah, among those who marched at the
dedication of Jerusalem’s rebuilt wall.
24. The original name, in Hebrew, of Abednego, one of the compani-
ons of Daniel.
AZAZ (עזז, strong) The father of Bela in the genealogy of Reuben.
AZAZEL (עזאזל, scapegoat) The scapegoat dispatched on the Day of Atonement
is described as being consigned “to/for Azazel.” There are three interpretation
of this term. 1st, it characterizes the animal itself, and stands for the goat that
departs (i.e (e)scape-goat). 2nd, it describes the place to which the animal
was dispatched, where aza means “rugged place” or cliff where the goat is
led. 3rd, it is the name of a demon inhabiting the desert.
AZAZIAH (עזזיה, Yahu is strong, or Yahu strengthens) 1. A Levitical musician in
David's provision for the Jerusalem
Ephraimite commander under David. 3. An officer of the third rank in the
temple during Hezekiah's time.
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AZBUK (עזבוק, strength exhausted) The father of a certain Nehemiah who took
part in the rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem
AZEKAH (עזקה, hoed ground (?)) A fortress city to the South of the Aijalon Valley,
dominating the passage into the valley of Elah, about 14 km north of Beit
Jibrin & 24 km northwest of Hebron, halfway between Jerusalem & the Medi-
terranean Sea. Ruins of its wall & towers can be seen on the top of Tell Ez-
Zakariyeh. To the east of the tell is Khirbet el-Alami, which may be the site of
Azekah in the Byzantine period.
Azekeh was one of the places to which Joshua chased remnants of
the Canaanite coalition after raising the siege of Gibeon. It was one of those
cities whose fortifications were strengthened by Rehoboam after the revolt of
the northern kingdom. The citadel was a heavily fortified enclosure on the
highest point of the hill on which Azekah was built. It was one of the last of
Judah's fortified cities to fall to Nebuchadnezzar's forces before the attack on
Jerusalem. After the Exile, Azekah was reoccupied by Jewish returnees.
AZEL (אצל, noble) Eleasah’s son, and 1 of the descendants of Jonathan, Saul’s
son. He was the father of 6 sons.
AZGAD (עזגד, Gad is strong) The head of a family that returned to Palestine
the Exile. Over 100 male members of this family returned with Ezra. Azgad
was one of those who signed Ezra's covenant.
AZIEL (עזיאל, strength) A minor Levite among the harp players when the ark was
brought to Jerusalem
AZIZA (עזיזא, the strong one) One of those forced to put away their foreign wives
in the time of Ezra.
AZMAVETH (עזמות, strength of death) 1. One of David's heroes, part of the
company known as the 30. Also, he could be the father of Jeziel and Pelet, 2
of the ambidextrous slingers and archers from the tribe of Benjamin who joined
David's outlaw band at Ziklag.
2. Son of Jehoaddah; one of the descendants of the family of Saul.
3. Son of Adiel. He was in charge of the royal treasuries under David in
Jerusalem.
4. A town identified with modern Hizmeh, 9 km north northeast of
Jerusalem. 42 men from there came back from Babylon with Zerubbabel, and
some of their singers took part in the dedication of Jerusalem's wall.
AZMON (עצמון, strong) A place on the southern border of Judah
now uncertain. It was the last town to the west before the river of Egypt.
AZNOTH-TABOR (אזנות תבור (summits) of Tabor) A point on the Naphtali’s
southern border, near Mt. Tabor.
AZOR (Azwr) An ancestor of Jesus.
AZRIEL (עזריאל, God is my help) 1. One of the chieftains or heads of families in
the half-tribe of Manasseh. 2. The father of Jeremoth, who was head of
Naphtali under David. 3. The father Seraiah at the time of Jehoiakim.
AZRIKAM (עזריקם, my help has arisen) 1. Son of Azel; a descendant of Saul
& Jonathon in Benjamin's genealogy. 2. “Commander of the palace”
under King Ahaz; slain in battle by Zichri, an Ephraimite warrior, possibly the
same as 1. above. 3. Grandfather of Shemiah, Merarite Levite dwelling in
Jerusalem. 4. Son of Neariah; a postexilic descendant of David of through
Zerubbabel.
AZUBAH (עזובה, a forsaking (setting free?)) 1. The mother of Jehoshaphat;
daughter of Shilhi. 2. Wife of Caleb; mother of Jesher, Chobab, & Ardon.
AZZAN (עזן, the god has shown strength) The father of the Issacharite leader
Paltiel, who was selected to help superintend the distribution of western
Jordanian Canaan among the tribes to occupy that territory.
AZZUR (עזור, helped(?)) 1. The father of Hananiah, a false prophet from Gibeon.
2. The father of Jaazaniah, an acquaintance of Ezekiel. 3. A “chief of the
people;” one of those who set their seal to the covenant.
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