Papers by Theodore J Lewis
“Now These Records are Ancient”—Studies in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical History, Language and Culture in Honor of K. Lawson Younger, Jr. Ägypten und Altes Testament 114 (2022) 341-357., 2022
Many unsatisfying solutions have been offered to account for the statistical anomaly that is Jere... more Many unsatisfying solutions have been offered to account for the statistical anomaly that is Jeremiah 10:11. Of the 1,364 verses in the book of Jeremiah, this is the only one written in Aramaic. The present study argues that the writing of the curse in Jeremiah 10:11 in Aramaic is no aberration as Aramaic was known for having a rich curse repertoire and was perfectly situated to spread cultural influences due to its broad geographic usage. Jeremiah 10:11 exhibits sociolinguistic artistry that involves code switching and the performative utterance of a curse that was thought to be effectual. When situated within the context of other Jeremianic curses, the parodic subject matter of Jeremiah 10, and Mespotamian mīs pî rituals, it will be argued that Jeremiah 10:11 is paronomastically written to be performatively (magically) powerful, and with dual sociolinguistic functions. As a high register language, the use of Aramaic functions sociologically to elevate the status of Judahite migrants who are the intended speakers of the verse’s curse to a Neo-Babylonian audience. These Judahites would be viewed as bilingual elites with higher social status rather than being viewed as monolingual refugees. Moreover, Jeremiah 10:11 takes the language of empire and inverts the power dynamic. Those who bore the brunt of imperial subjugation are here cursing the empire in its own language, the language they learned in the context of linguistic imperialism. By exhibiting an aural mastery of cursing, these minority outsiders—using the dominant vernacular of the Neo-Babylonian empire—proclaim that they have the expertise and bold courage to engage in discursive theological combat against the imperial gods of their oppressors.
“Like ʾIlu Are You Wise”: Studies in Northwest Semitic Languages and Literatures in Honor of Dennis G. Pardee, edited by H. H. Hardy II, Joseph Lam, and Eric D. Reymond. Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 73 (Chicago: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago) , 2022
Ritual theorists (e.g., Clifford Geertz, Catherine Bell, Jonathan Z. Smith, Bruce Lincoln, David ... more Ritual theorists (e.g., Clifford Geertz, Catherine Bell, Jonathan Z. Smith, Bruce Lincoln, David Kertzer) have articulated the many ways in which political rituals and mythologies serve as mediums to construct and reinforce the very nature of power and by so doing to promote the interests (and vital necessity) of god, king, and state. KTU 1.23 is a text known for both its ritual elements and its myth about ʾIlu’s procreation. Though set against the backdrop of viticulture, the hypothesis here argues that KTU 1.23 is essentially about God and king. It promotes ʾIlu’s life-giving sovereignty (against that of the deadly ruler Môtu) as it buttresses the royal power of the Late Bronze Age kingdom of Ugarit.
“A Community of Peoples”: Studies on Society and Politics in the Bible and Ancient Near East in Honor of Daniel E. Fleming, 2022
Successful kings are skilled in the use of political and religious language-both visual and textu... more Successful kings are skilled in the use of political and religious language-both visual and textual narratives-to shape the perceptions of their constituents and external powers. The present endeavor is a study of how the Sam'alian King Bar Rakib (~733-713/711 BCE) employed various narratives of divinity in ways that were tailored to different audiences. It hopes to show how his different portrayals of divinity (both traditional and innovative) were socially, culturally and politically astute. In particular, it will focus on Bar Rakib's portrayals as the last ruler of ancient Yadiya/Sam'al, a polity marked for its hybridity as it blended Anatolian and West Semitic cultural traditions while at the same time navigating the power dynamics of the Neo-Assyrian empire.
The Bible in the Ancient Near East: Essys in Honor of P. Kyle McCarter, 2022
The recent publication of the final report of the excavations at Kuntillet ʿAjrud has occasioned ... more The recent publication of the final report of the excavations at Kuntillet ʿAjrud has occasioned dramatically new understandings of this remote site on the Darb el-Ghazza caravan route, likely under the control of the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of Jeroboam II. Epigraphically, scholars now have a treasure trove of new data especially with the first publication of numerous photographs that have also produced dramatically different analyses. This is particularly true of the plaster inscriptions written for the most part in a Phoenician script and, some would now assert, in the Phoenician language, not Hebrew.
Of the plaster inscriptions, Kuntillet ʿAjrud Plaster Inscription 4.2 stands out as truly remarkable. It represents a militaristic wilderness theophany couched within what has been called “the oldest known Hebrew poem” outside of the Hebrew Bible. Now with the final report—published nearly four decades after the excavations—scholars for the first time are presented with a much fuller (and surprisingly different) set of readings. What may be a second fragment of the inscription putatively mentioning [Ya]hw[eh] has also been published for the first time. Nadav Na’aman is certainly correct that the new dataset published in the final report “calls for a thorough re-investigation of this unique desert site and its findings.” The present analysis, after securing the text, will reinvestigate the portrayal of divinity in KA 4.2, and particularly the mention of a deity who has not drawn the attention of historians of Israelite religion using the remarkable finds at Kuntillet ʿAjrud.
Mighty Baal: Essays in Honor of Mark S. Smith, 2020
ʿAthtartu/ʿAštart/Astarte studies—including what we can say of the biblical portrayal of the godd... more ʿAthtartu/ʿAštart/Astarte studies—including what we can say of the biblical portrayal of the goddess—are undergoing a renaissance. Recent volumes attempt comprehensive comparative analyses of the goddess (e.g., Christian and Schmitt 2013; Sugimoto 2014; Wilson-Wright 2016). Yet even with renewed attention to the prominence of the goddess in the Northern and Southern Levant as well as in Egypt and the expanded Phoenician colonies, certain key aspects of her agrarian nature have been overlooked. This paper explores “ʿAthtartu of the Field/Steppe-land” from Ugarit together with biblical analogues.
The Ancient Near East Today, 2021
When a historian of Israelite religion talks of the origin of God, she certainly doesn’t mean ont... more When a historian of Israelite religion talks of the origin of God, she certainly doesn’t mean ontology. Though the Hebrew Bible teases with the name Yahweh derived from a verb of “being,” ontological proofs for the existence of God are above the historian’s pay grade. A study of how people interacted with the divine in history does not focus on the prehistorical description of God’s existence at the start of time articulated in Genesis 1. Instead, historians undertake a far messier task, as the history of humans and their ideas is always messy. Incredibly messy. Epistemological certainty is not the historian’s wheelhouse. Moreover, historians of religion are not charged to be systematic theologians who weave all data into a unified whole. Even our skilled biblical redactors knew better when it came to the Almighty, as they left plural voices in our final dataset. Adding in archaeology, epigraphy, art history, and comparanda from across the entire ancient Near East broadens the historian’s dataset even more.
The historical origin of God has to do with wrestling with texts and physical remains (material culture) of the past to reconstruct how the ancients thought about divinity and religious performance.
Bible and Interpretation, 2020
What is entailed in writing a history of ancient Israelite religion? How might the concept of di... more What is entailed in writing a history of ancient Israelite religion? How might the concept of divinity be used as an organizing principle to explore the wide variety of religious experiences? What skill set is needed for such an undertaking and what is the nature of our dataset? What can we conclude with any confidence when we acknowledge that we stand at such a vast distance?
The Origin and Character of God—Expanded Itemized Table of Contents, 2020
Due to publishing requirements, the Table of Contents in the published version is minimal. In an ... more Due to publishing requirements, the Table of Contents in the published version is minimal. In an attempt to make the volume more usable, this file contains detailed headings and subheadings for the contents of each chapter.
ARAM Periodical 31.2 (2019): 349-374, 2019
The eighth-century BCE Panamuwa inscription (KAI 215) has been called “an extraordinary piece of ... more The eighth-century BCE Panamuwa inscription (KAI 215) has been called “an extraordinary piece of historiography” that tells of the remarkable survival of a dynasty of five Samaʾlian kings set against a backdrop of regicide, usurpation, economic devastation, the death of a ruler on the battlefield, and Assyrian vassalage. The end of this Samʾalian Aramaic inscription is notoriously difficult and has defied explanation. Yet by applying insights gained from the recently discovered Katumuwa inscription we can solve several textual problems and posit two new funerary rituals as well as a new rationale for the writing of the text.
It will be argued that Bar Rakib, the author of our text, is writing not merely a memorial text for his recently killed father, King Panamuwa II, but rather a text focused on legitimating his own rule in its infancy. When his father unexpectedly dies in the battle of Damascus (733-732 BCE), the heir apparent must act quickly and strategically to secure his place on the throne, especially with Samʾal’s recent history of regicide and usurpation that saw his grandfather murdered and his father in exile for years.
Due to the highly unusual transport of his father’s corpse to distant Assyria (rather than his home town of Samʾal), Bar Rakib is deprived of using the symbolism of his father’s funeral to legitimize his claim to the throne (“The King is Dead, Long Live the King!”). When the Neo-Assyrian king Tiglath Pileser III steps in to honor Panamuwa II by providing a very specific set of funerary rites, once again Bar Rakib is deprived of carrying out his filial duties that are critical for legitimizing his reign.
The Katumuwa inscription is an untapped resource for solving the textual difficulties that we find at the end of the Panamuwa inscription. Not only does it come from Sam’al/Zinjirli, it is dated to this precise juncture of history with Katumuwa being an elite “servant of Panamuwa II.” Moreover, its genre is funerary and thus provides us with insights into how Bar Rakib found a “work-around” solution. New textual reconstructions will show how he legitimized his reign in the eyes of his people by engaging in the performance of a funerary cult (even without a body). Moreover, he finessed these filial duties while also coopting the Neo-Assyrian king whose support he equally needed.
Used by permission of Wipf and Stock Publishers: www.wipfandstock.com.
This study looks at the ... more Used by permission of Wipf and Stock Publishers: www.wipfandstock.com.
This study looks at the severity of blasphemy by examining the curious blasphemous expression of “piercing (√nqb) God’s name” that one finds three times in the book of Leviticus (Lev 24:11,16 [2x]). It suggests that the choice of the word “piercing” is telling, that the mythological subtext of this blasphemy is nothing short of deicide. To blaspheme is to wield effectual words against God with the intention of doing lethal harm. Such an understanding solves why blasphemy (deserving of capital punishment) was positioned within the context of lex talionis laws of commensurate retribution with respect to killing (Lev 24:15-22).
Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 1985
... Anyone who comes afterwards, [(14) qibTt pTya ana ragliri ikrumma (15) iqTfs" rannu ... more ... Anyone who comes afterwards, [(14) qibTt pTya ana ragliri ikrumma (15) iqTfs" rannu arka'] I1. ... Although the form 'hry kn (<*'aharay kin) in Ahiqar 99 and many times in biblical Hebrew is closely related to our phrase, the biblical Hebrew 'dhar ken (<* 'ahr kin) is the exact parallel ...
An introductory essay to the republication of Albright's Archaeology and the Religion of Israel s... more An introductory essay to the republication of Albright's Archaeology and the Religion of Israel some sixty years after its initial publication.
A celebrated passage in the book of Leviticus prescribes the ritual of public atonement for the c... more A celebrated passage in the book of Leviticus prescribes the ritual of public atonement for the collective sins of the Israelites, to be performed by Aaron, the high priest, as part of the Yom Kippur purgation. It involves two goats, one to be sacrificed as a sin offering and the other to be led out into the wilderness. The procedure , according to Lev 16:21, is as follows: Then Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and sending it away into the wilderness by means of someone designated for the task (yt(#y)). (NRSV)
ATCHY TITLES SUCH AS THE ONE above may be needed in our media-hyped days to point out truly spect... more ATCHY TITLES SUCH AS THE ONE above may be needed in our media-hyped days to point out truly spectacular technological advances which are less likely to catch the eye of a passing "surfer" whether his or her waves be the net, television, or even journal headlines. Such is the information age in which we live. The tale of the disappearing warrior goddess Anat emerged out of the latest phase of the West Semitic Research Pro-ject's (WSRP) Ugaritic project which was carried out in March 1995 by Wayne T. Pitard and Theodore J. Lewis in Dam-ascus and Aleppo, Syria. The WSRP Ugaritic project has as its goal the photographic and digital (electronic) documentation of the entire Ugaritic corpus and the sharing of such advances in epigraphic analysis with the wider scholarly community in an easily accessible format. The current plan under development engages the support of numerous scholars to develop a digital edition of the Ugaritic texts on CD-ROM so that scholars worldwide can access this material via personal computers.'
The Song of Hannah (1 Sam 2:1-10) contains a series of events where the scales of fortune of two ... more The Song of Hannah (1 Sam 2:1-10) contains a series of events where the scales of fortune of two contrasting groups have been reversed. We read about the bow of the mighty being broken, while the weak gird on strength (v 4), and how the barren woman bears seven, but she who had many children now languishes (v 5b). In the midst of this context is a crux that has presented problems to commentators ancient and modern. As it stands the MT leaves one hanging and seems to be unintelligible (v 5a): sbe'im bal-lehem niskaruf fure'bim haidllu 'ad The well-fed hire themselves out for food, But the hungry cease until-The RSV with its translation "have ceased to hunger" shows a common solution followed by many in which the Hebrew text is seen as elliptical. Other scholars in the past have tried to solve the problem through many ingenious emendations: hadelu 'abod, "cease to toil,"l hadellfi li'ad, "have ceased (to hunger) forever,"2 hdlw r'b, "ceased to hunger,"3 hidui la'ad, "rejoice forever,"4 haledu 'bd, "have become 1 This suggestion, first put forth by Jacob Reifmann (Minhat Zikkiron [Breslau:
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Papers by Theodore J Lewis
Of the plaster inscriptions, Kuntillet ʿAjrud Plaster Inscription 4.2 stands out as truly remarkable. It represents a militaristic wilderness theophany couched within what has been called “the oldest known Hebrew poem” outside of the Hebrew Bible. Now with the final report—published nearly four decades after the excavations—scholars for the first time are presented with a much fuller (and surprisingly different) set of readings. What may be a second fragment of the inscription putatively mentioning [Ya]hw[eh] has also been published for the first time. Nadav Na’aman is certainly correct that the new dataset published in the final report “calls for a thorough re-investigation of this unique desert site and its findings.” The present analysis, after securing the text, will reinvestigate the portrayal of divinity in KA 4.2, and particularly the mention of a deity who has not drawn the attention of historians of Israelite religion using the remarkable finds at Kuntillet ʿAjrud.
The historical origin of God has to do with wrestling with texts and physical remains (material culture) of the past to reconstruct how the ancients thought about divinity and religious performance.
It will be argued that Bar Rakib, the author of our text, is writing not merely a memorial text for his recently killed father, King Panamuwa II, but rather a text focused on legitimating his own rule in its infancy. When his father unexpectedly dies in the battle of Damascus (733-732 BCE), the heir apparent must act quickly and strategically to secure his place on the throne, especially with Samʾal’s recent history of regicide and usurpation that saw his grandfather murdered and his father in exile for years.
Due to the highly unusual transport of his father’s corpse to distant Assyria (rather than his home town of Samʾal), Bar Rakib is deprived of using the symbolism of his father’s funeral to legitimize his claim to the throne (“The King is Dead, Long Live the King!”). When the Neo-Assyrian king Tiglath Pileser III steps in to honor Panamuwa II by providing a very specific set of funerary rites, once again Bar Rakib is deprived of carrying out his filial duties that are critical for legitimizing his reign.
The Katumuwa inscription is an untapped resource for solving the textual difficulties that we find at the end of the Panamuwa inscription. Not only does it come from Sam’al/Zinjirli, it is dated to this precise juncture of history with Katumuwa being an elite “servant of Panamuwa II.” Moreover, its genre is funerary and thus provides us with insights into how Bar Rakib found a “work-around” solution. New textual reconstructions will show how he legitimized his reign in the eyes of his people by engaging in the performance of a funerary cult (even without a body). Moreover, he finessed these filial duties while also coopting the Neo-Assyrian king whose support he equally needed.
This study looks at the severity of blasphemy by examining the curious blasphemous expression of “piercing (√nqb) God’s name” that one finds three times in the book of Leviticus (Lev 24:11,16 [2x]). It suggests that the choice of the word “piercing” is telling, that the mythological subtext of this blasphemy is nothing short of deicide. To blaspheme is to wield effectual words against God with the intention of doing lethal harm. Such an understanding solves why blasphemy (deserving of capital punishment) was positioned within the context of lex talionis laws of commensurate retribution with respect to killing (Lev 24:15-22).
Of the plaster inscriptions, Kuntillet ʿAjrud Plaster Inscription 4.2 stands out as truly remarkable. It represents a militaristic wilderness theophany couched within what has been called “the oldest known Hebrew poem” outside of the Hebrew Bible. Now with the final report—published nearly four decades after the excavations—scholars for the first time are presented with a much fuller (and surprisingly different) set of readings. What may be a second fragment of the inscription putatively mentioning [Ya]hw[eh] has also been published for the first time. Nadav Na’aman is certainly correct that the new dataset published in the final report “calls for a thorough re-investigation of this unique desert site and its findings.” The present analysis, after securing the text, will reinvestigate the portrayal of divinity in KA 4.2, and particularly the mention of a deity who has not drawn the attention of historians of Israelite religion using the remarkable finds at Kuntillet ʿAjrud.
The historical origin of God has to do with wrestling with texts and physical remains (material culture) of the past to reconstruct how the ancients thought about divinity and religious performance.
It will be argued that Bar Rakib, the author of our text, is writing not merely a memorial text for his recently killed father, King Panamuwa II, but rather a text focused on legitimating his own rule in its infancy. When his father unexpectedly dies in the battle of Damascus (733-732 BCE), the heir apparent must act quickly and strategically to secure his place on the throne, especially with Samʾal’s recent history of regicide and usurpation that saw his grandfather murdered and his father in exile for years.
Due to the highly unusual transport of his father’s corpse to distant Assyria (rather than his home town of Samʾal), Bar Rakib is deprived of using the symbolism of his father’s funeral to legitimize his claim to the throne (“The King is Dead, Long Live the King!”). When the Neo-Assyrian king Tiglath Pileser III steps in to honor Panamuwa II by providing a very specific set of funerary rites, once again Bar Rakib is deprived of carrying out his filial duties that are critical for legitimizing his reign.
The Katumuwa inscription is an untapped resource for solving the textual difficulties that we find at the end of the Panamuwa inscription. Not only does it come from Sam’al/Zinjirli, it is dated to this precise juncture of history with Katumuwa being an elite “servant of Panamuwa II.” Moreover, its genre is funerary and thus provides us with insights into how Bar Rakib found a “work-around” solution. New textual reconstructions will show how he legitimized his reign in the eyes of his people by engaging in the performance of a funerary cult (even without a body). Moreover, he finessed these filial duties while also coopting the Neo-Assyrian king whose support he equally needed.
This study looks at the severity of blasphemy by examining the curious blasphemous expression of “piercing (√nqb) God’s name” that one finds three times in the book of Leviticus (Lev 24:11,16 [2x]). It suggests that the choice of the word “piercing” is telling, that the mythological subtext of this blasphemy is nothing short of deicide. To blaspheme is to wield effectual words against God with the intention of doing lethal harm. Such an understanding solves why blasphemy (deserving of capital punishment) was positioned within the context of lex talionis laws of commensurate retribution with respect to killing (Lev 24:15-22).
little attention has been paid to one of the Hebrew Bible’s most common depictions
of the Almighty, that of divine fire. Of the many texts about divine fire in
the Hebrew Bible, one of the oldest (Deut 33:2) is also one of the most difficult.
This article supports two studies of Deut 33:2 by Richard C. Steiner (the
most recent coauthored with Sid Z. Leiman) by addressing additional relevant
texts and iconography. The resulting analysis unpacks how fire was used symbolically
to represent preternatural forces that attended the divine. Methodologically,
the present study challenges future scholars to incorporate iconographic
analysis into one’s philology—even when trying to understand abstract ideas.