Historical Window for
Jonah’s Nineveh Visit
Part Five (i): Did Jonah’s visit inspire monotheism in the kingdom of Assyria?
by
Damien F. Mackey
“A strange religious revolution took place in the time of Adad-nirari III, which can be compared with that of the Egyptian Pharaoh Ikhnaton. For an unknown reason Nabu (Nebo), the god of Borsippa, seems to have been proclaimed sole god, or at least the principal god, of the empire”.
Francis D.
Nichol
Introduction
Whilst I would once have
thought that Akhnaton’s Atonism influencing the ‘Nebo revolution’ was likely - then having king Adad-nirari III
following on closely from the El Amarna [EA] age (revised) - I would now, with my
lowering of this neo-Assyrian period by up to a century:
Re-shuffling
the Pack of Neo-Assyrian Kings
and with the prophet Jonah
and his mission now located to the very eve of the reign of a revised
Adad-nirari III (perhaps when a high official such as Ahikar was “king
[governor] of Nineveh):
Book of
Jonah’s ‘King of Nineveh’
consider the “strange
religious revolution” of pharaoh Akhnaton and Queen Nefertiti to be entirely a different
one (chronologically and theologically) from that thought to have occurred at
the time of neo-Assyrian king Adad-nirari III.
On a previous occasion I had written:
My reconstruction of EA (Akhnaton and Nefertiti) in its relation to the time of Ahab and Jezebel has led me to conclude that the Baalism that the Bible records at this time was reflected in the Atonism of, principally, Akhetaton in Egypt, and that the erasure of that Baalism was done through the same agency that defaced and erased Akhnaton and his unique project.
Now I learn from Mackenzie’s article (Donald A. MacKenzie, Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, 1915) that a similar régime as Akhnaton’s was effected in Assyro-Babylonia at the time of Adad-nirari III (or IV: Mackenzie), with the legendary Queen Sammuramat (or Semiramis) having unique power for a woman, likened (once more, as in the case of the Jezebel seal) to Queen Tiy. My conclusion will be that Sammuramat was Nefertiti/Tiy (Jezebel) in Mesopotamia.
[End of quote]
Whilst I still firmly hold Queen Nefertiti to have been the biblical bad-woman, Jezebel:
Queen
Nefertiti Sealed as Jezebel
https://www.academia.edu/31088456/Queen_Nefertiti_Sealed_as_Jezebel
I would now no longer extend this alter ego-ism to include Queen Tiy.
And Queen Sammuramat (‘Semiramis’), for her part, can no longer belong to the EA era according to my more recent revision of her - now equating her with the significant neo-Assyrian queen, Naqia (Zakutu):
The influence of the two historical queens, Nefertiti and Naqia, ought not to be underestimated.
If Nefertiti were Jezebel, as I maintain, then she was one who actually spurred on her husband, and may therefore have been instrumental in fostering the strange and somewhat Indic cult of Atonism in EA’s Egypt. The very first we hear of Jezebel is in association with Baal worship (I Kings 16:31): “[King Ahab] also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him”.
And she, again, was apparently the wind beneath his idolatrous wings (I Kings 21:25): “… there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the LORD, because Jezebel his wife stirred him up”.
Likewise, Queen Semiramis may have been instrumental in the case of the (different) religious reform at the time of Adad-nirari III. Writing of “The Age of Semiramis” in his Chapter XVIII, Donald MacKenzie will make some interesting observations about her, including this one: “Queen Sammu-rammat of Assyria, like Tiy of Egypt, is associated with social and religious innovations”. Here is a part of MacKenzie’s intriguing account of this semi-legendary queen:
…. One of the most interesting figures in Mesopotamian history came into
prominence during the Assyrian Middle [sic] Empire period. This was the famous
Sammu-rammat, the Babylonian wife of an Assyrian ruler. Like Sargon of Akkad,
Alexander the Great, and Dietrich von Bern, she made, by reason of her
achievements and influence, a deep impression on the popular imagination, and
as these monarchs became identified in tradition with gods of war and
fertility, she had attached to her memory the myths associated with the mother
goddess of love and battle who presided over the destinies of mankind. In her
character as the legendary Semiramis of Greek literature, the Assyrian queen
was reputed to have been the daughter of Derceto, the dove and fish goddess of
Askalon, and to have departed from earth in bird form.
It is not quite certain whether Sammu-rammat was the wife of
Shamshi-Adad VII [we now take this as V] or of his son, Adad-nirari IV [III].
Before the former monarch reduced Babylonia to the status of an Assyrian
province, he had signed a treaty of peace with its king, and it is suggested
that it was confirmed by a matrimonial alliance. This treaty was repudiated by
King Bau-akh-iddina, who was transported with his palace treasures to Assyria.
As Sammu-rammat was evidently a royal princess of Babylonia, it seems
probable that her marriage was arranged with purpose to legitimatize the
succession of the Assyrian overlords to the Babylonian throne. The principle of
"mother right" was ever popular in those countries where the worship
of the Great Mother was perpetuated if not in official at any rate in domestic
religion. Not a few Egyptian Pharaohs reigned as husbands or as sons of royal
ladies. Succession by the female line was also observed among the Hittites.
When Hattusil II gave his daughter in marriage to Putakhi, king of the
Amorites, he inserted a clause in the treaty of alliance "to the effect
that the sovereignty over the Amorite should belong to the son and descendants
of his daughter for evermore".[464]
As queen or queen-mother, Sammu-rammat occupied as prominent a position
in Assyria as did Queen Tiy of Egypt during the lifetime of her husband,
Amenhotep III, and the early part of the reign of her son, Amenhotep IV
(Akhenaton). The Tell-el-Amarna letters testify to Tiy's influence in the
Egyptian "Foreign Office", and we know that at home she was joint
ruler with her husband and took part with him in public ceremonials. During
their reign a temple was erected to the mother goddess Mut, and beside it was
formed a great lake on which sailed the "barque of Aton" in connection
with mysterious religious ceremonials. After Akhenaton's religious revolt was
inaugurated, the worship of Mut was discontinued and Tiy went into retirement.
In Akhenaton's time the vulture symbol of the goddess Mut did not appear above
the sculptured figures of royalty.
What connection the god Aton had with Mut during the period of the Tiy
regime remains obscure. There is no evidence that Aton was first exalted as the
son of the Great Mother goddess, although this is not improbable.
Queen Sammu-rammat of Assyria, like Tiy of Egypt, is associated with
social and religious innovations. She was the first, and, indeed, the only
Assyrian royal lady, to be referred to on equal terms with her royal husband in
official inscriptions. In a dedication to the god Nebo, that deity is reputed
to be the protector of "the life of Adad-nirari, king of the land of
Ashur, his lord, and the life of Sammu-rammat, she of the palace, his
lady".[465]
During the reign of Adad-nirari IV the Assyrian Court radiated
Babylonian culture and traditions. The king not only recorded his descent from
the first Shalmaneser, but also claimed to be a descendant of Bel-kap-kapu, an
earlier, but, to us, unknown, Babylonian monarch than "Sulili", i.e.
Sumu-la-ilu, the great-great-grandfather of Hammurabi. Bel-kap-kapu was reputed
to have been an overlord of Assyria.
Apparently Adad-nirari desired to be regarded as the legitimate heir to
the thrones of Assyria and Babylonia. His claim upon the latter country must
have had a substantial basis. It is not too much to assume that he was a son of
a princess of its ancient royal family. Sammurammat may therefore have been his
mother. She could have been called his "wife" in the mythological
sense, the king having become "husband of his mother". If such was
the case, the royal pair probably posed as the high priest and high priestess
of the ancient goddess cult--the incarnations of the Great Mother and the son who
displaced his sire.
The worship of the Great Mother was the popular religion of the
indigenous peoples of western Asia, including parts of Asia Minor, Egypt, and
southern and western Europe. It appears to have been closely associated with
agricultural rites practised among representative communities of the
Mediterranean race. In Babylonia and Assyria the peoples of the goddess cult
fused with the peoples of the god cult, but the prominence maintained by
Ishtar, who absorbed many of the old mother deities, testifies to the
persistence of immemorial habits of thought and antique religious ceremonials
among the descendants of the earliest settlers in the Tigro-Euphrates valley.
….
It must be recognized, in this connection, that an official religion was
not always a full reflection of popular beliefs. In all the great civilizations
of antiquity it was invariably a compromise between the beliefs of the military
aristocracy and the masses of mingled peoples over whom they held sway. Temple
worship had therefore a political aspect; it was intended, among other things,
to strengthen the position of the ruling classes. But ancient deities could
still be worshipped, and were worshipped, in homes and fields, in groves and on
mountain tops, as the case might be. Jeremiah has testified to the persistence
of the folk practices in connection with the worship of the mother goddess
among the inhabitants of Palestine. Sacrificial fires were lit and cakes were
baked and offered to the "Queen of Heaven" in the streets of Jerusalem
and other cities. In Babylonia and Egypt domestic religious practices were
never completely supplanted by temple ceremonies in which rulers took a
prominent part. It was always possible, therefore, for usurpers to make popular
appeal by reviving ancient and persistent forms of worship. As we have seen,
Jehu of Israel, after stamping out Phoenician Baal worship, secured a strong
following by giving official recognition to the cult of the golden calf.
MacKenzie now
proceeds to draw his hopeful religious parallel between EA and Sammuramat
alongside Adad-nirari III:
It is not possible to set forth in detail, or with intimate knowledge,
the various innovations which Sammu-rammat introduced, or with which she was
credited, during the reigns of Adad-nirari IV (810-782 B.C.) and his father. No
discovery has been made of documents like the Tell-el-Amarna
"letters", which would shed light on the social and political life of
this interesting period.
…. The prominence given to Nebo, the god of Borsippa, during the reign
of Adad-nirari IV is highly significant. He appears in his later character as a
god of culture and wisdom, the patron of scribes and artists, and the wise
counsellor of the deities. He symbolized the intellectual life of the southern
kingdom, which was more closely associated with religious ethics than that of
war-loving Assyria.
A great temple was erected to Nebo at Kalkhi, and four statues of him
were placed within it, two of which are now in the British Museum. On one of
these was cut the inscription, from which we have quoted, lauding the exalted
and wise deity and invoking him to protect Adad-nirari and the lady of the
palace, Sammu-rammat, and closing with the exhortation, "Whoso cometh in
after time, let him trust in Nebo and trust in no other god".
In light of my revisions, however, I would be
more likely to conclude now with the view expressed in the following piece, conventionally
dated, that this apparent unexpected reversion of Assyria to a religious form
of monotheism was due to the effects of “Jonah’s mission to Nineveh” (http://bibarchae.tripod.com/001_Attendant_god_Nabu_Nimrud.htm):
Attendant
god, 810 - 800 BC, Temple of Nabu, Nimrud (Kalhu) [see above]
This is one of a pair of statues that stood outside the doorway of the temple of Nabu, god of writing. The cuneiform inscription on it (translation available here) mentions King Adad-Nirari III (810-783 BC), and his powerful mother, queen Sammuramat (Semiramis). The end of the inscription says, "Trust in Nabu, do not trust in any other god". Clasping the hands together over or just below the chest, with the right hand over the left, whilst in a standing position, is very common posture in mesopotamian statues, and I think it is a votive gesture done by worshippers. It is still done today, as part of the Muslim prayer ritual.
This is one of a pair of statues that stood outside the doorway of the temple of Nabu, god of writing. The cuneiform inscription on it (translation available here) mentions King Adad-Nirari III (810-783 BC), and his powerful mother, queen Sammuramat (Semiramis). The end of the inscription says, "Trust in Nabu, do not trust in any other god". Clasping the hands together over or just below the chest, with the right hand over the left, whilst in a standing position, is very common posture in mesopotamian statues, and I think it is a votive gesture done by worshippers. It is still done today, as part of the Muslim prayer ritual.
This
is the first photo I took. The statue is the first thing you see on the right
of room 6, the start of the Ancient Near East section on the ground floor of the west wing of the museum. Below
is an excerpt from the SDA Bible Commentary that is related to it. It says that
the statue is of Nabu, set up by a governor dedicated to the king, but the
museum sign said it was of an attendant god and dates it older than in the
article below:
“A strange religious revolution took place in the time of Adad-nirari
III, which can be compared with that of the Egyptian Pharaoh Ikhnaton. For an
unknown reason Nabu (Nebo), the god of Borsippa, seems to have been proclaimed
sole god, or at least the principal god, of the empire. A Nabu temple was
erected in 787 B.C. at Calah, and on a Nabu statue one of the governors
dedicated to the king appear the significant words, "Trust in Nabu, do not
trust in any other god" The favorite place accorded Nabu in the religious
life of Assyria is revealed by the fact that no other god appears so often in
personal names. This monotheistic revolution had as short a life as the Aton
revolution in Egypt. The worshipers of the Assyrian national deities quickly
recovered from their impotence, reoccupied their privileged places, and
suppressed Nabu. This is the reason that so little is known concerning the
events during the time of the monotheistic revolution. Biblical chronology
places Jonah's ministry in the time of Jeroboam II, of Israel, who reigned from
793 to 753 b.c. Hence, Jonah's mission to Nineveh may have occurred in the
reign of Adad-nirari III, and may have had something to do with his decision to
abandon the old gods and serve only one deity. This explanation can, however,
be given only as a possibility, because source material for that period is so
scanty and fragmentary that a complete reconstruction of the political and
religious history of Assyria during the time under consideration is not yet
possible”.
[End of quote]
With Adad-nirari III greatly filled out as Esarhaddon, however,
as according to my revisions, then the “scanty and fragmentary” “source
material for that period” correspondingly gets filled out. The Assyrian
inscription reading “… trust in Nebo and trust in no other god” is
purely Yahwistic and Isaianic (26:4): “Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD,
the LORD himself, is the Rock eternal”. Nor is it surprising to find there an
echo of the contemporaneous Isaiah, given that (https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bcc/jonah-3.html)
Jeremiah
and Isaiah both were doubtless influenced by Jonah, especially Isaiah who, in full
harmony with the inevitable deductions that appear mandatory in the Book of
Jonah, prophesied again and again the rejection of Israel and the acceptance of
the Gentiles into the kingdom of God.
