Wednesday, September 25, 2024

Esarhaddon a tolerable fit for King Nebuchednezzar

by Damien F. Mackey “As we know from the correspondence left by the roya1 physicians and exorcists … his days were governed by spells of fever and dizziness, violent fits of vomiting, diarrhoea and painful earaches. Depressions and fear of impending death were a constant in his life. In addition, his physical appearance was affected by the marks of a permanent skin rash that covered large parts of his body and especially his face”. Karen Radner Introduction As we proceed, we shall briefly recall the biblical “Nebuchednezzar” likenesses of three mighty kings, two of whom - Ashurbanipal and Nabonidus - I have identified as alter egos of Nebuchednezzar so-called II, and one of whom, Cambyses, at least remarkably shares in these likenesses. And I can mention, in passing, Artaxerxes (so-called) III, who has been likened to Cambyses. But I now think that there is more to be said. ESARHADDON, supposed father of Ashurbanipal (= Nebuchednezzar), will be found to have suffered so profoundly from this “Nebuchednezzar Syndrome” as to force me consider (see Esarhaddon section in the latter part of this article) whether Esarhaddon needs to be merged into Ashurbanipal as I have merged Esarhaddon’s father, Sennacherib, into Sargon II. Ashurbanipal; Nabonidus; Cambyses; Artaxerxes III Keywords: Dreams; megalomania; massive building works; fiery furnace; illness-madness; revival and ‘conversion’; vindictive Egyptian campaign. Ashurbanipal Another common key-word (buzz word), or phrase, for various of these king-names would be ‘son of a nobody’, pertaining to a prince who was not expecting to be elevated to kingship. Thus I previously introduced Ashurbanipal-as-Nebuchednezzar/Nabonidus with the statement: “Nabonidus is not singular either in not expecting to become king. Ashurbanipal had felt the same”. I then continued: …. They [Ashurbanipal and Nabonidus] share many Babylonian building works and restorations, too. …. Ashurbanipal of 41-43 years of reign (figures vary) … Nebuchednezzar … the Great of an established 43 years of reign. …. The great Nebuchednezzar has left only 4 known depictions of himself, we are told. Ridiculous! …. The last 35 years of Nebuchednezzar are hardly known, they say. …. It is doubted whether Nebuchednezzar conquered Egypt as according to the Bible. … Ashurbanipal … certainly did conquer Egypt. …. Looking for a fiery furnace? Well, Ashurbanipal has one. His brother dies in it. “Saulmagina my rebellious brother, who made war with me, they threw into a burning fiery furnace, and destroyed his life” (Caiger, p. 176). …. Ashurbanipal also apparently had a lions’ den. For, according to Jonathan Grey, The Forbidden Secret (p. 102): “…. The biblical book of Daniel also records that the Hebrew captive Daniel was tossed into a den lions. (Daniel chapter 6) That such ‘lion’s [sic] den’ punishment was in keeping with the times is now proven by the discovery of that same inscription of Ashurbanipal that we just mentioned. It continues thus: The rest of the people who had rebelled they threw alive among bulls and lions, as Sennacherib … used to do. Lo, again following his footsteps, those men I threw into the midst of them. On one occasion, as the famed excavator Marcel Dieulafoy was digging amid the ruins of Babylon, he fell into a pit that appeared like an like an ancient well. After being rescued by his companions, he proceeded with the work of identification. How astonished was he to find that the pit had been used as a cage for wild animals! And upon the curb was this inscription: The Place of Execution, where men who angered the king died torn by wild animals”. I realise that the lions’ den episodes of the Book of Daniel pertain to the Dream-statue phase representing the Medo-Persian era. See my article: Was Daniel Twice in the Lions’ Den? https://www.academia.edu/24308877/Was_Daniel_Twice_in_the_Lions_Den’ but was it not Daniel’s “King Nebuchednezzar” who had threatened to ‘tear limb from limb’ his stalling wise men (Daniel 2:5)? See my article: How did Nebuchednezzar manage to tear offenders limb from limb? https://www.academia.edu/37307963/How_did_Nebuchednezzar_manage_to_tear_offenders_limb_from_limb Was Ashurbanipal a king of dreams? He was a typical superstitious and megalomaniacal Mesopotamian king. George Godspeed writes this of Ashurbanipal’s fanatical devotion to the gods: http://history-world.org/ashurbanipal.htm It is not strange, therefore, that in his finely wrought sculptures and brilliantly written inscriptions are depicted scenes of hideous brutality. Plunder, torture, anguish, and slaughter are dwelt upon with something of delight by the king, who sees in them the vengeance of the gods upon those that have broken their faith. The very religiousness of the royal butcher makes the shadows blacker. No Assyrian king was ever more devoted to the gods and dependent upon them. And Robert Moss writes in ‘Questioning dreams in ancient Mesopotamia”: http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/dreamgates/2014/07/questioning-dreams-in-ancient-mesopotamia.html#hzAzS0qrk6kGJHza.99 In Mesopotamia, as in most human cultures, dreaming was understood to be close kin to divination. The famous Assyrian dream book in the library of King Ashurbanipal — brought to Nineveh in 647 BCE [sic] from the house of an exorcist of Nippur — was filed with the omen tablets, the largest category in the royal collection. Among ordinary folk as well as in royal palaces, across most of history, dreamwork has never been separated from other ways of reading the sign language of life. …. Did he suffer an enduring illness, followed by a conversion? Well, this intriguing prayer was found in Ashurbanipal’s library: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/iraq/article/new-fragments-of-gilgames-and-other-literary-texts-from-kuyunjik/1F360E8054C85DAC9FBF8B1BD322D416/core-reader …. 9. My bed is the ground! (penitential prayer alsīka ilī) The prayer alsīka ilī is one of the few extant examples of the group of the šigû-prayers, individual laments addressed to a deity in which the penitent acknowledges his sins and asks the god for absolution. …. …. 1. Incantation šigû: I have called upon you. My god, relent! 2. Relent, my god! Accept my supplication! 3. Harken to my weary prayers! 4. Learn at once the disgrace that has befallen me! 5. Keep listening to my lament, which I have made! 6. May the night bring you the tears which I weep! 7. Since the day (you), my lord, punished me, 8. and (you), the god who created me, became furious with me, 9. (since the day) you turned my house into my prison, 10. my bed is the ground, my sleeping place is dust, 11. I am deprived of sleep, distressed by nightmares, 12. I am troubled [in my ...], confused [in my ...]. B 9. I have been enduring a punishment [that I cannot bear.] …. Was Ashurbanipal a vindictive type? According to Lori L. Rowlett (Joshua and the Rhetoric of Violence: A New Historicist Analysis, p. 112): “’Ashurbanipal’s] treatment of his enemies (internal and external) is particularly horrible and vindictive …”. Nabonidus Scholars have noticed various “Nebuchednezzar” characteristics in King Nabonidus. Not least was the fact that, Nabonidus had, like “Nebuchednezzar”, a son named “Belshazzar”. There was also a seeming tendency on Nabonidus’s part towards a kind of monotheism – revering Sîn, the El of the Aramaeans – and a seeming rejection of the national god, Marduk. Coupled with this was, not unnaturally, a discomfort with the Babylonian clergy and wise men. {This tendency to ‘mess with the sacred rites’ is a further common link amongst our name-kings of this series} Nabonidus, like king Nebuchednezzar, had conquered Cilicia. We read about this at: https://www.biblicaltraining.org/library/kue “KUE ku’ ĭ (קְוֵ֕ה). An ancient name for E Cilicia (Rom.: Cilicia Pedias), in SE Asia Minor. …. A document of Nebuchadnezzar II (dated between 595 and 570 b.c.), mentions the land of Hu-m-e, pronounced Khuwe or Khwe. It also occurs in the Istanbul Stele of Nabonidus”. One also encounters many cases of Nabonidus’s recounting his own dreams. I found so many similarities beginning to loom that I eventually came to the conclusion that Nabonidus was king Nebuchednezzar (or Nebuchedrezzar) – that what we have recorded of king Nabonidus simply represents the first phase of the long reign of Nebuchednezzar. As is apparent from Beaulieu, Nabonidus considered himself to be the successor of the great Assyrian empire – a viewpoint that would have more clout perhaps if he had ruled closer to that period (c. 605 BC) than Nabonidus is conventionally considered to have done (c. 556 BC). Then there is Nabonidus’s strange disappearance to Teima (Tayma) in Arabia for ten years. During some of this time he was ill. It is due to this situation that scholars think that the Book of Daniel has confused Nebuchednezzar with Nabonidus. Indeed a Dead Sea Scrolls fragment tells of a protracted illness suffered by Nabonidus. For more on all this, see the following article of mine, which, I think, serves adequately to cover the “Nabonidus” part of this present article: Daniel's “Nebuchednezzar” a better fit for King Nabonidus? (4) Daniel's "Nebuchednezzar" a better fit for King Nabonidus? | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu The Book of Daniel is charged with all sorts of historical inaccuracies, a fault more likely of the perceived history rather than of the Book of Daniel itself. Admittedly, some of the things that the author of Daniel attributes to “King Nebuchednezzar” appear to be better suited to Nabonidus, the supposed last king of the Babylonian (Chaldean) empire. Yet there might be a good reason why this is the case. “Let his heart be changed from man's, and let a beast's heart be given unto him; and let seven times pass over him. This matter [is] by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the Holy Ones: to the intent that the living may know that The Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will, and setteth up over it the basest of men”. Daniel 4:16-17 The early career of the Chaldean king, Nabonidus, may be replete with parallel likenesses to that as written about the “Nebuchednezzar” in Daniel chapters 1-5. Though it would be much over-stating things to claim that King Nabonidus became a monotheist, there is a definite progression in that direction in the course of his reign. According to Paul-Alain Beaulieu, "The Reign of Nabonidus, King of Babylon, 556-539 B.C." (1989), p. 63: “… there is no evidence that the king [Nabonidus] tried to impost the cult of Sîn as supreme deity in his early reign”. But, as Beaulieu will interpret it (p. 62): “Upon his return from Arabia, Nabonidus imposed a major religious reform, resulting in the rejection of Marduk, the undisputed supreme god of Babylon of the past six centuries …”. Cambyses “The Chronicle of John of Nikiu who wrote of Cambyses[’] exploits after his name change to Nebuchadnezzar. He wrote of how Cambyses under his new name Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and desolated Egypt. It becomes apparent therefore that John gave credit to Cambyses for what Nebuchadnezzar accomplished”. http://www.topix.com/forum/religion/jehovahs-witness/THIK59UKCUF68BLNL/evidence-indicating-egypts-40-year-desolation Previously I wrote, regarding likenesses I had perceived between Cambyses and my various alter egos for king Nebuchednezzar (including Ashurbanipal and Nabonidus): Common factors here may include ‘divine’ madness; confounding the priests by messing with the Babylonian rites; and the conquest of Egypt and Ethiopia. I was then totally unaware of this name claim about Cambyses by John of Nikiu. … my enlargement of the historical Nebuchednezzar, through alter egos, to embrace Ashurbanipal and Nabonidus - and now, too, perhaps, Cambyses - provides a complete ‘profile’ of the biblical king that ‘covers all bases’, so to speak. For some time, now, I have suspected that the mad but powerful, Egypt-conquering Cambyses had to be the same as the mad but powerful, Egypt-conquering Nebuchednezzar. And now I learn that the C7th AD Egyptian Coptic bishop, John of Nikiû (680-690 AD, conventional dating), had told that Cambyses was also called Nebuchednezzar. This new piece of information has emboldened me to do - what I have wanted to - and that is to say with confidence that Cambyses was Nebuchednezzar. That Nebuchednezzar also reigned in Susa is evidenced by (if I am right) my identification of him with the “king Artaxerxes” of the Book of Nehemiah, who was a “king of Babylon”. Whilst critics can argue that the “king Nebuchednezzar” of the Book of Daniel may not necessarily be a good match for the historico-biblical Nebuchednezzar, but that he seems more likely to have been based on king Nabonidus, my enlargement of the historical Nebuchednezzar, through alter egos, to embrace Ashurbanipal and Nabonidus - and now, too, Cambyses - provides a complete ‘profile’ of the biblical king that ‘covers all bases’, so to speak. “In view of all this, I have no doubt that Cambyses was completely out of his mind; it is the only possible explanation of his assault upon, and mockery of, everything which ancient law and custom have made sacred in Egypt”. Herodotus When subjecting neo-Babylonian history to a serious revision, I had reached the conclusion that Nebuchednezzar had needed to be folded with Nabonidus, and that Nebuchednezzar’s son-successor, Evil-Merodach, needed to be folded with Nabonidus’s son, Belshazzar. That accorded perfectly with the testimony of the Book of Daniel that “Nebuchednezzar” was succeeded by his son, “Belshazzar”. Cambyses Books, articles and classics have been written about the madness of King Cambyses, he conventionally considered to have been the second (II) king of that name, a Persian (c. 529-522 BC), and the son/successor of Cyrus the Great. The tradition is thought to have begun with the C5th BC Greek historian, Herodotus, according to whom (The Histories) http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/herodotus/cambyses.htm [3.29.1] When the priests led Apis in, Cambyses–for he was all but mad–drew his dagger and, meaning to stab the calf in the belly, stuck the thigh; then laughing he said to the priests: [3.29.2] “Simpletons, are these your gods, creatures of flesh and blood that can feel weapons of iron? That is a god worthy of the Egyptians. But for you, you shall suffer for making me your laughing-stock.” So saying he bade those, whose business it was, to scourge the priests well, and to kill any other Egyptian whom they found holiday-making. [3.29.3] So the Egyptian festival ended, and the priests were punished, and Apis lay in the temple and died of the wound in the thigh. When he was dead of the wound, the priests buried him without Cambyses’ knowledge. [3.30.1] But Cambyses, the Egyptians say, owing to this wrongful act immediately went mad, although even before he had not been sensible. His first evil act was to destroy his full brother Smerdis, whom he had sent away from Egypt to Persia out of jealousy, because Smerdis alone could draw the bow brought from the Ethiopian by the Fish-eaters as far as two fingerbreadths, but no other Persian could draw it. [3.30.2] Smerdis having gone to Persia, Cambyses saw in a dream a vision, in which it seemed to him that a messenger came from Persia and told him that Smerdis sitting on the royal throne touched heaven with his head. [3.30.3] Fearing therefore for himself, lest his brother might slay him and so be king, he sent Prexaspes, the most trusted of his Persians, to Persia to kill him. Prexaspes went up to Susa and killed Smerdis; some say that he took Smerdis out hunting, others that he brought him to the Red Sea (the Persian Gulf) and there drowned him. …. [End of quote] And: http://www.livius.org/sources/content/herodotus/herodotus-comment-on- Herodotus’ Comment on Cambyses’ Madness [3.38] In view of all this, I have no doubt that Cambyses was completely out of his mind; it is the only possible explanation of his assault upon, and mockery of, everything which ancient law and custom have made sacred in Egypt. [End of quote] Scholarly articles have been written in an attempt to diagnose the illness of Cambyses, sometimes referred to – as in the case of Julius Caesar’s epilepsy – as a ‘divine’ or ‘sacred’ disease. For example (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11594937): Arch Neurol. 2001 Oct; 58(10):1702-4. The sacred disease of Cambyses II. York GK1, Steinberg DA. Abstract Herodotus’ account of the mad acts of the Persian king Cambyses II contains one of the two extant pre-Hippocratic Greek references to epilepsy. This reference helps to illuminate Greek thinking about epilepsy, and disease more generally, in the time immediately preceding the publication of the Hippocratic treatise on epilepsy, On the Sacred Disease. Herodotus attributed Cambyses’ erratic behavior as ruler of Egypt to either the retribution of an aggrieved god or to the fact that he had the sacred disease. Herodotus considered the possibility that the sacred disease was a somatic illness, agreeing with later Hippocratic authors that epilepsy has a natural rather than a divine cause. …. [End of quote] The character of Cambyses as presented in various ancient traditions is thoroughly treated in Herb Storck’s excellent monograph, History and Prophecy: A Study in the Post-Exilic Period (House of Nabu, 1989). Messing with the rites As was the case with King Nabonidus (= Nebuchednezzar), so did Cambyses apparently fail properly to observe established protocol with the Babylonian rites. Regarding the rebellious behaviour of King Nabonidus with regard to the rites, I wrote previously: Confounding the Astrologers Despite his superstitious nature the “Nebuchednezzar” of the Book of Daniel – and indeed his alter egos, Nebuchednezzar/Nabonidus – did not hesitate at times to dictate terms to his wise men or astrologers (2:5-6): The king replied to the astrologers, “This is what I have firmly decided: If you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces and your houses turned into piles of rubble. But if you tell me the dream and explain it, you will receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. So tell me the dream and interpret it for me.” And so, in the Verse Account, we read too of Nabonidus’ interference in matters ritualistic in the presence of sycophantic officials: Yet he continues to mix up the rites, he confuses the hepatoscopic oracles. To the most important ritual observances, he orders an end; as to the sacred representations in Esagila -representations which Eamumma himself had fashioned- he looks at the representations and utters blasphemies. When he saw the usar-symbol of Esagila, he makes an [insulting?] gesture. He assembled the priestly scholars, he expounded to them as follows: ‘Is not this the sign of ownership indicating for whom the temple was built? If it belongs really to Bêl, it would have been marked with the spade. Therefore the Moon himself has marked already his own temple with the usar-symbol!’ And Zeriya, the šatammu who used to crouch as his secretary in front of him, and Rimut, the bookkeeper who used to have his court position near to him, do confirm the royal dictum, stand by his words, they even bare their heads to pronounce under oath: ‘Now only we understand this situation, after the king has explained about it!’ [End of quote] Paul-Alain Beaulieu, in his book, The Reign of Nabonidus, King of Babylon, 556-539 B.C. (1989), gives another similar instance pertaining to an eclipse (Col. III 2), likening it also to the action of “Nebuchednezzar” in the Book of Daniel (pp. 128-129): The scribes brought baskets from Babylon (containing) the tablets of the series enūma Anu Enlil to check (it, but since) he did not hearken to (what it said), he did not understand what it meant. The passage is difficult, but its general implications are clear. Whether Nabonidus had already made up his mind as to the meaning of the eclipse and therefore refused to check the astrological series, or did check them but disagreed with the scribes on their interpretation, it seems that the consecration of En-nigaldi-Nanna [daughter of Nabonidus] was felt to be uncalled for. This alleged stubbornness of the king is perhaps reflected in the Book of Daniel, in the passage where Nebuchednezzar (i.e. Nabonidus), after having dismissed the plea of the “Chaldeans”, states that the matter is settled for him (Daniel II, 3-5) …. But this does not imply that Nabonidus was necessarily wrong in his interpretation of the eclipse; on the contrary, all the evidence suggests that he was right. However, he may have “forced” things slightly …. [End of quote] According to Encyclopaedia Iranica on Cambyses II: http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/cambyses-opers A badly damaged passage in the chronicle of Nabonidus contains a report that, in order to legitimize his appointment, Cambyses partici¬pated in the ritual prescribed for the king at the traditional New Year festival on 27 March 538 B.C., accepting the royal scepter from the hands of Marduk in Esagila, the god’s temple in Babylon (III. 24-28; Gray¬son, p. 111). A. L. Oppenheim attempted a reconstruc¬tion of the damaged text (Survey of Persian Art XV, p. 3501); according to his version, Cambyses entered the temple in ordinary Elamite attire, fully armed. The priests persuaded him to lay down his arms, but he refused to change his clothes for those prescribed in the ritual. He then received the royal scepter. In Oppenheim’s view Cambyses thus deliberately demon¬strated “a deep-seated religious conviction” hostile to this alien religion (Camb. Hist. Iran II, p. 557). [End of quote] King Cambyses’ wanton treatment of Egypt-Ethiopia “A Jewish document from 407 BC known as ‘The Demotic Chronicle’ speaks of Cambyses destroying all the temples of the Egyptian gods”. Of Nebuchednezzar’s conquest of Egypt, well-attested in the Bible, it is extremely difficult to find substantial account in the historical records. Not so with the conquest of Egypt and Ethiopia by Cambyses. Nebuchednezzar was, very early in his reign, militarily involved against Egypt – with greater or lesser success: http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Nebuchadnezzar.aspx Early in 605 B.C. he met Necho, the king of Egypt, in battle and defeated him at Carchemish. A few months later Nabopolassar died, and Nebuchadnezzar hastened home to claim his throne. He soon returned to the west in order to secure the loyalty of Syria and Palestine and to collect tribute; among those who submitted were the rulers of Damascus, Tyre, Sidon, and Judah. Nebuchadnezzar’s Conquests In 601 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar attempted the invasion of Egypt but was repulsed with heavy losses. Judah rebelled, but Jerusalem fell in March 597 B.C., and the ruler, Jehoiakim, and his court were deported to Babylon. Eight years later another Jewish rebellion broke out; this time Jerusalem was razed and the population carried into captivity. [End of quote] This article then follows with an intriguing piece of information: “Expeditions against the Arabs in 582 B.C. and another attempt at invading Egypt in 568 B.C. receive brief mention in Nebuchadnezzar’s later records”. But sceptics say that Nebuchednezzar never actually succeeded in conquering Egypt, hence the Bible is wrong, and that it was Cambyses instead who conquered Egypt. For instance: http://www.sanityquestpublishing.com/essays/BabEgypt.html BABYLON NEVER CONQUERED EGYPT The Bible never says Nebuchadnezzar the Second (hereafter Neb-2) conquered Egypt. The idea Neb-2 conquered Egypt would never have been considered a serious historical possibility, but for 4 facts: 1. Jeremiah & Ezekiel both predicted that Neb-2 would conquer Egypt. 2. Jeremiah & Ezekiel are both considered true prophets. 3. According to Deut. 18:22, true prophets are never wrong about a prediction. 4. Jesus said (Mat 5:18) “One jot or one tittle shall in no way pass from the law until all be fulfilled.” b. Paul said (2Tim 3:16) “All scripture is given by inspiration of God,” Both of these verses are erroneously interpreted by many Christians as meaning the entire Bible contains no errors. If you disagree with the preceding statement, the rest of this essay will be irrelevant to you, because you will be judging all historical evidence by its conformity to the Bible. This makes you literally not worth talking to outside of the company of others who do the same. Such Christians to try to muddy historical evidence that contradicts the Bible. e.g. One proposed that there were two Nebuchadnezzars, the second being Cambyses: http://www.biblestudyguide.org/comment/calvin/comm_vol24/htm/xiii.ii.htm (Actually there were two Nebs, but the first ruled Babylon c.1124-1104BC.) This essay is based on the assumption that the historical parts of the Bible should be judged for accuracy by the same rules as any other ancient historical document. …. Unlike any supposed conquest by NEB-2, the conquest of Egypt by CAMBYSES-2 is well attested. [End of quote] Cambyses in Egypt The above article is correct at least in its final statement quoted here: “… the conquest of Egypt by CAMBYSES-2 is well attested”. The article goes on to tell of the various ancient evidences for this great conquest: EGYPTIAN EVIDENCE We possess the autobiography of the admiral of the Egyptian fleet, Wedjahor-Resne. It is written on a small statue now in the Vatican Museums in Rome. After the conquest of Egypt, Wedjahor-Resne was Cambyses’ right-hand man. “The great king of all foreign countries Cambyses came to Egypt, taking the foreigners of every foreign country with him. When he had taken possession of the entire country, they settled themselves down therein, and he was made great sovereign of Egypt and great king of all foreign countries. His Majesty appointed me his chief physician and caused me to stay with him in my quality of companion and director of the palace, and ordered me to compose his titulary, his name as king of Upper and Lower Egypt.” In an inscription on the statue of Udjadhorresnet, a Saite priest and doctor, as well as a former naval officer, we learn that Cambyses II was prepared to work with and promote native Egyptians to assist in government, and that he showed at least some respect for Egyptian religion: “I let His Majesty know the greatness of Sais, that it is the seat of Neith-the-Great, mother who bore Re and inaugurated birth when birth had not yet been…I made a petition to the majesty of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Cambyses, about all the foreigners who dwelled in the temple of Neith, in order to have them expelled from it., so as to let the temple of Neith be in all its splendor, as it had been before. His Majesty commanded to expel all the foreigners who dwelled in the temple of Neith, to demolish all their houses and all their unclean things that were in the temple. When they had carried all their personal belongings outside the wall of the temple, His Majesty commanded to cleanse the temple of Neith and to return all its personnel to it…and the hour-priests of the temple. His Majesty commanded to give divine offerings to Neith-the-Great, the mother of god, and to the great gods of Sais, as it had been before. His Majesty knew the greatness of Sais, that it is a city of all the gods, who dwell there on their seats forever.” HERODOTUS Herodotus (who, to my knowledge, never mentions Nebuchadnezzar by name) describes his Hanging Gardens, but never mentions him in relation to Egypt, though Herodotus does talk about pharaohs Necho, Hophra, Ahmose, and Psamtik. [Necos, Apries, Amasis, and Psammis] and of course, Cambyses. Herodotus notes how the Persians easily entered Egypt across the desert. They were advised by the defecting mercenary general, Phanes of Halicarnassus, to employ the Bedouins as guides. However, Phanes had left his two sons in Egypt. We are told that for his treachery, as the armies of the Persians and the mercenary army of the Egyptians met, his sons were bought out in front of the Egyptian army where they could be seen by their father, and there throats were slit over a large bowl. Afterwards, Herodotus tells us that water and wine were added to the contents of the bowl and drunk by every man in the Egyptian force. “When Cambyses had entered the palace of Amasis, he gave command to take the corpse of Amasis out of his burial-place. When this had been done, he ordered [his courtiers] to scourge it and pluck out the hair and stab it, and to dishonor it in every other possible way. When they had done this too, they were wearied out, for the corpse was embalmed and held out against the violence and did not fall to pieces. Cambyses gave command to consume it with fire, a thing that was not permitted by his own religion. The Persians hold fire to be a god and to consume corpses with fire is by no means according to the Persian or Egyptian custom.” [Histories 3.16] MANETHO lists the pharaohs of the 26th dynasty, then cites the Persians as the 27th dynasty. “Cambyses reigned over his own kingdom, Persia, five years, and then over Egypt one year.” PERSIAN EVIDENCE According to king, Darius I’s BEHISTUN INSCRIPTION, Cambyses, before going to Egypt, had secretly killed his brother, Bardiya, whom Herodotus called Smerdis. The murdered prince was, however, impersonated by Gaumata the Magian, who in March 522 seized the Achaemenid throne. Cambyses, on his return from Egypt, heard of the revolt in Syria, where he died in the summer of 522, either by his own hand or as the result of an accident. (10) King Darius says: The following is what was done by me after I became king. A son of Cyrus, named Cambyses, one of our dynasty, was king here before me. That Cambyses had a brother, Smerdis by name, of the same mother and the same father as Cambyses. Afterwards, Cambyses slew this Smerdis. When Cambyses slew Smerdis, it was not known unto the people that Smerdis was slain. Thereupon Cambyses went to Egypt. When Cambyses had departed into Egypt, the people became hostile, and the lie multiplied in the land, even in Persia and Media, and in the other provinces. OTHER EVIDENCE A Jewish document from 407 BC known as ‘The Demotic Chronicle’ speaks of Cambyses destroying all the temples of the Egyptian gods. Greek geographer STRABO of Amasia visited Thebes in 24 BC and saw the ruins of several temples said (by local priests) to have been destroyed by Cambyses. [End of quote] Cambyses – in your dreams “Cambyses has a “Nebuchednezzar” like dream-vision of a king whose head touched heaven”. Our neo-Babylonian king, Nabonidus, was, true to form (as an alter ego for Daniel’s “Nebuchednezzar”), a frequent recipient of dreams and visions. For example, I wrote previously: Nabonidus was, like “Nebuchednezzar”, an excessively pious man, and highly superstitious. The secret knowledge of which he boasted was what he had acquired through his dreams. Another characteristic that Nabonidus shared with “Nebuchednezzar”. Nabonidus announced (loc. cit.): “The god Ilteri has made me see (dreams), he has made everything kno[wn to me]. I surpass in all (kinds of) wisdom (even the series) uskar-Anum-Enlilla, which Adap[a] composed”. …. [End of quote] In Beaulieu’s book … we read further of King Nabonidus: “I did not stop going to the diviner and the dream interpreter”. And of King Nebuchednezzar – with whom I am equating Nabonidus – the prophet Ezekiel writes similarly of that king’s omen seeking (21:21): “The king of Babylon now stands at the fork, uncertain whether to attack Jerusalem or Rabbah. He calls his magicians to look for omens. They cast lots by shaking arrows from the quiver. They inspect the livers of animal sacrifices”. [End of quote] Ashurbanipal, likewise - he being yet another alter ego - gave immense credence to dreams and used a dream book. Ashurbanipal was, like Nabonidus, more superstitious, if I may say it, than Nostradamus being pursued by a large black cat under a ladder - on the thirteenth. Karen Radner tells of Ashurbanipal’s reliance upon dreams, in Of God(s), Trees, Kings, and scholars (p. 224): https://www.ucl.ac.uk/sargon/downloads/radner_fs_parpola_2009.pdf In the Biblical attestations, especially in the stories of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and Joseph in Egypt, the ḫarṭummîm … [wizards] figure prominently as experts in the interpretation of dreams, and it may be this kind of expertise which the ḫarṭibē offered to the Assyrian king; dream oracles were certainly popular with Assurbanipal who used dreams … to legitimise his actions in his royal inscriptions … and whose library contained the dream omen series Zaqīqu (also Ziqīqu). …. [End of quote] Now, what of Cambyses in this regard? Well, according to Herodotus (http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/herodotus/cambyses.htm) [3.30.1] But Cambyses, the Egyptians say, owing to this wrongful act immediately went mad, although even before he had not been sensible. His first evil act was to destroy his full brother Smerdis, whom he had sent away from Egypt to Persia out of jealousy, because Smerdis alone could draw the bow brought from the Ethiopian by the Fish-eaters as far as two fingerbreadths, but no other Persian could draw it. [3.30.2] Smerdis having gone to Persia, Cambyses saw in a dream a vision, in which it seemed to him that a messenger came from Persia and told him that Smerdis sitting on the royal throne touched heaven with his head. [3.30.3] Fearing therefore for himself, lest his brother might slay him and so be king, he sent Prexaspes, the most trusted of his Persians, to Persia to kill him. Prexaspes went up to Susa and killed Smerdis; some say that he took Smerdis out hunting, others that he brought him to the Red Sea (the Persian Gulf) and there drowned him. [End of quote] This is actually, as we shall now find, quite Danielic. Cambyses has a “Nebuchednezzar” like dream-vision of a king whose head touched heaven. Likewise, “Nebuchednezzar” had a dream of a “tree … which grew large and strong, with its top touching the sky” (Daniel 4:20). Now, given that this “tree” symbolised “Nebuchednezzar” himself, who was also according to an earlier dream a “head of gold (Daniel 2:38), then one might say that, as in the case of Cambyses dream-vision of a king whose head touched heaven, so did “Nebuchednezzar” touch the sky (heaven) with his head (of gold). Artaxerxes III Not only do scholars liken Artaxerxes (so-called) III in many ways to Cambyses (see e.g. N. Grimal in A History of Ancient Egypt, Blackwell), but Artaxerxes III, though “considered to be a mighty Persian king, is heavily based upon the Neo-Babylonian Great king, Nebuchednezzar”. Esarhaddon a builder of Babylon become strangely ill “At that time it had become increasingly clear that Esarhaddon's physical condition was poorly: He was constantly struck with illness, mostly of a rather severe nature. For days, he withdrew to his sleeping quarters and refused food, drink and, most disturbingly, any human company …”. Karen Radner A summary so far According to the findings in this article (and other related works of mine), Nebuchednezzar ‘the Great’, the “Nebuchednezzar” of the Book of Daniel, had, as his alter egos, Ashurbanipal and Nabonidus (whose son was, like the biblical Nebuchednezzar, Belshazzar). A further alter ego of his may have been the mad, Egypt-conquering Cambyses. And Artaxerxes III - likely a composite character - appears to have been heavily based upon Nebuchednezzar, who bears the title “Artaxerxes” in the Book of Nehemiah. Recently I have found cause to include Esarhaddon in this “Nebuchednezzar Syndrome” mix. Here are the reasons why. Esarhaddon Esarhaddon, as a builder of Babylon, who, as we are going to find, suffered a protracted, debilitating and most mysterious type of illness, looms, from such a point of view, as a perfect alter ego for Nebuchednezzar. He, a potent Mesopotamian king, was, of course, a conqueror of Egypt. Added to this, it may be that the Ahikar (var. Achior) who thrived in the court of Esarhaddon, was present, as the high official Arioch, in the court of the “Nebuchednezzar” of Daniel. See my article: Did Daniel meet Ahikar? (4) Did Daniel meet Ahikar? | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu Yet there is more. Common to my “Nebuchednezzar Syndrome” candidates is a tendency to contrariness, or individualism, in the face of established religious or sapiential protocol. I have already written about this as follows: Messing with the rites …. Regarding the rebellious behaviour of King Nabonidus with regard to the rites, I wrote …: Confounding the Astrologers Despite his superstitious nature the “Nebuchednezzar” of the Book of Daniel – and indeed his alter egos, Nebuchednezzar/Nabonidus – did not hesitate at times to dictate terms to his wise men or astrologers (2:5-6): The king replied to the astrologers, “This is what I have firmly decided: If you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces and your houses turned into piles of rubble. But if you tell me the dream and explain it, you will receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. So tell me the dream and interpret it for me.” And so, in the Verse Account, we read too of Nabonidus’ interference in matters ritualistic in the presence of sycophantic officials: Yet he continues to mix up the rites, he confuses the hepatoscopic oracles. To the most important ritual observances, he orders an end; as to the sacred representations in Esagila - representations which Eamumma himself had fashioned - he looks at the representations and utters blasphemies. When he saw the usar-symbol of Esagila, he makes an [insulting?] gesture. He assembled the priestly scholars, he expounded to them as follows: ‘Is not this the sign of ownership indicating for whom the temple was built? If it belongs really to Bêl, it would have been marked with the spade. Therefore the Moon himself has marked already his own temple with the usar-symbol!’ And Zeriya, the šatammu who used to crouch as his secretary in front of him, and Rimut, the bookkeeper who used to have his court position near to him, do confirm the royal dictum, stand by his words, they even bare their heads to pronounce under oath: ‘Now only we understand this situation, after the king has explained about it!’ …. Paul-Alain Beaulieu, in his book, The Reign of Nabonidus, King of Babylon, 556-539 B.C. (1989), gives another similar instance pertaining to an eclipse (Col. III 2), likening it also to the action of “Nebuchednezzar” in the Book of Daniel (pp. 128-129): The scribes brought baskets from Babylon (containing) the tablets of the series enūma Anu Enlil to check (it, but since) he did not hearken to (what it said), he did not understand what it meant. The passage is difficult, but its general implications are clear. Whether Nabonidus had already made up his mind as to the meaning of the eclipse and therefore refused to check the astrological series, or did check them but disagreed with the scribes on their interpretation, it seems that the consecration of En-nigaldi-Nanna [daughter of Nabonidus] was felt to be uncalled for. This alleged stubbornness of the king is perhaps reflected in the Book of Daniel, in the passage where Nebuchednezzar (i.e. Nabonidus), after having dismissed the plea of the “Chaldeans”, states that the matter is settled for him (Daniel II, 3-5) …. But this does not imply that Nabonidus was necessarily wrong in his interpretation of the eclipse; on the contrary, all the evidence suggests that he was right. However, he may have “forced” things slightly …. Again, in the case of Cambyses, we encounter this unconventional situation: A badly damaged passage in the chronicle of Nabonidus contains a report that, in order to legitimize his appointment, Cambyses partici¬pated in the ritual prescribed for the king at the traditional New Year festival on 27 March 538 B.C., accepting the royal scepter from the hands of Marduk in Esagila, the god’s temple in Babylon (III. 24-28; Gray¬son, p. 111). A. L. Oppenheim attempted a reconstruc¬tion of the damaged text (Survey of Persian Art XV, p. 3501); according to his version, Cambyses entered the temple in ordinary Elamite attire, fully armed. The priests persuaded him to lay down his arms, but he refused to change his clothes for those prescribed in the ritual. He then received the royal scepter. In Oppenheim’s view Cambyses thus deliberately demon¬strated “a deep-seated religious conviction” hostile to this alien religion (Camb. Hist. Iran II, p. 557). Now, Esarhaddon is found to have behaved in just the same fashion as had “Nebuchednezzar”, as had Nabonidus, as had Cambyses. He, in order to justify and facilitate his re-building of the city, Babylon, “turned upside down” the decreed number of 70 years, attributing his subterfuge to the intervention of Marduk: “Seventy years as the measure of its desolation he wrote (in the Book of Fate). But the merciful [Marduk] —his anger lasted but a moment— turned (the Book of Fate) upside down and ordered its restoration in the eleventh year”. Though the reign of Esarhaddon (c. 681 - 669 BC, conventional dating), like that of Nabonidus, is thought to have been relatively short, at least by comparison with that of Nebuchednezzar, I have suggested that what we have of Nabonidus constitutes only the early reign of Nebuchednezzar. The same may apply to Esarhaddon. “… in a society that saw illness as a divine punishment, a king who was constantly confined to the sick bay could not expect to meet with sympathy and understanding”. Here, though, I - with Nebuchednezzar well in mind - want only to focus upon the illness aspect of Esarhaddon, as it has been wonderfully laid bare by Karen Radner, in “The Trials of Esarhaddon: The Conspiracy of 670 BC”. (The BC dates are her dates not mine): https://repositorio.uam.es/bitstream/handle/10486/3476/24522_10.pdf?sequence=1 Esarhaddon became king of Assyria in the year 681. Despite the fact that his father and predecessor Sennacherib (704-680) had made him crown prince two years earlier and had had the whole country take an oath on behalf of his chosen heir, this happened against all odds: Esarhaddon had not been Sennacherib's first choice and in order to have him installed as crown prince, the old king first needed to dismiss another of his sons from the office …. Mackey’s comment: Thus Esarhaddon had not expected to become king as we found to be the case with Ashurbanipal, with Nabonidus. Karen Radner continues: This son, Urdu-Mullissi by name, had been crown prince and heir apparent to the Assyrian empire for well over a dozen years when he suddenly had to resign from the prominent position; the reasons for his forced resignation are unknown, but were obviously not grave enough to have him pay with his life. Despite the fact that Urdu-Mullissi had to swear loyalty to his younger brother, he opposed his elevation to the office of crown prince, conspired against Esarhaddon and tried to cause Sennacherib to take back the appointment; the king did not comply, but the situation was clearly very precarious, and the new heir was sent into exile for his own protection. Sennacherib does not seem to have realised just how dangerous his decision to back Esarhaddon's promotion was for his own life; otherwise it is a mystery how the former crown prince Urdu-Mullissi could be allowed to stay in his father's closest proximity where, right under his nose, he plotted to become king. Sennacherib seems to have been caught completely off-guard when Urdu-Mullissi and another son of his attacked him with drawn swords in a temple of Nineveh: On the 20th day of the tenth month of 681 … Sennacherib was killed by the hands of his own sons whose deed caused a stir all over the Near East, best witnessed by the report found in the Old Testarnent …. Yet the kingship that Urdu-Mullissi craved for was not to be his. The aftermath of the murder saw fiction between him and his conspirators; his accession to the throne was delayed and ultimately never took place at all. Assyria was in chaos when Esarhaddon, leading a small army, entered the country from his western exile and marched towards the heartland of the empire. He managed to drive out the murderers of Sennacherib … and, two months after the assassination, he became king of Assyria …. These bloody events shaped the new king profoundly. It comes as no great surprise that after his accession to the throne Esarhaddon ordered all conspirators and political enemies within reach to be killed; yet he could not touch the leader of the conspiracy as Urdu-Mullissi had found asylum in Urartu …. That Assyria's northern neighbour would harbour the murderer of Sennacherib is not at all unexpected: The two countries had been in an almost constant state of war for the past two centuries. At that time, chances were that Urdu-Mullissi still might become king and in that event, the Urartian king could reasonably expect to gain substantial influence over Assyria. In the meantime, Esarhaddon made an effort to ensure that his brother would not have any powerful allies at home, should he ever try to stage a coup d'etat from his exile: Many officials throughout the country who were suspected of entertaining sympathy for the enemy fraction were replaced. To give but one example, the complete security staff at the royal palaces of Nineveh and Kabu was dismissed … it is of course understood that these men were not sent into retirement: They will have been executed. Henceforth, Esarhaddon met his environs as a rule with overwhelming distrust. Routinely, he sought to establish by means of oracular queries whether certain courtiers, officials and even members of the royal family wished him ill or actively tried to harm him …. Mackey’s comment: Hence that complete distrust of “Chaldean” sages in the Book of Daniel? Karen Radner continues: If he seems to have been wary of his male relatives, he appears to have entertained less suspicions about the women of his family. This is certainly one of reason why Esarhaddon's mother Naqi'a, his wife Ešarra-ḫammat and his eldest daughter Šerua-eṭirat were able to wield an amount of influence that has few parallels in Ancient Near Eastern history …. The power of his wife was much noticed even outside palace circles; it is quite extraordinary that her death in the year 673 is mentioned prominently in two contemporary chronicle texts". The devoted widower had a mausoleum erected and special rites for his wife's funerary care installed …. Even more remarkable, he did not get married again … Mackey’s comment: But is that statement true only under his guise of Esarhaddon? Karen Radner continues: … the vacant position of the Assyrian queen was hitherto occupied by his mother Naqi'a … who had already played an important role in Esarhaddon's appointment as crown prince and in his eventual taking of power: This is most obvious from a prophecy which records the encouraging words of Ištar of Arbela to Naqi'a during the time of Esarhaddon's exile …. That also the daughter Šerua-eṭirat occupied a prominent position at her father's court is known from some letters that speaks of her self-confidence …. Her far-reaching influence is apparent from the fact that in later years she acted as a mediator in the conflict between her brothers, the kings of Assyria and Babylon …; this is without parallel for any Near Eastern woman of that time. Esarhaddon's general distrust against his environment is also mirrored by his choice of residence. He had a palace in the city of Kalbu … adapted which his forefather Shalmaneser III (858-824) had constructed as an armoury some two centuries earlier. This building was situated far from the administrative and cultic centre of the city, on top of a seperate [sic] mound that protected it well from its surroundings. In the years between 676 and 672, Esarhaddon had the old building renovated and enhanced, turning it into a veritable stronghold: The gateways especially were turned into strongly fortified and impregnable towers that, if needed, could be used to seal off the palace against the rest of the city. The only access to the building was through a narrow entrance, leading into a long and steep hallway inside the enclosing wall which was protected by a sequence of severa1 heavy doors and which steeply ascended towards the palace. Esarhaddon had a similar palace erected in Nineveh, also far removed from the acropolis proper at Kuyunjik on the separate mound of Nebi Yunus …; however, as this is today the site of one of Mossul's most important mosques, the building is only insufficiently explored …. In the first years of his rule, Esarhaddon proved himself a successful regent who, after a chaotic start, was able to consolidate his kingship and efficiently prevented segregation and territorial losses. Treacherous vassals, who had thought Assyria weakened and had tried to benefit from this, had to come to the painful realisation that Esarhaddon fully controlled his governors and his army and was able to take revenge for treason in the same way as his predecessors had done: As a consequence, the vassal kingdoms of Sidon and of Šubria were conquered and turned into Assyrian provinces …. The completion of a peace treaty with Elam, Assyria's long-standing rival in Iran, in the year 674 must be seen as a skilful political manoeuvre, and the securing of the Eastern border provided Assyria for the first time ever with the chance to attempt and exploit the power vacuum in Egypt to its own advantages - Assyria's first invasion into Egypt, however, ended with a defeat against Taharqa the Nubian, and a hasty retreat …. At that time it had become increasingly clear that Esarhaddon's physical condition was poorly: He was constantly struck with illness, mostly of a rather severe nature. For days, he withdrew to his sleeping quarters and refused food, drink and, most disturbingly, any human company … Mackey’s comment: (Daniel 4:24-25): ‘It is a decree of the Most High, which has come upon my lord the king, that you shall be driven from among men …’. Karen Radner continues: … the death of his beloved wife in the year 673 may well have further damaged his already fragile health. For the all powerful king of Assyria, this situation was bizarre. Esarhaddon's counsellors witnessed his deterioration first with apprehension and then with increasing objection, but were of course not in a position to actually change the state of affairs. It is a testament to Assyria's sound administrative structure that the country could take the king's continuing inability to act his part. Modern day man may well be able to muster considerable sympathy for Esarhaddon whose symptoms were indeed rather alarming: As we know from the correspondence left by the roya1 physicians and exorcists … his days were governed by spells of fever and dizziness, violent fits of vomiting, diarrhoea and painful earaches. Depressions and fear of impending death were a constant in his life. In addition, his physical appearance was affected by the marks of a permanent skin rash that covered large parts of his body and especially his face. In one letter, the king's personal physician - certainly a medical professional at the very top of his league - was forced to confess his ultimate inability to help the king: ,,My lord, the king, keeps telling me: 'Why do you not identify the nature of my disease and find a cure?' As 1 told the king already in person, his symptoms cannot be classified." While Esarhaddon's experts pronounced themselves incapable of identifying the king's illness, modern day specialists have tried to use the reported symptoms in order to come up with a diagnosis in retrospect?'. However, it is not entirely clear whether the sickly Esarhaddon contracted one illness after the other or, as would seem more likely, suffered from the afflictions of a chronic disease that never left for good. Be that as it may, in a society that saw illness as a divine punishment, a king who was constantly confined to the sick bay could not expect to meet with sympathy and understanding. He could, however, reasonably presume that his subjects saw his affliction at the very least as an indication that the gods lacked goodwill towards their ruler, if not as the fruit of divine wrath, incurred by committing some heinous crime. Therefore, the king's condition needed to be hidden from the public by all means, and that this was at all feasible was very much facilitated by the ancient tradition that whoever came before the king had to be veiled and on their knee. Because of his failing health, Esarhaddon saw himself permanently in death's clutches; this alone made it necessary to provide for his succession: Who would be king after him? There were a great many possible candidates: Esarhaddon himself had fathered at least 18 children but, some of them suffered, like their father, from a frail condition and needed permanent medical attention". It would appear that sickly sons were, just like all the daughters, deemed unfit from the start: After all, only a man without fault could be king of Assyria. …. Another writer has picked up this possible connection “Both Nebuchadnezzar and Esarhaddon were repelled in their first attempt to conquer Egypt, and in the same location”. Charles Pope Charles Pope, would-be revisionist, who can propose some of the wildest biblico-historical correlations (which he manages to do frequently), such as this one regarding Abraham (2002): http://www.domainofman.com/cgi-bin/bbs62x/webbbs_config.pl?md=read;id=653 …. A similar scenario played out in the early New Kingdom when three princes named Djehuty competed for dominance. The eldest Djehuty was Abraham. The younger half-brother of Abraham was also a Djehuty, but is better known to us by the Greek form of Thutmose (I). A son of Abraham’s brother Nahor became pharaoh Thutmose II. These were the three "fathers" of yet another Thutmose, Thutmose III (Isaac). Djehuty was the legal father of Thutmose III. Thutmose II was the adoptive father of Thutmose III. Thutmose I was the biological father of Thutmose III. …. can sometimes come up with a bit of a bell-ringer. For instance, I have, in various recent articles, referred to Pope’s Chart 37: “Comparison of Hezekiah and Josiah Narratives”: http://www.domainofman.com/book/chart-37.html Now, in the same 2002 article in which Pope had ridiculously tried to turn the patriarch Abraham into an Eighteenth Egyptian Dynasty prince, Djehuty, Pope also ‘explores the possibility’ that Esarhaddon can be Nebuchednezzar: …. I spent all day yesterday exploring the possibility that Nebuchadnezzar is one and the same as Esar-Haddon. For some time now, it has been bugging me that the Babylonian conquest of Nebuchadnezzar is described in the Biblical narrative, but the Assyrian conquest of Esarhaddon is not. When you look at each of these conquests, they appear to be identical. Both Nebuchadnezzar and Esarhaddon were repelled in their first attempt to conquer Egypt, and in the same location. In each case, they succeeded three years later in conquering Egypt when they bypassed the Delta. In each case, there was a third assault five years after the second one. This has me quite intrigued at the moment. If it turns out to be correct, then Nebuchadnezzar was the Babylonian name of Esarhaddon. It is known that Esarhaddon became king in Babylon before succeeding Sennacherib in Assyria. Esarhaddon sacked Thebes in his 9th year. Nebuchadnezzar did the same in his 18th year. I will continue to pursue this correspondence until it is conclusive either one way or the other. Although it seems to complicate matters, in reality it will probably end up simplifying things considerably. This is like playing a game of Tetris. You just keep moving blocks around until you get rid of all the dead space! ‘The Marduk Prophecy’ “The original work was almost certainly written during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar I (1125-1104 BCE) as a propaganda piece. Nebuchadnezzar I defeated the Elamites and brought the statue back to Babylon, and the work was most likely commissioned to celebrate his victory”. Joshua J. Mark ‘The Marduk Prophecy’, although conventionally dated to the neo-Assyrian era (c. 700 BC), is thought to pertain originally to the so-called ‘Middle’ Babylonian period centuries earlier. That is what we read, for instance, at: https://www.ancient.eu/article/990/the-marduk-prophecy/ by Joshua J. Mark published on 14 December 2016 The Marduk Prophecy is an Assyrian document dating to between 713-612 BCE found in a building known as The House of the Exorcist adjacent to a temple in the city of Ashur. It relates the travels of the statue of the Babylonian god Marduk from his home city to the lands of the Hittites, Assyrians, and Elamites and prophesies its return at the hands of a strong Babylonian king. The original work was almost certainly written during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar I (1125-1104 BCE) as a propaganda piece. Nebuchadnezzar I defeated the Elamites and brought the statue back to Babylon, and the work was most likely commissioned to celebrate his victory. The author would have constructed the narrative to place the events in the past in order to allow for a 'prophetic vision' in which the present king would come to restore peace and order to the city by bringing home the statue of the god. This form of narrative was commonplace in the genre now known as Mesopotamian Naru Literature where historical events or individuals were treated with poetic license in order to make a point. In a work such as The Curse of Akkad, for example, the historical king Naram-Sin (2261-2224 BCE), known for his piety, is presented as impious in an effort to illustrate the proper relationship between a monarch and the gods. The point made would be that if a king as great as Naram-Sin of Akkad could fail in piety and be punished, how much more would a person of lesser stature fare. In The Marduk Prophecy, the events are placed far in the past in order for the writer to be able to 'predict' the moment when a Babylonian king would return Marduk to his rightful home. This piece, then, also deals with the responsibility a monarch has to his god. …. [End of quote] According to Takuma Sugie, this document, supposed to have been written during the reign of the Babylonian king Nebuchednezzar so-called I, who conquered Elam, was “re-interpreted” to apply prophetically to Ashurbanipal of Nineveh, who conquered Elam: https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/orient/49/0/49_107/_pdf The Reception of the Marduk Prophecy in Seventh-Century B.C. Nineveh The Marduk Prophecy is a literary composition in the guise of prophetic speech by Marduk. It is supposed to be written to praise Nebuchadnezzar I’s triumph over Elam during his reign. However, all the three surviving exemplars of this text are from the seventh-century B.C. Assyria: two from Nineveh and another from Assur. This article discusses how the Marduk Prophecy was read and re-interpreted in Nineveh at that time. Between the Marduk Prophecy and the royal literature during the reign of Ashurbanipal, the following common themes can be recognized: (1) reconstruction of the Babylonian temples, above all Esagil; (2) conquest of Elam; and (3) fulfillment of divine prophecies. On the basis of these, the author proposes that in the seventh-century Nineveh the Marduk Prophecy was regarded as an authentic prophecy predicting the achievements of Ashurbanipal, and that this is the main reason why this text was read at his court. …. [End of quote] The simple answer, I think, as to why a document written in praise of a Babylonian king was later considered to apply to an Assyrian ruler reigning about four centuries after the Babylonian king, is that Nebuchednezzar I and Ashurbanipal were one and the same king. See e.g. my article: The 1100 BC Nebuchednezzar (7) The 1100 BC Nebuchednezzar | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu The necessary ‘folding’ of conventional C12th BC Assyro-Babylonian history into the C8th-C7th’s BC serves to bring great kings into their proper alignment. Nebuchednezzar so-called I’s conquest of Elam now sits in place, where it should, as Ashurbanipal’s famous devastation of Elam in 639 BC (conventional dating), when “the Assyrians sacked the Elamite city of Susa, and Ashurbanipal boasted that “the whole world” was his”: https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Ashurbanipal#Nineveh.2C_Babylon_and_Ela Striking parallels with Esarhaddon “[Matthijs J. de] Jong lists the motifs shared by the Marduk Prophecy and Esarhaddon’s inscriptions …”. Takuma Sugie Nor is there any surprise in learning that ‘The Marduk Prophecy’ bears striking parallels with Esarhaddon’s inscriptions for the same reason (Esarhaddon is Ashurbanipal). And, according to this present series, Esarhaddon (Ashurbanipal) is Nebuchednezzar. Takuma Sugie continues on, writing of the similarities that de Jong has picked up between the ‘Prophecy’ and the inscriptions of Esarhaddon: III. Were Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal Interested in the Marduk Prophecy? Recently, Matthijs J. de Jong inferred that two [sic] Assyrian great monarchs in the seventh century, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal, had a particular interest in the Marduk Prophecy. …. He draws parallels between the Marduk Prophecy and the inscriptions of Esarhaddon. To take the most striking similarity, the Marduk Prophecy iii 25'-30' foretells that an ideal king “will make the great king of Dēr (šarra rabâ ša urudēr) stand up from a place not his dwelling … and bring him into Dēr and eternal Ekurdimgalkalama (ana urudēr u é-kur-UD(dimx?)-gal-kalam-ma ša dā[r]âti ušerrebšu).”14 This closely resembles a phrase recurring in Esarhaddon’s inscriptions, which represents this king as the one who “brought the god Great-Anu (i.e., Ištarān) into his city Dēr and his temple Edimgalkalama and had (him) sit upon eternal dais (danum rabû ana ālišu dērki u bītišu é-dim-gal-kalam-ma ušēribuma ušēšibu parakka dārâti).”15 In addition to this, de Jong lists the motifs shared by the Marduk Prophecy and Esarhaddon’s inscriptions: (1) ascension of the Babylonian gods to heaven;16 (2) fulfillment of the days of absence;17 (3) renovation of the Esagil temple in Babylon;18 (4) Babylon’s tax exemption;19 (5) gathering of the dispersed Babylonian people;20 and so on. Furthermore, de Jong points out a community of themes shared between the Marduk Prophecy and Ashurbanipal’s inscriptions too; Ashurbanipal continued and completed his father’s [sic] project to send back Marduk’s statue and restore Esagil. Ashurbanipal also conducted several military campaigns against Elam. In the light of these parallels, de Jong supposes that Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal were profoundly interested in the Marduk Prophecy, and he proposes the possibility that the Marduk Prophecy was elaborated during the reign of one of these kings. …. The Siege of the City of Tyre “But as Steinmann points out ... the method of attack (vv. 8-9) is not that employed by Alexander but is similar to that of attackers previous to Nebuchednezzar (e.g., Esarhaddon in 673)”. Arnold J. Tkacik Fr. Arnold J. Tkacik (OSB) has written what I would consider to be a most helpful and enlightening commentary on the extremely complex biblical Book of Ezekiel in his article, “Ezekiel”, for The Jerome Biblical Commentary (1968). I refer more especially to the exegetical (or religious-spiritual) aspect of his commentary than to the historical side of it. Though, even in this latter regard - or at least as regards the chronology of the book - Fr. Tkacik has arrived at what I think are some telling conclusions. However, if this present article is correct, according to which Nebuchednezzar ‘the Great’ is to be enlarged and greatly filled out with the potent king, Esarhaddon, then any conventional commentary for this particular period of biblico-history must needs be somewhat one-dimensional rather than being able to present a full picture of the times. Regarding the siege of the Levantine Tyre in the Book of Ezekiel, or what Fr. Tkacik heads, THE TIDAL WAVE AGAINST TYRE (26:1-21), the author will suggest that “the method of attack” in this case is more along the lines of Esarhaddon’s modus operandi against Tyre than, as according to some, that of Alexander the Great. Thus he writes (21:60): Some authors (e.g. Holscher and Torrey) maintain that the poem describes the capture of Tyre by Alexander in 332, because it speaks of a complete destruction of the city (vv. 3-6, 14). But as Steinmann points out ... the method of attack (vv. 8-9) is not that employed by Alexander but is similar to that of attackers previous to Nebuchednezzar (e.g., Esarhaddon in 673). [End of quote] The “method of attack” is described in Ezekiel 26:8-9 like this: He will ravage your settlements on the mainland with the sword; he will set up siege works against you, build a ramp up to your walls and raise his shields against you. He will direct the blows of his battering rams against your walls and demolish your towers with his weapons. Instead of his writing “similar to that of attackers previous to Nebuchednezzar (e.g., Esarhaddon ...)”, though, Fr. Tkacik could well have written “similar to that of attackers Nebuchednezzar, Esarhaddon”. For, unlike Alexander, the neo-Assyrian/Babylonian besiegers failed to complete their work even after years of effort. Compare the following two items (Esarhaddon, Nebuchednezzar): https://www.internationalstandardbible.com/E/esarhaddon.html The capture of Tyre was also attempted, but, the city being differently situated, a siege from the land was insufficient to bring about submission, as it was impossible to cut off the commerce by sea. The siege, after several years, seems to have been lifted. Although on a great monolith Esarhaddon depicts Ba`al, the king of Tyre, kneeling before him with a ring through his lips, there is nothing in the inscriptions to bear this out. http://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=13&article=1790 Several aspects of this prophecy deserve attention and close scrutiny. The prophet predicted: (1) many nations would come against Tyre; (2) the inhabitants of the villages and fields of Tyre would be slain; (3) Nebuchadnezzar would build a siege mound against the city; (4) the city would be broken down and the stones, timber, and soil would be thrown in “the midst of the water;” (5) the city would become a “place for spreading nets;” and (6) the city would never be rebuilt. In chronological order, the siege of Nebuchadnezzar took place within a few months of Ezekiel’s prophecy. Josephus, quoting “the records of the Phoenicians,” says that Nebuchadnezzar “besieged Tyre for thirteen years in the days of Ithobal, their king” (Against Apion, 1.21). The length of the siege was due, in part, to the unusual arrangement of the mainland city and the island city. While the mainland city would have been susceptible to ordinary siege tactics, the island city would have been easily defended against orthodox siege methods (Fleming, p. 45). The historical record suggests that Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the mainland city, but the siege of the island “probably ended with the nominal submission of the city” in which Tyre surrendered “without receiving the hostile army within her walls” (p. 45). The city of Tyre was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar, who did major damage to the mainland as Ezekiel predicted, but the island city remained primarily unaffected. It is at this point in the discussion that certain skeptics view Ezekiel’s prophecy as a failed prediction. Farrell Till stated: “Nebuchadnezzar did capture the mainland suburb of Tyre, but he never succeeded in taking the island part, which was the seat of Tyrian grandeur. That being so, it could hardly be said that Nebuchadnezzar wreaked the total havoc on Tyre that Ezekiel vituperatively predicted in the passages cited” (n.d.). Till and others suggest that the prophecies about Tyre’s utter destruction refer to the work of Nebuchadnezzar. After a closer look at the text, however, such an interpretation is misguided. Ezekiel began his prophecy by stating that “many nations” would come against Tyre (26:3). Then he proceeded to name Nebuchadnezzar, and stated that “he” would build a siege mound, “he” would slay with the sword, and “he” would do numerous other things (26:7-11). However, in 26:12, the pronoun shifts from the singular “he” to the plural “they.” It is in verse 12 and following that Ezekiel predicts that “they” will lay the stones and building material of Tyre in the “midst of the waters.” The shift in pronouns is of vast significance, since it shifts the subject of the action from Nebuchadnezzar (he) back to the many nations (they). Till and others fail to see this shift and mistakenly apply the utter destruction of Tyre to the efforts of Nebuchadnezzar. Furthermore, Ezekiel was well aware of Nebuchadnezzar’s failure to destroy the city. Sixteen years after his initial prediction, in the 27th year of Johoiachin’s captivity (circa 570 B.C.), he wrote: “Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to labor strenuously against Tyre; every head was made bald, and every shoulder rubbed raw; yet neither he nor his army received wages from Tyre, for the labor which they expended on it” (29:18). Therefore, in regard to the prophecy of Tyre as it relates to Nebuchadnezzar’s activity, at least two of the elements were fulfilled (i.e., the siege mound and the slaying of the inhabitants in the field). Neither account above allows for the total destruction of Tyre that Alexander the Great would later manage to achieve. Previously, I also included the mighty Ashurbanipal amongst my alter egos for Nebuchednezzar. Thus I wrote: The simple answer, I think, as to why a document written in praise of a Babylonian king was later considered to apply to an Assyrian ruler reigning about four centuries after the Babylonian king, is that Nebuchednezzar I and Ashurbanipal were one and the same king. …. The necessary ‘folding’ of conventional C12th BC Assyro-Babylonian history into the C8th-C7th’s BC serves to bring great kings into their proper alignment. Nebuchednezzar I’s conquest of Elam now sits in place, where it should, as Ashurbanipal’s famous devastation of Elam in 639 BC (conventional dating), when “the Assyrians sacked the Elamite city of Susa, and Ashurbanipal boasted that “the whole world” was his”. …. So what of Ashurbanipal and Tyre? If I am correct, then he should have experienced the same outcome there as had his alter egos, Esarhaddon, Nebuchednezzar. Well, it seems that my view is solidly supported by the following statement according to which “scholars attribute ... to Esarhaddon” what Ashurbanipal himself would claim regarding Tyre: Esarhaddon refers to an earlier period when gods, angered by insolent mortals, create a destructive flood. According to inscriptions recorded during his reign, Esarhaddon besieges Tyre, cutting off food and water. Assurbanipal's inscriptions also refer to a siege against Tyre, although scholars attribute it to Esarhaddon. And so they should if I am correct: Ashurbanipal was Esarhaddon – was Nebuchednezzar! https://www.livius.org/sources/content/anet/295-assurbanipal-cylinder-c/ Esarhaddon's son [sic] Aššurbanipal (r.669-631?) inherited this situation. In his third year, he tried to capture Tyre, occupied the mainland, but - like his predecessors - failed to capture the island city itself. Note the absence of tribute: it seems that a marital alliance was concluded. ... In my third campaign I marched against Ba'al, king of Tyre .... Esarhaddon, Ashurbanipal, Nebuchednezzar, tried to take Tyre but failed to take it completely even after a long siege. The king of Tyre at the time was Ba’al, or Ithobal (Ithoba’al). More recently, I have added yet another king to the list of alter egos for Esarhaddon/ Ashurbanipal/Nebuchednezzar: Ashur-bel-kala as Ashurbanipal (4) Ashur-bel-kala as Ashurbanipal | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu

Thursday, August 22, 2024

Job’s Life and Times

by Damien F. Mackey This is a revised version (March 2012) of an article of this title published in Mentalities/Mentalités (Outrigger) Vol. 13, no. 1-2 October 1998. Introduction The impression that one gets from reading various old and new commentaries on the Book of Job is that - after all this time - there has not yet been established what one might consider to be a firm identity, or era, for the main character, JOB. He still comes across as being profoundly mysterious, like Melchizedek; someone who just appears “out of nowhere”, without a known beginning. In this article I shall be attempting to lift some of this thick veil of mystery enshrouding Job, by identifying his ancestry and his place of abode, and by locating him in a specific historical era. That of course presupposes on my part a recognition that Job was a genuine historical person, and not a myth. It is a premise that I confidently accept. Job, according to the view that will be developed in the following pages, is to be identified as none other than TOBIAS, the son of Tobit, an Israelite of the tribe of Naphtali, dated to the Assyrian captivity of the C8th BC. Many commentators have expressed their opinion that the BOOK OF JOB is one of the finest literary works of the Old Testament. It is the story of a righteous man of great wealth, whom God allows to be sorely tempted by Satan through a series of increasingly painful ordeals. In a series of trials, Job suffers the loss of his property and his possessions, including his many servants; then later of his seven sons and his three daughters (Job 1:13-19). After this, he is afflicted in his own person, being struck with “a very grievous ulcer, from the sole of his foot to the top of his head” (2:7). Most painful of all is the excruciating agony of soul that Job, who had lived for so long in God’s friendship, must now endure upon finding himself being treated as if he were God’s enemy. Instead of pity and comfort in the midst of such terrible affliction, Job receives nothing but mockery and contempt from his family and his fellow-citizens. For though once renowned and highly respected throughout the land, he has now become - due to the pitiful state to which he has been reduced - the common “laughing-stock” (30:1). He to whom all had been wont to turn for help in their hour of need, must now pass his days as an outcast, seated on a dunghill, attended by no one. He is loathsome to his relatives and friends. Even his wife finds it hard to be civil to him. Three of Job's friends, ELIPHAZ, BILDAD and ZOPHAR, having come by agreement from their respective dwelling-places (of Tema, Suhi and Naamath), ostensibly to comfort Job (2:11), merely succeed in exacerbating his torment by their total misjudgment of the situation. Their initial compassion upon seeing Job soon turns to accusation. Only a guilty man, they reason, could be thus afflicted by God. Job also has to suffer the further indignity of being lectured to by the somewhat pompous and inexperienced, though well-meaning young man named ELIHU (from Buz) (32:6-37:24). To each discourse Job replies patiently by asserting his innocence. At the end of the poem God himself intervenes and replies to Job, before the brief epilogue telling how the hero of this suffering was rewarded for his patience and loyalty (38-41 and 42). Whilst there are available many useful commentaries to expound for us all the intricacies of the Book of Job, their usefulness does not carry over - as I have indicated above - to any satisfactory elucidation of the book’s historical locus. That this important aspect of the Book of Job still remains rather poorly understood can be gauged from the following statement about the book’s authorship, by F. Knight (Nile and Jordan, James Clarke and Co., Ltd., London, 1921, p. 379): The authorship, date, and place of composition of the Book of Job constitute some of the most keenly contested and most uncertain problems in Biblical Criticism. There is perhaps no book in the Canon of Scripture to which more diverse dates have been assigned. Every period of Jewish history, from BC 1400 to BC 150, has had its advocates as that to which this mysterious and magnificent poem must be relegated, and this criticism ranges over 1200 years of uncertainty. The problem of the historicity of the life of Job appears to be an age-old consideration; for we find that at least as far back as the thirteenth century AD (conventional reckoning) the question was being hotly debated in the Schools. St. Thomas Aquinas (In “Expositio super Job ad litteram”) was one who had insisted that Job, and those who engaged in debate with him, were genuine historical persons. In this he was opposing himself to the likes of Moses Maimonides (In “Guide of the Perplexed”, III. 22), who had expressed a contrary view. Aquinas had written in the Prologue to his Expositio: “Now there have been some men to whom it seemed that the Job in question was not something in the nature of things but that he was a kind of parable made up to serve as a theme for a debate over providence, the way men often invent hypothetical cases to debate over them”. Against such a view Aquinas however opposed the clear references to Job in the Old and New testaments, namely: Ezekiel 14:14,20, in which God states that Jerusalem had at that time (just prior to the Babylonian Captivity) become so corrupt that even if such holy men as Noah, Daniel and Job had been living in it - though these three would have escaped with their lives - they would not have been able to have saved any others in the city from imminent destruction. James 5:11, in which the Apostle praises Job’s steadfastness. Aquinas had, in the course of his commentary, pointed to certain details of an historical nature in the text of Job itself that he believed to confirm this view; for example that very first verse of the Book of Job: “There was a man in the land of Uz by the name of Job ...” (1:1), in which Job is described with respect to his native land, and with respect to his name. These two items of information, he believed, had been provided to show that this story is not a parable but a real occurrence. (Expositio, Ch. 1). We encounter the same situation again later on in the Book of Job, where the young Elihu is introduced into the story as “Elihu, the son of Barachiel the Buzite, of the line of Ram” (32:2). From this information we learn about the young man’s name, his origin, his native land, and his race. Elihu is in fact the only character in the Book of Job who is accorded a patronymic; for nowhere in this book are we supplied with the name of Job’s father, nor of the father(s) of his three friends. Aquinas, though his purposes were purely interpretative, had nevertheless listed the historical problems of the book as: “The time Job lived”, “his parentage” and “the authorship” of the book. As it happens, these are the very kinds of problems that concern us here. But does it really matter, anyway, who Job was and when and where he lived? Well, apart from any another good reason, I believe that a recognition of the historical era of Job can be of great assistance to the reader when trying to come to terms with so abstruse a text as the main dialogue section of the Book of Job. For surely, in this regard, it must be of no small benefit to have at one’s disposal some concrete facts about the main character: who he was; from whence he came; where he lived, ... etc. Such knowledge about Job would certainly go a long way towards dispersing the air of mystery that surrounds him. What I hope to demonstrate in this article is that the details about Tobias’ life are nothing other than those pertaining largely to the first part of Job’s extraordinary life; whilst those events described in the Book of Job generally (and especially his last great trial) constitute his later years. Whereas the Book of Tobit provides us with immense personal detail about the lives of its central characters, the Book of Job by comparison is significantly lacking in any such detail. In the latter case, the author does not give us even the tiniest clue as to the identity of Job’s father, or his mother, nor who might have been their ancestors; neither are we told where Job was born, nor to which race he belonged. Similarly, we learn nothing about the family origins of Job’s wife. It is most probably due to the fact that the Book of Job provides us with no specific Israelite ancestry for its main character - plus the fact that Job himself is described as living in the “east”, in the “land of Uz” (cf. 1:1 and 3) - that commentators invariably conclude that Job must have been non-Israelite, that is, a gentile. Thus St. Augustine of Hippo said of Job that: “He was neither a native of Israel nor a proselyte (that is, a newly admitted member of the people of Israel) ...,” but an Edomite foreigner. (City of God, Bk. XVIII, Ch. 47). What I am suggesting, however, is that the Book of Tobit has already provided us with all such personal detail as is lacking from the Book of Job. According to my view, we would already know from the opening verses of Tobit all that we needed to know about Job’s paternal ancestry, his tribe, his country and his town of origin. In those verses we read about Tobias’ father, that he was: … Tobit, the son of Tobiel, son of Ananiel, son of Aduel, son of Gabael, of the descendants of Asiel and the tribe of Naphtali ... from Thisbe, which is to the south of Kedesh Naphtali in Galilee above Asor (Tobit 1:1-2). That is already comprehensive biographical information! Moreover, from the Book of Tobit, we would know that Tobias’ mother was “Anna”, the wife of Tobit (1:9). We would know such similar details too about a wife of Job’s (whether or not she were the same “wife” as referred to in Job 1:9-10); that she was named “Sarah” and was “... the daughter of Raguel” (3:7) and “Edna” (7:2), who lived “at Ecbatana in Media” (3:7), and that she married Tobias (7:13). Hence, there is no need for the Book of Job to repeat all of this biographical information. Since however, from the point of view of the reader of Job, the lack of this biographical data can leave the main character seeming mysterious and enigmatical, one would do well to read about Job with the Book of Tobit in mind. I like to work according to the principle that whenever a patronymic or genealogy is lacking in the case of a significant biblical character, we ought to expect (given the importance that the Israelite/Jewish people attributed to genealogies) that this ‘lack’ is due to the fact that the details have already been supplied elsewhere in the Scriptures. Linking Tobias and Job What initially got me thinking that Job might have been the same person as Tobias were: (a) the respective descriptions - even itemizations - of their wealth and possessions; coupled with their fame and reputation for righteousness, and (b) the fact that they both had seven sons. Let its consider these points in turn. The fortunes of the once-impoverished Tobias had taken a quantum leap upwards by the conclusion of his successful visit to Ecbatana. We read: “... Raguel ... gave Tobias half his wealth, menservants and maid-servants, oxen and sheep, donkeys and camels, clothes, and money and household things” (10:10. Jerusalem Bible version). Moreover, the angel Raphael had retrieved for Tobias, from nearby “Rages”, the ten talents of silver that his father had “left there in trust with Gabael”, one of his kinsmen (v.14), some 20 years before (cf. 4:20 and 9:5). Interest on this sum (equivalent to many thousands of dollars) must have greatly accumulated during that period of time. Materially speaking, Tobias would eventually benefit further from family inheritances; from his father’s estate in Nineveh, and afterwards, from that of his parents-in-law, in Ecbatana: “[Tobias] inherited their property and that of his father Tobit” (14:13). Thus the wealth that Tobias had accumulated by the time that he had settled down away from Assyria would compare most favourably with the following description that we encounter in the opening verses of the Book of Job: “There was a man ... whose name was Job .... He had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she-asses, and very many servants ...” (1:1, 3). Note that the very same types of livestock are listed in both accounts: “oxen”, “sheep”, “donkeys” (she-asses) and “camels”, plus the abundance of human “servants”. We might add another domestic animal here as well: the sheepdog. The dog in the Book of Tobit is sometimes singled out by commentators as being an irrelevancy. What is the point, they exclaim, of even mentioning it! I personally am glad for the dog’s inclusion. Apart from it adding a realistic, eyewitness flavour to a story that is already saturated with such detail (as is often noted by biblical commentators), it provides a further possible link with Job. For, whereas virtually every reference in the Old Testament to a “dog” or “dogs” is derogatory or unflattering - and never homely - it seems that the rare exceptions are to be found in the books of Tobit and Job. Thus: Tobit: “And Tobias went forward; and the dog followed him ...” (cf. 6:1 and 11:4). …. “Then the dog, which had been with [Tobias and the angel] along the way, ran ahead of them; and coming as if he had brought the news showed his joy by his fawning and wagging his tail” (Tobit 11:9). Job: “But now they make sport of me, men who are younger than I, whose fathers I would have distained to set with the dogs of my flock” (30:1). (RSV version). Another version has: “... no sheep-dog of mine ever tended”. In Job 29 we are given a further elaboration on the holy man’s prosperity. Job, now in the midst of his affliction, reflects back to those halçyon “days of old” when, as he says, “God watched over me, when His lamp shone over my head and by His light I walked in darkness” (29:2). In those days, he says, “I washed my feet with butter and the rock poured out streams of oil for me” (v.6). (The Jerusalem version has: “When my feet were plunged in cream and streams of oil poured from the rocks”). Using figurative language here, Job attempts to convey an impression of the incredible overflow of dairy products yielded by his livestock and the superabundance - of oil that he had obtained from his olive trees (which have the best oil usually in rocky and sandy places). According to the Heb. Londinii (or HL) version of Tobit, a large party went with the bridal pair (Tobias and Sarah) a day’s journey homewards; and “... everyone gave a ring of gold … and a piece of silver” (11:1). The only other place in Scripture of which I am aware, where the same thing happened, is in the Book of Job; and it is virtually word for word with Tobit: “... each of them gave [Job] a piece of money and a ring of gold” (42:11). The Book of Tobit does not offer any details regarding Tobias’s own fame and status in society, except to say that he “grew old with honour” (14:13). (His reputation as a righteous man of God is not open to question). But we can perhaps infer a lot more about Tobias’s status from his father Tobit’s own claim to have been held in such “favour and good appearance in the sight of Shalmaneser” (the Assyrian king who had taken the northern Israelites into captivity), that the king had made him “his buyer of provisions” (1:13), which involved his travelling to Media (v.14). “But when Shalmaneser died, Sennacherib his son reigned in his place [*]; and under him the highways were unsafe, so that I could no longer go into Media” (v. 15). [*] This supports my controversial view that Sennacherib and Sargon II (conventionally thought to have succeeded Shalmaneser) were actually one and the same king. The Book of Tobit never mentions Sargon. Restricted travel opportunities during Sennacherib’s reign were only a minor problem for Tobit, however, compared to the persecution that he had to endure. Sennacherib had returned in fury from the debacle in Judaea (1:18) - presumably when his main army had been annihilated in Israel (2 Kings 18:13-19:36). As the Jerusalem Bible version of Tobit puts it: “... when he retreated from Judaea in disorder, after the King of heaven had punished his blasphemies, in his anger Sennacherib killed a great number of Israelites” (v. 18). The RSV specifies that Sennacherib “put to death any who came fleeing from Judaea”. I am not certain if there is any other corroboration of this last statement. Whatever about that, Tobit, in his great charity, secretly buried these compatriots; the consequence for him being that: When the bodies were sought by the king, they were not to be found. Then one of the men of Nineveh went and informed the king about me, that I was burying them; so I hid myself. When I learned that I was being searched for, to be put to death, I left home in fear. Then all my property was confiscated and nothing was left to me, except my wife Anna and my son Tobias (vv. 18-20). Fortunately for the family this frightening situation did not last for very long according to the Book of Tobit. “Less than forty days after this, the king was murdered by his two sons, who then fled to the mountains of Ararat” (v. 21, Jerusalem version). This verse continues on to tell that “[Sennacherib’s] son Esarhaddon reigned after him”. The Greek version of Tobit 1:21 does not give “Esarhaddon”, but “Sacherdonos”; a name completely unknown in Assyrian history. Anyway, this succession was a happy turning point in the life of Tobit, because his nephew, Ahikar was in great favour with the new king. Tobit continues: Esarhaddon ... appointed Ahikar ... over all the accounts of his kingdom and over the entire administration. Ahikar interceded for me, and I returned to Nineveh. Now Ahikar was cupbearer, keeper of the signet, and in charge of administration of the accounts, for Esarhaddon had appointed him second to himself. He was my nephew (vv. 21-22). This “Ahikar” (or “Achior” as he is called in the Vulgate version of Tobit), whom Tobit proudly calls his “nephew”, was also, so I have argued in previous articles: (a) the “Achior” of the Book of Judith, who converted to Yahweh - but only after the defeat of the Assyrian army through the agency of Judith; and; (b) the Cupbearer (that is, “Rabshakeh”) of the ill-fated Assyrian army. Indeed, Tobit states quite clearly that Ahikar had been “... chief Cup-bearer ... under Sennacherib ...” (v. 22, Jerusalem Bible). (c) apparently the Aba-Enlil-Dari of the Assyrian records. To what degree Tobias himself was actually honoured in the kingdom of Assyria, due to his having so famous and influential a cousin as Ahikar, needs yet to be determined. That he was certainly honoured afterwards, in “the land of Uz”, is apparent from the fact that he was known as “... the greatest of all the people of the East” (1:1, 3). In Job 29 we are provided with more specific detail, telling of just how mighty the holy man had formerly been: ... when I proceeded to the city gate and in the street they put a chair for me. The youths saw me and hid themselves, and the old men, rising in my presence, stood. The chief men stopped speaking and laid their hand on their mouth. The generals checked their voices and their tongues stuck to their throat (vv. 7-10). Since in those days judgments were handed down at the city gates, Job apparently had the authority of judging. The fact that “a chair” was provided for him, shows that he was not a petty judge, but a man of singular dignity. Furthermore he had authority, not only over recalcitrant youths, but even over old men, who “stood” in his presence. Even the chiefs did not dare to interrupt Job when he was speaking. And the generals, who are usually bolder and more prompt to speak, “checked their voices”, by speaking humbly and plainly, and sometimes they were so dumbfounded that they dared not speak at all. At this time Job describes himself as “sitting like a king with the army standing round about ...” (v.25). Moreover we are told in Job 19:9 that the great man had worn “a crown”. So a search needs to be made to identify him as a great official. But Job, despite his awesome authority, “was nevertheless the consoler of the mourners” (v. 25); that is, a magnanimous man who looked down on no one. Indeed, he was “an eye to the blind man and a foot to the lame man” (v.15), and “the father of the poor” (v.16). Because of his graciousness, the people loved, rather than feared, Job (v. 11), and they awaited him when he was absent, missing him “like rainfall” (v. 23). Listening to his words of wisdom, all “kept silent”, he says, for “they dared to add nothing to my words” (knowing him to be far wiser than they) (v. 22). Well, therefore, does Job shape up as being a most fitting son of the Tobit who had himself “performed many acts of charity” to his brethren, giving of his bread to the hungry and his clothing to the naked, and burying the dead (1:16-17), and being greatly loved in return by his brethren for his charitable works towards them (7:7-8). The other easily grasped comparison between Tobias and Job is that of having seven sons. Compare the following: Tobit: “[Tobit] called to him his son Tobias and his children, seven young men, [Tobit’s] grand¬sons” (Tobit 14:5). Job: “... a man whose name was Job .... There were born to him seven sons ...” (Job 1:1, 2). One can search the Scriptures practically in vain, I think, to find any other example of a famous man of whom we are told that he had precisely seven sons. It appears that Tobias was already a grandfather by the time of his father’s death, because old Tobit - we are informed - lived to see “the children of his grand-children” (14:1). When finally Tobias fled Nineveh, he took with him “his wife, and children, and children's children, and returned to his father and mother-in-law” (14:14). Perhaps a clue to how many of his generations Tobias had lived to see is to be found in the “prophetical” blessing of his cousin Gabael, who, having come from Rages to the wedding of Tobias and Sarah, had exclaimed: “... may you see your children, and your children’s children, unto the third and fourth generation” (9:11). (Might not this blessing have been tactfully omitted from the Book of Tobit had its hopes never been realised?). In the context of our reconstruction, Gabael’s blessing had the desired effect, for subsequently, at the end of the Book of Job, we read that the holy man did in fact live to see “his children, and his children's children, unto the fourth generation” (42:16). This sentence really reads like a catch-line, taken directly from the Book of Tobit, and inserted into the Book of Job! One version of Job has “unto the fifth generation”, which might be making allowance for the fact that Job had lost an entire generation of children. Perhaps, too, the loss of that generation may have been uppermost in the mind of the angel Raphael, in those bygone days, when he spoke the following, possibly ironical words to Tobias about his marriage to Sarah, “I suppose that you will have children by her” (6:17). Finally, in both cases the much honoured holy man dies an old man, full of days (cf. Tobit 14:14 and Job 42:17). So already, it seems, we have some very obvious and striking comparisons in: wealth and possessions; having seven sons; a reputation for righteousness before God; profound charity - leading to being greatly loved; a very high standing in society; and living to a goodly old age in great honour. Regarding the latter point, old age, whereas Job is said to have lived for 140 years (42:15), Tobias’s age, at death, is given variously as 117 (Good News) or 127 (King James). He was thus likewise, with Job, a centenarian, but supposedly younger. I suggest that the significant variation given for the age of Tobias at death might indicate that the original figure was no longer known with certainty. When Tobit had become blind, he called his son and imparted to him certain wise counsels (based on the Mosaïc Law), reinforcing what he had taught him from infancy (1:10), before sending him off to the land of “Media”. The description of these ethical maxims occupies chapter 4 of the Book of Tobit. The counsels cover a variety of devout practices, such as honouring one’s mother (4:3-4); keeping the commandments (v. 5); giving alms (vv. 7-11); avoiding immorality (v. 12); marrying a woman who is not foreign (v. 12); avoiding idleness (v. 13); being just in the payment of wages (v. 14); practising sobriety (v.15); seeking wise advice (v. 18); and blessing God on every occasion (v. 19). Obviously Tobias was a most obedient son, because in “Media” he took a wife from his own tribe (chs. and 8); purely, not out of lust (8:7); and he blessed God for giving him such a good wife (8:5-6). Moreover, he was eager to return home to Nineveh, out of concern for his mother (10:7). Later, he buried her with honour, as Tobit had asked (cf. 4:4 and 14:12). Now, we should expect to find that Tobias as the mature Job in his greatest trial would have fully matured in observing his father’s maxims, which would have been bearing fruit. And this is exactly what we do find. The evidence for it is especially apparent in Job’s famous protestation of his innocence (also known as a ‘Negative Confession’) to Eliphaz, after the latter had accused him of all kinds of immoral practices (cf. Job 22 and 31). In the following comparison, the reader will be able to see clearly how the maxims of Tobit had become very much embedded in his goodly son’s own thinking and way of life: Tobit: “Give of your ... clothing to the naked” (Tobit 4:16). Job: “I have not seen any perish for want of clothing: or the needy to have no covering” (Job 31:19). Tobit: “Give of your bread to the hungry ...” (4:16). “Upon seeing the abundance of food [Tobit] said to his son, ‘Go and bring whatever poor man of our brethren you may find ...’.” (2:2). Job: “I have not eaten my morsel alone” (31:17). Tobit: “Beware, my son, of all immorality” (4:12). Job: “My heart has not been deceived by a woman. I have not laid wait at my neighbour’s door .... For that [adultery] would be a heinous crime” (31:9, 11). Tobit: “... O, Lord, I am not taking [Sarah] because of lust, but with sincerity” (8:7). Job: “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how could I look intently upon a virgin?” (31:1). Tobit: “Do not hold over till the next day the wages of any man who works for you, but pay him at once ...” (4:14). “What you hate, do not do to anyone” (4:15). Job: “I have not walked with falsehood, and my foot has not hastened to deceit” (31:5). Comment: Knight equates Job’s words here with the two Egyptian confessions: “I have not dealt treacherously with anyone”, and “I have not acted with deceit or done evil to men”. Tobit: “And from his infancy [Tobit] taught his son to fear God, and to abstain from all sin” (1:10). “And take heed that you never consent to sin, nor transgress the commandments of the Lord our God” (4:6). Job: “My foot has held fast to His steps; I have kept His way and have not turned aside. I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured in my bosom the words of His mouth” (23:11-12). “My step has not turned out of the way” (31:7). Tobit: “Remember the Lord our God all your days, my son ... live uprightly ... and do not walk in the ways of wrongdoing” (4:5). Job: “There was a man ... whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God, and turned away from evil” (1:1). Tobit: “... we are the children of the saints, and look for that life which God will give to those who never change their faith from Him” (2:18). “For we are the sons of the prophets” (4:12). Job: “My heart has not been secretly enticed if I beheld the sun when it shone, nor have I kissed my hand to the moon walking in brightness. (Which is a very great iniquity, and a denial against the most High God)” (31:26-28). (Comment: This last is a reference to idolatrous pagan practices.) Examples could be multiplied. After all, wasn’t Job’s God-fearing righteousness the very matter of which God boasts about him before Satan? (1:8 and 2:3). Tobit’s insistence on adhering to pure religion and keeping on the straight path was the fruit of his own bitter experience, based on the apostasy of his “whole tribe” to the calf of king Jeroboam (1:4, 5). Tobit: “Bless the Lord God on every occasion ...” (4:19). “Then [Tobit and his son] lying prostrate ... upon their faces blessed God; and rising up, they told all his wonderful works” (12:22). Job: “Then Job ... fell upon the ground and worshipped” (1:20). Tobit: “And Tobias began to pray, ‘Blessed art Thou, O God of our fathers, and blessed be Thy holy Name for ever’.” (8:5). Job: “And [Job] said, ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return, the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the Name of the Lord’.” (1:21). Again, just as in the case of Gabael’s blessing, that Tobias might live to see his fourth generation, it is almost as if the above protestations of innocence by Job were catch-lines, gathered up from the Book of Tobit, and inserted into the Book of Job. For, to each accusation made against him by Eliphaz, Job asserts his innocence as if he had the very counsels of his father ringing in his ears. Job, who could speak of himself as: “I, whom God has fostered father-like, from childhood, and guided since I left my mother’s womb” (31:18), had also spoken of some mysterious being who might act as his “witness” and defender in heaven (16:18-21); who, upon hearing of his fate, would intervene to vindicate him. Most are agreed that this reference obviously cannot be intended of some earthly friend or companion. Who therefore might this “witness” be? Once again, I believe, the Book of Tobit comes to our aid, to assist us in making the correct identification. Had not a heavenly intercessor already figured largely in the story of Tobias? I refer of course to the angel Raphael who had, already many years ago now, fulfilled the very same role of intercession before God on behalf of Tobit and Sarah. It must have given Job no little consolation, in the midst of his trials, to have recalled firstly how the angel had hearkened to his father’s prayers in the latter’s own time of his distress, and secondly how the angel had then personally befriended him as well, having served as his sure guide to and from Ecbatana (Tobit 5:4-12:22). Tobias was indeed under God’s special care and guardianship. The angel could not but act as Tobias’s “witness” in heaven. A final significant comparison, one that I had not developed in my original version of this article, is between the Hebrew versions of the names, Tobias and Job; though I had then used the compound TOB to stand for Tobias/Job, which a reader had found confusing. Basically the named Tobit and Tobias are, I now believe, variations of the Hebrew name, Obadiah (precede by an ayin) (עֹבַדְיָה). Tobit equates to Obadiah and Tobias to Obadias. The initial ayin has been converted into a T (either in Greek translation, or it being a Transjordanian variant). The name Job is of a similar construction, but having an initial aleph. [*] [*] ‘Obadiah can also be rendered as Abdiel (Abdias), Abdiel being the very same name as the Arabic Abdullah. Now it is most significant that the Prophet Mohammed’s parents were Abdullah and Amina, equating almost exactly to the names of Tobias’s parents Abdiel and Anna. Was Mohammed’s “Medina”, then, yet another case of confusion with “Media”/ “Midian”? Locating Tobit’s “Rages” and “Ecbatana” As the heading suggests, my purpose in this section will be to identify both the “city of Rages” to which Tobit sent his son to procure the ten talents of silver and the “Ecbatana”, in whose mountain this “city of Rages” is said to have been located. Now since Tobias died and was buried in “Ecbatana” (14:13, The Jerusalem Bible version), it should necessarily follow - if my overall reconstruction is correct - that “Ecbatana” was the same as the “land of Uz”, where Job ended his days. (Note: Nowhere does the Book of Tobit say that this particular “Ecbatana” was a city). The various versions of Tobit, when combined, provide us with quite a clear description of at least the topography of “Rages” and of “Ecbatana”. In the Vulgate, for instance, the angel Raphael, after having been asked by Tobias if he knew “the way that leads to the country of the Medes”, replied to him: “‘I know it; and I have often walked through all the ways thereof; and I have abode with Gabelus [var. Gabael] our brother, who dwells at Rages a city of the Medes, which is situated in the mount of Ecbatana’.” (5:8). The Jerusalem Bible by no means contradicts this when it says that: “[Rages] lies in the mountains, and Ecbatana is in the middle of the plain” (5:6). And it adds the important note that: “It usually takes two full days to get from Ecbatana to Rages” (5:6). Since these two locations, “Rages” and “Ecbatana”, are said to be “in Media”, or “in the land of the Medes”, commentators instinctively turn to the famous Median capital of Ecbatana to the east of Nineveh, and to the Rhaga (Rages) that is a bit less than 200 miles distance from that Ecbatana. But they then very quickly become aware that something is quite wrong with this scenario; that, to quote The Jerusalem Bible, “the geography is inexact”. (See J. Simons, The Geographical and Topographical Texts of the Old Testament, Brill 1959, pp. 503-504). Fr. D. Dumm, in The Jerome Biblical Commentary (article “Tobit”, footnote comment on 5a), goes so far as to say that: “[The angel] Raphael knows the journey of life far better than the route to Media!” A couple of the well-known problems associated with any attempt to place the Median Rhaga and Ecbatana in the context of the Book of Tobit are that: Whereas the Median Ecbatana is east of Nineveh [see map above], Tobias’s journey to “Ecbatana” from “Nineveh” would of necessity have involved his travelling westwards, because he and the angel arrived by “first evening” at the Tigris River (6:2); which river is definitely west of Nineveh. Whereas the journey from “Ecbatana” to “Rages” normally took “two full days”, the almost 200-mile journey from the Median Ecbatana to Rhaga would have taken significantly longer. In fact it took the army of Alexander the Great 11 days to march from the one to the other. (Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander, Penguin, 1986, Bk. 3, #’s 20-21'S Rightly then does Simons observe (according to a conventional Median context) that the journey referred to in the Book of Tobit “would be a forced ‘journey of two days’ even for an express messenger” (op. cit., p. 504). For these good reasons, I must reject the classical Rhaga and Ecbatana east of Nineveh as being, respectively, the “Rages” and “Ecbatana” of the Book of Tobit. Instead, I shall identify sites for Tobit’s “Rages” and “Ecbatana” that positively fit the biblical description. According to the view that will be presented in the following pages: The “city of Rages” is identified as the city of Damascus (700 metres above sea level), which is indeed in the slopes of a mountain; it being over-shadowed by the majestic Mt. Hermon. The Psalmist says of that mountain: “O mighty mountain, mountain of Bashan; O many-peaked mountain, mountain of Bashan!” (Psalm 68:15). It would follow from this that Tobit’s “Ecbatana”, in whose mountain lay this “city of Rages” (5:8, Vulgate), must be the fertile region of Bashan. In Greco-Roman times Bashan - which is a province, not a city, and which does indeed lie in a plain (of Hauran) - had become known as the Damascene province of Batanaea. So what I now confidently propose is that Batanaea is simply the name “Ecbatana”. Confusion has apparently arisen with the original place-names having been translated into other languages. “The popularity of the story of Tobit”, wrote Marshall in his commentary on “The Book of Tobit” (A Dictionary of the Bible, Scribner, 1902, pp. 785, 788), “is attested by the number of variations in which it exists in several languages” (e.g., Greek, Latin, Chaldean/ Aramaic and Hebrew). Marshall implies that individual texts underwent multiple translations; that, for example, the Syro-Chaldean version that Saint Jerome says he translated into Latin, “in one day”, shows linguistic evidence of having been originally written in Greek. Not surprisingly, there are considerable variations from one text of Tobit to another. Now, the difference in certain key place-names is fascinating from the point of view of the present reconstruction. I refer to the fact that the usual “Media” is replaced by “Midian” in one instance (Heb. Fagii or HF version. See Marshall, pp. 786, 787); and that, in another case (Heb. Londinii), “Ecbatana” is replaced by “Bathania”. Now, this is exactly what we needed to break the geographical deadlock; for: “Midian” is certainly a much more satisfactory description than is “Media” of the northern Transjordania. Scripture links both Job (1:3) and the Midianites of this region (Judges 6:33) as, or with, the “people of the east” (Heb. bene qedem). Moreover it would be more understandable for Tobit to have found during Sennacherib’s reign that “the highways” leading westwards to Midian were “unsafe” (1:15), rather than the highways leading eastwards to Media, since Sennacherib had fairly minimal contact with the Medes during his reign. And “Bathania”? Well that too is just the same name as Batanaea! Obviously the original name “Bathania” was mistaken for “Ecbatana” (from the Greek ek Bathania?) by later translators and/or copyists, who would then naturally have identified “Ecbatana” with the famous Median city of that name. But that there was also an “Ecbatana in Syria” was known to Herodotus, who distinguished it from the Median city of the same name (The Histories, Bk. 3). Some facts that further greatly strengthen my above conclusions about the identifications of “Rages” and “Ecbatana” are that: All of the Arabic and Syrian traditions identify the province of Batanaea as Job’s “land of Uz”. The central part of this province of Batanaea, which tradition identifies as Job’s precise home, is perfectly situated in relation to Damascus, being about 50 miles distant. Indeed, Jâkût el-Hamawi says of Batanaea’s most central town of Nawâ [which some actually identify as Job’s town]: “Between Nawa and Damascus is two days’ journey ...”. Now, if one enquires with the locals particularly for that part of the country in which Job himself dwelt, he is directed to the district between Nawâ and Edrei, which is accounted the most fertile portion of the country. This region of Job’s traditional home in central Batanaea in the plain of Hauran (today’s en-Nukra) corresponds both geographically and topographically with the “Ecbatana” of Tobit, inasmuch as: (i) it is approximately “two days’ journey” from a city (namely, Damascus); a city that is in turn considered to be (ii) in the mountain (namely, Mt. Hermon) of that region. And, finally, it is (iii) “in the middle of the plain” (namely, the plain of Hauran). Eusebius is even more specific about the location of Job’s home. Writing at circa 310 AD, Eusebius said (in Onomastikon, Vol. IV): “Astaroth Karnaim is at present a very large village beyond the Jordan, in the province of Arabia, which is called Batanaea. Here, according to tradition, they fix the dwelling of Job”. In relation to the name "Astaroth [Ashtaroth]”, though, we encounter a problem common to the geography of this part of the world: namely, that one often finds a repetition of names from one place to another (see also below). Thus we encounter two places called “Ashtaroth” in the region of Batanaea. F. Delitzsch (Commentary on the Old Testament, Eerdmans, Vol. IV, pp. 426-427), when making his choice between these two options for Job’s home, preferred the Ashtaroth (Tell Ashtara) that lies close to the “Tomb of Job” (Makâm Êjûb). Delitzsch further indicated here that the full “region which tradition calls the home of Job”, embraced “the communities of Sahm, Tell Shihâb, Tesîl, Nawâ, and Sa'dîje ...”; all wheat growing communities. From all this I conclude that the angel Raphael had led Tobias to the “Ecbatana” referred to by Herodotus as “Ecbatana of Syria”, that we now identify as the Damascene province of Batanaea; a province that was west of Nineveh, as befits the pattern of Tobias’s journey. What adds further confirmation to this new scenario is that the Vulgate actually places a “Charan ... in the midway to Nineveh” (Tobit 11:1), in relation to Tobias’s journey. This “Charan” would have to be the city of Haran, which is more or less halfway between Nineveh and Damascus if spoken of as a rough approximation, as one does when directing another person on a journey. The Book of Tobit is actually pointing the reader straight to the land where tradition says that Job had dwelt. Thus, contrary to what Fr. Dumm of The Jerome Biblical Commentary had imagined, the angel Raphael knew his geography intimately. It was the later copyists who got lost along the way! When old Tobit told Tobias: “Go to Media [read “Midian”], my son, for I fully believe what Jonah the prophet said about Nineveh, that it will be overthrown” (14:1), he was actually bidding his son to return to the land of his forefathers. This new realisation that Tobit’s “Ecbatana” is meant to refer to the province of Batanaea provides me with, I believe, the real “clincher” for which I had been searching, enabling for the binding together of the books of Tobit and Job. Whilst the Syro-Arabic traditions are emphatic that Job had dwelt in Batanaea, it has been common down the ages for biblical scholars to conclude that Job was a non-Israelite from the land of Edom; Edom being an Arabian country situated to the southeast of Israel (below the Dead Sea). Thus I earlier quoted St. Augustine of Hippo as having said of Job that: “He was neither a native of Israel nor a proselyte (that is, a newly admitted member of the people of Israel) ...”, but an Edomite foreigner. This conviction by scholars about Edom has undoubtedly been due to the fact that various names referred to in the Book of Job pertain to that part of the world (or to Esau's line); names such as “Eliphaz” and his home of “Tema”, also “Buz”, and even “Uz” itself. A perplexing double occurrence of names appears to have attributed to this confusion. Thus we find in both Edom and in the Batanaea region such names for instance as Têmâ and Dûma. Indeed, the early biblical genealogies (Genesis 10:23; 22:21; 36:28) place “Uz” in relation to Edom on the one hand, and to Arabia on the other. In other words, there is more than one “land of Uz” to be considered; as well as more than one “Tema”, more than one “Buz” - all these being names that we encounter in the Book of Job. Clearly the “Uz” referred to as the land of Job (1:1) could not pertain to Edom for the simple reason that, whereas Edom (as I have just said) lay to the south of Palestine, Job is referred to as “the greatest of all the people of the east” (1:3). We meet these “people of the east” in the Genesis account of Jacob’s journey to Syrian Mesopotamia (Genesis 29:1), where the description refers to Jacob’s Aramaean kinsfolk in Haran. The territory of the “Bene qedem” extended from the Arabian desert, lying to the east of Palestine, northwards to the countries of the Euphrates. F. Delitzsch (op. cit., p. 442) put paid in one blow to any attempt realistically to connect Job’s “Uz” with the place of the same name associated with Edom, when he wrote: But should one feel a difficulty in freeing himself from the idea that Ausitis [Job’s “Uz”] is to be sought only in the Ard el Hâlât [desert] east of Ma’ân [next to Edom], he must consider that the author of the book of Job could not, like that legend which places the miraculous city of Iram in the country of quicksands, transfer the cornfields of this hero to the desert; for there, with the exception of smaller patches of land capable of culture, which we may not bring into account, there is by no means to be found that husbandman’s [farmer’s] Eldorado, where a single husbandman might find tillage for five hundred [Job 1:3], yea, for a thousand [Job 42:12] yoke of oxen. Such numbers as these are not to be depreciated; for in connection with the primitive agriculture in Syria and Palestine, - which renders a four years’ alternation of crops necessary, so that the fields must be divided into so many portions ... from which only one portion is used annually, and the rest left fallow ... Job required several square miles of tillage for the employment of his oxen. It is all the same in this respect whether the book of Job is a history or a poem: in no case could the Ausitis be a country, the notorious sterility of which would make the statement of the poet ridiculous. The poem’s description though fits perfectly the fertile region of Batanaea. The Septuagint version of Job translates “of Uz” as “of Ausitis”, and adds at the close of the book that this land was “northeast from Idumaea [Edom] towards the Arabian desert”. This determination of the position of “Uz” is most to be relied upon. It is supported by Josephus (in “Antiquities”, i, 6, 4), who claimed that a person called “Ousos” [i.e., Uz] was the founder of Trachonitis and Damascus. Eusebius (in De Originibus, ix, 2, 4) says further that: “Uz, founder of Trachonitis, held power between Palestine and Cœle-Syria; where Job was”. Now this “Cœle-Syria” was the region of Syria in the vicinity of Damascus. Again, this Damascene region is the very one in which the Syro-Arabic traditions place the home of Job. Following Delitzsch (op. cit., p. 46), let us now consider just two of these traditions about Job: The Jâkût el-Hamawi and Moslem tradition generally mention the east Hauran fertile tract of country north-west of Têmâ and Bûzân, el-Bethenîje (i.e. Batanaea), as the district in which Job dwelt. According to Abufelda … “The whole of Bethenîje, a part of the province of Damascus, belonged to Job as his possession”. The Syrian tradition also locates Job’s abode in Batanaea. There lies an ancient “Monastery of Job” (Dair Êjûb), built in honour of the holy man. All the larger works on Palestine and Syria agree that “Uz” is not to be sought in Idumaea (Edom) proper. In these works we also find it recorded that Batanaea is there called Job’s fatherland. In Batanaea itself the traveller hears this constantly. If any one speaks of the fruitfulness of the whole district; or of the fields, around a village, he is always answered: “Is it not the land of Job (bilâd Êjûb)?”; “Does it not belong to the villages of Job (diâ Êjûb)?” It seems that Batanaea (Hauran) and the land of Job are synonymous. Regarding Job’s tomb, we read from Ibn er-Râbi (in Historia Anteislam) that: “To the prophets buried in the region of Damascus belongs also Job, and his tomb is near Nawa, in the district of Hauran”. Of special interest for our purposes are those aspects of the region of Batanaea that properly fit with descriptions from the Book of Job. I continue to rely on information supplied by Delitzsch (op. cit., p. 415): The fertility of the plain. Whilst there is plenty of good arable land in the whole region, nowhere is the farming in connection with a small amount of labour (since no manure is used), more productive than in Hauran, or more profitable; for the transparent “Batanaean wheat” is always at least 25% higher in price than other kinds. The pleasant climate. That even the Romans were acquainted with the glorious climate of Batanaea is proved by the name “Palestina salutaris” that they gave to the district. The “heap of ashes” (Job 2:8) upon which Job sat in his misery is variously translated as “dung-hill”. Only in a Batanaean context, according to Delitzsch, is there no contradiction, since the two were “synonymous notions”. There the dung, being useless for agricultural purposes, is burnt from time to time in an appointed place before the town; while in any other part of Syria it is as valuable as among any farmer. This last distinctive fact, Delitzsch concludes, is yet another indication that Job’s “land of Uz” cannot refer to the land of Edom. Caves. The fact that the region of Hauran is honeycombed with caves fits with what Job says about the habitations of some of those worthless types who had begun to mock and persecute him in his affliction; that “base breed”, whose fathers he said he “would have disdained to set with the dogs of [his] flock” (30:1). These unfortunates Job describes as dwelling “in holes of the earth and of the rocks” (v. 6). Circumstances of a wealthy farmer/grazier. This section needs more elaboration, since it will throw light on various aspects of Job’s life and misfortunes; for example, how his family, servants and property could all at once have been exposed to marauding bands like the Sabaeans and the Chaldeans (cf. 1:15 and 1:17). Thus Batanaea, according to Delitzsch (ibid.), must have been, in the time of Job (as it was when Delitzsch was writing), without the protection of the government of the country, and therefore exposed to the marauding attacks of the tribes of the desert. In such country there is no private possession; but each person is at liberty to take up his abode in it, and to cultivate the land and rear cattle at his own risk, where and to what extent he may choose. “Whoever intends taking up his abode there must first of all have a family, or as the Arabs say, “men” (rigâl), i.e., grownup sons, cousins, nephews, sons-in-law; for one who stands alone, “the cut-off one” (maktû’), as he is called, can attain no position of eminence among the Semites, nor undertake any important enterprise”. Then this lord of the region has to make treaties with all the nomad tribes from which he has reason to fear any attack, that is, to pledge himself to pay a yearly tribute, which is given in native produce (corn, garments). A community might have compacts with more than 100 tribes. That Job lived according to such circumstances seems evident from the fact that the author of the Book of Job represents him as being surprised, not by neighbouring, but by far distant tribes (Chaldeans and Sabaeans), with whom he could have had no compact. [Comment: The reference to Chaldean activity is a further likely evidence that the life of Job belonged to the C8th-C7th’s BC, because it was only then that the Chaldeans began to succeed the Assyrians as world rulers]. Next the lord of the district proceeds to establish a “chirbe”, or village that has been forsaken (for a longer or shorter period), in connection with which all those who have been drawn there (excepting the lord’s own relations, slaves, and servants) set about the work. Perhaps Job 28 has reference to such a settlement. We can see from all this why Job was considered such a great man in the region. As Job (according to 1:3; cf. 42:12) provided the yoke-oxen and means of transport (asses and camels), so he also provided the farming implements and the seed for sowing. We must not think here of the paid day-labourers of the Syrian towns - or the servants of our landed proprietors; they are unknown on the borders of the desert. The hand that toils has there a direct share in the gain; the workers belong to the aulâd, “children of the house”, and are so called. “In the hour of danger they will risk their life for their lord”. The rustic labour is always undertaken simultaneously by all the murâb’în for the sake of order, since the lord has the general work of the following day announced from the roof of his house every evening. Thus it is explained how the 500 ploughmen could be together in one and the same district, and be slain all together. Now that we have determined exactly where Tobias dwelt, after his having fled Nineveh, we can the more easily (though tentatively) locate the homes of Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, as well as that of the young Elihu. Eliphaz the Temanite. We presumably no longer have to go to distant Edom to find Tema(n). We now know that there was also a Tema in east Hauran. Bildad the Suhite. We no longer have to go looking for a Suhi (Suhu) for example on the Euphrates north of Babylon. We now know that there was also a place of that name just south of where Job lived. William of Tyre, in his history (1, xxii, C. 21), wrote that the crusaders, on their return from a marauding expedition in the Hauran valley (the Nukra), had wished to re-conquer a strong position, the Cavea Roob [Rahûb], which they had lost a short time before. “This place”, said the historian, “lies in the province of Suite, a district distinguished by its pleasantness, etc.; and that Baldad [Bildad], Job’s friend, who is on that account called the Suite, is said to have come from it”. Delitzsch (op. cit., ibid.), commenting on this passage, was able to pinpoint Bildad’s home thus: “This passage removes us at once into the neighbourhood of Muzêrîb and the Monastery of Job, for the province of Suete is nothing but the district of Suwêt …”. Zophar the Naamathite. The Septuagint has “Sophar the Minæan”. “Naamath” was also a common place name in Syria. Presumably, we do not have to go looking for the “Naamath” of the Book of Job below Edom; for, since Job’s other friends lived in Job’s own approximate neighbourhood, it is reasonable to expect that Zophar would have too. I tentatively suggest that “Naamath” stands for the now familiar place of “Nawa” (also called “Naveh”, “Neve”). It is the “Nebo” (Neba) of Numbers 32:38. (See further comments after Elihu). Elihu the Buzite. We already noted that there was a Bûzân near Temâ in east Hauran. Thus we discover that all of the geographical names associated with Job and his friends – “Uz”, “Tema”, “Suhi”, “Naamath” (likely) and “Buz”, lie in close proximity the one to the other. These regions must originally have been settled by Abraham’s relatives; for we find that Abraham’s brother, Nahor, had “Uz the firstborn, Buz his brother ...” (Genesis 22:20, 21); that Abraham’s own wife, Keturah, bore to the Patriarch: “... Midian ... Shuah ...” (25:2); and that the firstborn son of Abraham’s son, Ishmael, was “Nebaioth” (25:13). By Job’s time, apparently, the Midianite influence was the one that had become uppermost in the region. Almost certainly, Abraham’s son “Shuah” would have given his name to Bildad’s home of “Suhi” or “Shuhi”; whilst Ishmael's son “Nebaioth” may well have had “Nebo” (“Nawâ”) called after himself. Thus probably Job’s friends, plus Elihu, did not have to travel any terribly long distance to visit their afflicted friend. There have been all sorts of guesses as to the identity and status of Job’s three friends: whether these were kings, or priests, or magi. We can no longer agree with the common verdict at least, as referred to by Fr. Dumm (op. cit., ibid.), that: “The three are professional wise men from different localities, but all are connected with Edom, the proverbial home of sages (cf. Ob. 8; Jer 49:7, etc.).” The Septuagint even adds the information that Elihu’s home of “Buz” was in “Ausis” (that is, “Uz”). Elihu himself is said to have been “of the family (race) of Ram”, which is usually taken to mean that he was an Aramaean (Syrian). “Aram” was the nephew of both “Uz” and “Buz” referred to above (who were in turn the nephews of Abraham). With the following identifications having been established: Tobias = Job, “Ecbatana” = Batanaea, and “Media” = Midian, the question now has to be asked: When old Tobit bade his son leave Nineveh and head for Batanaea, was he in fact telling him to return to the family’s original homeland in Naphtali; to the very place from which the Assyrians had taken the family into captivity? In other words, can we locate Tobit’s home-town of “Thisbe” also in the region of Batanaea? On the face of it, locating “Thisbe” would appear to be not too big a problem, since Tobit actually “pinpoints” the town thus: “Thisbe, which is to the south of Kedesh Naphtali in Galilee above Asher”. However, the different versions of Tobit vary so considerably in relation to this location that Simons has commented (op. cit. ibid.): “The heavily glossed nature of the transmitted Greek texts is itself enough to warrant the suspicion that the location of Tobit’s city was something of a problem for ancient readers”. Tobit himself of course knew exactly where “Thisbe” was. Like Moses, who had had to describe the geography of Palestine to the Israelites from an eastern (Transjordanian) perspective, so too was Tobit writing for the sake of his fellow captive Israelites who were situated with him to the east of Palestine. Tobit had written his own history, just as the angel had asked him to do (Tobit 12:20), whilst still in captivity in Nineveh. He would have felt it necessary to have added the detailed information concerning the whereabouts of “Thisbe” especially for the sake of the younger generations, who had grown up in captivity and who had either never been to, nor could remember, Palestine. That Tobit had felt the need to provide such detail would suggest that “Thisbe” was not one of the better known sites in Israel. Since it is customary to locate the territory of the tribe of Naphtali in Upper Galilee to the west of the River Jordan, and since Tobit’s description of Thisbe’s location is interpreted by competent biblical geographists, like Simons (op. cit., p. 503) for instance, as being west of the Jordan in Upper Galilee, above Hazor (“Asher”, also given as “Asor”) and below “Kedesh” in Naphtali, “Thisbe” would appear to lie in a clearly circumscribed area. That area, whilst being at the same approximate latitude as Batanaea, would be on the opposite side of the river from the latter. But, as we have seen throughout, the geography of the Book of Tobit, as it is presented in the translations that have come down to us, is never straightforward. Thus Simons, after having carefully tried to pin down the location of Tobit’s hometown, expresses “... surprise that [Thisbe’s] name, though sharing in the fame of Tobit, has left no trace whatever in the narrowly described area where it is said to have existed (teitabă, 5-6 kms NW of Safad is the only but very improbable candidate)”. No wonder that Tobit had to go into detail regarding the location of his own town! The fact that there is no site between Kedesh and Hazor that has a name anything like “Thisbe” encourages me to look for Tobit’s “Thisbe” also in Transjordanian Batanaea. Whilst Naphtalian territory was, as I have said, definitely located mainly to the west of the Lake of Galilee, some part of that territory apparently lay also in Transjordania. For example, we are told that one of Naphtali’s cities was the famous stronghold of Edrei (Joshua 19:36), which had been in the time of Moses a fortified city of the giant king, Og, of Bashan (or Batanaea) (Numbers 21:34). Now, as we learned earlier, Job’s homeland lay between this Edrei and the town of Nawâ. With this in mind, let us see if we can find in the Transjordanian region traditionally belonging to Job any place whose name resembles “Thisbe”; and, once found, whether that place fits the geographical indicators as provided by Tobit. We saw previously, following Delitzsch, that the total “region which tradition calls the home of Job embraced “the communities of Sahm, Tell Shihâb, Tesil, Nawâ, and Sa’dîje ...”. Of these, only Tesil (or Thesil) sounds anything like “Thisbe”. Another name for Tesil is “Tharsila”. Delitzsch wrote of his brief visit to Tesil: I came with my cortége out of Gôlân [Heights], to see the remarkable pilgrim fair of Muzérib, just when the Mecca caravan was expected; and since the Monastery of Job ... could not lie far out of the way, I determined to seek it out .... In the evening of the 8th of May [*] we came to Tesil. Here the Monastery was for the first time pointed out to us. It was lighted up by the rays of the setting sun, - a stately ruin, which lay in the distance a good hour towards the east. The following morning we left Tesil .... [*] I actually first read this on an 8th of May. Muzerib lies right on the “caravan” route to which Delitzsch alludes. In mediaeval times Muzerib was a famous meeting place for caravans, where the meetings were celebrated with a great fair. Muzerib lay along that wellworn highway leading northwards to Damascus and beyond, and southwards to Mecca (the Hajj road). But the road also branched off across the Jordan below Galilee. The road was known as “The King’s Highway” (Numbers 20:17). Tobit indicates that “Thisbe” was “west of the road, toward the going down of the sun”, and Simons (op. cit., p. 401) has indeed identified Tobit’s “road” here as “the highway leading from Damascus through Galilee to the Mediterranean Sea and further down to Egypt”. (Cf. Deuteronomy 11:30). Now Tesil was not actually on this major road. But Nawâ was. The reader, with access to maps, might like to imagine a road running down from Damascus, through Nawâ, to Muzerib. Tesil actually lay a bit to the west of this main road. Thus Tobit’s description of “Thisbe” as being “west of the road” - another version has “behind the road” - would be an equally accurate description, so it seems to me, for Tesil. In a Batanaean context this of course can no longer apply to the city of Hazor west of the Jordan. I suggest that “Asher” was the “Jazer” of Numbers 32:35, which the renowned Mediaeval Jewish topographer, Estôri ha-Parchi (in “Caftor wa-ferach”, 1322 AD), called Zora’, and which he located as the home of Job, one hour south of “Nebo” (that is, “Nawâ” in Batanaea). Now, since Eusebius claimed that “Ashtaroth Karnaim” was the home of Job, and since the latter is only a bit more than 5 kilometres south of Nawâ, it seems likely that “Jazer” (or Zora’) is the same place as “Ashtaroth Karnaim”, and that this site was indeed the home of Job. The “left” usually refers to the north. Other versions have, instead of “Shephat”, “Phogor”, or “Rephaim”. There is a “Raphana” in the vicinity of Batanaea, and it is indeed north (actually northeast) of Tesil (Tharsila). “Raphana”, or “Rephaim” is probably just another name for “Shephat”, also known as “Shepham” (e.g., as given in my computerised Logos Bible Atlas). So, since Tesil fits well geographically as “Thisbe” in regard to its having a “Jazer” (or Zora’) in the south, a “Rephaim” approximately north, and to its being “behind” (or to the west of) the main highway, I conclude that Tesil was most probably Tobit’s home town of “Thisbe”. Job himself though, apparently, did not dwell in “Thisbe” as his father had done. Instead, he dwelt in nearby “Ashtaroth Karnaim”; but his pasturage included “Thisbe” (as Tesil). I further conclude that Tobit had indeed sent his son Tobias back to the very region from which the family had originated. But because the young man may have been only a baby at the time of the captivity, he could not remember anything about it, and so could say to his father whilst still in Nineveh: “... nor did I ever know the way which leads to [Midian]” (Tobit 5:2). Before leaving the subject of “Thisbe”, there is just one final point that I should like to ponder. Was Tobit’s “Thisbe” also the same place as the home of the prophet Elijah: namely, “Tishbe in Gilead”? (I Kings 17:1). Quite possibly it was; for northern Gilead is sometimes identified with the region of Batanaea. There are several reasons why I think it more likely that Tobit intended Calah (modern Nimrud), rather than Nineveh itself (modern Kûjûnjik), when he used the word “Nineveh”. Firstly, there is no qualifying scriptural evidence that the Assyrians deported the tribes of Israel to the classical Nineveh. In II Kings we learn that the places wherein the Assyrians relocated the people of Israel were: “Halah and Habor by the river of Gozan, in the cities of the Medes” (17:6). This Halah, about whose location commentators are uncertain, sounds very much to me like Calah (Assyrian Kalhu). The fact that Halah is mentioned first in the above list would be appropriate if it really did represent one of Assyria’s great capital cities. Secondly, when the Bible qualifies “Nineveh” with the phrase, “the great city”, it is referring to, not one, but four cities closely linked (cf. Genesis 10:11). One of these four is Calah. A comparison of Tobit with the Book of Jonah suggests that Tobit may well have intended “the great city”, not just Nineveh on its own (cf. Tobit 14:8 and Jonah 1:2). Having found appropriate geographical locations for all of the major place-names in the books of Tobit and Job, I shall now conclude what has been a difficult and challenging chapter by briefly tracing the travels of Tobias in the revised context: The family was taken into captivity from “Thisbe” [Tesil], to “Nineveh” [Calah]. Later, young Tobias was accompanied by the angel Raphael from “Nineveh” [Calah], travelling westwards across the Tigris River, past “Charan” [Haran], into “the land of Media” [Midian], to “Ecbatana” [Batanaea, a region settled by “Uz”]. Whilst Tobias was in “Ecbatana” with his bride, the angel went on to “Rages” [Damascus] in “the mountain of Ecbatana” [Mount Hermon] - a journey of “two full davs” - to collect the money from Gabael. After the death of his parents, Tobias fled “Nineveh” [Calah] and returned to “Ecbatana” [Batanaea or “the land of Uz"], and settled down in that province, probably at “Ashtaroth Karnaim”. He ended his days in Batanaea and was buried there. What is said to be the holy man’s tomb stands there to this day, not far from “Ashtaroth Karnaim”. Job’s wife, Sarah, most likely died not long after her husband’s (and indeed her own) fiery ordeal, because she is not mentioned at the end of the story. As suggested to me by a colleague, the children generated by Job’s and Sarah’s original ten - that is, the first batch of grandchildren - are not said to have been destroyed along with their parents. They may well have been living in houses of their own - or working elsewhere in Job’s extensive pasturage - at the time that the disasters occurred. It makes sense to accept that Job had already seen two of these “four generations” even before personal tragedy had struck him. Afterwards, he saw another two generations. These “four generations” in total all belonged to him and to Sarah. The new batch of ten children may have been a separate issue altogether. Conclusion Without doubt, Job was not an Edomite sheikh, but a true Israelite from the tribe of Naphtali. He was Tobias, the only son of Tobit and Anna. Easter 2012 (“He is Risen!”) Further recommended reading: Tobit may have been King Shalmaneser’s Rab Ekalli (7) Tobit may have been King Shalmaneser's Rab Ekalli | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu Sargon II and Sennacherib: More than just an overlap (6) Sargon II and Sennacherib: More than just an overlap | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu Tobit’s nephew, Ahikar, carelessly projected into Islamic Golden Age. Part Two (7) Tobit’s nephew, Ahikar, carelessly projected into Islamic Golden Age. Part Two | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu Habakkuk’s hair-raising flight to Babylon https://www.academia.edu/114966620/Habakkuks_hair_raising_flight_to_Babylon Haggai as Job late in his life? https://www.academia.edu/113604404/Haggai_as_Job_late_in_his_lifeElihu Young Elihu in the Book of Job corrects the ‘wisdom’ of the aged https://www.academia.edu/63511809/Young_Elihu_in_the_Book_of_Job_corrects_the_wisdom_of_the_aged