Ancient Judaism

Biblical Criticism from Max Weber to the Present

Irving M. Zeitlin

• Publisher: Polity
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9780745669250
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Jewish Theology

This book is a major contribution to the sociology of religion and to religious and biblical studies. Beginning from the classic work of Max Weber, the author analyses the origins of Judaism in the light of more recent scholarship. The result is a work that will become a standard point of reference in its field, and will be of great interest to the general reader as well as the specialist.

1

The nature of polytheism

Max Weber adopted the concept of ‘ideal-type’ as a basic element of his sociological method. The so-called ‘ideal-type’ is an intellectual construct in which one brings together all the characteristic features of a given cultural phenomenon, thereby defining its basic nature.¹ Let us therefore assemble the characteristic features of polytheism so that it can be meaningfully compared with ancient Judaism.

Polytheism² entails a good deal more than worshipping many gods instead of only one. The most fundamental characteristic of polytheistic religions is that the gods do not reign supreme. Throughout we find them dominated by a higher order, a supradivine impersonal force to which they always remain subject. The superordinate power assumes diverse forms. However, it is best known to Western readers as ‘fate,’ the Greek moira, which not only predetermines the destiny of men, but of gods as well.³ The inexorable power of moira over men is most clearly expressed in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex. Oedipus kills his father in accordance with the oracle, and this despite the father’s efforts to foil the prophecy by abandoning Oedipus in his infancy. In the end, it is not known whether the oracle was fulfilled despite the precautions taken or because of them. Fate had its way.

No less inexorable is the power of moira over the gods. In Greek mythology Zeus is the supreme ruler. His power is greater than that of all the other deities combined. Yet he is neither omnipotent nor omniscient. Other gods can oppose and deceive him, and fate is so powerful that Zeus is helpless before it. He laments that he cannot save his own son from the death fate has decreed. It is simply not within his or any other god’s power ‘to avoid the fate that is ordained’.⁴

In the religions of the Far East, one may also discern a supradivine, impersonal force. In both Confucianism and Taoism it is this force that ensures the regularity and felicitous order of the world. Among the Hindus there is the ‘notion of a supradivine and cosmic all-unity, superordinate to the gods and alone independent of the senseless change and transitoriness of the entire phenomenal world’.⁵

Directly related to the supradivine are mythology and magic, two additional characteristic elements of polytheistic religion. The ancient Greeks, not atypical in this regard, ‘did not believe that the gods created the universe. It was the other way about: the universe created the gods. Before there were gods heaven and earth had been formed.’⁶ From Hesiod’s Theogony we learn of the origin of the gods and from Homer’s epics we learn about their own adventures and their relations with men. In Greek as in other mythologies there are circumstances in which human beings gain the ability, by means of magic, to influence, control and even coerce the gods. What makes this possible is the existence of the supradivine, impersonal force which the magicians have learned to manipulate. Hence, the gods are not only subordinate to a superior force and the creatures rather than the creators of the first forms of being, they may also be coerced and made to do the bidding of human magicians.

That is not all. The deities are literally dependent upon human beings in several fundamental respects; for they derive their nourishment from the offerings of the sacrificial cult. They are also dependent creatures in that they not only lust for one another, but for humans as well. Humans may also achieve divine status (apotheosis), and short of this they may become heroes and demigods. Finally we learn from the mythologies of the world that gods war among themselves and that they ultimately represent two independent domains, such as good and evil, light and darkness.

These, then, appear to be the basic, constituent elements of polytheism which may be inferred from a survey of the world’s mythologies. For our purposes the important question is what form these elements had assumed in the ancient Near East.

THE RELIGIONS OF MESOPOTAMIA

Sumeria is the most ancient of the known societies and cultures of the Near East. The Sumerians were a non-Semitic people who invented the cuneiform script. Among the tablets unearthed in several excavations, there is a large number dated about 1750 BC, inscribed with epics and myths as well as other literary compositions. Six of the nine epic tales which have been restored recount the feats of three great Sumerian heroes: Enmerkar, Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh, who may have lived in the fourth or third millennium BC. The three remaining tales tell of the destruction of Kur, the primeval monster who has his counterpart in the Babylonian goddess Tiamat, the Hebrew Leviathan and the Greek Typhon.⁷

What these epics, myths and hymns clearly reveal are several basic elements of polytheism besides the existence of a pantheon. The Sumerian cosmogonic and creation myths trace the origin of the universe to the primeval sea. This was the first form of being. The primeval sea begot heaven and earth, gods conceived in human form and united in a cosmic mountain. Heaven (An) the male and earth (Ki) the female then begot the air god (Enlil) who separated heaven from earth and carried off his mother Ki. Following this, man was created and civilization established. We learn from this literature that a human hero, Gilgamesh, could come to the aid of a goddess (Inanna) and that a mortal could cohabit with her.⁸ The Sumerian universe included a nether world, an autonomous and dangerous domain inhabited by dead heroes and shades; and the most fundamental of the polytheistic elements, a supradivine force, is also evident in this literature.

In a poem dealing with Enlil’s creation of the pickaxe, we read that his decrees are unalterable once they have been issued. The decrees, partaking of the supradivine, can be appropriated and employed by a god, but they remain stronger than he and independent of him.⁹ That the decrees of fate are hypostatized forces is clear from the fact that while one god may have them in his charge, another god may steal and lay hold of them. We read, for instance, that the queen of heaven, Inanna, who wishes to increase her city’s prosperity, travels to Eridu, the ancient seat of Sumerian culture, where Enki, the lord of wisdom, dwells. Enki controls all the decrees that are essential to civilization. Charmed by Inanna, he becomes happy with drink and agrees to present her with more than 100 decrees or me’s, which she loads onto the boat of heaven making off with her precious cargo. But when the effects of the beer have worn off, Enki, discovering that the me’s are not in their usual place, calls his servant Isimud who reminds his master that he himself had presented them to his daughter Inanna. Enki at once orders Isimud to overtake her and to restore the precious cargo of me’s. With the aid of sea monsters Isimud several times attempts to seize the boat of heaven. But Ninshubur, her vizier, rescues her each time until the boat arrives at Erech safe and sound. There she is joyously received by the inhabitants and the decrees are unloaded one by one.¹⁰

Another myth concerns itself with the flood-story, one of the oldest prototypes of the Genesis legend. Ziusudra, the Sumerian counterpart of the biblican Noah, is a pious king who hears the voice of a deity informing him of the divine assembly’s decision to destroy mankind by means of a deluge. The next part of the text, which instructs Ziusudra to build a giant boat with which to save himself and others, is missing. When the text continues, it relates that after the flood of seven days and nights, the sun god Utu arrived to light and warm the earth and that Ziusudra offered him a sacrifice of oxen and sheep. In the final lines we learn of Ziusudra’s deification. He receives ‘life like a god’ and enters the divine paradise.¹¹

In the myths of the Akkadians (the Babylonians and Assyrians), which are largely derived from Sumeria, we find the same basic elements of polytheism. In Akkad, too, it is the primordial oceans, Tiamat and Apsu, that exist at the very beginning, long before heaven and earth are created. Then several generations of gods are born, including Ea, the god of wisdom. Apsu and Tiamat are so distressed by the continued clamour of the deities that Apsu decides to destroy them. Ea, however, succeeds in preventing this by killing Apsu with the aid of a magical incantation. Ea’s wife then gives birth to Marduk, a great god who soon demonstrates his courage. He kills Tiamat who with the assistance of renegade gods and vicious monsters, had been bent on avenging the death of her husband. Splitting Tiamat in two, Marduk then proceeds to create heaven and earth from her huge corpse. Following this, Marduk with the co-operation of his father Ea creates mankind from the blood of the rebel god Kingu, who had led Tiamat’s hostile host.

The Akkadian like the Sumerian myths also reveal two autonomous domains, antagonistic to each other. There is a nether world where at first the goddess Ereshkigal reigned supreme and where after her unsuccessful struggle with the god Nergal, she reigns jointly with him as his queen.¹²

Evidence for the belief in a supradivine force, the Akkadian equivalent of the Greek moira and the Sumerian me’s, may also be seen in these myths. One concerns itself with the Zu bird, a monstrous being which in its lust for power had stolen the Tablets of Fate, thus gaining sovereignty over the gods until he was slain by a courageous deity.¹³ The existence of this super-ordinate force more powerful than the gods is what makes it possible for mortals to wield great magical powers. Adapa, a man, utters a curse which effectively breaks the wings of the south wind, so that it ceases to blow for seven days. Thus the mythologies of Mesopotamia disclose the basic attributes of polytheism, including the concept of an objective impersonal force which controls the entire universe and which is superior to all other forms of being.

EGYPTIAN RELIGION

In Egyptian mythology there is also clear evidence for the belief in the existence of a supradivine force, principle, ‘law,’ or essence. The Egyptians referred to this force as Maat. The word means ‘truth’ or ‘justice,’ but it also points to the cosmic principle responsible for order, stability, harmony and security. It has been present from the very beginning – perhaps eternally – and it is the unchanging essence to which everything else is subordinate.¹⁴

It is this principle or ‘essence’ which serves as the foundation of pagan magic. By partaking of it, the human magician acquires power over men and gods. One finds that the Egyptian magician not only demands the aid of the gods, he also frequently speaks as though he were a god himself. There are instances in which a god grants his assistance as a gift if the magician addresses him in the correct terms. However, the magician can also compel the deity to do his bidding by means of threats. Here is an example:

Oh, ye gods of the horizon! Verily, if ye desire that Atum (your lord) should live, that ye may anoint yourselves with oil, that ye may put on garments, that ye may receive your food; then take his hand and establish him in the Field of Food. If, however, thou wilt not ferry the boat to him . . . then will he tear the hair off thy head.¹⁵

The magician also threatens the universe if he remains unsatisfied: ‘then Re shall not ascend into heaven, but the Nile shall ascend into heaven, and live upon truth, and Re shall descend into the water and live upon fish.’¹⁶ In other instances the magician announces that he knows the great secret of the gods, their names in which their power resides. The divine names partake of something more powerful than the deities themselves, and therefore can be employed by the magician to coerce them. Even the gods themselves have recourse to magic in order to influence their fate.

The Egyptians gave the name neter to a supreme power which they believed created much of the universe. What the word precisely means is not clear to specialists. Alongside the neter were a number of entities called neteru, universally translated by Egyptologists as ‘gods.’ Super-natural, yet finite beings, they were endowed by the Egyptians with human passions of every kind. What is more, they were mortal, and could be hunted, snared, killed, roasted and eaten.

Even the great god Ra possessed all the weaknesses and frailties of mortal men. This is what we learn from the myth of Ra and Isis, which opens with these words: ‘Now Isis was a woman who possessed words of power.’¹⁷ Isis, originally a mortal, aspires to become a goddess by laying hold of the sacred name of the great god, Ra. He is described as old, dribbling at the mouth and with his spittle falling upon the ground. Seizing the opportunity, Isis kneads the spittle with the earth, and forms a sacred serpent in the shape of a spear, which she then lays on the ground where the great god was wont to take his daily walk. He is bitten by the serpent and cries out, the flame of life departing from him. Delirious with pain he recounts the details of his biography saying, among other things, ‘my father and my mother uttered my name; but it hath been hidden within me by him that begot me, who would not that the words of power of any seer should have dominion over me.’¹⁸ He then concludes by proclaiming that he has been stung, he knows not by what, whether by fire or by water, and he calls for the children of the gods with their healing words. But while the gods come to him only in tears, Isis comes with her ‘healing words and with her mouth full of the breath of life, with her enchantments which destroy sickness, and with her words of power which make the dead to live’.¹⁹ She then informs him that he has been bitten by a serpent and that she shall heal him.

But first she requests that he tell her his name. Instead of doing so, he relates in detail the objects of his creation: the heavens, the earth, the mountains, the water, the sea, etc. and ...