Deuteronomy 28 and Tell Tayinat

Verbum et Ecclesia

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Deuteronomy 28 and Tell Tayinat
 
Creator Steymans, Hans U.
 
Subject Theology; Old Testament; History; Assyriology; Cultural Studies; Law Neo-Assyrian Empire; Deuteronomy; Loyalty Oath; Covenant Theology
Description The discovery of Esarhaddon’s Succession Treaty (EST) at Tell Tayinat confirms the Assyrian application of this text on western vassals and suggests that the oath tablet was given to Manasseh of Judah in 672 BC, the year in which the king of Assyria had all his empire and vassals swear an oath or treaty promising to adhere to the regulations set for his succession, and that this cuneiform tablet was set up for formal display somewhere inside the temple of Jerusalem. The finding of the Tell Tayinat tablet and its elaborate curses of §§ 53–55 that invoke deities from Palestine, back up the claim of the 1995 doctoral thesis of the author of this article that the impressive similarities between Deuteronomy 28:20–44 and curses from § 56 of the EST are due to direct borrowing from the EST. This implies that these Hebrew verses came to existence between 672 BC and 622 BC, the year in which a Torah scroll was found in the temple of Jerusalem, causing Josiah to swear a loyalty oath in the presence of Yhwh. This article aimed to highlight the similarities between EST § 56 and Deuteronomy 28 as regards syntax and vocabulary, interpret the previously unknown curses that astoundingly invoke deities from Palestine, and conclude with a hypothesis of the composition of the book of Deuteronomy.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2013-10-17
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Comparison Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Text
Format text/html application/octet-stream text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ve.v34i2.870
 
Source Verbum et Ecclesia; Vol 34, No 2 (2013); 13 pages 2074-7705 1609-9982
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/870/1867 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/870/1868 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/870/1869 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/870/1866
 
Coverage Levantine Coast; Syria-Palestine; Mesopotamia; Israel; Jerusalem 7th century BC Tell Taynat excavations; Cuneiform Tablet; Temple building; Treaty curses; Deuteronomy; Neo-Assyrian legal texts; Vassal treaties; Loyalty oaths; Esarhaddon; Hezekiah, Josiah
Rights Copyright (c) 2013 Hans U. Steymans https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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