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May 16, 2008
Hazon Gabriel, Rephaim and an Ugaritic Text
I was going to write something about how an Ugaritic text (KTU 1.20 ii 5-7a) might inform the current discussion of the Hazon Gabriel inscription but N. T. Wrong did it for me.
If you don't know what this is about there are several places you can look including an article in Haaretz. The bottom line is that a recently published text written on a stone may indicate a three-day period between the death and the resurrection of a messianic figure. The Hebrew text was published last year by Ada Yardeni and Binyamin Elitzur (“Document: A First-Century BCE Prophetic Text Written on a Stone; First Publication,” Cathedra 123 (2007): 155–66 [in Hebrew]) and recently commented upon by Israel Knohl (“By Three Days, Live: Messiahs, Resurrection, and Ascent to Heaven in Hazon Gabriel," The Journal of Religion, 88:2 [April], 2008, 147-158).
The text is from the 1st century BCE or the very early part of the 1st century CE. No, the messiah in this text is not Jesus but Knohl speculates about who it might have been. Sure, the inscription is intrinsically interesting, there are many things to be learned from it, and from Knohl's paper, but it is not news that Christianity was born in a cultural context that incorporated many messianic themes with which it interacted and some of which it borrowed to tell its own story. I likely won't have much more to say on this subject since N. T. Wrong stole my thunder. After all, this area of study is not one of my normal abnormal interests.
Posted by Duane Smith at May 16, 2008 2:10 PM | Read more on Religion |
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Comments
Sorry for stealing your thunder, Baal.
I was reading Spronk, who translates KTU 1.43 1-5 as “When Athtart of Khurri enters the pit of the house of the king: serve a banquet in the house of the star-gods. Marjoram of death, a garment and a chemise, a neckpiece of gold, food for a three days journey.”
Do you think he's got line 5 right?
Posted by: N. T. Wrong at May 16, 2008 3:34 PM
This is a puzzling passage that I haven't puzzled over it nearly as much as I should. I guess I would prefer Pardee's translation (Ritual and Cult at Ugarit, p.71), "(1) As Athhartu-Churri enters the 'mound' (-room) (2) of the palace; put on a feast in the temple of the (3) Star Gods. As a tarumatu-offering: (4) a garment and a tunic, a ušpģt-garment, (5) three (shekels of) gold (in the form of) traveler's (6) scale." (I've goofed around with the names to keep from using a special font.) I'd need to spend a lot more time with this text to be able to say much more. I do think mzn at the end of line 5 is best understood as "scale" or "weight." While this is a ritual text, I think lines 5 and 6 (and several others in this text) are best understood in the light of scribal conventions commonly seen in administrative texts. By the way, Pardee takes this text to be prescriptive rather than descriptive and I think he is correct about that.
Posted by: Duane at May 16, 2008 4:35 PM
I do think mzn at the end of line 5 is best understood as "scale" or "weight."
I was originally going to include KTU 1.43 in my post on 3-day journeying, given Spronk's translation. But, when I read the Ugaritic through in KTU, I started to have my doubts - as a first impression. At the very least, it's an unclear one.
The other accounts of rephaim and gods journeying are, however, much more convincing.
Pardee takes this text to be prescriptive rather than descriptive and I think he is correct about that.
How does one discern these things? From the overall context and highly subjective assessment of what seems to fit best? (Or from a myth & ritual bias? - hehe.) ...
Posted by: N. T. Wrong at May 16, 2008 5:51 PM
On the question of how to distinguish between prescriptive and descriptive ritual texts, Pardee, at least, would not see it as a subjective issue at all. He cites both grammatical and structural criteria. I think the best discussion of his views on this can be found in his Les texts rituels, Ras Shamra - Ougarit XII, starting on page 189 but his does outline his criteria on page 25 of Ritual and Cult at Ugarit. Truthfully, I think there is a subjective element in some of this but it certainly is a lot more than an uninformed guess.
Posted by: Duane at May 16, 2008 7:15 PM
I had a peek at his criteria in Ritual and Cult. There's some workable criteria there. When the verbal forms are generally distinguishable, that would work. If the the chronological indicators are clear, prescription would clearly be the best conclusion. And 'laconic formulation' is less subjective than it might be, if you consider the general tone of many of these texts together.
Thanks.
Posted by: N. T. Wrong at May 16, 2008 8:35 PM
i found your blog on a search to track down the FULL text in Hebrew and English of Hazon Gavriel. Please provide me a link to it if you know of one, or email the text in whatever format to Mikhah@gmail.com. Thanks either way, but loads of thanks if you can help :)
Posted by: Micah at July 7, 2008 5:33 PM
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