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May 16, 2009
A Long Time Passing
A while ago, I wrote a post on an Ugaritic tablet containing a prescription for the treatment of horse constipation and ischuria and its relationship to a similar prescription in 16th century CE Greek and Latin documents. As I said then, several scholars have noted an important milestone in the ~2800 year transmission and evolution of this prescription but huge gaps remain.
Well, I ran across another case of two accounts that have some kind of relationship. They are both accounts of prayers and therefore have an oral aspect. Approximately a thousand years separate them. There are no intervening exemplars. At least there are none that anyone has noted.
Here is the older of the two in my tentative translation,
Nusku, friend of Shamash, you are the judge. Judge my case - this dream that came to me during the evening, middle (or) dawn watch, which you understand (but) I do not understand. If (it is) good, may its good luck not leave me. If (it is) miserable, may its misery not afflict me. It shall not be mine! Like this reed (that) is plucked up, to its place it cannot be replaced and like this hem on my garment when torn off from my garment, after it has been torn off it cannot be replaced. This miserable dream shall not affect me. It shall not be mine. (That) which came (to me), in the evening, middle (or) early morning watch, shall not affect me. It shall not be mine. [K. 8583:3-12; 79-7-8, 77:rev '1-'18 and KAR 252 I : 28-50.]
The most complete of the three tablets documenting this prayer comes from the Ashurbanipal library. As far as they are datable, the other two are about the same age.
Now here is the second prayer in Epstein's translation,
Sovereign of the Universe, I am Thine and my dreams are Thine. I have dreamt a dream and I do not know what it is. Whether I have dreamt about myself or my companions have dreamt about me, or I have dreamt about others, if they are good dreams, confirm them and reinforce them like the dreams of Joseph, and if they require a remedy, heal them, as the waters of Marah were healed by Moses, our teacher, and as Miriam was healed of her leprosy and Hezekiah of his sickness, and the waters of Jericho by Elisha. As thou didst turn the curse of the wicked Balaam into a blessing, so turn all my dreams into something good for me'. [Note references omitted]
This second prayer is from the Babylonian Talmud, Berakoth 55b. The text attributes it to Amemar, Mar Zutra or R. Ashi (c. 400 CE.) as something said that the other two had likely not heard.
Here we have two prayers, separated each from the other by about a thousand years. They appear to have some relationship each to the other. Do they have a common origin or are they only separate, independent, products of shared cognitive processes? The historian in me prefers the former explanation; they have a common oral if not literary origin. The Akkadian prayer might even be the direct ancestor of the Talmudic prayer but this is only one way that they might share in a common tradition. The pathway from a common origin or from the older to the younger is lost perhaps forever.
For the record, I am far from the first to note this parallel. I didn't even discover it on my own. I think Oppenheim was the first notice it.
Posted by Duane Smith at May 16, 2009 2:16 PM | Read more on Akkadian |
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