by
Damien F. Mackey
“It was the twelfth year of the reign
of Nebuchadnezzar, who
ruled over the Assyrians in the great
city of Nineveh.
In those days Arphaxad ruled over the
Medes in Ecbatana”.
Judith 1:1
Introduction
Although the Book of Judith immediately (1:1) introduces us to a
real historical event in a real historical era, the names in their present form
greatly confuse the issue and obscure the history.
It was indeed the 12th year of a Great King who ruled
over the Assyrians in the city of Nineveh. But this king was Sennacherib, an
Assyrian monarch.
It was apparently common for the ancients (Greco-Romans) to become
confused about Sennacherib. For, as we learned from an expert in:
Sobna (Shebna) the High Priest
Dr. Stephanie Dalley of Oxford University’s
Oriental Institute and author of the fascinating book, The Mystery of the
Hanging Garden of Babylon, has explained that the ancients commonly
confused Sennacherib of Nineveh with Nebuchednezzar of Babylon.
Perhaps complicating matters even further was the argument that I
put forward in my university thesis:
A Revised History
of the Era of King Hezekiah of Judah
and its Background
that Sennacherib was to be ‘folded’ with Nebuchednezzar I, a
powerful ruler of Babylon. Whilst I think that this scenario may have a lot
going for it, as more recently developed in my:
Bringing New Order to Mesopotamian History and Chronology
- and had thought at the time of my writing the thesis that this was
the reason why Sennacherib was differently named as “Nebuchadnezzar” in the
Book of Judith - I would now think it more likely that Dr. Dalley’s explanation
of name ‘confusion’ is the better one in this case.
And I would apply this same comment to those other names in Judith
1:1: “… Arphaxad … Medes … Ecbatana”.
And again to the name, “Holofernes”, in Judith 2:4,
etc.
That the ancients had also become confused about the
“Medes” (“Media”) and “Ecbatana” is apparent from the chaotic geography
pertaining to these names in the Book of Tobit. See my:
A Common Sense Geography of the Book of Tobit
“Arphaxad …
Ecbatana”
“Arphaxad” makes perfect sense in the context of King Sennacherib of
Assyria’s 12th year as Merodach-baladan. And this necessitates that
the city over which “Arphaxad” ruled, designated “Ecbatana”, must in fact be
Babylon over which city Merodach-baladan ruled.
I explained this in my thesis (Volume Two, pp. 37-38, 40):
“Twelfth year”. We are by now well familiar
(e.g. from Chapter 6, pp. 163-164)
with the fact that Sargon II (my Sennacherib), king of Assyria, had, in his “twelfth year”, successfully waged an eastern war against a stubborn
opponent, Merodach-baladan. Sargon tells us:1237 “In my twelfth year of reign (Merodach-baladan) .... For 12 years, against the will (heart) of the gods, he held sway over Babylon ...”.
1237 D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia,
vol. II, # 31.
Moreover, I went on to propose
in that same volume, in Chapter 7, that the so-called ‘Middle’ Babylonian king, Nebuchednezzar I, was in fact Sargon II/Sennacherib as ruler of Babylon. Sennacherib in fact began to rule Babylon even before his rule over Assyria had commenced.1238
This, if correct, would immediately account for one of [Book of Judith’s] BOJ
most controversial details, having a king named ‘Nebuchadnezzar’ ruling over the Assyrians
at Nineveh!
Given this premise, then BOJ’s Arphaxad, with
whom the Assyrian king fought in his Year 12, can only be Merodach-baladan of Babylon (cf. 2 Kings 20:12; Isaiah 39:1), whom I have suggested in Chapter 7 (p. 183) may have been the actual brother
of Sargon II. Likely, then, this was a civil war between two mighty kings of Assyrian stock. Merodach-baladan’s rule over Chaldea and the Chaldeans (see p. 40 below) seems to be reflected in the name, ‘Arphaxad’ (Ur-pa-chesed), i.e., ‘Ur of the Chaldees’. And that is confirmed
by what we are told in verse 6: “Thus, many nations joined the forces of the Chaldeans”, including the “Elymeans” (Elamites), perennial allies of Babylon against Assyria.
Thus we
can probably
now
isolate, as
copyists’ mistakes,
“Medes” and “Ecbatana”
in 1:1, and also the associated “Ragau” mentioned in 1:5. Arphaxad/Merodach-baladan did not ‘rule over the Medes’,
at least not primarily, as the current translations of BOJ 1:1 would have it. And this seems to be underlined by the fact that verse 6 identifies his army as Chaldean, without any mention here of the Medes.
….
(ii) “Ecbatana”
This problematical name element will turn out to be, as I suggested on the previous page, extremely
complex. In 1:1 it would appear to stand for one of Merodach-baladan’s key cities:
either Babylon or Dur-Yakin
(Tell Lahm) in Sumer. And that indeed is surely the case further on, in 1:14, where we read that the Assyrian king, who had just defeated Arphaxad
in battle, “took possession of [Arphaxad’s] towns and came to Ecbatana, captured
its towers, plundered its markets, and turned its glory into disgrace”.
Or, “its beauty into shame”,
which, according to Charles, is “a play on words in the Hebrew ….”1245 This last was in the Assyrian king’s “seventeenth year”, as opposed to the first war BOJ records
that Nebuchadnezzar waged against Arphaxad, which was in the former’s
“twelfth year” (cf. 1:1, 5).
We can probably however discount Dur-Yakin for “Ecbatana”, since - as
discussed already in Chapter 6 (on p. 165) - Sargon II claimed to have destroyed that city in his Year 14: “Dûr-Iakini, [Merodach-baladan’s] stronghold, I burned with fire; its high defences I destroyed,
I devastated ...”. Thus Dur-Yakin, whilst still relevant
in the Assyrian
king’s Year 12 (cf. BOJ 1:1), had ceased to be relevant
by Year 17 (1:14). So I take Arphaxad’s “Ecbatana” (1:1), seriously assaulted by Nebuchadnezzar in his Year 17 (1:14),
to indicate Babylon.
[End of quote]
So, finally, I think that we may be in a position to disentangle that problematical opening verse (1:1) of the
Book of Judith, which can be re-cast
as follows, with my proposed alterations added in square brackets:
It was the twelfth
year of the reign of [Sennacherib], who ruled
over the Assyrians in the great city of Nineveh. In those days [Merodach-baladan]
ruled over the [Chaldeans] in [Babylon] ….
No comments:
Post a Comment