Can the Battle of Thermopylae be Re-fitted into the Judith Drama?

If "King Xerxes [Was] Clearly Based on King Sennacherib":

see: http://sargonsennacherib-amaic.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/king-xerxes-clearly-based-on-king.html

whose massive Assyrian army was defeated through the agency of the Simeonite heroine, Judith,

see http://hdl.handle.net/2123/5973

A Revised History of the Era of King Hezekiah of Judah and its Background

Damien F. Mackey

and if Collins is right that the Spartans arose from the tribe of Simeon:

Collins Believes Spartans Were ‘Missing Simeonites’

http://kinghezekiahofjudah3.wordpress.com/2013/05/07/collins-believes-spartans-were-missing-simeonites/

then the improbable 'Battle of Thermopylae' must be in actuality a vague (and obviously fictitious) recalling of the real life drama between the forces of Sennacherib and the northern (e.g. Simeonite) Israelites (Jews).




But what about the female factor coupled with the beheading of an Alpha male?



She is Queen Tomyris, who has so often been paired with Judith in literature and painting, e.g.:
http://vidimus.org/issues/issue-45/books/

The subject was popular in the late Middle Ages when Jael’s triumph over Sisera, together with the Biblical story of Judith killing Holofernes (Book of Judith), and the ancient Greek story of the Massagetae queen, Tomyris killing the Persian emperor, Cyrus, were regarded as prefigurations of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s victory over the devil. The associations are depicted in a Flemish manuscript, Le Miroir de l’Humaine Salvation, made in 1455 for Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, now in the University of Glasgow.


and:


Dante's Purgatorio -- Canto XII (http://www.italianstudies.org/comedy/Purgatorio12.htm):

....

Shown were the sons of King Sennacherib

Felling him at prayers in the temple

And then leaving him there slain on the floor.

55 Shown was the downfall and the cruel killing

Tomyris enacted when she said to Cyrus,

"For blood you thirsted and with blood I sate you!"

Shown were the Assyrians in full rout,

After Holofernes had been murdered,

60 And also his remains amid the slaughter.

....

and (http://en.convdocs.org/docs/index-33608.html?page=15):

Judith or Tomyris of Scythia
Matteo di Giovanni belonged to the same generation of painters as Francesco di Giorgio and Neroccio, and his fame would have made him an obvious candidate in any attempt to show off the skills of all the leading artists of Siena (note 136). He, like Neroccio and Francesco, had contributed designs for the Duomo pavement Sibyls. Moreover, he had actually been Orioli’s master, providing another route for the younger painter’s cooption. It seems possible that he was involved at an early stage, but the cutting of the panel and the loss of most of the background with its narrative elements make it more difficult to estimate its place in the chronology of the series. Stylistically the painting seems to belong to the very end of Matteo’s career. The panel may have been cut partly because the lower part was in poor condition, as was probably the case with its neighbour, Artemisia, but it is just possible such a drastic reduction may also have been an attempt to convert the image of Tomyris into the more saleable Judith. The iconography of both is likely to be consistent: the figure brandishing her weapon and holding a severed head by the hair – the head in this case is noticeably undersized and must be to some extent emblematic.


In addition to the identifying inscription, the cutting has eliminated episodes which would have further defined the figure. The story of Judith is wellknown. The widowed Queen Tomyris, having defeated Cyrus, the invading Persian king, dipped his severed head in a wineskin of blood. The row of tents on the right implies a military encampment – a feature of both stories.

....

Prophet Amos or a Jonah?

 

So You See Yourself as a Prophet?

An Amos or a Jonah?

by Vernard Eller

This work may be freely reproduced and distributed provided that that no changes are made, no revenues are collected beyond the nominal cost of media, and credit is given to the author. Any other use requires the written permission of the author. Citing this material on other Internet sites is encouraged, but is to be done only by providing a hypertext reference to this file on this server.

Bible selections are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 (NRSV) by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

With some regularity today's social activists of the Christian Left appeal to the Old Testament prophets as precedent for their confrontational protest-witness against the powers. I here want to suggest that we will be in better position to evaluate that claim if we first decide whether, by "Old Testament prophet," we mean Amos or Jonah. There's a difference.
To launch the inquiry I now offer parallel, diagrammed sentences characterizing the work and message of Amos and of Jonah (conveniently ignoring Obadiah, whose book accidentally is sandwiched between the two we want to compare):

	AMOS	JONAH
1	THE HOLY GOD	The Tandem of HOLY GOD and HOLY-JEW JONAH
2	acts in weeping judgment	acts in dry-eyed condemnation of
3	UNHOLY HUMANITY	UNHOLY NINEVITES
4	to bring it to his Wine Festival	to bring them to Destruction

Amos (1)

Both Amos and Jonah betray a certain reticence regarding their callings--though the significance is entirely different in the two cases. First, regarding Amos, notice that he is not so much as named in the sentence-diagram pertaining to him. That is at his own request:

I am no prophet, nor a prophet's son; (Amos 7:14a)

"It would be wrong to name me along with the Holy God--as though I were somehow his colleague, confidant, or representative."

but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees,, and the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, "Go, prophesy to my people Israel." (Amos 7:14b-15)

"If you insist on naming me in your sentence, it should be down at No. 3, under 'Unholy Humanity.' God did commandeer my mouth--but I deserve no credit for that nor does it in any way affect my status. It clearly was not the case that he chose me because I was a 'prophet,' a holy man, an authority on holiness, or anything of the sort. I certainly hope you haven't been hearing me as thought I think I have the right and capability of making moral judgments on peoples, kings, and nations--showing them where they are wrong and telling them what they will have to do to get right in my eyes. I'm no prophet--nor even as much as a son of one."

Jonah (1)

Jonah, on the other hand, sees no problem at all in being identified with the Lord God of Israel. In fact, particularly in the face of no-good pagans, he is positively eager to so identify himself (whether God agrees or not):

I am a Hebrew .... I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. (Jon. 1:9)

Well, yes, he was stretching it a bit as to how much he worships the Lord; yet it doesn't hurt to strike a little fear into dumb pagans by letting them know with just whom they are dealing. And thus Jonah's reticence regarding his prophetic calling comes at a quite different point from Amos'. Jonah had a premonition (correct, as it proved) that the Lord might not let him be as big, tough, and damning a prophet as he had in mind for himself to be.
"What kind of a God of 'holy justice' do you think you are? --Going soft on these Ninevite devils just when we were set to really lay it in 'em."

Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. (Jon. 4:2)

"And for that matter, just what kind of a 'prophet' do you think this leaves me looking like? Nothing doing. Either the word is 'Yet forty days and poof (and really mean it)--or else I quit."
Where, in the Amos sentence, appears the word "judgment," in the Jonah sentence is the word "condemnation." They are in no wise the same. When the Judge involved is the LORD, then "judgment" is but the necessary first word--the word of diagnosis as to precisely what is the sin-illness at the root of the difficulty, and this word comes first just so the next step of that "judgment" might be whatever redemptive punishment is called for in getting the problem corrected. However, completely to the contrary, "condemnation" is always a last word, after which there is nothing more to be said. Amos speaks judgment--gracious judgment.

Amos (3)

With No. 3, things fall into a true and properly theological alignment. God alone--the one true HOLY--is in the top spot; and all humans and everything that is human (Jews and Gentiles, prophets (including Amos himself), priest, and king) everything here falls equally under God's ultimately-gracious judgment.

Jonah (3)

However, the counterpart Jonah-alignment is not theological at all but is sheerly intra-human partisan politics. Although posing as a zeal for God, the business shows not a hint of the true God's ("gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and repenting of evil") actual involvement. No, the only "holy" is Jonah's holy Jewish self-righteousness and "God" but a name Jonah uses to justify his human-Jewish holy hatred of Ninevites. Under the guise of a "prophet of God," one sinful worldly (leftist) party that deems itself "holy" takes the opportunity to vent its spleen against another sinful worldly (rightist) party it has deemed "demonic." There is nothing of God in it--just political ideologies.

Amos (4)

With Amos, it turns out that--even through all the painful threat and punishment--God's actual purpose was to get people to his Wild and Wonderful Wine Festival:

The time is surely coming, says the LORD, when the one who plows shall overtake the one who reaps, and the treader of grapes the one who sows the seed;
	the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. (Amos 9:13)

Anyone who undertakes to drop a grape seed had better be prepared to leap smartly to one side to avoid having his heels clipped by the cluster-clippers coming closely behind. (Even if God's word is inerrant, I can't help but feel that Amos is exaggerating a bit.) The hills will be loaded with liquor--and the plains inevitably inundated. (I, too, feel the problem that comes with this scripture and so have initiated inquiries as to whether Amos might not permit the insertion of a not to the effect that non-alcoholic beverages will be available for pious prudes like myself.)

Jonah (4)

The very opposite of Amos, with Jonah we wind up with nothing but "grapes of wrath"--and these, too, growing fast and all over the place.
"Jonah," it is the Lord God who speaks, "you are an abomination and object of wrath to me. You are a 'prophet of God' who proclaims your own false Jingoistic Jewish Justice in place of my true justice. Because it offends your own perverted sense of righteousness, you flatly refuse to mention or to represent the grace and mercy of my righteousness. And now here you are bawling your eyes out over the loss of a dumb plant whose shade you valued--while trying to deny me the right to bewail the loss of a whole big cityful of my Ninevite children. I damn you, Jonah: if you can't bring yourself to regard Ninevites, can't you at least shed one little tear fro all those poor Ninevite cows? Amos has the grace to say he is not a prophet, yet is as true a one as they come. You have the gall to call yourself a prophet, but are as far from being one as can be."
I leave it to the readers to judge to what extent this analysis applies to those confrontational activists of the Christian Left who presently clam the status of Old Testament prophets. I will observe only that, in the tradition, being "a prophet of God" certainly is nothing a representative of the tradition takes any joy in being "speaker of judgment"; and our most honored examples were either reluctant to take on God's assignment or were on the lookout for opportunities actually to resign it. And conversely, in scripture, those who do seek the post or take satisfaction in it--these regularly turn out to be the Jonahs, Zedekiahs, Hananiahs, and other "politicians" who are in the wrong spot, doing the wrong thing, for the wrong reasons, in the service of the wrong master.

Return to The Eller Collection

....

Taken from: http://www.hccentral.com/eller1/prophet.html

Azekah Inscription Problematical for Conventional Assyriology



It leads to queries such as the following by a commentator:

 

....

 

This inscription was new to me recently and on exposure I was excited that it was written by SARGON.

The attribution to Sargon seems irrefutable. See http://cojs.org/cojswiki/The_Azekah_Inscription,_720-701_BCE

However, I notice that in some instances SENNACHERIB is touted as the writer.

 

Has any one researched this inscription sufficiently to be certain as to authorship?

 

....

 

 

AMAIC Comment:

 

If Sargon II is Sennacherib, as we believe, then there is no dilemma here at all.

Sennacherib and the Ark and Mountain of Noah



 

 

A surprising insight into the religious nature of Sennacherib comes from a Jewish tale about what happened on Sennacherib’s way back to Nineveh. The Biblical account has only these sentences:

»So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.37 And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.« (2 Kings 19:36-37)

Josephus adds: »[Sennacherib’s] own temple, called Araska« (8). The above-mentioned story comes to us through Rabbi Louis Ginzberg (1873-1953), and, presumably, originates from the Mishna tractate »Sanhedrin«.

»On his return to Assyria Sennacherib found a wooden plank, which he venerated like an idol, because it was a part of the Ark that saved Noah from the flood. He vowed that he would sacrifice his two sons if his next venture would be successful. But his sons listened to his vow. They killed their father and fled to Kardu.« (9)

This account, by the way, together with the name »Kardu« in lieu of the Biblical name »Ararat« demonstrates that Mt. Cudi in the south of today’s Turkey is to be preferred as the landing place of the Ark, over the mountain that today bears the name Ararat, since the latter is too far from the route from Jerusalem to Niniveh (10).
In the scholarly literature the term »Nisroch« is connected with an eagle-headed creature, because the words sound similar in Arabic and Persian, and these winged beings play an important role in Sennacherib’s palace in Nineveh. »Nisroch« is also connected with Noah’s dove. This may be an attempt to bring the different interpretations into harmony (11).

The fact that the veneration of a sacred object was not unusual practice in those days is illustrated by Hesekiah who destroyed Moses’ staff:

»He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.« (2 Kings 18:4)

The situation with Sennacherib, Hesekiah’s contemporary, appears to be a similar case. In the end, this worship of a relic became his doom, since it caused his sons to conspire against him.
The credibility of this story gets support from Sennacherib’s fifth military campaign, which took him to the north. In 697 BC, the Assyrian army marched to the presumed ark mountain Cudi, where several reliefs carved into the rock testify to Sennacherib’s presence.
As a result of his being stationed in the north during the reign of Sargon II, Sennacherib [AMAIC has Sargon and Sennacherib as same person] was very familiar with this region. This is his report:

»My fifth campaign took me to the warriors of Tumurru, Sharum, Ezama, Kibshu Halgidda, Kue and Kana, who wanted to throw off my yoke. Their living places were like eagles nests on the peak of Mt. Nippur a steep mountain. I set my camp at the foot of the mountain, and with my body guards and relentless warriors I stormed up to them like a wild ox. I crossed ravines, river rapids, waterfalls, and steep cliffs in my sedan. When the way became too steep I proceeded on foot. Like a young gazelle I climbed the highest peaks to pursue them. Wherever my knees found a place of rest, I sat on a rock and drank cold water from a canteen. I followed them to the peaks of the mountains and vanquished them. I took their cities and looted them. I destroyed, burned with fire, and devastated them.« (12)

The fact that Mt. Nippur is equal to Mt. Cudi is clear from the inscriptions on the reliefs at the foot of the mountain. Leonard William King (1869 – 1919) documented and translated the inscriptions. They include the account quoted above and include a few additional lines that are preserved only in fragments: He ordered that a relief be carved at the mountain’s summit, in order to immortalize the power of his god Assur. Whoever would destroy it will feel the wrath of Assur and the great gods.
The number of reliefs at the base of Mt. Cudi leads to the conclusion that this mountain had a special significance to the king. Although this campaign appears to have occurred some time after his return from Jerusalem, the acquisition of the relic may have influenced him to take possession of this place.
The cuneiform tablet library of Sennacherib’s successor Assurbanipal (669-627 BC) included a version of the famous Gilgamesh Epic. It gives an account of a king, later deified, who wanted to make a pilgrimage to the Babylonian Noah – Utnapishtim – in order to discover the secret of immortality.
If parts of the ark remained on on Mt. Cudi at that time – and there are several indications suggesting this – then this place, a mere 130 kilometers from Nineveh, must have had great religious significance.

There will always be a certain degree of speculation in the interpretation of events that occurred thousands of years ago. But the Biblical, historical, and archaeological data do not appear to be compatible with the conclusion that the beliefs of the Mesopotamian peoples are completely separate from the Israelite worship of Yahweh. Is the Bible Dictionary really correct when it states that »in most aspects, the Assyrian religion shows little difference from that of the Babylonian, from which it is derived« (13)?

....

Taken from: http://www.noah2014.com/html/121221_sennacherib_en.html

Obliteration of God Seth During 20th Dynasty

John Salverda has written:




Dear Damien,



This Easter evening I did some studying, and I thought of you

In researching the Hebrew origins of the religious ideas of Egypt, specifically the Egyptian god “Seth” (who is, in my view, derived from the Hebrew God “of” Seth). I came across this very interesting quote by the famed Prussian diplomat and scholar Christian Charles Josias Bunsen (1791–1860), in his book “God in History,” (2.34);

Bunsen says, “It is, however, a most remarkable fact, now known to us on the evidence of monumental records, that up to the thirteenth century B.C., the Typhon of the Greeks — for we learn from the inscriptions that he is identical with Set — was a great god, universally adored throughout Egypt, who confers on the sovereigns of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties the symbols of life and power. The most glorious monarch of the latter dynasty, Sethos, derives his name from this deity. But subsequently, in the course of the twentieth dynasty, he is suddenly treated as an evil demon, insomuch that his effigies and name are obliterated on all the monuments and inscriptions that could be reached. Thus the well-known Typhon-mythos, which Plutarch relates at length in his learned work on Osiris and Isis, is a truth only for the later ages. In the days of Moses, Set was reigning in all his glory.”

Furthermore, this eminent writer calls Seth "the primitive God of Northern Egypt and Palestine," and goes on to say; “Since Seth stands in the closest connexion with Osiris, who is his brother, there can be no doubt that he too was already in the time of Menes a very ancient object of adoration. He is shown to be a Semitic god by the monumental inscription relating to the campaigns of Ramses the Great (towards 1380 B.C.). ... In the last book of my own work on Egypt, it is proved that the genealogy of the Seth of Genesis, the father of Enoch (the man) must be conceived as originally running parallel with that derived from the Elohim, Adam's father.”

Regardless of his confirmation of my theory about the origin of the Egyptian god Seth, please take note of the universal obliteration of his effigies (Seth/Typhon was largely portrayed as a dragon/serpent) during the 20^th Dynasty. Could this sudden religious reform, noticed by Bunsen in the course of Egypt’s 20^th Dynasty, show a relationship to the same reform undertaken by Hezekiah who also destroyed a well-known serpent idol that was honored from the days of Moses? Could Hezekiah’s reforms have been so widespread as to include the monuments of Egypt?

Maybe there is something in this that would help you to synchronize King Hezekiah with Egypt’s 20^th Dynasty.

Anyway, I hope you and yours had a good Easter.

Abdi’ Seal Has Egyptian Style Marks

Reading, Writing, and Reflecting Steve Willis Israel's King Hoshea's Name Found on an Ancient Seal   Remember your memorized Old Testament dates? 722 B.C. come to mind? The ... Captivity . . . of . . . Israel by the . . . Assyrians? OK who was Northern Israel's last king? Hoshea! He reigned circa 731 to 722 B.C. when his nation fell. You can read about that in 2 Kings 17, and it took place during the times of Isaiah, Hosea, and Micah, who also speak of northern Israel's sin and captivity.   2700 Years Later   Recently a seal, used to stamp official documents, came to auction at Sotheby's in New York. In the "Antiquities and Islamic Works of Art," it was dated to the ninth to seventh centuries B.C. It was also there misidentified as Phoenician and estimated to bring $1200 to $1800 at auction. The pictures in the catalog were clear enough to bring more, for it was actually purchased for $80,000 in December 1993. Shlomo Moussaieff, an Israeli collector from London, had purchased it. What did he get? The royal seal of King Hoshea's servant Abdi' whose longer name was probably Obadiah (not the prophet). In this case "servant" would be like "minister" in many governments, or "secretary of . . ." in the U.S. This seal is from that 732-722 B.C. time period. It would be used to establish something as official from the king or his servant by pressing their seal into soft clay or wax. This would leave an official impression, similar in purpose as a notary's stamp does for us today. The seal was described by Andre Lemaire in the Biblical Archaeology Review: "The seal is translucent and brown carnelian or rather orange chalcedony according to an expert gemologist scaraboid in shape [like a scarab beetle spw] and perforated from top to bottom so that it might eventually be work around the neck on a string or mounted. It is one inch high, slightly over one-half inch wide and one-third inch thick" (November/December 1995, 49). There is a picture of a man walking, with his face at a profile. He is wearing a long kilt, and a short wig, and holds a scepter identified as a papyrus scepter. There are a few Egyptian-style marks, popular on many things in antiquity; notably a winged-sun where the name would normally have been. Perhaps this was especially used to curry favor with the Egyptians when Israel was trying to avoid becoming a vessel to Assyria (see 2 Kings 17:4 and Hos. 7:11). The wording, which identifies it as relating to Bible times is on both sides of the man. It reads: L'BDY `BD HWSH', "Belonging to Abdi servant of Hoshea." The style of lettering is Old Hebrew (paleo-Hebrew) and matches this period of time, as it can be compared with other inscriptions, such as the Siloam tunnel inscription in the time of Judah's king Hezekiah. In addition to God's providence, it was probably this tunnel that saved Jerusalem from Assyrian capture at the same time of Israel's fall (see 2 Kings 18: 17, 27, 31; 19:23-24; 20:20). A couple of other archaeological points. One, though the seal did have one at auction, the new owner also obtained a housing for seals, and it is believed that this may be the very housing box for the Abdi' seal. It was a 2-inch wide gold mounting that would hold the seal when in use. Both seal and housing are pictured on the cover of BAR. Secondly, Lemaire wrote of other seals in the article. One from the eighth century B.C., and was made of amethyst, and the owner's name was Habli. This Habli-seal has enough points comparison to make Lemaire think both seals were made in the very same workshop, and possibly even by the same artist. Lemaire suggested it was a shop in Samaria. Ultimately, Samaria which had become the capital of northern Israel fell to the Assyrians. Many were taken away to other lands. People from other lands were moved to Israel. Those left in the land became known as the Samaritans, and would become enemies to Judah and the Jews, even to the time of Jesus. And though history can bring us this "remnant" from the past, the Lord would pre-serve his remnant from "all Israel" such as Paul was in Christ (see Rom. 11:1-5).   Guardian of Truth XL: 6 p. 21 March 21, 1996   Taken from: http://www.truthmagazine.com/archives/volume40/GOT040074a.html

Angel Defeats Sennacherib's Army

The Destruction of Sennacherib By Lord Byron (George Gordon) 1788–1824 Lord Byron (George Gordon) The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee. Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green, That host with their banners at sunset were seen: Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown, That host on the morrow lay withered and strown. For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed; And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill, And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still! And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide, But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride; And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf, And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf. And there lay the rider distorted and pale, With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail: And the tents were all silent, the banners alone, The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown. And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail, And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal; And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord! .... Taken from: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173083