Florian Kreuzer, «Der Antagonist: Der Satan in der Hebräischen Bibel – eine bekannte Größe?», Vol. 86 (2005) 536-544
Considering the figure of N+#) in the Hebrew Bible, the attempt to reconstruct a
figure which already existed in the imaginary world of Ancient Israel in biblical
times must fail. Zech 3 and Job 1-2 obstruct the development of a precise image
out of YHWH’s environment. The texts achieve that by their inherent vagueness
of description. For this reason the antagonistic element necessary for the dramatic
plot of both texts does not consist in an already existing, known being. It is
rather named by the abstract term ‘the opponent’, in Hebrew "N+#)".
210 Ruth Fidler
Babylonian king Nabonidus (1), this occurs in a dream. The other
examples, as arranged below, reveal a growing distance from dreams.
(1) Adda-guppi (mother of Nabonidus): In her “Autobiographyâ€(69)
the queen-mother, a great devotee of the moon god Sin and his coterie
(Ningal, Nusku and Sadarnunna), recounts her devotional acts and her
petition that the moon god return to his temple in Harran, apparently
after it fell into the hands of the Babylonians and the Medes (610
BCE). The response came to her “in a dreamâ€: “Sin, the king of all the
gods put his hands on me saying ‘the gods will return on account of
you! I will entrust your son Nabonidus with the divine residence
of Harran; he will (re)build the temple Ehulhul and complete this
task […]’†(70).
(2) Gudea, (3) Ashurbanipal, and possibly (4) Dan’el: The reports
of divine encounters featuring these figures were cited above, under a.
In the first two cases divine physical gestures towards the addressees
were noted: Ningirsu “briefly touching†Gudea in his incubated temple
vision and Ishtar clasping and protecting Ashurbanipal in the night
vision of the πabrû-priest. The case of Dan’el is less certain since the
text earlier restored “[by the hand] Il takes his servant†(71) was later
reread “El took [a cup] “ (72).
The divine hand gestures towards the following theophany
recipients seem even more remote from dreams proper:
(5) Hattushili III (13th century BCE) relates in §4 (I:35-44) of his
so-called “Apology†(73) that when summoned “to the wheel†(ominous
(69) For the text (Nab H1B) see C.J. GADD, “The Harran Inscriptions of
Nabonidusâ€, AnSt 8 (1958) 35-92, esp. 48-49. On its characterization as “fictional
autobiography†cf. T. LONGMAN, Fictional Akkadian Autobiography. A generic
and comparative study (Winona Lake, IN 1991) 97-103.
(70) Ibid. II 5-11. The quotation follows the translation in ANESTP, 561.
(71) (KTU) 1.17 I:35 thus rendered by H.L. Ginsberg in ANET, 150. Cp. C.
VIROLLEAUD, La légende phénicienne de Danel (Mission de Ras Shamra 1; Paris
1936) 187 (= IID 1:35).
(72) MARGALIT, The Ugaritic Poem of AQHT, 118. For the complete
emendation proposal see D. PARDEE, “An Emendation in the Ugaritic AQHT
Textâ€, JNES 36 (1977) 53-56. Pardee refers to earlier proposals to replace “handâ€
by “cup†in publications by J.J. Jackson and H.P. Dressler as well as by S.E.
Loewenstamm. Though widely followed the emendation can perhaps be subject
to some reconsideration, but this cannot be undertaken here.
(73) KUB I 1 + duplicates; H. OTTEN, Die Apologie Hattusilis III. Das Bild der
Überlieferung (Studien zu den Boªazköy-Texten 24; Wiesbaden 1981) 6-7. The
following quotations are from Th.P.J. van den Hout’s translation based on Otten’s
edition in The Context of Scripture (eds. W. HALLO - K. L. YOUNGER, Jr.) (Leiden
1997) I, 200. Cf. also A. MOUTON, “L’importance des rêves dans l’existence de