The Electronic Edition of NETS

Buy the NETS at Amazon.com





Oxford University Press has made available an electronic edition of A New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS). This electronic edition contains the final masters of A New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS).

The NETS files are in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format and they can be downloaded for free for personal and scholarly use.

The scholarly world welcomes this new English translation of the Septuagint.

HT: Sean at Primal Subversion

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: NETS, Septuagint

Dinosaurs in the Bible

I believe most Christians are honest in their attempt at explaining difficult issues that come out of the interaction between the Bible and science. However, I also believe that in their desire to be faithful to the teachings of Scriptures, people may develop answers that are not Scriptural.

Take for instance, the question asked by someone who probably is a faithful Christian who has a desire to relate her faith to the scientific evidence available to her (or him). Here is the question:

Question: Are dinosaurs mentioned in the Bible? Fossil remains prove they existed; what happened?

The answer to this question was provided by Dr. Tom Lovorn, pastor of God’s Storehouse Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia. I do not doubt the sincerity of pastor Lovorn’s answer. However, his answers are based on theories that when examined in the light of Scriptures, will be found not to be Scriptural.

Here is part of his answer:

Answer: There are two strange animals described in the last chapters of the book of Job. Even today, Bible scholars are puzzled over the behemoth in chapter 40 and the leviathan in chapter 41. As you read Job 40, you may think behemoth may have been a wooly mammoth, an elephant, or a hippo; but none of these really match behemoth’s description. It sounds like an ancient dinosaur. Stories of these lingered long after their probable destruction with the Flood.

Likewise, we’re not sure what leviathan was. Guesses are that it may have been a crocodile, a whale, or an extinct sea monster. But, if there were such a thing as a fire-breathing dragon, then chapter 41 describes one! Isaiah 27:1 supports my theory. Leviathan is also mentioned in Psalms 74 and 104. Outside of the Revelation, there are 22 biblical references to dragons. Many of these may be describing varieties of dinosaurs. Many earth scientists ascribe the demise of “prehistoric” animals to the impact of a tremendous meteor, but no crater or remains of such have been found. The Bible gives a better answer in the Biblical Flood. Genesis 1:6-7 tells of the dividing of waters below and above the firmament of earth’s atmosphere. The waters above the firmament formed a vapor canopy which would be a natural shield from the sun’s ultraviolet rays and cause a greater air pressure. Under those circumstances plants and animals could grow much larger, and giant winged reptiles could fly in heavier air.

I subscribe to the young earth age theory the Bible implies. The same archaeological evidence that proves dinosaurs existed also proves man was upon the earth then. Footprints of humans and dinosaurs appear in the same rock strata; and, at least in one instance, a man’s footprint is inside a dinosaur’s print. If, in Job 40:15, behemoths are dinosaurs as they appear to be, then that verse clearly says they were created at the same time as man, not in an earlier age.

The “canopy theory” is not biblical and does not explain the extinction of the dinosaurs. The “canopy theory” also does not explain the presence of behemoth and leviathan in the Old Testament. One of these days I will write a post on the “canopy theory” and show its many fallacies.

In the mean time, how can we best answer the question asked by this searcher of truth? First and foremost, the answer must be that dinosaurs are not mentioned in the Bible because they became extinct many years before human beings appeared on this earth.

Second, the existence of dinosaurs does not contradict the teachings of the Bible and does not take away from the truth that the God of the Bible is the creator of all things.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary


Tags: Behemoth, Dinosaurs, Flood, Leviathan

Do Re Mi

My friend John Vaughan posted this video on his blog:






More than 200 dancers performed this techno version of "Do Re Mi" in the Central Station of Antwerp on March 23, 2009, with just 2 rehearsals. The performance lasted 4 minutes starting at 08:00 AM. It is a promotional stunt for a Belgian television program looking for someone to play the leading role in the musical of "The Sound of Music". These sorts of impromptu public performances have cropped up over the past few years, and I enjoy watching the joy they create in those who aren't involved in the performance. There is something about hundreds of supposed bystanders coming together in a performance like this that really captures the hearts of people that can only be described as the joy that art brings.

Credit: Thank you to my friend John Vaughan at WorldHurdle for this information and for the description of the video.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Do Re Mi, Sound of Music

The Forgotten Faithful

The June 2009 issue of the National Geographic has an article on Palestinian Christians, “The Forgotten Faithful.”

According to the article, “Followers of Jesus for nearly 2,000 years, native Christians today are disappearing from the land where their faith was born.”

The following is an excerpt from the article:

Today native Christians in the Levant are the envoys of a forgotten world, bearing the fierce and hunted spirit of the early church. Their communities, composed of various Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant sects, have dwindled in the past century from a quarter to about 8 percent of the population as the current generation leaves for economic reasons, to escape the region's violence, or because they have relatives in the West who help them emigrate. Their departure, sadly, deprives the Levant of some of its best educated and most politically moderate citizens—the people these societies can least afford to lose.

You can read the article by visiting the National Geographic webpage.

You can watch the video by clicking here.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Palestinian Christians

A Letter to President Barack Obama

Photo: A Macedonian coin with the Greek name Alexander

Credit: Photo from Macedonia Evidence





Charles Ellwood Jones has announced at the Ancient World Bloggers Group that a group of Classical Scholars have endorsed a letter to President Barak Obama concerning a Slavic country calling itself the “Republic of Macedonia”and “the misappropriation by the government in Skopje of the most famous of Macedonians, Alexander the Great.”

You can read the letter to President Obama by clicking here.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Alexander the Great, Barack Obama, Macedonia

A Temple of Isis

Photo: A Statue of the Goddess Isis.



According to a published report, workmen digging inside a Florence courthouse found the remains of a temple dedicated to the worship of Isis.

Workmen inside Florence's courthouse have stumbled across a spiral column and hundreds of multicoloured fragments that experts believe may have belonged to a Roman temple dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Isis.

The worship of Isis was popular throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was known as the goddess of motherhood and fertility.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Isis

A Case for Domestics Abuse: Another Perspective

The May issue of the SBL Forum published an article by Robin Gallaher Branch, “A Case for Domestic Abuse in 1 Kings 14? A Look at the Marriage of Jeroboam I.” In her article, Branch argues “that the marriage of Jeroboam and his wife shows ‘a family likeness’ to abuse.” According to Branch, “the text provides strong hints that she is an abused wife and that Jeroboam is her abuser.” (Read my notice about this article by clicking here).

Branch offers five reasons why she believes Jeroboam’s wife was an abused woman. Jeroboam’s wife was an abused woman because of “her isolation, her passivity, her instant obedience, her coming back, [and] her lack of response to Jeroboam and Ahijah.” Branch also offers several reasons why she believes Jeroboam was an abuser.

In this post I want to show that Jeroboam’s wife was not an abused woman and that the situation in 1 Kings 14 does not present a case of domestic violence. By demonstrating that Jeroboam’s wife was not an abused woman, it will become clear that Jeroboam was not an abuser.

Branch’s view that Jeroboam’s wife was an abused woman and Jeroboam was an abuser is based on conjectures about Jeroboam’s relationship with his wife. It is also based on arguments drawn from a biased reading of the text.

The problem with her view is that Branch employs sociological and psychological data used to analyze cases of domestic abuse in present day society to study the relationship between Jeroboam and his wife. She reads the traits of battering, codependency, and spouse abuse back into the text. The result of this rereading of 1 Kings 14 helps Branch find situations that are not present in the text.

For instance, Branch wrote: “Society looked on Jeroboam and his wife as married, but their marriage ended much earlier.” However, nothing in the text itself gives any hint that “their marriage ended much earlier.” She wrote that “their marriage is over.” She also wrote that “they had no personal relationship.” Again, a closer reading of the text does not provide any hint that these statements are true.

A reading of 1 Kings 14 reveals that the narrative begins with the statement that Abijah, Jeroboam’s son, was gravely ill. The text tells the story of a father and a mother who are desperate and conflicted because of their son’s illness.

Jeroboam’s wife probably was more than just an oppressed woman. A variant account of the narrative, found in the Septuagint but not in the Masoretic text, says that Jeroboam’s wife was Ano, the eldest sister of Thekemina, Shishak’s wife. The text in the Septuagint says that Ano was the mother of Abijah.

Since the condition of his son was critical, Jeroboam acted with urgency to deal with his illness. Out of desperation, Jeroboam sent his wife to the prophet who had prophesied that he would be king over the ten tribes of Israel. The reason Jeroboam sent his wife as a messenger was because he probably did not want anyone to know that he was asking Ahijah for help and because he trusted her to communicate the grave condition of the child better than a servant could. She was the most appropriate person to carry out this secret and confidential visit to Ahijah.

So, afraid to confront the prophet personally because of his religious innovations, Jeroboam sent his wife to Ahijah. He asked her to disguise her identity so that no one would know she was the queen. The disguise may have been necessary because the prophet probably knew the queen. Her mission was to ascertain from the prophet whether the child would live or die.

When the queen arrived at the prophet’s house she was dressed as a commoner and brought the kind of gifts a commoner would offer to a man of God. But the queen was never able to ask her question. Warned by Yahweh, Ahijah anticipated her coming pretending to be another woman.

Although she was disguised as a commoner, the prophet identified her as the queen the moment she entered the house. As soon as she entered the prophet’s house, Ahijah greeted her as Jeroboam’s wife. Her pretense was met with a revelation of divine judgment upon Jeroboam’s family and words that her sick son would die: “Go on home—the minute you step foot in town, the boy will die” (1 Kings 14:12).

The words of the prophet increased the pain and the agony of Jeroboam’s wife. She came to the prophet looking for a word of hope and returned with a message of judgment. She came as a messenger of the king and returned as a messenger of the prophet. She came to the prophet to find out about her son’s situation and returned with a message of judgment upon her family.

Burke O. Long, in his book 1 Kings with an Introduction to Historical Literature (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1984), pp. 154-55 wrote: “The old prophet’s speech is ironic: the queen, sent as the king’s messenger, is faced about to become the prophet’s messenger. She it is who is to be the bearer of ‘heavy tiding’ for King Jeroboam.”

According to Branch, Jeroboam wife’s silence before the prophet is evidence that she was an abused wife. However, her silence before the prophet came because she had nothing to say. Her silence was an acknowledgment that Ahijah’s message came from Yahweh.

The prophet told the queen to return to the palace where she would be met by the death of her son. Branch believes that the woman’s return home was another evidence she was an abused woman. She asks: “Why does the wife of Jeroboam return home?” In response to her question, Branch quotes modern research to emphasize that the reason abused women remain in a relationship is because of fear. Thus, Jeroboam’s wife returned to her home because she was afraid of her abusive husband.

However, the probable reason Jeroboam’s wife returned home was that her heart was broken because of her motherly love toward her dying son. The reader can only imagine the grief the queen had to endure because she knew that every step she took toward home would bring her son closer to his death.

She did not have to return home. If she had not returned to the palace, her son would have lived. But her motherly love led her back home, to her sick child. She was anxious to see him before he died. As she traveled the twelve miles from Shiloh to Tirzah, she did so with a heavy heart because she was aware that every step toward her house, brought her closer to her beloved son’s death.

And as Ahijah had predicted, so it happened. The moment she stepped through the door of her house, her son died. The death of the child brought to an end the desperate effort of a father and a mother to help their dying son.

The child was buried and all Israel mourned him (v. 13). This statement indicates that Abijah was apparently Jeroboam’s oldest son and the heir apparent to his throne.

Thus, the story of the death of Abijah and the desperate situation faced by Jeroboam and his queen is not a case of domestic abuse. Rather, the text is the story of two parents and the agony they faced seeing their child seriously ill and facing death. This is the story of a father and a mother who were willing to do everything they could do to help their dying son, even going to the extreme of consulting a prophet in secret in hope that something good could come out of that visit.

Jeroboam’s desire to help his son is not a case of domestic abuse.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: 1 Kings 14, Abijah, Ahijah, Domestic Abuse, Jeroboam I

A Billion-Pixel Picture of Petra

Scientists have developed cameras that can take pictures with a thousand-megapixels. Gigapixel technology allows users to create superhigh-resolution pictures that are ultra-zoomable. Now,
gigapixel technology is becoming a tool to improve the study of archaeological sites.

Ian Straughn, a postdoctoral archaeology fellow at Brown University, has used gigapixel technology to explore the ruins of the ancient city of Petra. Petra was the capital of the Nabateans, a first century A.D. kingdom in Jordan. The city of Petra is famous for its monumental temple.

To see a gigapixel picture of Petra, click here.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Gigapixel, Petra

A Case for Domestic Abuse

The feature article in the May issue of the SBL Forum is an article by Robin Gallaher Branch titled “A Case for Domestic Abuse in 1 Kings 14? A Look at the Marriage of Jeroboam I.”

Below is the introduction of the article:

The Bible introduces the wife of Jeroboam within the context of the account of Jeroboam, the first king of Israel in the Divided Kingdom (1 Kgs 11:26-14:20). Jeroboam reigned for twenty-two years, 930-909 B.C.E.[1]Although hers is but a cameo appearance on the biblical stage, it receives considerable textual space (1 Kgs14:1-18). A family crisis introduces her. Jeroboam's son Abijah (presumably by this woman) is sick and near death. Jeroboam commands his wife to go-disguised-to the prophet Ahijah to discover the lad's fate. Obedient, she goes. In addition to learning Abijah will die, she receives a startling prophetic word of household and national devastations. Acting as a conduit between king and prophet, she remains unnamed, silent, mysterious.

Read the article in its entirety by visiting the SBL Forum by clicking here.

UPDATE:

Read my post which presents another view on this issue:

A Case for Domestics Abuse: Another Perspective

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: 1 Kings 14, Domestic Abuse, Jeroboam I

Moses: A Concert for Piano and Orchestra

On Sunday, May 24, 2009, the Lang Concert Hall at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania was packed for the presentation of Moses: A Concerto for Piano and Orchestra composed by Russian-born, Philadelphia-based composer David Finko. Describing Moses the concert, The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Classical Music Critic David Patrick Stearns wrote: “The concerto is full of broad statements expressed with an Old Testament fierceness by lower brass instruments.”

I wish I were there. Short of being part of the audience, today I will go to my local library to check out the CD. I need some “Old Testament fierceness” in my music.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: David Finko, Moses the Concert

The New Jews

When Shlomo Zand, a professor at Tel Aviv University, wrote his book, When and How Was the Jewish People Invented?, he probably knew that his book would generate intensive discussion about the origins of Israel as a people and as a nation.

According to Zand, a group of Jewish intellectuals who lived in Germany in the 19th century, influenced by German nationalism, invented a narrative about Jewish origins in order to create a modern Jewish nation.

In a post published in his blog, Haitham Sabbah, a Palestinian activist, carries out this idea further by saying that the modern state of Israel has stolen Palestinian heritage and history by claiming that the Palestinians are the true descendants of the original inhabitants of Judea. He wrote:

Even though asserting ownership to a country after absence of 2000 years is preposterous, Israel’s theft of Palestine from the native population is popularly legitimised through the claim that today’s Jews descend from inhabitants of Greco-Roman Judea.

Sabbah also claims that DNA tests prove Israeli Jews were Europeans. He wrote:

Current genetic anthropological findings based on DNA analysis indicate that the male ancestors of Yiddish Jewry were of Eastern European and non-Levantine Southwest Asian origin while the female ancestors were Eastern Europeans.

The Palestinians' ancestors created the Hasmonean Kingdom, composed the Hebrew Bible, followed Jesus, wrote the New Testament, compiled the Mishnah, and redacted the Jerusalem Talmud. The Palestinian people constitute the living link to the earliest beginnings of the heritage from the Torah and Gospel.

Zionists are almost pitiable, for they are so ashamed of their own history that they have usurped one belonging to another people.

Zand’s and Sabbah’s argument is similar to the the argument of minimalists who say that the history of Israel as found in the Bible is an invention of a group of returnees who desired to create a home for themselves by dispossessing those who were living in the land at the time of their return.

In spite of all the rhetoric about the Palestinian people being the writers of the Hebrew Bible and the compilers of the Mishnah and the Jerusalem Talmud, I doubt the Palestinians themselves believe this fantasy.

The God of the Hebrew Bible said to his people: “If you obey me and do everything I command you, then you will be my people, and I will be your God” (Jeremiah 11:4). The people who obey the teachings of God as found in the Hebrew Bible are the true people of God.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Ancient Israel, Palestinians, Shlomo Zand

Hezekiah and Sennacherib

Image: Sennacherib



In my last post on Hezekiah, I focused on Hezekiah’s attempt at revolt against Sargon II. Probably dissuaded by the preaching of Isaiah, Hezekiah did not participate in the rebellion against Assyria. However, after the death of Sargon in 705 B.C., Hezekiah made preparations for war in an attempt to break away from Assyrian domination.

Assyrian response was not late in coming. After subjugating Babylon around 702 B.C., Sennacherib turned his attention to Syria-Palestine. In 701 Sennacherib marched down the Phoenician coast and easily conquered Sidon. He also was able to subdue Arvad, Byblos, Ashdod, Ammon, Moab, and Edom as these nations reaffirmed their allegiance to Assyria. After establishing his control over these vassal nations, Sennacherib turned his attention to Judah.

Sennacherib’s intent was to conquer Jerusalem. As Sennacherib was approaching Jerusalem, Hezekiah realized that his attempt to stop the Assyrian army would not suceed. While the Assyrian army was besieging Lachish, Hezekiah sent an embassy to Sennacherib in order to surrender himself to the Assyrian king. The Deuteronomic historian describes Hezekiah’s terms of surrender:

“So Hezekiah king of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish: ‘I have done wrong. Withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand of me’” (2 Kings 18:14).

Sennacherib imposed a heavy tribute on Hezekiah. Sennacherib demanded from Hezekiah eight hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. In order to pay the tribute, Hezekiah sent to Sennacherib all the silver and gold he could gather, including as much of the tribute as he was able to raise. According to 2 Kings 15-16, Hezekiah gave the Assyrian king all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the royal treasury. He also stripped the gold from the doors of the temple and from the doorposts of his palace and gave them to the king of Assyria. In addition to the silver and gold, Hezekiah also gave Sennacherib precious stones, ivory-inlaid couches, ivory-inlaid chairs, elephant hides, elephant tusks, ebony, boxwood, all kinds of valuable treasures, as well as his daughters, his harem, and his male and female musicians.

Sennacherib described his subjugation of Hezekiah by bragging that he shut up Hezekiah in Jerusalem “like a bird in a cage”:

As to Hezekiah, the Jew, he did not submit to my yoke, I laid siege to 46 of his strong cities, walled forts and to the countless small villages in their vicinity, and conquered (them) by means of well-stamped (earth-)ramps, and battering-rams brought (thus) near (to the walls) (combined with) the attack by foot soldiers, (using) mines, breeches as well as sapper work. I drove out (of them) 200,150 people, young and old, male and female, horses, mules, donkeys, camels, big and small cattle beyond counting, and considered (them) booty. Himself I made a prisoner in Jerusalem, his royal residence, like a bird in a cage. I surrounded him with earthwork in order to molest those who were leaving his city's gate. His towns which I had plundered, I took away from his country and gave them (over) to Mitinti, king of Ashdod, Padi, king of Ekron, and Sillibel, king of Gaza. Thus I reduced his country, but I still increased the tribute and the Katru-presents (due) to me (as his) overlord which I imposed (later) upon him beyond the former tribute, to be delivered annually. Hezekiah himself, whom the terror-inspiring splendor of my lordship had overwhelmed and whose irregular and elite troops which he had brought into Jerusalem, his royal residence, in order to strengthen (it), had deserted him, did send me, later, to Nineveh, my lordly city, together with 30 talents of gold, 800 talents of silver, precious stones, antimony, large cuts of red stone, couches (inlaid) w3ith ivory, nimedu-chairs (inlaid) with ivory, elephant-hides, ebony-wood, box-wood (and) all kinds of valuable treasures, his (own) daughters, concubines, male and female musicians. In order to deliver the tribute and to do obeisance as a slave he sent his (personal) messenger." (ANET pp. 287-8)

The remainder of the Biblical narrative about Sennacherib’s invasion of Jerusalem is debatable. Some scholars believe that 2 Kings 18:13 through 2 Kings 19:37 is related to the Assyrian invasion of 701. Other scholars believe that starting with 2 Kings 18:17 through 2 Kings 19:37, the text refers to Sennacherib’s second campaign against Hezekiah.

After taking tribute from Hezekiah, Sennacherib sent three of his officers (2 Kings 18:17) to demand Hezekiah’s unconditional surrender. The Tartan was the chief military officer of the Assyrian army, the Rabsaris was a senior officer of the king of Assyria, and the Rabshakeh was Sennacherib’s chief diplomat.

The Assyrian officers met with three representatives of Hezekiah near the upper pool and in the presence of the Judean soldiers on the wall. The Rabshakeh presented five reasons why Judah should surrender to Assyria (2 Kings 18:20-25). These were the reasons he presented:

1. Mere words are not good strategy for war (v. 20);
2. Egypt was a “broken reed” which could be counted on for support (v. 21);
3. The people could not count of Yahweh because he was angry with Hezekiah since he had destroyed his altars on the high places (v. 23);
4. The people of Jerusalem could not supply two thousand riders even when given horses by Assyria (v. 24);
5. The invasion of Judah was sanctioned by Yahweh himself (v. 25).

Hezekiah’s officers recognized that their situation was hopeless. They requested the Rabshakeh to speak in Aramaic rather than the language of Judah. The Assyrian officer refused and directed his speech to the soldiers on the wall to emphasize their desperate situation and to undermine their morale.

When the Judean officers returned to Hezekiah to report the words of the Assyrian officer, Hezekiah became deeply distressed. He tore his garments and dressed himself in sackcloth, a garment used to mourn the dead and to express profound distress. Hezekiah sent a delegation to the prophet Isaiah to enquire of the Lord. Isaiah encouraged the king with a message of hope in which the prophet affirmed Yahweh’s willingness to deliver Jerusalem. The Lord would put a spirit in the king of Assyria so that he would hear a rumor and return to his own land where he would be killed (2 Kings 19:7).

In response to Isaiah’s words of reassurance, Hezekiah prayed to Yahweh. In his prayer, Hezekiah appealed to the Lord with words associated with Israel’s wars of deliverance (see 1 Samuel 4:4). Hezekiah asked Yahweh to save his people so that all the world would know that he alone was God. God answered Hezekiah’s prayer through an oracle pronounced by the prophet Isaiah. In it Yahweh promised that the king of Assyria would not come into Jerusalem and that he would save the city. Because of Hezekiah’s faith and trust in Yahweh, he and Jerusalem were delivered from the Assyrian threat.

The deliverance of Jerusalem came through a divine intervention. An angel of the Lord struck down 185,000 Assyrians in their camp and as a result, Sennacherib went home to Nineveh without destroying Jerusalem (2 Kings 19:35-36). According to Herodotus, a Greek historian, mice destroyed the leather equipment of Sennacherib’s soldiers and a plague caused the high number of deaths. The miraculous deliverance of Jerusalem gave rise to the doctrine of the inviolability of Zion, the view that Yahweh was the defender of Jerusalem and of the Davidic dynasty. After Sennacherib returned home, he was assassinated by two of his sons and he was succeeded by Asharhaddon.

As mentioned before, scholars differ on their interpretation of the events recorded in the eighteenth and nineteenth chapters of 2 Kings. Those who propose the “one campaign theory” believe that the events recorded above refer to Sennacherib’s campaign against Hezekiah which occurred in 701 B.C. This argument is based on Assyrian records which do not mention a campaign by Sennacherib into Palestine after 701 B.C.

The “two campaign theory” is discussed by John Bright in his book A History of Israel (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1981), pp. 298-309. This view proposes that the text refers to two different campaigns against Hezekiah. 2 Kings 18:13-16 refers to Sennacherib’s first campaign which took place in 701 B.C. After receiving tribute from Hezekiah, Sennacherib returned home.

According to Bright, 2 Kings 18:17 through 19:37 refers to a second campaign, probably in 688 B.C. The two campaign theory addresses the problem of Sennacherib sending an embassy to Hezekiah after receiving Hezekiah’s tribute. It also explains the appearance of the Egyptian king Tirhakah mentioned in 2 Kings 19:9, since according to Egyptian record, Tirhakah began to reign in 690 B.C. Those who reject the two campaign theory, say that the presence of Tirhakah in 2 Kings 19:9 is an anachronism. Although scholars are divided on this issue, I believe the two campaign theory provides a better explanation of 2 Kings 18-19 and takes seriously the mention of Tirhakah in 2 Kings 19:9.

My last post on Hezekiah will deal with his illness and his recovery. Hezekiah began his kingship as an Assyrian vassal and notwithstanding his effort at independence from Assyrian control, he ended his kingship as an Assyrian vassal. However, because of Hezekiah’s piety and trust in Yahweh, Yahweh delivered Jerusalem and preserved the Davidic dynasty, at least for a while. In spite of the conquest and destruction of several Judean cities and the deportation of many people to Assyria, the encouraging note in this helpless situation is that according to Isaiah, God had not given up on Judah yet.

Other posts on Hezekiah:

1. Hezekiah , King of Judah

2. Hezekiah’s Religious Reforms

3. Hezekiah’s Political and Economic Reforms

4. Hezekiah and the Assyrian Crisis


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Hezekiah, Isaiah, Sennacherib

Scholarly, Conservative, Baptistic!

Northern Baptist Seminary will soon celebrate its one hundredth anniversary. When one reads the history of Northern, one discovers a school with a glorious past.

Northern was born during the Liberal v. the Conservative controversy, after a conservative group of pastors and scholars left the University of Chicago to form a school where the evangelical principles would be taught to men and women aspiring to the ministry.

During the 1940s, conservative groups called for a “new evangelicalism.” Northern Seminary, a school rich in scholarly and conservative tradition, provided the new leaders who promoted this new brand of evangelicalism.

Northern Seminary provided most of the leaders to the conservative movement of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. Many students who graduated from Northern Seminary were among the founding faculties of Fuller Theological Seminary (1947) and Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary (1950).

Northern graduates founded organizations that revitalized American religious life after World War II. The founder of Youth for Christ, Torrey Johnson, was a graduate from Northern Seminary. The first four editors of Christianity Today, including Carl Henry and Kenneth Kantzer were also Northern graduates. J. Edwin Orr, international evangelist and historian of revival, Kenneth Taylor, who published The Living Bible, and Warren W. Wiersbe, the famous writer and minister were Northern alumni. There are also other Northern graduates who have served with great distinction as pastors, missionaries, educators, and evangelists whose names are too numerous to mention.

What made Northern Seminary the school that gave birth to so many leaders of the evangelical movement? What made Northern Seminary a great evangelical seminary was summarized in three words by Charles W. Koller, the fourth president of Northern Seminary: “Scholarly, Conservative, Baptistic!”

Charles W. Koller, the fourth president of Northern Baptist Seminary and the author of How to Preach Without Notes, a classic book on expository preaching without notes, wrote an article in the Northern, the official journal of the seminary, in which he described the work of Northern Seminary. The article was published in the in the Northern in February 1945, volume 32, issue 5. Below, I am reproducing Koller’s article as published in the Northern.

“Scholarly, Conservative, Baptistic!”

Clear aim and fixed purpose have characterized the life of Northern. “Scholarly, Conservative, Baptistic!” This ideal has been kept constantly in view. Closely related is the further statement which has become so familiar to the friends of Northern: “Student-centered in its policies; Bible-centered in its curriculum; Christ-centered in its loyalties.” These expressions have not been mere rhetorical gestures, but definite guidelines within which the life of Northern has moved.

Sound scholarship and genuine piety must go together in the preparation of ministers. A cultivated mind is no substitute for a consecrated heart; nor can piety alone compensate for the want of scholarship. And scholarship, if it is to be adequate, must take into account the professor, the student, and the curriculum. Through steady, persevering effort, Northern has risen to a position of recognized strength at all points, and stands higher today than ever before in its history. It is no small tribute to Northern’s scholarship that, in the past six months alone, Baptist seminaries and colleges have drawn from Northern four presidents, one dean of women, and three professors.

Conservatism, at Northern, means unqualified committal to Scriptural standards of doctrine and life. With unwavering conviction, the school stands upon the traditional Baptist position of orthodoxy, evangelism, and missions. The position of the apostles, as to the deity of Christ, His Messianic identity, His sinless life, His atoning death, His bodily resurrection, His promised return, and His eternal sovereignty, is the position of Northern. The separated life which Northern upholds is a life of dedication to all the Scriptural virtues. This includes both the positive virtues and the scrupulous avoidance of things not necessarily sinful in themselves but tending to dim the spiritual glow and impair the spiritual effectiveness of the minister. It is confidently believed at Northern that any return to New Testament power must come by way of return to New Testament standards. And this, in turn, calls for the propagation and perpetuation of the apostolic type of ministers.

Northern is Baptistic in its convictions and teachings. As a rule, about 85 % of the students are Baptists, although non-Baptist students are received without prejudice, on the same basis as Baptist students. Northern is likewise Baptistic in its affiliations. From the beginning, it has functioned and co-operated within the framework of the Northern Baptist Convention, and has derived support through denominational channels. Through successive denominational crises and catastrophes which have disturbed the Baptist fellowship, Northern has stood as a great stabilizer, a bulwark of Baptist solidarity. Upon its declared position of conservation and cooperation, Northern is helping mightily to preserve the Baptist heritage and to keep the Baptist brotherhood intact. On this position Northern is gaining friends constantly and is enlarging its area of service to the cause of Christ. As a “Scholarly–Conservative–Baptistic” institution, Northern seeks to merit the continuing confidence and good will of its friends, and invites their continuing prayers and support.

As Northern Baptist Seminary prepares to enter its second century of ministry to the churches, it becomes imperative that we again look at what made Northern Baptist Seminary a great school of the church. It is impossible to live on the success of the past. However, in its second century of service to the cause of Christ, Northern can recapture the three important factors that made Northern a school of renown: “Scholarly, Conservative, Baptistic!”


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Charles Koller, Northern Seminary

When Was David Crowned King at Hebron?

When David became the king of the Southern tribes, before he became the king of the United Monarchy, David reigned from Hebron, where he was proclaimed king of Judah. This is how 2 Samuel 5:4-5 describes the chronology of David’s kingship:

“David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. At Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and at Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah thirty-three years.”

Although we know that David reigned from Hebron, we do not know when he began to reign. At least we didn’t, but now we know.

Recently, MK Yaakov Katz, head of the National Union Party in Israel, speaking from the Knesset plenum, told the Knesset about his visit to the ancient Biblical city of Hebron. Mr. Katz said:

“I met there with many representatives of the Arab media, from Al Jazeera and others, and I told them that we respect the prophet Muhammed and the millions of practitioners of Islam, but still and all, the fact is that King Herod built the Machpelah Tomb building atop the burial sites of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs hundreds of years before Islam was even founded. Not only that, but King David was King of Israel in this city of Hevron some 700 years before Herod!”

At this point in Mr. Katz’s speech, Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin corrected Mr. Katz’s chronology. He said: “It was exactly 922 years earlier, not 700.”

So, now we know when David became king of Judah at Hebron.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Hebron, David, Yaakov Katz

In the Beginning God

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1 NIV).

The opening words of the Bible begin with a majestic declaration that in the beginning of all things there was God and that God was the creator of the beginning. This opening declaration teaches us that the world did come into being by itself, but it had its beginning by the action of a creator. The opening declaration of Genesis is also an affirmation of the sovereignty of the one who by the power of his word created all things.

The creation of the world as presented in the first chapter of Genesis (Genesis 1:1-2:3) is structured around a patter of sevens. In the Ancient Near East the number seven carries the idea of completeness. The first verse of Genesis contains seven words in Hebrew. Creation is accomplished in seven days. The expression “And God saw that it was good” appears seven times in the narrative of creation. The expression “God saw” also appears seven times. The word “God” appears thirty-five times in Genesis 1:1-2:3, that is, five times seven. God rested on the seventh day and the section dedicated to the seventh day (Genesis 2:1-3) has thirty-fine words in Hebrew, that is, five times seven.

The declaration that God is the creator of all things is an affirmation that God is the owner and Lord of the heavens and earth. Since this sovereign God made us in his image, we must acknowledge him as our God: “Our deliverer is the LORD, the Creator of heaven and earth” (Psalm 124:8).

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Creation, Creator

Popular Biblical Names

According to information provided by the Social Security Administration, out of the top ten most popular names for boys in 2008, seven of them are biblical names and five of the most popular (the top five) are Old Testament names.

According to the same information, out of the top ten most popular names for girls in 2008, three of them are biblical names, but only one of the most popular is an Old Testament name.

Boys Names

Number one was on the list was Jacob (Genesis 25:26).
Number two was Michael (Numbers 13:13).
Number three was Ethan (1 Chronicles 2:6).
Number four was Joshua (Joshua 1:1).
Number five was Daniel (Daniel 1:6)
Number six was Alexander (Acts 4:6).
Number ten was Matthew (Matthew 9:9).

Girls Names

Number eight was Abigail (1 Samuel 25:14).
Number nine was Elizabeth (Luke 1:13)
Number ten was Chloe (1 Corinthians 1:11).

Who said that people do not like the Old Testament?

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Boys’ Names, Girls’ Names

A Soferet To Write a Sefer Torah

A soferet, a female scribe, will write a Sefer Torah (a book of the Law) for the Congregation Dorshei Emet (Seekers of Truth) in Montreal. According to a news report published in The Canadian Jewish News, “Congregation Dorshei Emet will be the first synagogue in Canada and only the third in the world to have a Sefer Torah written by a woman.”

The soferet’s name is Jen Taylor Friedman. Friedman is the only known female scribe to have written two Torah scrolls.

This Torah scroll will be written with a feather quill and ink made from natural sources. The new scroll will be composed of 79,847 words (304,805 letters) written on 62 panels of parchment joined by a sinew string from a kosher animal. The writing of the Torah scroll will be finished in 12 months.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Jen Taylor Friedman, Sefer Torah, Soferet, Scribe

The Economy, the Job Market, and Seminary Students

The dire economic situation faced by many Americans today has hit seminary students. The New York Times has published an article detailing the problems seminary students graduating this year are facing as they look for places of ministry after graduation.

According to the article, the national economy has forced many congregations to cut or downsize the number of full-time ministers employed by these congregations. As a result, churches are hiring part-time lay people instead and are delaying filling or are eliminating these vacancies. In addition, pastors and ministers whose retirement accounts are diminishing, are postponing their retirements. The article continues:

The anecdotal evidence collected by the Association of Theological Schools, which covers 250 graduate institutions in the United States and Canada, has found job listings for ministerial positions down by about one-third at major seminaries serving both evangelical and mainstream Protestant denominations. The Jewish newspaper The Forward reported last month that Jewish seminaries accustomed to placing nearly all their newly minted rabbis were finding jobs this year for only about half.

Denomination by denomination, the severity of the current downturn does vary. While evangelical churches tend to see it as a temporary reversal in a continuing boom, the Conservative Jewish movement and mainline Protestant denominations like the Presbyterians had been retrenching well before subprime mortgages and credit-default swaps intruded into congregational finance.

Only the Roman Catholic Church, with a well-known shortage of priests, has more openings than applicants. And that, in turn, has led to a round of mordant jokes among seminarians about converting to get a job.

Another problem graduating students are facing is the reality that many congregations are small and unable to pay a decent salary to their pastors. Although seminary students are not in the ministry to make money or to become rich, they need a decent salary to pay their student loans, to maintain a decent lifestyle, and just to survive day by day.

Many churches fail to recognize the great sacrifice seminary students make to prepare themselves to serve the Lord. Churches must remember the word of Paul: “The laborer deserves to be paid” (1 Timothy 5:18), and I hope they get paid well.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Pastoral Salary, Seminary Students, Wages

The Shaul Seal: A Seal from the First Temple Period

Photo: The Shaul Seal

Credit: The Israel Antiquities Authority


The Israel Antiquities Authority has announced that a bone seal engraved with the name “Shaul” was found in the excavation of the walls around Jerusalem National Park, in the City of David. According to archaeologists, the seal is from the time of the first Temple.

Below is the press release provided by The Israel Antiquities Authority:

Today (Tuesday) the Knesset presidium, headed by Speaker Reuben Rivlin, visited the City of David in Jerusalem. A Hebrew seal that dates to the time of the First Temple was displayed for the first time during the visit. The seal was found in an excavation that is being conducted in the Walls Around Jerusalem National Park, on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority and in cooperation with the Nature and Parks Authority, under the direction of Professor Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa and Eli Shukron of the IAA, and underwritten by the ‘Ir David Foundation'.

The seal, which is made of bone, was found broken and is missing a piece from its upper right side. Two parallel lines divide the surface of the seal into two registers in which Hebrew letters are engraved:

לשאל

]ריהו

A period followed by a floral image or a tiny fruit appear at the end of the bottom name.

The name of the seal’s owner was completely preserved and it is written in the shortened form of the name שאול (Shaul). The name is known from both the Bible (Genesis 36:37; 1 Samuel 9:2; 1 Chronicles 4:24 and 6:9) and from other Hebrew seals.

According to Professor Reich, “This seal joins another Hebrew seal that was previously found and three Hebrew bullae (pieces of clay stamped with seal impressions) that were discovered nearby. These five items have great chronological importance regarding the study of the development of the use of seals. While the numerous bullae that were discovered in the adjacent rock-hewn pool were found together with pottery sherds from the end of the ninth and beginning of the eighth centuries BCE, they do not bear any Semitic letters. On the other hand, the five Hebrew epigraphic artifacts were recovered from the soil that was excavated outside the pool, which contained pottery sherds that date to the last part of the eighth century.

It seems that the development in the design of the seals occurred in Judah during the course of the eighth century BCE. At the same time as they engraved figures on the seal, at some point they also started to engrave them with the names of the seals’ owners. This was apparently when they started to identify the owner of the seal by his name rather than by some sort of graphic representation.”

It appears that the “office” which administered the correspondence and received the goods that were all sealed with bullae continued to exist and operate within a regular format even after a residential dwelling was constructed inside the same “rock-hewn pool” and the soil and the refuse that contained the many aforementioned bullae were trapped beneath its floor. This “office” continued to generate refuse that included bullae, which were opened and broken, as well as seals that were no longer used and were discarded into the heap of rubbish that continued to accumulate in the vicinity.

The Saul mentioned in the seal is not the name of the first king of Israel. Since there were many Shauls mentioned in the Old Testament, it will be difficult to identify the owner of this seal.

Jim West has posted a paleographic study of the seal written by Christopher A. Rollston, Editor of Maarav: A Journal of Northwest Semitic.

Duane Smith has offered his own study of the seal. Duane wrote:

The inscription on the bone seal reads,

lšʾl[
ryhw (thingy) [

Even if the last letter is broken off, the first line is fairly clear, "belonging to Saul." No, this is not that Saul. The second line is likely a patronym but I can't find a name with that spelling in the Hebrew Bible or Hebrew epigraphic material. Assuming the last three letters are a theophoric element, perhaps one could compare the name rʾyh, Reaiah, in 1 Chronicles 4:2 and elsewhere.

Duane said that the second name could be something like "Reaiah." However, since the first part of the word is missing and if the word is the name of a person, the name could also be something like עֲזַרְיָ֥הוּ,Azariah, זְכַרְיָ֨הוּ, Zechariah, or אֲמַרְיָ֙הוּ֙ , Amariah.

People who are interested in the archaeological discoveries in Israel cannot wait for further studies on this seal. The Shaul seal, together with the Menachem’s Water Pitcher, may not provide enough information to help us understand events in the history of ancient Israel. However, together these two discoveries can shed some light on the cultural life of the people who lived in Jerusalem during the First Temple period.


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Saul, Shaul Seal

The Theology Behind “Angels and Demons”

Ross Douthat wrote an op-ed column for The New York Times in which he discusses Dan Brown’s theological worldview behind his two novels, Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code. The following is an excerpt from Douthat’s column:

Brown’s message has been called anti-Catholic, but that’s only part of the story. True, his depiction of the Roman Church’s past constitutes a greatest hits of anti-Catholicism, with slurs invented by 19th-century Protestants jostling for space alongside libels fabricated by 20th-century Wiccans. (If he targeted Judaism or Islam this way, one suspects that no publisher would touch him.)

But Brown doesn’t have the soul of a true-believing Enemy of the Faith. Deep down, he has a fondness for the ordinary, well-meaning sort of Catholic, his libels against their ancestors notwithstanding. He’s even sympathetic to the religious yearnings of his Catholic villains — including, yes, the murderous albino monks.

This explains why both “The Da Vinci Code” and “Angels and Demons” end with a big anti-Catholic reveal (Jesus had kids with Mary Magdalene! That terrorist plot against the Vatican was actually launched by an archconservative priest!) followed by a big cover-up. A small elect (Tom Hanks and company, in the movies) gets to know what really happened, but the mass of believers remain in the dark, lest their spiritual questing be derailed by disillusionment and scandal. Having dismissed Catholicism’s truth claims and demonized its most sincere defenders, Brown pats believers on the head and bids them go on fingering their rosary beads.

One aspect of Douthat’s column is that he has a good analysis of contemporary religious life in America. According to Douthat, the reason Americans are abandoning organized religion is because of “the growth of do-it-yourself spirituality, with traditional religion’s dogmas and moral requirements shorn away.” How true!

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Angels and Demons, Dan Brown

Menachem’s Water Pitcher

Photo: The Menachem Inscription




Haaretz is reporting that Israeli archaeologists have found a handle of a water pitcher in Jerusalem inscribed with the name “Menachem.” Although the owner of this ancient jug is unknown, the finding is important because the inscribed handle comes from the biblical period.

Below is the news report published by Haaretz:

Israeli archaeologists in Jerusalem have discovered a biblical-era handle of a water pitcher with an ancient Hebrew inscription of the name "Menachem," marking the first time such a handle bearing this name has been found in Jerusalem.

The discovery was made at the footprint of a new girls' school being constructed in the Ras al-Amud neighborhood in the eastern part of the capital. The handle is estimated to originate somewhere between the Canaanite era (2200 - 1900 B.C.E.) and the end of the first Temple period (the 7th - 8th centuries B.C.E.).

Scientists at the Israel Antiquities Authority are now trying to decipher the identity of the "Menachem," whose name is inscribed in ancient Hebrew.

"This important finding joins similar names that were found in archaeological digs in the ancient east, particularly in the Land of Israel," said Dr. Ron Be'eri, who is supervising the dig for the IAA. "The names 'Menachem' and 'Yenachem' express comforting, perhaps over the death of loved ones."

"These names appeared have appeared before, going back to the Canaanite period," Be'eri said. "The name 'Yenachem' appears on an Egyptian clay vase from the 18th Dynasty, and the name 'Yenachmu' is mentioned in the Amarna letters (14th century B.C.E.) as that of the Egyptian representative on the coast of Lebanon."

This is an important discovery. If archeologists can identify the owner of this water jug, the finding can shed additional light on the people who lived in Jerusalem during the biblical period.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Ancient Jug, Archaeology, Menachem, Water Pitcher

Another Blog Has Been Locked by Blogger

I am still fighting with Blogger to unlock my blog. I have made four different requests to Blogger to unlock my blog, however, as of today, May 18, 2009, I have not yet heard from them.

I just found out that George Reisman’s Blog on Economics, Politics, Society, and Culture has been locked by Blogger. In his new blog, Reisman wrote:

Google has closed Reisman’s Blog to new posts and editing of existing posts. A "blog in exile" has been established here.

I wonder who will be next.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Blogger, Blogging

The Dispute Between Greece and Macedonia

The Herald Sun has an interesting article on the dispute between Greece and Macedonia concerning the claims of the heritage of Alexander the Great:

GREECE heaped scorn overnight on plans by Macedonia to erect a gigantic equestrian statue of Alexander the Great, the famed warrior-king of antiquity that both countries claim as their own.
"From the information we have, the size, height and cost of this statue are inversely proportional to seriousness and historic truth," Greek foreign ministry spokesman George Koumoutsakos said.

The 22-metre statue of the ancient king of Macedon is to be placed on the main square of Macedonia's capital Skopje at an estimated cost of €4.5 million ($8.08 million), local authorities said.

Greece currently has a 6.15-metre statue of Alexander adorning the waterfront of its northern city Thessaloniki.

It also has plans to erect another statue in Iraq, on the site of one of Alexander's victories over the Persians at the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BCE.

Born in Pella, modern-day Greece, Alexander conquered the Persian Empire and much of the world known to ancient Greeks before dying in Babylon in 323 BC at the age of just 32.

In recent years, Greece has faced a challenge from the former Yugoslav republic over the spiritual rights to Alexander's heritage and has been at pains to stress that the ancient Macedonians were Greek.

But the tiny Balkan nation, which became independent after the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, has staked its own claim as it lies on what was once part of ancient Macedonia.

Greece has also refused to recognise its neighbour under its constitutional name of Macedonia because that is also the name of the northern Greek province of Macedonia.

United Nations-led negotiations on the issue have proved fruitless ever since, and Athens has used its veto to prevent Macedonia becoming a member of NATO.

The reason I am publishing this new report is because I became indirectly involved in the controversy between Greece and Macedonia when I published an article on the goddess Vesta.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Alexander the Great, Greece, Macedonia

Who Was King Lemuel?

Recently, a reader asked me to explain who King Lemuel was. Lemuel is an enigmatic figure that appears twice in the Old Testament. His name appears in Proverbs 31:1 and 31:4. However, in Proverbs 31:4 his name appears as Lemoel in Hebrew.

Because King Lemuel is not listed among the kings of Judah and Israel, several theories have been developed to explain the presence of Lemuel in Proverbs 31. In this post, I will review some of the proposals developed by scholars in order to identify Lemuel.

1. The Name of the King was Muel

Some scholars believe that the lamed at the beginning of the name Lemuel is a preposition meaning “to” or “for.” Under this view the name of the king was not Lemuel but Muel. Thus, Proverbs 31:1 would be translated “Words for Muel.” This is the view adopted by Justo J. Serrano in his commentary “Proverbios,” La Sagrada Escritura (Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1969), p. 524.

Although the name Muel does not appear in the Bible, the name is related to Nemuel, a descendant of Simeon (Numbers 26:12; 1 Chronicles 4:24). Nemuel’s name appears as Jemuel in Genesis 46:10.

This explanation of the name of Lemuel is questionable because it does not resolve the problem of identification, that is, it does not explain who king Muel was, if such a king ever existed. This view has not been accepted by many scholars.

2. Lemuel was another name for Solomon

The ancient Rabbinical commentators identified Lemuel with Solomon. The Babylonian Talmud (Tractate Aboth, Chapter 5) says that six names were given to Solomon: Solomon, Jedidiah, Qoheleth, Ben Iokoh, Agur, and Lemuel. According to A. Cohen, Proverbs (Hindhead, Surrey: The Soncino Press, 1945), p. 209, Lemuel is another name for Solomon that when translated means “towards (lemo) God (el).”

In his book Solomon and Solomonic Literature (Charleston, SC: BiblioBazaar, 2008), p. 67, Moncure Daniel Conway tells a rabbinical story that relates Proverbs 31 to Solomon and Bathsheba. He wrote:

The Ancient Rabbins identified Lemuel with Solomon, and relate than when, on the day of the dedication of the temple, he married Pharaoh’s daughter, he drank too much at the wedding feast, and slept until the fourth hour of the next day, with the keys of the temple under his pillow. Whereupon his mother, Bathsheba, entered and reproved him with this oracle. Bathsheba’s own amour with Solomon’s father does not appear to have excited any rabbinical suspicion that the description of the virtuous wife with which the Book of Proverbs closes is hardly characteristic of the woman.

The theory that Lemuel was Solomon is an attempt at defending the traditional view that Solomon wrote the book of Proverbs. It is clear from Proverbs 25:1 that Solomon did not write the book of Proverbs. Rather, the book was probably edited by the Hezekiah’s scribes or by a later editor.

3. Lemuel was not the name of a person

Although the Bible does not identify King Lemuel, Jewish tradition holds that Lemuel was a poetic name for Solomon. In Hebrew, the name Lemuel means “for God.” The name Lemuel may be related to Lael, a person mentioned in Numbers 3:24, a name which means a man dedicated “to God.” Under this view, Proverbs 31:1 may be translated as follows: “The words of a King for God, the utterance which his mother taught him.”

The translators of the Septuagint (LXX) also did not recognize Lemuel as the name of an individual. The Septuagint translated Proverbs 31:1 as follows: “My words have been spoken by God.”

The view that Lemuel was not the name of an individual is an attempt at discrediting the possibility that a non-Israelite wrote a section of the book of Proverbs. Although Proverbs 31:1 is difficult to translate into English, it is clear that Lemuel is the name of an individual.

4. Lemuel was the king of Massa

Many scholars believe that Lemuel was the king of Massa. Massa was one of the descendants of Ishmael and the leader of one of the Ishmaelite clans (Genesis 25:14). This is the view adopted by several versions in their translation of Proverbs 31:1. For instance, the New Jerusalem Bible translates Proverbs 31:1 as follows: “The sayings of Lemuel king of Massa.”

Andrew Hill, in his book A Survey of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009), p. 381, said that if Massa was the name of a North Arabian nation, then the words of Lemuel in Proverbs 31 “may reflect the influence of Arabian wisdom on the developing Hebrew wisdom tradition. Massa has been identified with the tribes settled in northwestern Arabia near Teman (cf. Gen. 25:14; 1 Chron. 1:30).”

However, this translation is problematic because it requires that the athnah under the Hebrew word melek (“king”) not be considered in the translation of the text. The athnah is a major accent in Hebrew which divides a verse into two sections. If the athnah was taken into consideration, the translation of 31:1 would be: “The words of Lemuel, a king.”

Those who take the athnah into consideration in the translation of the text also believe that the Hebrew word “massa” is a common noun, meaning “burden” or “oracle,” rather than a place name. This is the reading some versions have adopted in their translation of verse 1. For example, the New Revised Standard Version translates Proverbs 31:1 as follows: “ The words of King Lemuel. An oracle that his mother taught him.”

I believe that the best explanation for the name of Lemuel in Proverbs 31:1 is to identify him as the king of Massa. Wisdom literature was widely known in the Ancient Near East and Israel did not develop its wisdom tradition in a cultural vacuum. It is evident that Israel borrowed some of its wisdom traditions from neighboring countries. One good example is the inclusion of Egyptian proverbs found in the “Instructions of Amen-em-Opet” into Proverbs 22:17-24:34.

As Donald K. Berry said in his book An Introduction to Wisdom and Poetry of the Old Testament (Nashville: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1995), p.30, “Israel made little attempt to cover the alien origins of wisdom literature. For instance, a portion of Proverbs (31:1) opens with the name of a non-Israelite king.”

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: King Lemuel, Solomon, Massa

Is the Nefertiti Sculpture a Forgery?

Photo: Nefertiti




The sculpture of Queen Nefertiti was discovered in December 1912 by a team of German archaeologists at the site of Amarna in Egypt. Nefertiti (c.1370 B.C.-1330 B.C.) was one of the most famous of the queens of Egypt. Her limestone bust is owned by a museum in Berlin.

Recently, Swiss historian Henri Stierlin and historian Erdogan Ercivan concluded that the sculpture is a forgery. According to these two historians, the bust is an early-20th-century work.

Martin Gayford, has written an interesting article for Bloomberg.com in which he discusses the mysterious origins of the Nefertiti bust.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Erdogan Ercivan, Henri Stierlin, Nefertiti

An Insult to the Old Testament

Photo: Kirk and Spock







In his review of the new “Star Trek” movie, Derek Malcolm, writing in the London Evening Standard, said:

Let me make a terrible confession. Twenty minutes into JJ Abrams’s lively reinvention of the Trekkie franchise that some are calling the best prequel of all time (surely an insult to the Old Testament), I found myself missing the camp old “characters” [obscenity removed by me] who inhabited the old series.

I agree with Malcolm; the Old Testament is the best prequel of all time!

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Star Trek

The Barren Has Borne Seven: A Mother’s Day Meditation

Whenever I think of mothers in the Old Testament, I always think of Hannah, the mother of Samuel. There are many mothers mentioned in the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament, but Hannah has all the characteristics that make her a special mother.

Let me explain why I believe Hannah is the example of a great mother. First, Hannah was a woman who really wanted a baby. Hannah was barren and unable to conceive.

To women, barrenness was a disgrace and it was considered by many Israelites as the harshest punishment with which the Lord could visit a female. Sarah attributed her barrenness to God. She told Abraham, her husband: “The LORD has kept me from having children” (Genesis 16:2). The writer of Samuel wrote that Hannah was barren “because the LORD had closed her womb” (1 Samuel 1:6).

The view that barrenness was a punishment from the Lord may be derived from an erroneous interpretation of biblical statements saying that the blessings from God would exclude barrenness.

For instance, in Exodus 23:25-26 Moses promised the Israelites if they worshiped the Lord then his blessings would be upon them “and none will miscarry or be barren in your land.”

Moses also promised that if the people obeyed God’s commands, his decrees and laws, then “you will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless” (Deuteronomy 7:14).

Hannah was barren, unable to have children, but in her heart she desperately wanted one. There are women who really want to be mothers but cannot. There are women who are mothers by accident and they hate it. There are other women who want to be mothers for convenience: they believe if they have a child then the men in their lives will marry them.

Hannah was different: she wanted a child because she knew that as a woman her very nature desired to feel the feelings of being a mother.

Second, Hannah prayed to God and asked for a son. Hannah’s prayer to God shows two important things about her: it shows that she was a woman of faith. She believed that God could perform a miracle in her life and give her a son. Hannah’s faith is a good example to mothers everywhere because it teaches that mothers should teach their children to have faith in God. Her faith is also significant because every mother should teach her children to love God.

Hannah’s prayer also shows that she was a woman of prayer. The text shows Hanna praying for her child before the child was born and it reveals Hannah’s commitment to pray for her son as long as she lived. This is the reason Samuel was one of the greatest men of faith in Israel. Samuel was a faithful judge, a faithful priest, and a faithful prophet because he had a praying mother.

Third, Hanna was a woman who recognized that she was a steward of a precious gift God gave to her. In her prayer to God Hannah said: “O LORD Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life” (1 Samuel 1:11).

Hannah asked God to give her a son, but she was willing to give her son back to God. The son God gave to Hannah was a special gift of grace: it was God who formed that child in her womb; it was God who gave life and health to her baby. Hannah was the mother, but that child belonged to God.

So, as a faithful mother, Hannah kept her vow to God. After Samuel was weaned, probably at the age of two or three (1 Samuel 1:22), Hannah fulfilled her promise. When she came to the house of the Lord at Shiloh, she told Eli the priest:

“As surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the LORD. I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD” (1 Samuel 1:26-27).

There are three interesting statements in Hannah’s story as a mother: Elkanah’s statement about Hannah’s situation, Hannah’s statement about her condition, and the writer’s statement about Hannah’s blessing.

Elkanah’s Statement

When Elkanah, Hannah’s husband, saw how unhappy Hannah was because she was barren, Elkanah would say to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?” (1 Samuel 1:8).

The answer to Elkanah’s question was never given, but the reader almost can guess the answer.

Elkanah’s effort to try to comfort his wife was in vain. To a childless woman, a husband
really was not “better than ten sons,” because the joy of motherhood is different from that of conjugal happiness, and especially to a woman in Israel who had hoped to be delivered from her barrenness. After all, one could always find a husband but only the Lord could give a son.

Hannah’s Statement

After Hannah was blessed with her deliverance from sorrow and desolation, she sang a song of thanksgiving: “My heart rejoices in the LORD” (1 Samuel 2:1). Hannah’s outburst of joy came as a result of the divine favor she received in answer to her prayer. In her joy Hannah said: “She who was barren has borne seven children” (1 Samuel 2:5).

The expression “the barren has borne seven” expresses the joy that makes a barren woman the
mother of seven because it is the Lord who takes away barrenness: “The Lord settles the barren woman in her home as a happy mother of children” (Psalm 113:9).

Since seven represents completeness and perfection, seven becomes the representation of a perfect number of children, and a mother of seven is the happiest mother in Israel. When Ruth gave Naomi a descendant, the women of Bethlehem expressed Naomi’s joy in terms of seven sons:

“He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has borne him” (Ruth 4:15-16).

“The barren has borne seven.” Hannah was the happiest mother in Israel.

The Writer’s Statement

Now that “the barren hath borne seven,” Hannah understood that God had performed a miracle and that he could give her more children. Although at present Hannah had only one son and that son was given back to God, she hoped for more children and she was not disappointed.

“And the LORD was gracious to Hannah; she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters” (1 Samuel 2:21).

The story of Hannah is the story of a woman who in her barrenness earnestly prayed to God with the longings of a mother’s heart, asking for a son. The experience of this mother who was bowed down and oppressed by her situation is an inspiring story to mothers everywhere on this Mother’s Day.

Other Posts on Mothers:

The Sons of Rizpah: Reflections on a Mother’s Love

The Mother of Seven

Deborah: A Mother in Israel

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Barrenness, Hannah, Mothers, Mother’s Day, Samuel