The Splintered Divine: A Study of Istar, Baal, and Yahweh Divine Names and Divine Multiplicity in the Ancient Near East (Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records (SANER), 5)

This book investigates the issue of the singularity versus the multiplicity of ancient Near Eastern deities who are known by a common first name but differentiated by their last names, or geographic epithets. It focuses primarily on the Ištar divine names in Mesopotamia, Baal names in the Levant, and Yahweh names in Israel, and it is structured around four key questions: How did the ancients define what it meant to be a god - or more pragmatically, what kind of treatment did a personality or object need to receive in order to be considered a god by the ancients? Upon what bases and according to which texts do modern scholars determine when a personality or object is a god in an ancient culture? In what ways are deities with both first and last names treated the same and differently from deities with only first names? Under what circumstances are deities with common first names and different last names recognizable as distinct independent deities, and under what circumstances are they merely local manifestations of an overarching deity? The conclusions drawn about the singularity of local manifestations versus the multiplicity of independent deities are specific to each individual first name examined in accordance with the data and texts available for each divine first name. Preface 7 Acknowledgments 11 Contents 15 Abbreviations 17 Additional Abbreviations 21 0 Introduction 23 0.1 Ištar-of-Nineveh and Ištar-of-Arbela 23 0.2 Divine Names and Divine Multiplicity 25 0.3 Outline and Method 28 1 Considering Multiplicity and Defining Deity 34 1.1 An Early History of Identifying and Equating Divine Names 35 1.2 Toward Minimizing Multiplicity 40 1.3 Toward Maximizing Multiplicity 48 1.4 Agency, Names, Offerings, and Rituals 53 1.5 Conclusions 70 Excursus: “Syncretism” 72 2 Comparative Insights 80 2.1 The Multiple Manifestations of the Madonna 81 2.2 Hittite Multiplicity 93 2.3 Conclusions 115 3 The Divine Hierarchy and Embedded God Lists (EGLs) 117 3.1 Moving Away from Lexical God Lists 118 3.2 The Last Are Least 122 3.3 Building Composite God Lists 132 3.4 Witness-List Traditions 139 3.5 Personal and Royal Correspondence 145 3.6 Cultic Texts and EGLs 150 3.7 Implications for the Present Study 159 4 The Ištar Goddesses of Neo-Assyria 163 4.1 The Ištar Goddesses by Several Other Names and Titles 164 4.2 Theological Speculations about Ištar Goddesses 176 4.3 The Goddess at Nineveh 181 4.4 The Goddess at Arbela 192 4.5 Who is Mullissu, and when is she Mullissu? 199 4.6 Assyrian-Ištar 210 4.8 Conclusions 219 5 Geographic Epithets in the West 222 5.1 The Baal Deities of Ugarit 224 5.2 Baal-of-Ugarit and the other Baal Deities at Ugarit 227 5.3 Baal: Epithet or Name? 237 5.4 The Baal Deities of the First Millennium 243 5.5 Why is a Baal Deity’s Geography Important? 254 5.6 First-millennium Goddesses in Northwest Semitic Texts 259 5.7 Conclusions 266 6 A Kuntillet ‘Ajrud Awakening 269 6.1 “Hear, O Israel, Yahweh//our-God” 270 6.2 The Geographic Origin of Yahweh: Teman 281 6.3 Yahweh and the Kingdom of Israel: Samaria 299 6.4 Yahweh and the Kingdom of Judah: Zion and the Hosts 308 6.5 Yahweh and the bet-Locative 319 6.6 Conclusions 330 7 Conclusions 332 7.1 Summary 332 7.2 Implications 338 Bibliography 343 Maps 365 Appendix: Tables 1.1–7.1 371 Indices 453 Primary Texts Index 455 General Index 472 "This book investigates the issue of the singularity versus the multiplicity of ancient Near Eastern deities who are known by a common first name but differentiated by their last names, or geographic epithets. It focuses primarily on the Ishtar divine names in Mesopotamia, Baal names in the Levant, and Yahweh names in Israel"-- Provided by publisher Investigating the issue of the singularity versus the multiplicity of ancient Near Eastern deities who are known by a common first name but differentiated by their last names, or geographic epithets, this book focuses primarily on the Istar divine names in Mesopotamia, Baal names in the Levant, and Yahweh names in Israel.