Worshiping with Abraham: New Amorite Texts Describe the Religion of the World of Abraham and Sarah

The Euphrates River in Southern Syria as it flows into Iraq

What do the newly discovered Amorite Texts tell us about the religious world of Abraham and Sarah? This lecture by Dr. Hess consists of 5 videos and the accompanying lecture text.

Worshiping with Abraham: New Amorite Texts Part 1

Worshiping with Abraham: New Amorite Texts Part 2

Worshiping with Abraham: New Amorite Texts Part 3

Worshiping with Abraham: New Amorite Texts Part 4

Worshiping with Abraham: New Amorite Texts Part 5

Lecture Presentation

Worshiping with Abraham: New Texts Reveal the Religious World of Abraham and Sarah and Their Family – Richard S. Hess, 2024

Download the PowerPoint

Background

What do we know about the world of Abram and Sarai?
Joshua 24:2 – Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods.
So Abram is a name of 2 parts: Ab – father; and Ram – a god or “exalted;” together meaning: “(the god) Ram is father” or “the Father (god) is exalted.”
Sarai is a name made of “sar” – prince; and “-ai” – a shortened ending where a god’s name should be, together meaning “the god is prince” (for example, “Baal is prince”).
Abram and Sarai are both polytheistic names, part of the culture of their parents who named them.
When God changes their names to Abraham “father of many nations,” and Sarah “princess” he gives them names that reflect his special purposes for them as they journey in their life of faith.
No longer part of the culture that worshiped many gods, they are part of God’s plan for his people to be a blessing to all nations on earth.
But what was that world like that Abram and Sarai first lived in?
Andrew George and Manfred Krebernik, “Two Remarkable Vocabularies: Amorite-Akkadian Bilinguals,” Revue d’assyriologie et d’archéologie orientale 116.1 (2022) 113-66.
First appeared in January of 2023.
Bilinguals where the languages identified are Amorite and Akkadian (= Old Babylonian).

Dating and Provenance

Script – cursive Old Babylonian cuneiform
Ductus – S. Babylonian from the time of kings Rīm Sîn and Hammurapi.
Authors note the unusual content and the similar handwriting to suggest the 2 tablets may come from the same place and even from the same scribe.

Tablet 1

Formerly 1 text was open to study at Cornell University where Andrew George saw it in 2016.
In 2019 the Jonathan and Jeanette Rosen ANE Studies Seminar collection was moved to New York.
Photos – David I. Owen (Ammonium Chloride)
Curator – Video conf. Rudolf H. Mayr

Amorite

Amorite represents a cluster of languages that are lay behind later similar languages found centered in N. Syria but also in Mesopotamia and the Southern Levant (Israel). If Abraham and Sarah lived at this time, they spoke a form of this language.
Previously there have been no texts in Amorite
The language has been known only through personal names
Even though there are perhaps 7,000 personal names in Amorite, how much can we really know about the language of Abraham only by the personal names?
The names originate in the cities of Alalakh, Mari, Ekalte, Babylon, etc. (Turkey, Syrian, Iraq) where texts have been found c. 1900-1500 BC.
Such names can take the understanding of the language only so far but have nevertheless been intensively studied
An example is the name Abram. It often appears in Amorite as Abiram.
It meaning? Ab(i) = “the/my Divine Father or father;” ram = “exalted or a god with the name Ram” Together this is a pagan name, “the Divine Father (an unnamed god) is exalted” or “Ram is (my) Father.”
So God’s change to Abraham “father of many peoples” is a witness to Abraham’s following God alone as well as a promise of his legacy.
If, as seems the case, the script on these tablets contains an Amorite language, then this is the first presentation of early(or mid) second millennium BC Amorite outside of personal names.
Tablet 1: names of deities (lines 1-10), of stars or constellations (11-13), of foodstuffs (14-18), and of clothing (19-21), phrases
Tablet 2: entirely of phrases

Tablet 1: Divine Names

Joshua 24:2 – Josh 24:2 Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor,a lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods.
Line 1: Dagan – Chief god of the pantheon; Ugarit; Emar (grain); Israel (Philistia & GN in Josh. 15:41; 19:27)
Line 2: Kamish – Eblaite, Ugaritic, Moabite (Chemosh; Num. 21:29 etc.) – Ea
Line 3: Asheratum – Asherah chief goddess attested at Mari, Byblos, Ugarit, and Taanach – this spelling rare before Israel shows up.

Dagon (= Dagan)
Judg 16:23 Now the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate, saying, “Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands.”
1 Sam 5:2 Then they carried the ark into Dagon’s temple and set it beside Dagon. 3 When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the LORD!

Chemosh (= Kamish)
Num 21:29 Woe to you, Moab! You are destroyed, people of Chemosh! He has given up his sons as fugitives and his daughters as captives to Sihon king of the Amorites.
1 Kgs 11:7 On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemoshb the detestable god of Moab,

Line 3: Asheratum – (a-še-ra-tum) In myths at Ugarit but not vocalized. This attests and even demonstrates the vocalization of Asheratu or Asherata (in the Bilble the t becomes an h – Asherah)
Compare Kuntillet ‘Ajrud (NE Sinai, c. 800 BC) where the goddess’ name is best pronounced as Asherata (with final -th), & in Israel as Asherah (Exod. 34:13 etc.)
Asherah (= Asheratum)
Exod 34:13 Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles
2 Kgs 23:14 Josiah smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles and covered the sites with human bones.
Line 3: The Babylonian equivalent goddess for Asheratum is
Bēlet-ilī (DINGIR.MAḪ) – Lady of the Gods; Ugarit – Asherah is El’s “wife” & mother of pantheon; Israel – some believed Asherah was “wife” of YHWH (the LORD)
Line 4: Yaraḫum – Sin (EN.ZU) moon deity, found with this vocalization at Jericho (PN Gen. 10:26; “DN” Deut. 17:3; Josh. 10:12; GN Num. 22:1)
Line 4: Yaraḫum – moon deity
Deut 17:2 If a man or woman living among you in one of the towns the LORD gives you is found doing evil in the eyes of the LORD your God in violation of his covenant, 3 and contrary to my command has worshiped other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or the moon or the stars in the sky,
Line 5: Rashapum – (ra-sa-pu-um) Nergal god of the underworld, war, fire, and pestilence also at Ebla (Syria), Cyprus, Egypt, and later at Karatepe and Punic Carthage where in the Greek world = Apollo
Deut. 32:24 (pestilence); Ps. 78:48 (bolts of lightning); Song 8:6 (burns, blazing); Hab. 3:5 (pestilence)

reshep (common noun)
Deut. 32:24 – I will send wasting famine, against them, consuming pestilence and deadly plague; I will send against them the fangs of wild beasts, the venom of vipers that glide in the dust.
Ps. 78:48 – He gave over their cattle to the hail, their livestock to bolts of lightning.

Song of Songs 8:6 – Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame.
Habakkuk 3:5 – Plague went before him; pestilence followed his steps.

Line 6 Babylonian column: i-šum; Heb. ʾēš “fire”
Line 6 Amorite column: a-a-[x]-⌜um⌝ is not identified although the editors suggest a connection with ʾôr “light” as the personal name of Aaron
Perhaps related to Aya, a female consort of the Baby. Shamshu (sun deity) and at Ugarit listed after Shapshu (sun).
Line 7 Amorite column: ḫa-la-mu (Ugaritic ǵlm “male youth”), Babylonian šu-bu-la. Cf. Heb. fem. ʿālmâ “young woman” (Isa. 7:14)
Isa 7:14 – Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
Line 8 Amorite column: ḫa-na-tum (Anat), Babylonian Ištar (INANNA)
Goddess of war and friend of Baal in Ugarit myths; non-Heb. judge Shamgar ben-Anath (Judg. 3:13; 5:6)
Ben-Anath as a common LB/Iron I warrior guild(?) attested on arrowheads and an Egyptian papyrus of W. Semitic names
Line 9 Amorite: pi-id-ra-a (Ugaritic Pidray), Babylonian na-na-a
At Ugarit Pidray was the first daughter of Baal (& possibly his wife) and identified with the Hurrian goddess Ḫebat
Line 10 Amorite: aš-ti-ul-ḫa-al-ti (Elamite?)

Cf. Elamites reaching west across the Euphrates in the 18th century Mari material, and Gen. 14 and Kedorlaomer of Elam
Gen 14:1 – At the time when Amraphel was king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam and Tidal king of Goyim,

Kedorlaomer king of Elam – Elam was located in Southwestern Iran
In the earlier period, the time of Abraham and Sarah (2000-1500 BC) is the only time that Elam could have moved across the ancient Near East. This actually happened in the 18th century BC (letters from Mari up river from Bablyon)

Of these, Dagan, Asherah, Yaraḫ, Rasap, Anat, and possibly Chemosh can be found as deities or as common nouns in the Hebrew Bible
See also common noun ḫa-la-mu in fem. form (the Heb. common noun for “young woman,” “virgin” in Isaiah 7:14)
In addition to the other deities, Pidray and ḫa-la-mu occur at Ugarit.
This includes every deity except the last one and its Elamite connection (Genesis 14)

Tablet 1: Blessing

Phrases at the end of Tablet 1 provide Amorite and Old Babylonian blessings from generic god or El
(Amorite) li-iḫ-wi-⌜i⌝-ka DIĜIR “May the god (or El) preserve your life!”
ḥwy (“to give/preserve life;” same as Hebrew ḥawah “to be alive” (Eve – to give life)
(Amorite) na-ap-sa-ka ⌜la-ar-ši⌝ DIĜIR (George&Krebernik) “May the god (or El) keep you well!”
na-ap-sa-ka and na-pi-iš-ta from “life” – Hebrew nephesh (Deut. 6:5 “your soul”)
god or El? – Perhaps “god” as El would appear on list

Tablet 2: Sacrifice

Tablet 2 has 25 lines of phrases; cf. lines 22 & 23 here

(Amorite) bi-ik-ra-ti-ia za-ba-a-ḫa a-na DIĜIR-ia la-am- ⌜ ti ⌝-in “I will make a sacrifice to my god.”
bi-ik-ra-ti-ia, cf. Heb. bikkûrîm “firstfruits”
za-ba-a-ḫa, cf. Heb. zebaḥ “communal sacrifice”
la-am-ti-in, cf. Heb. ntn G 1cs precative “let me give/make”
(Amorite) i-lí ni-iḫ-ma-tam li-ir-ši-a-ni-ma “then my god should show me favor, and”
ni-iḫ-ma-tam , cf. Heb. neḥāmâ “comfort, encouragement”
102 times in the Bible, first time prophecy of Lamech about Noah: Gen 5:29 He named him Noah and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the LORD has cursed.”

Conclusion

With their divine names, blessings, and sacrificial terms, here for the first time in common nouns and whole phrases, provide important insight into the religious background of the the world of Genesis 12- 37 of the early second millennium BC.

From these beliefs and traditions, and in distinction from them, would come the faith remembered as part of Abraham and Sarah and their children and grandchildren in Genesis.