[b-hebrew] Amarna Letters
Stephen & Rebecca Shead
srshead at gmail.com
Wed Dec 26 10:00:57 EST 2007
Jim,
Thought I'd step in with one objection, concerning your argument about Akhenaten's and Abraham's "obsession" to sire a son by their beloved main wife #1.
Were this correspondence mere coincidence, I hardly think it would count as "bizarre", as you put it. How many couples across the ancient world struggled to produce a son?? Factor in the very striking non-correspondence that Abraham and Sarah had no daughters (why make Sarah entirely barren?), and the comparison is hardly convincing. And there are other details for which (unless I am to be corrected) there is no known correlation - most importantly, Abraham and Sarah's remarkable age.
Moreover, I disagree that "the #1 story in the Patriarchal narratives" is "Abraham’s obsession to have a son and heir by his beloved main wife #1 Sarah". The #1 story is the multi-faceted promise by YHWH to Abraham of descendents, a land, a name, and blessing to them and ultimately to the world. The barrenness of Sarah is but one (albeit a very important one) of many apparent obstacles to the fulfilment of the promises.
In fact, strictly speaking Abraham does not (in the narrative) even pray for a son. Rather, he raises the problem of his childlessness in the context of the promise, asking what YHWH will be able to "give" him in that case (Gen 15:2-3). You could, of course, interpret this as a polite, implicit request for a son; but I think it is best taken, in the context, as first of all an agonized and bemused questioning of the possibility of YHWH's promise being fulfilled.
Stephen Shead
Centro de Estudios Pastorales
Santiago, Chile
-----Original Message-----
From: JimStinehart at aol.com [mailto:JimStinehart at aol.com]
Sent: Monday, 24 December 2007 10:27 PM
To: b-hebrew at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [b-hebrew] Amarna Letters
Joseph I. Lauer:
You wrote: “Am I right in remembering something that I learned (or heard)
many years
ago that the Egyptians under Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten's rule had to worship
him and he was the only one to worship the one main deity, the Sun God?”
Let me give you a much simpler theory of the case, one that is arguably
relevant to the b-Hebrew list.
Akhenaten’s #1 obsession in life was to sire a son by his beautiful, beloved
main wife #1, Nefertiti. Most of the religious iconography we have of
Akhenaten features Akhenaten wearing a bull’s tail of virility, with Nefertiti
half his size standing behind him, with Nefertiti’s reproductive features
exaggerated, and then one to six daughters, of much smaller size, standing behind
Nefertiti. The rays of the sun-god Aten shine down on Akhenaten.
If we take the imagery straight, it is hard to miss the message. Akhenaten
was praying to a single deity to give Akhenaten a son and heir by his beloved
main wife #1.
Sound familiar? That of course is the #1 story in the Patriarchal
narratives: Abraham’s obsession to have a son and heir by his beloved main wife #1
Sarah.
Akhenaten then had a terrible religious and family crisis when Aten did not
come through and bless Nefertiti with a son. We may not be sympathetic, but
the fact was that Nefertiti’s inability to bear a son was a terrible crisis
for Akhenaten.
The first Hebrew worried that Akhenaten might wallow in his terrible
despair, and forget all about foreign policy. That would then leave Canaan wide
open to be invaded by the expansionist-minded Hittites.
So the first Hebrew composed his brilliant composition: the Patriarchal
narratives. Each and every one of Akhenaten’s terrible family problems, with
his beloved main wife #1’s inability to bear a son being first and foremost, is
right there in the Biblical text. And never once are any of the strange,
controversial family actions that Akhenaten took in desperation ever
castigated.
Akhenaten’s #1 problem was essentially identical to Abraham’s main problem,
and to a lesser degree a variation of this same problem is shared by Isaac
and Jacob, each of whom has great difficulty siring a son by his favorite main
wife.
This is not some bizarre “coincidence”. Nor is it 1st millennium BCE
fiction, as the Wellhausen JEPD theory of the case would have it. No, this is the
first historical Hebrew desperately trying to rally Akhenaten’s spirits so
that Egypt would defend Canaan and the new Hebrews from the feared onslaught
of the mighty Hittites.
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois
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