Biblical Hebrew Forum

[peter_kirk AT sil.org]

In "A Text of Time" by David Rohl (edition by Arrow, London 1996) 
there are several pictures relevant to this topic. There is a "Detail 
from the sarcophagus of Ahiram, ruler of Byblos, showing the Late 
Bronze Age king seated on a throne flanked by winged sphinxes or 
cherubim. Beirut Museum" (p.178) and a picture of "An ivory box 
decorated with lions and winged sphinxes, from the Late Bronze Age 
palace of Megiddo. Rockefeller Museum, Jerusalem" (p.176).

Most interestingly, there is a colour picture on p.190 and a line 
drawing on p.178 of "the famous ivory plaque found in the royal palace 
at Megiddo in which the king can be seen sitting on his throne whilst 
being tended by his queen who offers him a papyrus plant and drinking 
cup - a typical Egyptian motif (Rockefeller Museum, Jerusalem)" 
(p.186); "the king is seated upon a throne, the sides of which are 
guarded by winged sphinxes (i.e. human-headed lions [the ivory box 
picture belies this equation, the lion and sphinx bodies are also 
quite different - PK])... Solomon... had 'a great ivory throne' made 
for him which was protected by 'lions' on either side [1 Kings 
10:18-20]" (p.178). This ivory is dated to the Late Bronze Age, so 
before the Israelite conquest in the traditional chronology, but 
Rohl's revised chronology allows him to suggest, "Could we have here a 
representation of Solomon and his Egyptian queen?"

Peter Kirk

PS Thank you, Walter, for being more open than some about your 
presuppositions! Although mine are different, I am also happy to find 
"parallels suggesting a common source of understandings about God, 
Man, and the Cosmos, that the Hebrews creatively drew from in forming 
their religion", while expecting that "the original ANE concept... has 
been transformed", sometimes quite extensively, into something 
compatible with the rather distinctive Hebrew worldview.


______________________________ Reply Separator 
_________________________________
Subject: Re: cherubim thrones
Author:  <mattfeld AT pjsnet.com> at Internet
Date:    11/01/2000 06:49


Dear Mr. Wei,

Thankyou for your kind comments. I understand your dissappointment in not 
finding a picture of the cherubim thrones. You mentioned a University 
library, so I would suggest that you look through books dealing with the 
Phoenicians. The most commonly reproduced picture to be found in books on 
the Phoenicians is the stone sarcophagus of king Hiram, he being portrayed 
on its side as sitting on a throne with flanking winged sphinxes, a table of 
offerings before him.

My research indicates that the Phoenician winged sphinx thrones probably 
evolved from the Egyptian thrones of the 18th/19th dynasty, which on their 
arms, portray pharaoh as a striding winged sphinx trampling upon his Asiatic 
enemies (the wings being collapsed and against the body, not open and 
extended).

I did a bound manuscript, in 1995 (286pp.) titled In Search of the Garden of 
Eden and Other Mysteries of the Bible, in which a chapter was devoted to 
tracing the development of cherubim thrones, Egyptian, Phoenician and 
Israelite, with illustrations, and my own proposed version of what the Ark 
of the Covenant and its mercy seat may have looked like. If interested, it 
is available for $35.00, and I can send you a copy. Warning: I take the 
"Humanist view" that the Hebrew Bible is an evolutionary development of 
Ancient Near Eastern religious myths, reinterpreted and transformed, and in 
this work  I attempt to trace various Hebrew concepts back to the original 
ANE concept which has been transformed. The religious beliefs of the 
Egyptians, Canaanites, Babylonians, Hittites, Syrians, and Phoenicians are 
investigated for parallels suggesting a common source of understandings 
about God, Man, and the Cosmos, that the Hebrews creatively drew from in 
forming their religion.

Alternately, if you would be so kind as to send me your mailing address, I 
could send you xerox copies of the cherubim thrones.

All the best,

Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld
Walldorf by Heidelberg
Baden Wurttemburg
Germany


---
You are currently subscribed to b-hebrew as: Peter_Kirk AT sil.org
To unsubscribe, forward this message to 
leave-b-hebrew-14207U AT franklin.oit.unc.e
du
To subscribe, send an email to join-b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu.