Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Joe Baker <joebaker AT cygnus.uwa.edu.au>]

ON MY SUGGESTION THAT THE NAME SANAKHARIBOS IN HERODOTOS IS FROM A HEBREW
SOURCE, BANYAI MICHAEL SAID
<quote> you should consider my argument as an example for the occurence of
Assyrian royal names in Egyptian historical texts (yxou negated), not for
the standard Egyptian rendering of Senacheribs name. </quote>

I RESPOND
My comments on foreign names rarely appearing in Egyptian sources applied
to royal inscriptions - not popular literature.
++++++++++++++++++++

BANYAI CONTINUED
<quote> Furthermore there are interesting parallels between the heroical
narrative style of these demotic tales and Herodots story </quote>

I RESPOND
I totally agree with you on this point.
++++++++++++++++++++

BANYAI CONTINUED
<quote> Furthermore there is no ground to assume any Judean provenience of
the tale, since there is no reflection of a Judahite story-teller
perspective. To assume first provenience you would need more than simply
the corect transcription of the Assyrian name (you assume the Egyptian were
not able to provide). No Judahite source would narrate the story about
Senacheribs defeat without telling anything about Hiskija, Jerusalem or
else </quote>

I RESPOND
I agree that one of Herodotos' sources for the story can be found in the
demotic cycles but these were supplemented by what he learnt about the
history, chronology and monuments of this period while he was staying at
Memphis. What I am putting to you is that only the name Sanakheribos comes
from a Hebrew source - all other information comes from Herodotos' Egyptian
sources.

These Egyptian sources retain a memory of the failed Egyptian expedition of
Assurahaiddina against Taharqa in early 673BC. The demotic cycle "Contest
for the Breastplate of Inaros" names the antagonists as Aslsnty
(Assurahaiddina) and Pedubast of Tanis (who finally submitted to the
Assyrians during the successful 671BC expedition), But Herodotos does not
use these names - his combatants are Sethos, a former high priest of Ptah
and Sanakheribos. Now from where did he get the name Sanakheribos -
certainly not from "wsHrnf" the father of Aslsnty. He would have got it
from a source where the name was written something like "snHryb". I contend
that such a source is to be found in the Book of Kings.

Herodotos has combined several Egyptian tales together to produce a story
of a king who, facing an invasion from Assyria, has a dream in which a god
promises him deliverance. On the borders of Egypt (Herodotos says at
Pelusium but this is an anachronism) the enemy is devastated during the
night by a miraculous event and immediately retreats, suffering heavy
losses. These events sound very much like the account in 2 Kings
18:17-19:35. Now Banyai - before you jump in - I am not saying that they
are the same story or depend on each other. They are two independent
stories from different countries - but anyone who has heard both can not
but be struck by their similarity.

IMO Herodotos did hear both and interpreted the Hebrew version as a variant
of the story he heard in Memphis. He was not interested in Hezekiah or
Jerusalem - they were insignificant and outside the scope of his work - but
he was interested in the outline of a miraculous nightly disaster that
struck an Assyrian army near the borders of Egypt and their retreat without
offering battle to an Egyptian army (okay the Assyrians did defeat the
Egyptians in 701 but that is not mentioned in the Biblical account). This
source supplied him with the name of the Assyrian king.

So why am I putting forward this line of argument. Well I am interested in
dating various Biblical sources. I see the Biblical account of the
Sinahheeriba's invasion as deriving from three sources

1. 2 Kgs 18:13-16 a contemporary annalist record
2. 2 Kgs 18:17-20:9a, 36-37 written by Dtr1 around 615BC
3. 2 Kgs 19:9b-35 a post exilic composition

The story of a disaster happening to the Assyrian army comes from only the
last of these sources. The first source contradicts it and the second
source only says the siege was lifted. These versions agree with the
Assyrian evidence - no disaster occurred and Jerusalem was not taken.
Sinahheeriba had returned to Ninua before the city submitted and paid its
tribute. So when did the story of a disaster come into existence.

Jeremiah 26 refers to the seige and it knows only of its lifting. If a
disaster had occurred it would surely have been mentioned here. Now this
chapter derives from exilic times - the source is the Baruch memoirs which
were combined with other Jeremiah material to produce the Book of Jeremiah
during exilic tiles). Thus the disaster story is probably post exilic and
this suggests that the (above) third source was added to the Book of Kings
sometime between 538BC and 449BC, with the later date being fixed by
Herodotos (it was about this time that he travelled from Egypt to Tyre).


Regards
Joe Baker ===========\
Perth                |
Western Australia ===/