Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <Yigal-Levin AT utc.edu>]

Michael,

It's difficult for me to see how you get from an royal fishing expedition
to a naval battle. In any case, both Tiglath-Pileser I and Ashur-Bel-Kala
were very much "masters of a land-locked country". Their expidition to
Amurru (that is, the Levant) were no more than anecdotes, one-time marches
that had no lasting effect on anything except later Assyrian royal
propaganda. Tyre, for instance, didn't even bother to pay tribute to
Tiglath-Pileser I as he was sailing by (actually he sailed to the north,
from Arvad to Byblos, but Sidon did pay). And I very much doubt that the
Israelites of the time (c. 1100 BCE) were even aware of these events.

Yigal

At 10:35 PM 9/24/2002 GMT, Michael Banyai wrote:
>    Sorry Ian, but apparently you have no idea of Assyrian history. To help
>you out of the impass, I am quoting following two inscriptions of
>Tiglath-Pileser I and Ashur-Bel-Kala, who were surely no masters of a
>land-locked country. 
> 
> 
> “ I road in boats of the city of Arvad, of the land Amurru, travelled
>successfully a distance of three double hours from the city of Arvad, an
>island, to the city Samuru which is in the land Amurru. I killed at sea a
>nahiru (dolphin), which is called a sea-horse.” Tiglath-pileser I
>A.K.Grayson, Assyrian Royal Inscriptions, Part 2, Wiesbaden, 1976, §
>81 but also §95, §103 
> 
> 
> “ and in boats of the land Arvad he rode, killed a nahiru in the
>great sea.” Ashur-Bel-Kala A.K.Grayson, Assyrian Royal Inscriptions,
>Part 2, Wiesbaden, 1976, § 248. 
> 
>  Both kings boasted to have reigned over a giant empire from Amurru, and
>many Phoenician cities, till Babylon. I don´t know how one could call
>such an empire, contemporary with the biblical figure of Samuel (if
>historical), land-locked. 
> 
>  If we should understand by Kittim, Cyprus, Kition, than there would be no
>problem to imagine some desastruous naval clash, which led to a temporary
>break of Assyrian power in the West. They were just previously before
>masters of the Mediteranean coast immediately vicinous with Cyprus. But
>probably we will get some clue to who these Kittim were, directly from the
>royal inscriptions of these kings, if not directly, than by exclusion. 
> 
>  All the best, 
> 
>  Bányai Michael 
> 
> 
> ""<> schrieb: 
> > Sorry, Michael, but I don't see what your post has to do with 
> > my question, which is apparently to do with ships afflicting 
> > a landlocked country. 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>     
Dr. Yigal Levin
Dept. of Philosophy and Religion
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
615 McCallie Avenue
Chattanooga TN 37403-2598
U.S.A.