(Download) "Invoking the God: Interpreting Invocations in Mesopotamian Prayers and Biblical Laments of the Individual (Critical Essay)" by Journal of Biblical Literature # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Invoking the God: Interpreting Invocations in Mesopotamian Prayers and Biblical Laments of the Individual (Critical Essay)
- Author : Journal of Biblical Literature
- Release Date : January 22, 2010
- Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines,Books,Professional & Technical,Education,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 228 KB
Description
Since the earliest comparative analyses of biblical and Mesopotamian materials, scholars have noted a striking difference between the form of the Psalter's laments of the individual and the Akkadian guilla-prayers. (1) The latter begin with an invocation and hymnic prologue; the former have only a very brief invocation, often consisting of nothing more than a word or two. Several influential biblical interpreters have attached great significance to this difference, making comparative and even theological generalizations that inevitably exalt Israel over its imperial Mesopotamian neighbor. Although this difference between the Hebrew and Akkadian prayers is unmistakable, I argue in this brief study that the comparison is ill-formed. Based on a well-known social model of prayer and an idea formulated in ritual studies that the level of formality in ritual is often directly related to the social distance or proximity between the parties involved, I offer a more anthropologically grounded explanation for each form of invocation and the comparative contrast noted above. Turning to the observation that the brief invocation in the Hebrew laments of the individual is actually more comparable to the invocation in the Akkadian dingir.sa.dib.ba-prayers--supplications for the abatement of a personal god's wrath, (2) I suggest that the invocations in both the Hebrew laments of the individual and the Akkadian dingir.sa.dib.ba-prayers are brief because both reflect a more familiar connection between the supplicant and the deity entreated than do the suillas. This interpretation provides further support for seeing a personal aspect to the god presented in the Psalter's laments of the individual. Besides countering improper comparative generalizations and thereby contributing another example for the critical assessment of theological bias in the history of our field, this brief study exemplifies a methodological paradigm that may prove fruitful for future comparative work. I. PRAYER INVOCATIONS AND PAST INTERPRETERS
 "Invoking the God: Interpreting Invocations in Mesopotamian Prayers and Biblical Laments of the Individual (Critical Essay)" by Journal of Biblical Literature # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free){kind=link}