Nadav Na’aman, «The Israelite-Judahite Struggle for the Patrimony of Ancient Israel», Vol. 91 (2010) 1-23
The article addresses the controversial issue of the formation of "biblical Israel" in biblical historiography. It begins by presenting the political-cultural struggle between Assyria and Babylonia in the second and first millennia BCE, in part over
the question of ownership of the cultural patrimony of ancient Mesopotamia. It goes on to examine relations between Judah and Israel and compares them to those between Assyria and Babylonia. It then suggests that the adoption of the Israelite
identity by Judah, which took place during the reign of Josiah as part in his cultic reform, was motivated by the desire to take possession of the highly prestigious heritage of Israel, which had remained vacant since that kingdom’s annexation by
Assyria in 720 BCE.
9
THE ISRAELITE-JUDAHITE STRUGGLE
post-Kassite composition, of the time of Nebuchadnezzar I or of one
of his successors on the Babylonian throne 22.
Ashur was initially a mountain deity, and when the local
inhabitants built a city at the site they named it after him 23. When
the city attained political power, probably in the reign of Shamshi-
Addu I (c. 1742-1711), the local god was modelled after Enlil, the
head of the southern Mesopotamian pantheon. Many elements of the
cult of Enlil were transferred to Assyria, including the names of
temples, chapels and gates, as well as cultic rites and rituals 24.
Temples were consecrated to Ashur as Enlil, and the Assyrian king
saw himself as Enlil’s representative. Finally, the concept of the
“ navel of the world†was also conferred upon the city of Ashur.
Many building names, royal title, rites and cultic practices, even
religious theology, all originally from Nippur, may be found in first
millennium Assyria, attesting to the great impact that Nippur and its
god had on Assyrian cult and culture from the time of Shamshi-
Addu onwards.
The growth of Babylon under Hammurabi and his successors
blocked the rise of the Assyrian power for many centuries.
Babylonia held the political power and dominated the religious and
cultural heritage of Mesopotamia until the 13th century, and
remained the centre of learning and scribal activity throughout the
second millennium BCE. Assyria began to recover in the 14th century
and gradually started expanding in the 14th-13th centuries. It soon
clashed with its southern neighbour, and the two kingdoms fought
several times in an effort to gain the supreme power in
Mesopotamia. This struggle reached its climax in the reign of
Tukulti-Ninurta I (c. 1235-1199), who invaded Babylonia, defeated
its troops, captured its king, conquered Babylon and sacked it.
With military superiority secured, Tukulti-Ninurta made several
moves to demonstrate that he was a legitimate Babylonian ruler, and
that his country was well versed in Babylonian cult and culture 25. He
LAMBERT, “Reign of Nebuchadnezzarâ€, 3-6; idem, “Studies in Mardukâ€,
22
4 ; idem, “Nippurâ€, 120-122; SOMMERFELD, Der Aufstieg Marduks, 174-181;
ABUSCH, “Mardukâ€, 547-548; S. DALLEY, “Statues of Marduk and the Date of
Enuma elis â€, AoF 24 (1997) 163-171.
¯ ˇ
W.G. LAMBERT, “The God Assur â€, Iraq 45 (1983) 82-86.
ˇˇ
23
MAUL, “Die altorientalische Hauptstadtâ€, 121-123.
24
P. MACHINIST, “Literature and Politics: The Tukulti-Ninurta Epic and the
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