Potential sources range across the ANE. Using righteousness to establish or nuance cultic reality occurs in two sources: one from Sumer-Babylonian culture and a second from Egypt. Righteousness as an authority to bless God occurs in the Avesta. A third occurs once in an Egyptian text.
Establishing or Nuancing Cultic Reality
A strong possible source for this method of righteousness is the Sumer-Akkadian Hymn, “Prayer of Lamentation to Ishtar.” A second possibility is the Egyptian text, “Joy at the Accession of Merneptah.” More texts display this method but scored too low for inclusion.
Prayer of Lamentation to Ishtar
This prayer originated in the Esagila temple in Babylon. Unfortunately, the temple suffered partial destruction in the second Babylonian rebellion against Persia, so the extant text is only a copy. In it, the recipient is Ishtar, the conjoint goddess of the Semitic Eshtar and Sumerian Inanna:
For you are great and you are exalted. All the black-headed (people and) the masses of mankind pay homage to your might. The judgment of the people in truth and …show more content…
These last two traits also resonate with Second Temple authors answering questions of theodicy and correcting subsequent theology within their communities. Not only were Jewish people questioning if the Hebraic god was capricious, but they even suggested “the possibility that God is malevolent.” A second similarity exists in the divine reactions against injustices. Ishtar caused the “oppressed and mistreated” to prosper, and Hebraic god punished the evils of His creation (T. Levi 3:1-4, Jubilees 5-11; 21:4). Authors from both cultures focus not only judgment but the underlying recognition of a deity’s personality and how it drives divine judgment. Two differences, however, separate the Prayer of Lamentation from the Jewish
Establishing or Nuancing Cultic Reality
A strong possible source for this method of righteousness is the Sumer-Akkadian Hymn, “Prayer of Lamentation to Ishtar.” A second possibility is the Egyptian text, “Joy at the Accession of Merneptah.” More texts display this method but scored too low for inclusion.
Prayer of Lamentation to Ishtar
This prayer originated in the Esagila temple in Babylon. Unfortunately, the temple suffered partial destruction in the second Babylonian rebellion against Persia, so the extant text is only a copy. In it, the recipient is Ishtar, the conjoint goddess of the Semitic Eshtar and Sumerian Inanna:
For you are great and you are exalted. All the black-headed (people and) the masses of mankind pay homage to your might. The judgment of the people in truth and …show more content…
These last two traits also resonate with Second Temple authors answering questions of theodicy and correcting subsequent theology within their communities. Not only were Jewish people questioning if the Hebraic god was capricious, but they even suggested “the possibility that God is malevolent.” A second similarity exists in the divine reactions against injustices. Ishtar caused the “oppressed and mistreated” to prosper, and Hebraic god punished the evils of His creation (T. Levi 3:1-4, Jubilees 5-11; 21:4). Authors from both cultures focus not only judgment but the underlying recognition of a deity’s personality and how it drives divine judgment. Two differences, however, separate the Prayer of Lamentation from the Jewish