THE EXPLANATION OF
BIBLICAL OBSCURITIES
The linguistic and literary affinity between the writings
of Ugarit and those of the Bible helps us to learn a great deal from each of
these two literatures concerning the other. ON the one hand, invaluable help
for the understanding of the Ugaritic texts is afforded us by constant
comparison of these works with Scriptural texts; and on the other hand, we can
derive much benefit from the Ugaritic compositions for the elucidation of
obscure Biblical passages and topics. Examples of the assistance of that the
scholar investigating Ugaritic literature can receive from the study of the Bible
the reader will find on almost every page of my commentary on the texts presented
in this volume. Instances of the light that can be shed on many difficult verses
in Scripture by the examination of Ugaritic writings, will be found in the
following notes, apart from not a few examples that will likewise be encountered
on the course of my commentary:
. . .
(3) In Isaiah xxvii 1 we read: בַּיּ֣וֹם הַה֡וּא יִפְקֹ֣ד
יְהוָה֩ בְּחַרְב֙וֹ הַקָּשָׁ֜ה וְהַגְּדוֹלָ֣ה וְהַֽחֲזָקָ֗ה עַ֤ל לִוְיָתָן֙ נָחָ֣שׁ
בָּרִ֔חַ וְעַל֙ לִוְיָתָ֔ן נָחָ֖שׁ עֲקַלָּת֑וֹן וְהָרַ֥ג אֶת־הַתַּנִּ֖ין אֲשֶׁ֥ר
בַּיָּֽם—‘In that day the Lord with HIs hard and great and strong sword will
punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting [or: ‘crooked’] serpent,
and He will slay the dragon that is in the sea’.
It was difficult to fathom the prophet's intention in
this verse so long as we did not know what was meant by 'Leviathan the fleeing
serpent', by 'Leviathan the twisting serpent', and by 'the dragon that is in
the sea'. Now a surprising parallel to these epithets, already noted by Ch.
Virolleaud, who was the first to publish Ugaritic texts, has come to light in
these writings. In Tablet I* AB, i, 1-3, Mot, in his address to Baal, says: k
tmhs ltn btn brh tkly btn 'gltn šlyt d šb't r'ašm - 'When thou smitest
Leviathan the bariah [fleeing?] serpent, and destroyest the twisting
[or, crooked] serpent, the seven-headed monster', etc. In Tablet V AB, iv, H,
Anath reminds her brother Baal: l'ištbm tnn 'išbmnh, mhšt btn 'qltn, šlyt d
šb't r'ašm - 'I muzzled the dragon, yea, I muzzled him, I smote the
twisting [or crooked] serpent, the seven-headed monster'. This parallel makes
it possible for us to understand the allusion in the Biblical passage. In the
Ugaritic epic the reference is to the monstrous creatures who were reckoned
among the foes of Baal, the god of the heavens. These beings also entered the
cycle of legends of the people of Israel (I shall deal with this fully later
on), and they remained in the folk memory as the embodiment of evil forces
opposed to the Creator, as representative of the powers of wickedness in the
world. When the prophet came to announce that in the end of days God would
destroy the forces of evil from the world, he used these mythical figures as
symbols of wicked powers, symbols that were well known in the circle of his
hearers.
(4) The reason for the prohibition not to seethe a kid in
its mother's milk is not stated in the Pentateuch, and is unknown to us. The explanations
that scholars have attempted to find for this negative commandment are only
conjectures. One of these is advanced by Maimonides, who surmises that the
Torah intended to abolish, by means of this prohibition, a custom connected
with the idolatrous cultus; but Maimonides was unable to offer any proof of the
existence of such a practice. Now, as Ginsberg already noted when the Ugaritic
writings were first published,42 there has been found in the Ugaritic Tablet
SS, line 14, a reference to the Canaanite custom of seething a kid in milk : tb[h
g]d bhlb 'annh bhm'at -'Coo[k a ki]d in milk, a lamb in curd' (see also
above, C, 8). The context apparently speaks of a ritual ceremony designed to
draw the blessing of fertility to the earth; thus the connection, in the
Biblical passages, between the bringing of the first fruits and the
aforementioned prohibition becomes clear:
'The first of the first fruits of your ground you shall
bring into the house of the Lord your God [to express your thanks to Him for
the produce of the earth that He gives you, but take heed not to follow the
practices of the land of Canaan; therefore] you shall not boil a kid in its
mother's milk'.
(5) Needless to say, the study of the Ugaritic texts is
able to shed light on the Biblical passages that deal explicitly with aspects
of the religion and worship of the Canaanites. But this is not all. There are
also matters mentioned in the Bible allusively, which were readily understood
by the Israelites at the time when they were written down, but are not quite
clear today to one who is not acquainted with the subject alluded to. Thus, for
example, it is related in i Kings xviii 27, that the prophet Elijah mocked the
prophets of Baal when they called upon the name of their god and prayed to him
to answer them with fire from heaven, but there was no voice and no one heeded;
and inter alia his derisive remarks contain the words: 'or he is on a
journey'. The purport of this remark is not clear, but the Ugaritic Tablet IV
AB enables us to understand its significance. It is narrated there, at the
beginning of column ii, that one fine day the goddess Anath came to the house
of her brother Baal and enquired of his servants if Baal was at home, and the
servants answered (4-9): 'in b'l bbth(t) 'il hd bqrb hklh qšthn 'ahd bydh
wqs th bm ymnh 'idk lytn pnm tk 'ah šmk - 'Baal is not in his house, the
god Hadd is not in the midst of his palace; his bow he took in his hand, his
arrows in his right hand, and then he set his face towards the marshes of
Simku'. (Umberto Cassuto, The Goddess Anath: Canaanite Epics of the
Patriarchal Age [trans. Israel Abrahams; Jerusalem: The Magnes Press, 1971],
48, 49-51)
To Support this Blog:
Email for Amazon Gift
card: ScripturalMormonism@gmail.com
Email for Logos.com Gift
Card: IrishLDS87@gmail.com
