Notes to Chapter 22. Worship

Giorgio Buccellati, “When on High…”

August 2023

22.1 The Deity -- Object or Subject?
22.2 Nature of the Sacrifice
22.3 Forms of Control
22.4 Sacralization
22.5 Controlling Time in the Mesopotamian Perception
22.6 Controlling Time in the Biblical Perception
22.7 Space
22.8 Death and the Afterlife in Mesopotamia
22.9 Death and the Afterlife in the Biblical World
22.10 Materials
22.11 The Technicians of Worship

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"Buccellati1972Teodicea.d": duplicate bibliography "Buccellati1972Teodicea" for site "Mes-lit".
"Cauvin2000Birth.d": duplicate bibliography "Cauvin2000Birth" for site "Mes-rel".
"DMB.d": duplicate bibliography "DMB" for site "Mes-rel".
"Edzard2003Sumerian.d": duplicate bibliography "Edzard2003Sumerian" for site "Mes-rel".
"Oshima2014Sufferers.d": duplicate bibliography "Oshima2014Sufferers" for site "Mes-rel".
"Trinkaus1983Shanidar.d": duplicate bibliography "Trinkaus1983Shanidar" for site "Mes-rel".

22.1 The Deity -- Object or Subject?

For the Akkadian term dullu, ‘service’, see CAD 3 = D, pp. 173-177.

About rituals and services in ancient Mesopotamia, see the RlA.
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]
For the Hebrew term עֲבֹדָּה, `^abodā(h), ‘service’, see DCH 6, pp. 226-229.

For an explanation of the concept of `^abodā(h), see e.g. the Jewish Encyclopedia.
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]
The concept of dullum as “service” for the gods is particularly clear in Atrahasis and Enuma Eliš, where it is stated that gods created mankind and imposed the forced labor (dullum) upon it. See Tenney 2017 Servility. See also Jacobsen 1977 Inuma, where Jacobsen goes as fas as to propose the translation “misery” for dullum.
– [ Stefania Ermidoro, November 2020]
See Pongratz- Leisten 2011 Divine Agency for an interpretation of divine agency and subjectivity.
– [ Jonah Lynch, January 2021]
See Renfrew 2012 Cognitive for a distinction between cult and ritual.
– [ Jonah Lynch, January 2021]
See Zerubavel 1991 Fine Line for the hypothesis of “two kinds of mind”.
– [ Jonah Lynch, January 2021]

22.2 Nature of the Sacrifice

On offerings and sacrifices in ancient Mesopotamia, cf. supra 13.2.
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]
On ** sacrifices in the Bible, cf. supra 13.13.
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]
For the biblical passages mentioned by G. Buccellati in Chapter 22, Section 2, see the following:

Ps 50, 9-13;

Dt 26, 16;

Is 1, 11-20;

Ps 50, 14-15;

Ps 40, 7-8;

Am 5, 21-24;

Mic 6, 6-8;

Jer 6, 20.
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]
For the meaning and function of sacrifices in ancient religions (particularly in Mesopotamia), see Brelich 1976 Prolegomeni, pp. 29-30: text in Brelich 1976/Excerpt.
– [ Marco De Pietri, May 2021]

22.3 Forms of Control

For political forms of control in religious practices at Urkesh, see Buccellati Kelly Buccellati 2007 Heaven.
– [ Marco De Pietri, June 2020]
On the need to ensure the correct carrying out of rituals in human societies see Husken 2007 Rituals.
– [ Stefania Ermidoro, November 2020]

22.4 Sacralization

For the meaning of ‘sacred’ and ‘sacralization’ in ancient religions (particularly in Mesopotamia), see Brelich 1976 Prolegomeni; cf. Brelich 1976/Excerpt, passim.
– [ Marco De Pietri, May 2021]

22.5 Controlling Time in the Mesopotamian Perception

For the control of time in ancient Mesopotamian perspective, see Buccellati 2014 Time.
– [ Marco De Pietri, June 2020]
On time in Mesopotamia (cyclical vs. linear), see RlA 15, pp. 246-248. Cf. supra 9.2.
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]
For the Mesopotamian ‘New Year Festival’ (akītu), see supra 17.7.
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]
For the biblical concept of ‘beginning’, see supra 6.9.
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]
On Mesopotamian calendars, see Cohen 2015 Calendars and Stern 2012 Calendars.
– [ Stefania Ermidoro, November 2020]
On Mesopotamian processions and their religious, political and social implications see: Ristvet 2011 Travel; Mc Corriston 2017 Pilgrimage.
– [ Stefania Ermidoro, November 2020]

22.6 Controlling Time in the Biblical Perception

For the control of time in the Bible, see Buccellati 2014 Time.
– [ Marco De Pietri, June 2020]
For a discussion on history and time in the Bible, see e.g. Buccellati 2014 Time; cf. supra 19.4.

An example of sacralization of time in ancient Israel can be found in the many laws concerning the Shabbat: see e.g. the lemma ‘Sabbath’ in the Jewish Encyclopedia.
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]

22.7 Space

For the Akkadian term ugāru(m), ‘district’, see CAD 20 = U-W, pp. 27-33.

For the Akkadian expression mārū ugārim, ‘children of the irrigation district’, see e.g. the sentence “šībūt a-lim DUMU.MEŠ ugarim lizzizu let the elders of the city and the inhabitants of the irrigation district go into session” in CAD 1 = A1, p. 386, no. 3’, where DUMU.MEŠ is the Sumerogram corresponding to the Akkadian mārū. Cf. also Mes-Pol, Chapter 6.2.
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]
About processions and processional streets in ancient Mesopotamia, see the RlA, presenting also their attestation in literature and archaeology.
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]

22.8 Death and the Afterlife in Mesopotamia

For the concepts of ‘death’ and ‘Netherworld’ at Urkesh (connected to the ābi), see Buccellati Kelly Buccellati 2005 Hurrian.
– [ Marco De Pietri, June 2020]
For the concepts of ‘death’ and ‘Netherworld’ at Urkesh (connected to the ābi), see Buccellati Kelly Buccellati 2007 Heaven.
– [ Marco De Pietri, June 2020]
About the conception of death in ancient Mesopotamia, see the RlA.
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]
About the Mesopotamian Underworld, see the RlA.
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]
For the Sumerian term kur.nu.gi, ‘country from which one does not return = Underworld’, see the ePSD2. For the corresponding Akkadian expression māt la tārim, see CAD 10 = M1, pp. 414-421, under lemma mātu, ‘land’, CAD 9 = L, pp. 1-5, under lemma la, ‘not’, and CAD 18 = T, pp. 250-279, under lemma târu, ‘to return’.
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]
For the reference to Shakespeare’s ‘undiscovered country’, see Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1, lines 80ff..
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]
For the text of the Epic of Gilgamesh, see supra 6.6.
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For the Akkadian term šīru, ‘flesh’, see CAD 17 = Š3, pp. 113-122.
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]
For the Akkadian term eṣemtu, ‘bone(s)’, see CAD 4 = E, pp. 341-343.
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]
For the Akkadian term eṭemmu, ‘spirit (of the dead)’, see CAD 4 = E, pp. 397-401.
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]
For the Akkadian term balṭu, ‘alive = the living’, see CAD 2 = B, pp. 66-69.
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]
For the Akkadian term mītu, ‘the dead, spirit of the dead’, see CAD 10 = M2, pp. 140-143.
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]
For the Akkadian term utukku, ‘ghost’, see CAD 20 = U-W, pp. 339-342.
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]
For the Akkadian phrase šīra ṭubbu, ‘make the flesh good’, see CAD 17 = Š3, pp. 113-122, under lemma šīru, ‘flesh’ and CAD 19 = Ṭ, pp. 34-42, under lemma ṭâbu, ‘to become/make good’.
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]
For the reference to the Sennacherib’s inscription mentioned by G. Buccellati in Chapter 22, Section 8, see ….
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]
For Utnapishtim, see supra 7.8.
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For the Akkadian term kispu, ‘funeral banquet’, see CAD 8 = K, pp. 425-427.
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]
On the topic of death in Gilgamesh, see Abusch 2001 Gilgamesh.
– [ Stefania Ermidoro, November 2020]
The reference publication on kispum in ancient Mesopotamia is Tsukimoto 1985 Totenpflege.
– [ Stefania Ermidoro, November 2020]
See Foster 2002 End for a treatment of escatology in Mesopotamia.
– [ Jonah Lynch, January 2021]

22.9 Death and the Afterlife in the Biblical World

The definition of ‘death’ and ‘afterlife’ in ancient Mesopotamian is easily understood, since it is hard to find specific terms referring to these aspects or it is even difficult to interpret those terms because we are dealing with a broken tradition. A strictly philological analysis on this topic is offered in Piccin 2018 Mortality, where the author faces the problem of interpretation of terms or expressions referring to concepts like ‘mortality’, ‘fate’/’destiny’, ‘afterlife’, and ‘taboo’.
– [ Marco De Pietri, June 2020]
For the concept of death in the Bible, see the Jewish Encyclopedia.
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]
For the Hebrew term שְׁאוֹל, š^e’ôl, ‘Netherworld’, see DCH 8, pp. 206-207.

Cf. also the entry ‘Sheol’ on the Jewish Encyclopedia, explaining also the concept of Netherworld in the Bible.
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]
For the biblical passages mentioned by G. Buccellati in Chapter 22, Section 9, see below:

1Sam 28, 8-20;

Is 8, 19;

Dt 21, 1;

Gn 9, 29;

Ps 16, 10;

Ps 49, 9-10, 16;

Is 26, 19;

Jb 19, 25-26;

Ez 37, 4-5;

Dn 12, 2;

2Mac 7, 9.
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]
At least since the time of Frazer’s The Golden Bough, some have suggested that “dying and rising gods” are a leitmotif in many or all religions. This thesis and the evidence used to support it has been largely discredited as approximate or even simply false. See one critique in Frankfort Kingship and the Gods, pp. 286-294. Frankfort admonishes that «it is through the specifically different, not through the generically alike, that we may understand them.» (p. 294). See also Frankfort 1958 Dying God.
– [ Jonah Lynch, October 2020]

22.11 The Technicians of Worship

Buber refers to the fact that in ritual and in codified prayer, the original mystical intuition of a divine Thou can be codified and controlled through technique, and priesthood can become a cynical use of smoke and mirrors for the manipulation of simple people. Note however the difference in the biblical origin stories of the rites, in Leviticus for instance: «The preoccupation with assigning the system a specific origin in time, attributing the source of the rules to divine initiative, and developing the theme of holiness in relation to the articulation of the rites—all this indicates how lively was the sense that the meaning and value of the [cultic] practices was not exhausted in technique, but was rather intrinsic to the original motivation to be in relation with the absolute and to propose concrete ways in which that could come about.» (When 22.11). See Buber 1937 Iandthou.
– [ Jonah Lynch, April 2020]
For the role of priests and specialist in cultic activities at Ebla, an example of Mesopotamian rituality, see Bonechi 1989 Ebla.
– [ Marco De Pietri, June 2020]
About cult technicians in ancient Mesopotamia, see the lemma ‘priest’ in the RlA.

On the definition of the priests as ‘cult technicians’ or ‘representatives’, see Brelich 1976 Prolegomeni, p. 31: text in Brelich 1976/Excerpt.
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]
About cult technicians in the Bible, see the lemma ‘priest’ in the Jewish Encyclopedia; cf. also infra the following note about the Levites.
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]
About the ‘tribe’ of Levi and the Levites, see e.g. the Jewish Encyclopedia.
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An introduction to Leviticus can be found on the Jewish Encyclopedia.

For the Hebrew text and an English translation of Leviticus, see the Tanakh Project.
– [ Marco De Pietri, October 2020]