8.1 At the Roots
8.2 The Canon of Morality
8.3 The Social Context
8.4 The Divine Element as Guarantor or Founding Principle
8.5 Infringement of the Order
8.6 Demons - Curses and Blessings
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- "DMB.d": duplicate bibliography "DMB" for site "Mes-rel".
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- "Oshima2014Sufferers.d": duplicate bibliography "Oshima2014Sufferers" for site "Mes-rel".
- "Trinkaus1983Shanidar.d": duplicate bibliography "Trinkaus1983Shanidar" for site "Mes-rel".
8.1 At the Roots
Buccellati stresses the personal distinction of biblical monotheism with respect to the experience of the absolute. Prayer, in the Mesopotamian sense, as illustrated in the Šurpu collection, is of a standardized nature and serves an apotropaic function (to ward off evil) demonstrating that it is devoid of personal nuance. See Lenzi 2010 Invoking.
– [ Iman Nagy, July 2020]
For šurpu, see RlA. The meaning of the term is explained in CAD 17 = Š3, pp. 353-354.
For a comparison between Mesopotamian Šurpu and the Bible, see Geller 1980 Incantations. Cf. Schwemer 2011 Magic and Geller 2010 Medicine, mainly pp. 29-30.
The fundamental edition of these texts is Reiner 1958 Surpu.
See also Appendix 1.
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For the ‘Tablet of Destinies’ (Akkadian ṭup šimā(t)i), see CAD 19 = Ṭ, p. 135; cf. RlA, p. 153, § 13.
The tablet is said to be hold by the god Enki in the Sumerian poem Ninurta and the Turtle (see transliteration and English translation from ETCSL, text no. 1.6.3).
See also Black 1992 Gods, p. 173. Cf. supra 5.3.
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For Baruch Spinoza and his thought, cf. supra 7.11.
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For Ex. 24, 12 (mentioned by G. Buccellati in Chapter 8, Section 1), see here.
Cf. Dt. 5, 1.
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For Hebrew לֻחֹת הַאֶבֶן, luḥōt ha’eben (‘tablets [of] stone’), see DCH 4, pp. 524-524.
The term is attested in several passages of the Old Testament, with different variants:
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For an English edition of Šurpu see Reiner 1958 Surpu.
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On the “Tablet of Destinies” see Lambert 2013 Creation Myths.
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See Cohen 2018 Morality In Antiquity for a treatment of wisdom literature and morality in Mesopotamia.
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See Lambert 1958 Morals on morality.
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8.2 The Canon of Morality
On the Ten Commandments of the Judeo-Christian tradition, see of course the two parallel versions in Ex. 20, 2-17 and Deut. 5, 6-17. Cf. supra 4.3.
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Buccellati’s reading in section 8.2 contrasts with Bürki’s more nuanced treatment of Biblical law. See Burki 2015 Nombres.
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8.3 The Social Context
For a discussion of the role of cultural tradition and social context in ancient religions, see Brelich 1976 Prolegomeni.
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For the Hymn to Enlil (mentioned by G. Buccellati in Chapter 8, Section 2 [App. 2]), see the Sumerian composition Enlil in the E-kur (Enlil A) (see transliteration and English translation from ETCSL). Cf. Falkenstein 1959 Sumerische, cited in Appendix 2.
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For an English translation of the Enūma elīš, see Foster 2005 Before, pp. 436-486.
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On the concept of ‘chosen people’, see e.g. the Jewish Encyclopedia.
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On the treaty in the Bible, see e.g. the lemma ‘covenant’ (berît) in Freedman 2000 Eerdmans, pp. 288ff..
For the specific Hebrew berît, see DCH 2, pp. 264-267.
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8.4 The Divine Element as Guarantor or Founding Principle
The Hymn to Shamash, partially translated and published in appendix 3 to “When on High…”, describes the god as a judge who applies a pre-existing law. Note for instance verse 98: “you impose a punishment on him who perverts justice to pocket a bribe.” Buccellati compares this situation to that of Hammurabi, who is a judge more than a legislator. According to Charpin, on the other hand, the god does not obey a higher law that has ontological coherence. Rather, the god punishes because he is angry. See: (Charpin 2015 Defaite).
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The polytheistic view of the gods as executors of a law or morality that originated “above” them also serves to resolve the problem of theodicy. See the treatment of Mastema and the critical comments here: Hamidovic 2015 Mastema.
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For a reading of YHWH’s actions that looks similar to Buccellati’s interpretation of polytheism, in that YHWH follows an immutable law that is in a sense “above” himself, see: Mathys 2015 Colere. In this reading, YHWH’s mercy lies in delayed retribution.
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Mendenhall states that “To summarize the biblical concept of social control systems, any action induced by such systems that is based upon individual motivations of economic gain, prestige (publicity), or ambition for power has nothing to do with the Kingdom of God. … The problem in ancient as well as modern times is that most of humanity cannot conceive of the existence of any legitimate and functional motivation for behavior other than money, publicity, and power.” (p. 170). Mendenhall applies his distinction not only to political structures but also to ecclesiastical structures, which are power structures and suffer from the same social control (and therefore un-biblical) errors that are found in political or corporate structures. “A community, on the other hand, is a complex of persons who have something in common other than a power structure, and a value system in which economic well-being is not in the control of a centralized power structure” (p. 173) and has no goal except “the realization in the process of daily life of those values that make life Good.” (p. 174). See Mendenhall 1975 Conflict.
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For the Hymn to Shamash (mentioned by G. Buccellati in Chapter 8, Section 4), see the Akkadian transliteration and English translation in Lambert 1960 Wisdom, pp. 121-138.
See also Appendix 3.
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For the Code of Hammurapi, RlA 3, p. 255-269, § 3.6, today in the Louvre Museum, see e.g. the English translation by L.W. King.
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For [Anzu], see here.
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For Hebrew expression הַתּוֹרַה וַהַמִּצְוָה, hattôrah wahammiṣewa (‘law and commandments’), see DCH 8, pp. 612-616 and DCH 5, pp. 446-448.
For the mentioned biblical passages:
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For the Hebrew expression לֻחֹת הָעֵדָה, luḥōt ha‘edāh (‘tablets [of] testimony’) [variant לֻחֹת הָעֵדֻת, luḥōt ha‘eduth], see DCH 4, p. 524; cf. DCH 6, p. 278.
The term is attested in several passages of the Old Testament, with different variants, e.g.:
Ex. 31, 18 (mentioned by G. Buccellati, too);
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For Ex. 34, 1 (quoted by G. Buccellati in Chapter 8, Section 4), see here.
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For the Hebrew expression דִּבְרֵי הַבְּרִית, diberê habberît (‘Ten Commandments’), mentioned by G. Buccellati in Chapter 8, Section 4, speaking about Ex. 34, 28, see DCH 2, p. 406f.
Cf. supra 4.3 for the parallel versions of the passage about the ‘Ten Commandments’ in Ex. and Deut..
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For the passage of Dt. 10, 11-12 (mentioned by G. Buccellati in Chapter 8, Section 4) see here.
For the Hebrew term מִצְוֹת, miṣeôt (‘Commandments’], specifically taken from Dt. 10, 13, see DCH 5, pp. 446-448.
For the Hebrew expression עָרְלַת לְבַבְכֶם, ‘ārelat lebabekem (‘the foreskin of your heart’), from Dt. 10, 16, DCH 6, pp. 563.
About the indication in the same passage of ‘not hardening the neck’, the original Hebrew reads וְעָרְפְּכֶ֔ם לֹא תַקְשׁוּ עֹוד, we‘ārepekem lō’ thaqešû ‘ōwdh, ‘and be no more stiff-necked’/‘do not harden anymore your neck’/‘and be no longer stiff-necked’.
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On the Hymn to Shamash and the gods’ role as guarantors of justice see Doak 2006 Justice.
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8.5 Infringement of the Order
Mastema plays the role of the tempter, which preserves YHWH’s transcendence while explaining a way that human and divine wills could find themselves in opposition. See: Hamidovic 2015 Mastema.
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Buccellati affirms that willing is not a specific attribute of the divine element in Mesopotamia. Marti partially challenges and partially confirms this view in his treatment of divine wrath. The god wills, if he exists; but it would seem that instead the god is a stand-in explanation for events that occur on an intra-mundane level. Thus there is no coherence in the god’s action. See: Marti 2015 Repentir.
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In the biblical perspective, divine wrath is the consequence of an opposition between two wills. For Gonzalez, it also has a pedagogical meaning: Gonzalez 2015 Colere.
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Note that the source of evil in Mesopotamia is not disobedience, as it is in the Biblical account. See the discussion in Anthonioz 2016 Deluge.
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For Gen. 3, mentioned by G. Buccellati in Chapter 8, Section 5, see here, about the origin of evil.
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For Gen. 1, 25-3, mentioned by G. Buccellati in Chapter 8, Section 5, see here, about the human choice opposed to the ‘goodness’ of the creation.
Cf. also Wis. 1, 13-15.
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For Gen. 3, 15, mentioned by G. Buccellati in Chapter 8, Section 5, see here, about human disobedience and sin. Cf. also Gen. 4, 3-16.
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For Gen. 18, 22-23, mentioned by G. Buccellati in Chapter 8, Section 5, see here, about the intercession of Abraham against the divine punishment.
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For Dt. 24, 16, mentioned by G. Buccellati in Chapter 8, Section 5, see here, about the relationship between father’s and son’s sins.
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For Jer. 31, 29-30, mentioned by G. Buccellati in Chapter 8, Section 5, see here, about individual death because of personal iniquity.
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For Ez. 14, 12-23 and Ez. 18, 1-24, mentioned by G. Buccellati in Chapter 8, Section 5, see here and here, respectively, about the individual salvation of the just man.
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For the mentioned ‘wandering of Enkidu’ see e.g. Black 1992 Gods, p. 76; for his ‘civilization’, see directly the Sumerian original text, with English translation and comment, of all the extant texts related to Gilgamesh epic, available on ETCSL.
An English revised translation can be found in George 2000 Gilgamesh, see specifically ‘Tablet I’, on pp. 1ff..
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For Utnapishtim, also known in Sumerian literature as Ziusudra (with reference to the tablets mentioning him), see RlA. Cf. supra 7.8.
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For Heraclitus, see here. For G. Buccellati’s sentence «Conflict is the father of everything» (Chapter 8, Section 5), see specifically Heraclitus’s fragments, no. 44 (Burnet 1920 Early = DK 53): «Πόλεμος πάντων μὲν πατήρ ἐστι, πάντων δὲ βασιλεύς, καὶ τοὺς μὲν θεοὺς ἔδειξε τοὺς δὲ ἀνθρώπους, τοὺς μὲν δούλους ἐποίησε τοὺς δὲ ἐλευθέρους» («War is the father of all and the king of all; and some he has made gods and some men, some bond and some free»); Greek text after Diels 1960 Fragmente, pp. 150-182, in Thesaurus Linguae Graecae = 2nd edition (1906), p. 69; English translation after Burnet 1920 Early, p. 136 (original) = 100 (PDF).
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On the ‘noise’ produced by human labour, provoking the destruction of mankind in Sumerian tradition, see e.g. ETCSL 1.7.4, ‘The Flood Story’ (transliteration; translation). Cf. also the Mesopotamian version of the flood, in Foster 2005 Before, pp. 227-280.
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For the episode of the ‘Tower of Babel in the Bible’ and the related confusion of languages, see Gen. 11. A parallel is preserved in the story of the ‘Tower of Shinar’, reported in the apocryphal ‘Book of Jubilees’, 10, 18-27. Cf. also the various and different interpretations of the Biblical passage of the confusion of languages in Bereshit Rabbah, ch. 38.
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For the text of Sophocles’ tragedies, see Perseus Digital Library.
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For collections of several examples of infringement of order, see vander Toorn 1985 Sin Sanction and Durandetal 2015 Tabou.
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On the Mesopotamian concept of “noise” as a negative element, see Heffron 2014 Noise. For a different theory, which instead considers noise as a metaphor for activity and creation, see Michalowski 1990 Presence.
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See Bauks 2016 Repentance for a treatment of God changing his mind in the book of Genesis.
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See Norenzayan 1998 Big for a sociological interpretation of religion as a factor in cooperation and conflict.
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See Scheid 2015 Dieux for a study of divine anger in the Roman gods.
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See Smith 1963 Before on original sin.
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8.6 Demons - Curses and Blessings
Lambert’s treatment of angels/demons, which do admit of monotheism in the Christian understanding of the term, is at odds with Smith 2001 Origins. See Lambert 1975 Pantheon.
– [ Jonah Lynch, March 2020]
In the interest of maintaining strict monotheism, the Bible delimits the presence of spiritual beings other than YHWH. However, there are many different spiritual beings even in the Bible, and their character is not greatly dissimilar to the Mesopotamian demonology. By downplaying the structural radicality of monotheism, and simultaneously leaving the concept of demons somewhat ambiguous, Smith’s thesis is weakened. See Smith 2001 Origins.
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The presence of angels as lesser divine beings is an important distinction within monotheism: Whatham 1899 Poly. See Smith 2001 Origins.
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«The demons in Mesopotamia are mostly amorphous communities, whose very name appears regularly in the plural. They belong to the divine hierarchy and are not opposed to it. They are completely neutral with respect to the moral dimension, in the sense that they are intrinsically neither good nor bad, but are agents that cause favourable or unfavourable events, and not according to particular values» (G. Buccellati, Chapter 8, Section 6). A slightly different opinion on demons at Sumer is expressed in Moscati 1997 Imperi, p. 36, where the author clearly states a distinction between good and evil demons: «Beneath the gods is the demons’ sphere. There are good ones, who protect temples, houses, and human beings; but most of them are evil, unappeased spirits of the dead, who live in graves, darkness, and deserts, from whence they come to earth to bring fear and torment».
Note that a similar opinion is expressed in Von Soden 1985 Einfuhrungen.
For further information about demons in Mesopotamia, see: RlA; Black 1992 Gods; Lurker 2005 Dictionary; Green 1984 Beneficent.
For demons in the Bible and in ancient Israel, see vander Horst 1999 D D D and Frey- Anthes 2008 Demons.
For a comparative approach between Mesopotamia and Israel, see e.g. vander Toorn 2003 Theology.
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For utukku demons, see CAD 20 = U and W, pp. 339-342.
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For eṭemmu demons, see CAD 4 = E, pp. 397-401.
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For kūbu demons, see CAD 8 = K, pp. 487-488.
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For gallû demons, see CAD 5 = G, pp. 18-19.
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For lilû demons, fought by Pazuzu (cf. e.g. Foster 2005 Before, p. 978 [text IV.40e]), see CAD 9 = L, p. 190.
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For asakku/ašakku demons, see CAD 1 = A2, pp. 325-326.
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For lamaštu demons, see CAD 9 = L, pp. 66-67. Lamaštu is sometimes personified as a she-demon: see e.g. Foster 2005 Before, p. 974 (text IV.40a).
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For šēdu demons, see CAD 17 = Š2, pp. 256-259.
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For lamassu demons, see CAD 9 = L, pp. 60-66. For a depiction of an Assyrian lamassu, see here.
In general, for iconography of demons in Mesopotamia, see RlA.
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For Pazuzu demon, see CAD 12 = P, p. 314; cf. RlA. For a depiction of Pazuzu, see here; for his benevolent action against headache, see e.g. Foster 2005 Before, p. 978 (text IV.40e).
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For Mušḫuššu demon, see CAD 10 = M2, pp. 270-271; cf. RlA. For a depiction of Mušḫuššu, see here.
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For Kulul(l)u demon, see CAD 8 = K, pp. 526-527; cf. RlA. For a depiction of Kulul(l)u, see here. Cf. also Green 1986 Note.
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For Šuḫurmaš(š)u demon, see RlA. For a depiction of Šuḫurmaš(š)u, see here (after Green 1986 Note, pl. V). Cf. also Green 1986 Note.
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For Girtabbulu (dGír-tab) demon, see RlA. For a depiction of Šuḫurmaš(š)u, see here.
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On the god Nergal, see here.
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On the goddess Ereshkigal, see here.
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For the Greek term ἄγγελος, see LSJ.
For the Hebrew מַלְאָךְ, male’āke, see DCH 6, pp. 284-288.
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For Tb. 12, 15 (mentioned by G. Buccellati in Chapter 8, Section 6) see here.
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For Job. 1, 6 (mentioned by G. Buccellati in Chapter 8, Section 6) see here.
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For Ps. 82, 1 (mentioned by G. Buccellati in Chapter 8, Section 6) see here.
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For the ‘seraphim’, see here.
For the mention of ‘seraphim’ in Is. 6, 1f., see here.
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For the ‘cherubim’, see here.
For the mention of ‘cherubim’ in Gen. 3, 24, see here; for Ex. 25, 18, see here. About the correspondence with Akkadian kāribu, see CAD 8 = K, pp. 216-217: to be noted that in Akkadian the term designates 1) «a person performing a specific religious act», or 2) «a deity represented as marking a gesture of adoration».
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For the Hebrew שָׂטָן, sāṭān, ‘adversary’, see DCH 8, pp. 122-123; cf. vander Horst 1999 D D D, pp. 726-732. Cf. also Rinaldi 1971 B O.
For the Biblical passages mentioned by G. Buccellati: Job 1, 6-12; Job 2, 1-10; Zc. 3, 1-2. About the serpent as symbol of Satan, see Gen. 3, 14-15.
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For לִילִית, Lîlîth, see DCH 4, p. 543; cf. vander Horst 1999 D D D, pp. 520-521.
For the Biblical passages mentioned by G. Buccellati: Is. 34, 14; Job 18, 15.
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For Ἀσμοδαὶος, Asmodeus, mentioned by G. Buccellati referring to Tb. 3, 8, see vander Horst 1999 D D D, pp. 106-108.
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About the interdiction in the Bible about the invocation of spirits of the dead, Hebrew ָאֹבֹת, ’obot, DCH 1, pp. 91-97, lit. “ancestors”, and for Hebrew יִדְּעֹנִים, yide‘ōnîm DCH 1, pp. 91-97, lit. ‘the familiar spirits, necromancers’, see Lv. 19, 31 and Dt. 18, 10-11, respectively.
For the “woman/lady of the ’ôb”, see the Hebrew term אֹוב in DCH 1, p. 148, lit. “ghost, medium, necromancer”, mentioned in 1Sam. 28, 7. This term could be connected to the Hurrian ābi (for which see Laroche 1980 Glossaire, p. 34, translating “trou, fosse”), a word still not completely clear (maybe “pit”) but used by G. Buccellati and M. Kelly-Buccellati to refer to the “Underground structure W” (A12) found at Urkesh/Tell Mozan. Further bibliography on this structure is available here. Cf. also Buccellati Kelly Buccellati 2005 Hurrian, Buccellati Kelly Buccellati 2007 Heaven, Collins 2004 Channel, Di Martino 2005 Archeozoologia, and Kelly Buccellati 2002 Unterwelt. Cf. infra 9.6 and 11.7.
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For necromantic practices at Urkesh/Tell Mozan related to the ‘necromantic pit’ known as ābi, see Buccellati 2014 Dalprofondo. For necromancy in the Ancient Near East, see Tropper 1989 Nekromantie; for the biblical passage of 1 Sam. 28 and the “woman/lady of the ’ôb”, cf. also Dahan 2021 Samuel.
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