A Forgotten Reference to Divine Procreation? Psalm 2:6 in Light of Egyptian Royal Ideology

Abstract

The author discusses whether or not MT Ps 2:6 (in particular the verb ) reflects Egyptian royal ideology as the one evident in “Ptah’s Decree to Ramesses”. He tentatively concludes that the verse historically reflects a concept where the god procreates the human king. Semantically, the verb might originally have denoted the emission of semen, either after the model of or at least in a way comparable to “Ptah’s Decree to Ramesses” (c. 13th-11th centuries BCE). The common translation by means of a legal term “to install” etc. reflects the LXX. LXX Ps 2:6 might represent a theological correction of what the translators considered to be a case of an intolerable anthropomorphism in the Hebrew text.

Transformative Poetry. A General Introduction and a Case Study of Psalm 2

“…Because all this is absent, which means he is, as it were, neither preceded nor succeeded by anyone, he is like the son of God as an eternal priest. A parallel is thus established between the origins of Melchizedek and the origins of the son in the quotation from Psalm 2:7c-d (for the idea of divine descent in Psalm 2:7, see Granerød 2010). The concluding verse, Hebrews 7:28, can possibly be seen as an allusion to Psalm 2:7, if the Septuagint's translation of prosta, gma for 'decree' is regarded as a synonym of o` lo, goj th/ j orkwmosi, aj 'the word of the oath'.…”