Prophecy in the Ancient Levant and Old Babylonian Mari

Abstract

This article serves as an introduction to the historical phenomenon of prophecy in the Ancient Levant and Old Babylonian Mari. Of particular focus is the terminology for prophetic personnel, prophecy as a system of communication, the link between prophecy and monarchy at Mari, and the question of biblical prophetic books and their relationship to prophetic practice. The ancient evidence is surveyed in an effort to elucidate a comparative investigation across the Ancient Near East. This includes narratives and books in the Hebrew Bible, and extra-biblical sources from the sites of Lachish and Deir 'Alla in the larger Levant. Additionally, the Old Babylonian archives of the 18th century BCE kingdom of Mari (Tell Hariri, Syria) illuminate how prophecy is part of a larger system of royal correspondence in antiquity. The article offers the most up-to-date literature on prophecy at Mari and also introduces new work on third-party intermediaries, those individuals who relay prophets' messages to their recipients. K E Y W O R D S communication, Hebrew Bible, intermediaries, Levant, Mari, Old Babylonia, prophecy 1 | WHAT IS PROPHECY?To speak of prophets and prophecy is to invoke the image of society's isolated critics, those men and women who receive divine oracles and communicate them to humanity. In the history of scholarship, prophecy typically is understood as the "human transmission of allegedly divine messages." 1 According to Nissinen (2005), prophecy is a socially constructed phenomenon in antiquity. The individuals called prophets do not exist in a vacuum but rather are