Prayer of Nabonidus

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The prayer of Nabonidus is a legendary account preserved in the Aramaic language and describes the suffering and healing of the Babylonian king Nabonidus . In the prayer of Nabonidus , the recovery from the disease that has been imposed is traced back to the recognition of the God of the Jews as the highest and only God. The text is only preserved in fragments of a single manuscript, which was found by Bedouins in 1952 in cave 4 near Khirbet Qumran on the Dead Sea , along with numerous other scrolls . Today it is owned by the Israel Museum .

Handwriting 4Q242

Cave 4 near the ruins of Qumran

The only surviving manuscript of the Nabonidus prayer is called 4Q242 or 4QPrNab: 4 stands for the number of the cave in which the manuscript was found, 242 is a continuous number. The fragments obtained can probably be divided into two columns : Fragments 1 to 3 form a column with a few gaps, while it is assumed that fragment 4 is an excerpt from another column or even another scroll due to its different material quality.

Fragment 1 has a size of approximately 8 × 8 cm and is composed of three parts. Fragment 2 consists of two parts with a height of 4.5 cm and width of 1.5 cm. The third fragment measures around 1.5 × 2.5 cm. The ratio of fragment 1 to fragments 2a.b and 3, which are presumably to be read together, is controversial. While the first editor Józef T. Milik and again Florentino García Martínez assumed a few letters apart, Frank M. Cross tried to establish a direct connection between the fragments. J. Collins agreed in the issue of Discoveries in the Judaean Desertat. This results in an approximate line length between 115 and 125 mm, i.e. H. 39-43 letters. Remnants of letters on nine lines have been preserved.

The right edge of the column is clearly preserved in fragment 1, possibly also the upper edge. Fragment 4 is irregular in shape. The heavily distorted leather makes reading difficult and only shows the remains of five lines of letters. A. Lange and M. Sieker are very skeptical of a connection to the prayer of Nabonidus due to the differences they emphasize in material and script compared to the other fragments. They even doubt that they belong to the same scroll.

The writing was based on palaeographic comparisons by J. Milik to the years between 50 BC. BC and 25 BC BC and thus dated in the transition period from Hasmonean to Herodian spelling. In contrast, FM Cross defines the form as "Jewish semicursive" from the second quarter of the 1st century BC.

The orthography has some archaic forms such as המון (reconstructed in column I, line 8) and אנתה (fragment 4, line 4). There is a Persian loan word (פתגם, "decree, decree") and a lexical Hebraism (שׁכן, "ulcer, inflammation"). However, the evaluation of the linguistic characteristics is controversial with regard to a temporal classification. A. Lange and M. Sieker advocate a time of writing in the late 4th or early 3rd century BC, while F. García Martínez the 5th century BC. Chr. Assumes. J. Fitzmyer, on the other hand, counts the Nabonidus prayer among the Middle Aramaic texts (200 BC - 200 AD).

content

The first line of fragment 1 contains the beginning of the work and also its title: "Words of prayer that Nabunai [...] prayed." According to K. Beyer, the name form "Nabunai" is a "call and Form of tenderness ". The mention of Tayma in line 2 makes it seem beyond doubt that Nabonidus is meant as the Babylonian king. He stayed for ten years in the Tayma oasis, which he expanded into his seat of government. This stay is reported in the Chronicles of Nabonidus , which were first published in 1882, and the so-called strophic poem of Nabonaid . The year of the first publication of the prayer of Nabonidus was with the Harran inscription Found Nabonidus own account of the events of those years.

In prayer, Nabonidus reports that he suffered from an ulcer for seven years. Eventually, the Godhead answers his prayer and forgives his sin and heals him. A Judean then came to Nabonidus and asked him to publicly announce his healing. Nabonidus looks back on the seven years of his illness and describes how in vain he prayed to other deities made of metal and wood.

Fragment 4 is almost impossible to interpret. The healing may be reported in lines 1 and 2; line 3 is about a visit from the friends of Nabonidus.

Relationship to other traditions

In the biblical book of Daniel c. 3.31–4.34 a story about Nebuchadnezzar II similar to the prayer of Nabonidus . Here, too, a Babylonian king is mentioned who fell ill with illness. The "seven years" in prayer correspond to the "seven times" in Daniel ( Dan 4,13.29  EU ). Like the prayer, the story in the Book of Daniel is largely formulated in the 1st person singular . In both cases a Judean plays a crucial role. The discovery of the Qumran text confirms the previously expressed assumption that the text in Daniel also goes back to a tradition that deals with Nabonidus.

In the course of tradition, however, the story was transferred to Nebuchadnezzar, who is more prominent in the Jewish tradition. Usually, research therefore assumes a literary dependence of the narratives in Daniel's book on Nabonidus prayer, but the opposite relationship is also being considered: Nadonid's prayer makes use of numerous formulations from Daniel, is more strictly oriented towards monotheism and tries to bridge the historical gap between Dan 4 and 5, d. H. to be completed between Nebuchadnezzar and the beginning of Persian rule.

A third possibility is considered by A. Lange and M. Sieker: Both Daniel and the prayer of Nabonid draw on the Nabonidus polemics from the Persian period and enrich them with Jewish interpretations. It is not necessary to assume a tradition-historical dependency.

The Babylonian texts report on Nabonidus' ten-year stay in Tayma. The Babylonian king repeatedly emphasizes his worship of the moon god Sin of Harran and the sun god Šamaš . A turn by Nabonidus to the Jewish god or a Jewish fortune teller, on the other hand, is not mentioned in the Babylonian chronicles.

Certain contacts also arise with the story about the death of Antiochus IV. Epiphanes in 2 Makk 9,5-27  EU

Remarks

  1. ^ Józef T. Milik: Prière de Nabonide et autres écrits d'un cycle de Daniel. Fragments araméens de Qumran 4. In: Revue Biblique 63 (1956), 407-415.
  2. Florentino García Martínez: The Prayer of Nabonidus. A New Synthesis. In: Ders .: Qumran and Apocalyptic. Studies on the Aramaic Texts from Qumran. (Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah 9.) Leiden 1992, 116-136.
  3. ^ Frank Moore Cross: Fragments of the Prayer of Nabonidus. In: Israel Exploration Journal 34 (1984), 260-264.
  4. ^ For the entire section, see John J. Collins: 242. 4QPrayer of Nabonidus ar. In: George J. Brooke et al. a. (Ed.): Qumran Cave 4.XVII: Parabiblical Texts 3 (DJD XXII). Oxford 1996, 83-93, and the illustrations on Plate VI.
  5. Armin Lange; Marion Sieker: Genre and source value of the prayer of Nabonidus. In: Heinz-Josef Fabry; Armin Lange; Hermann Lichtenberger (Ed.): Qumran Studies. Lectures and contributions of the participants of the Qumran seminar at the international meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, Münster, July 25-26, 1993. Writings of the Institutum Judaicum Delitzschianum 4. Göttingen 1996, 4.
  6. ^ Józef T. Milik: Prière de Nabonide , 407.
  7. ^ Frank Moore Cross: Fragments , 260.
  8. Armin Lange; Marion Sieker: Genre and source value , 6f.
  9. Florentino García Martínez: The Prayer of Nabonidus , 135.
  10. Joseph A. Fitzmyer: The Aramaic Language and the Study of the New Testament. In: Journal of Biblical Literature 99 (1980), 5-21.
  11. Klaus Beyer: The Aramaic Texts from the Dead Sea. Including the inscriptions from Palestine, Levi's will from the Cairo Genisa, the scroll of fasting and the ancient Talmudic quotations. Aramaic introduction, text, translation, interpretation, grammar / dictionary, German-Aramaic word list and index. Göttingen 1984, 223.
  12. ^ First publication by CJ Gadd: The Harran Inscriptions of Nabonidus. In: Anatolian Studies 8 (1958), 35-92.
  13. Wolfram von Soden: A Babylonian folk tradition from Nabonid in the Daniel narratives. In: Journal for Old Testament Science 53 (1935), 81–89.
  14. ^ Andrew Steinmann: The Chicken and the Egg. A New Proposal for the Relationship Between the Prayer of Nabonidus and the Book of Daniel. In: Revue de Qumran 20 (2002), 557-570.
  15. Armin Lange; Marion Sieker: Genre and source value , 30f.
  16. ^ Doron Mendels: A Note on the Tradition of Antiochus IV's Death. In: Israel Exploration Journal 31 (1981), 53-56.

Text and translation

  • Klaus Beyer : The Aramaic Texts from the Dead Sea: including the inscriptions from Palestine, Levi's will from the Cairo Genisa, the scroll of fasting and the old Talmudic quotations; Aramaic introduction, text, translation, interpretation, grammar / dictionary, German-Aramaic word list and index . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1984, ISBN 3-525-53571-6 , pp. 223-224 .
  • John J. Collins: 242. 4Q Prayer of Nabonidus ar. In: George J. Brooke et al. a. (Ed.): Qumran Cave 4.XVII: Parabiblical Texts 3 (DJD XXII). Oxford 1996, 83-93.
  • Józef T. Milik: Prière de Nabonide et autres écrits d'un cycle de Daniel. Fragments araméens de Qumran 4. In: Revue Biblique 63 (1956), 407-415.
  • Émile Puech: La Prière de Nabonide (4Q242). In: Kevin J. Cathcart; Michael Maher (Ed.): Targumic and Cognate Studies. Essays in Honor of Martin McNamara. JSOT.S 230. Sheffield 1996, 208-227.
  • Annette Steudel u. a. (Ed.): The texts from Qumran II. Darmstadt 2001, 159-165.265-266.

literature

  • John J. Collins: New Light on the Book of Daniel from the Dead Sea Scrolls. In: Florentino García Martínez, Edward Noort (Ed.): Perspectives in the Study of the Old Testament and Early Judaism. A Symposium in Honor of Adam S. van de Woude on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday (Supplements to Vetus Testamentum 73). Leiden 1998, 180-196.
  • Frank Moore Cross: Fragments of the Prayer of Nabonidus. In: Israel Exploration Journal 34 (1984), 260-264.
  • Florentino García Martínez: The Prayer of Nabonidus. A New Synthesis. In: Ders .: Qumran and Apocalyptic. Studies on the Aramaic Texts from Qumran. (Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah 9.) Leiden 1992, 116-136.
  • Armin Lange; Marion Sieker: Genre and source value of the prayer of Nabonidus. In: Heinz-Josef Fabry; Armin Lange; Hermann Lichtenberger (Ed.): Qumran Studies. Lectures and contributions of the participants of the Qumran seminar at the international meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, Münster, July 25-26, 1993. Writings of the Institutum Judaicum Delitzschianum 4. Göttingen 1996, 3-34.
  • Andrew Steinmann: The Chicken and the Egg. A New Proposal for the Relationship Between the Prayer of Nabonidus and the Book of Daniel. In: Revue de Qumran 20 (2002), 557-570.
  • Adam S. van der Woude: Comments on the prayer of Nabonidus. In: Mathias Delcor (ed.): Qumrân. Sa piété, sa théologie, et son milieu. Leuven 1978, 120-129.

Web links

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on March 24, 2008 .