The close connection of Assyrian prophecy to the cult of Ištar has been noted in several earlier studies,[[237]] and indeed cannot be stressed enough. This close connection is evident not only from the fact that the Assyrian oracles are called words of lstar/Mullissu; as shown in detail below (p. ILff), the prophets also bear names associated with the Goddess or her cult, and come from three major cult centres of lstar, viz. Arbela, Calah and Aššur (the "Inner City") [[238]]. One of the prophets is a votaress donated to the Goddess by the king. [[239]] The oracles contain references to the cult of the Goddess or present demands on her behalf.[[240]] The fact that prophets are closely associated with devotees of Ištar (assinnu, nāš pilaqqi, etc.) in lexical lists and elsewhere[[241]] and that they participated in cultic ceremonies[[242]] strongly suggests that they were permanent members of the temple community. A letter to the king shows that a prophet could be consulted by private individuals during visits to the temple of Bitar in Calah.[[243]] A Middle Assyrian administrative text from Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta lists prophets and prophetesses as recipients of food rations among other cultic personnel of the Ištar temple of the city.[[244]]
All this implies that the individuals who became prophets belonged to the community of devotees of Ištar and therefore shared the same religious convictions, doctrines and educational background.[[245]] Incidental passages in the prophecies show that philosophical and mythological compositions dealing with the ascent and salvation of the soul, such as the myths of Adapa, Atrahasis and Gilgamesh, were well-known to the prophets, to the extent that they affected the imagery and content of the oracles.[[246]] Other literary allusions in the oracles indicate familiarity with cultic love lyrics and panegyric hymns, royal rituals, and royal penitential psalms and hymns, in other words, texts central to the official cult of Ištar.[[247]] Most importantly, a number of passages in the oracles have parallels only in esoteric mystical texts relating to the cult of Ištar[[248]] and Jewish mystical tradition.[[249]] Such passages imply that the prophets had access to esoteric mystical lore, and the only thinkable context in which such an exposure could have been possible is the cult of Ištar with its secret mysteries and initiation rites.[[250]]
While all the oracles of the corpus are addressed to or concern the king or his son and display a positive attitude towards the king,[[251]] it is also certain that other types of prophecies existed. Contemporary letters and other sources reveal that the prophets could also sharply attack the king and his behaviour. [[252]] Keeping in mind the cultic background of the prophets, it is not unreasonable to suppose that they also propagated the key doctrines of the cult of Ištar, particularly its way of salvation,[[253]] and consequently also a critique of contemporary morality.[[254]] While this moral dimension surfaces only occasionally in the extant prophecy corpus,[[255]] the critical attitude of the prophets towards the "world" cannot be questioned.[[256]] Such a prophetic activity would help explain the unremitting influx of new devotees to the Goddess. Who else but the prophets would have carried out the "missionary work" generating this influx?[[257]]
Although no Assyrian prophetic oracles are extant from the time before the 7th century, the existence of prophets and prophetesses (mahhû and mahhūtu) associated with the cult of Ištar is firmly documented already for the 13th century BC, see p. XLVII above; an oracle of Ištar of Nineveh is actually quoted in the Amarna correspondence (see Tusratta' s letter to Amenophis III, EA 23, mid-fourteenth century BC). The Middle Assyrian prophecy, in turn, has a prehistory reaching back, through Mari prophecy, to the early second millennium BC and even beyond. The earliest reference to a prophetic oracle of lstar seems to occur in an Old Akkadian text dating to reign of Naram-Suen (23rd century BC), see Wilcke, ZA 87 (1997) 16f.
237 See Weippert, ARINH (1981), p. 74f, OBO 64 (1985), p. 55, AOAT 220 (1988) 303, and most recently and most explicitly Nissinen, AOAT 232 (1991) 228.
238 The extant authorship notes show that the majority of the oracles are by prophets of Ištar of Arbela; oracles 1.5 and 2.1 were delivered by prophets from Assur, and 2.4 is by a prophet from Calah. Though none of the extant oracles can be attributed to a prophet from Nineveh, the importance of the cult of Ištar of Nineveh (Mullissu) implies that this is purely coincidental. Cf. n. 174 above, and the note on oracle 3.5 iii 20, below, p. 26.
239 See oracle 1.7 and the discussion below, p. L.
240 See oracles 1.8, 1.9, 1.10, 2.3, 3.5 and 5, and note also CT 53 969 (above, n. 214) and Thompson Esarh. pl. 14 ii 9-16 (Asb): "The Lady of Kidmuri, who in her anger had abandonded her cella and taken up residence in a place unworthy of her, became relented during my good reign which Aššur had presented and, through dreams and prophetic oracles (ina MÁŠ.MI šipir mahhé), constantly sent me (orders) to provide for her august godhead and glorify her precious rites."
241 See nn. 222f, 232 and 244.
242 See SAA 3 34:28 // 35:31 (n. 225 above), referring to the New Year's ritual of Babylon. Note also the role played by male and female prophets (mahhû and mahhūtu) in the Tammuz ritual Farber Ištar p. 140:31.
243 SAA 10 294 = ABL 1 285:3l f, "[I turned to] a prophet (raggimu) but did not find [any hop]e, he was adverse and did not see much (diglu untaṭṭi, lit. 'lacked/reduced vision')"; see my article "The Forlorn Scholar" in Festschrift Reiner (1987), pp. 257-78. This passage shows that Assyrian prophecy was not limited to royal prophecy only but that prophets could also be consulted, both on matters of state and on private matters, to prognosticate the future, as in ancient Greece and Israel. The same is implied by lexical passages such as MSL 12 238 (Kuyunjik Professions List), where the word mahhû "ecstatic prophet" (LÚ.GUB.BA, Col. ii 7) is associated with bārû "diviner/haruspex," āšipu "exorcist," and ša'ilu "dream interpreter" (ibid. ii 8-12). The reference to a prophet (raggimu) lodging with military personnel in SAA 7 9 = ADD 860 r. i 23 further suggests that prophets, like haruspices (see SAA 4 p. XXXf), may have accompanied the army on military campaigns, to predict the outcome of impending battles. Note the passage Streck Asb p. 48 v 95-104: "When the troops saw the river ldide in its violent flood, they were scared to cross it. But the Goddess who dwells in Arbela let my troops have a dream in the night and spoke to them as follows: 'I will go before Assurbanipal, the king whom my hands created!' My troops relied upon this dream and crossed safely the river Idide." Cf. H.H. Rowley, Prophecy and Religion in Ancient China and Israel (1956), p. 9: "There is ... a good deal of evidence that Old Testament prophets were consulted, both on matters of state and on private matters, in the effort to discover the future, or to give wise guidance for the present. Saul went to Ramah to consult Samuel about his father's lost asses [I Sam. 9:6] ... Hezekiah sent for Isaiah in a time of crisis to know what he should do [2 Kgs. 19:2]." Note further I Kgs. 22:6 (Ahab sends for a host of prophets to forecast the issue of the projected war with Damascus); I Kgs. 14: I ff (Jeroboam sends his wife to the prophet Ahijah, "the man who said I was to be king over this people," to find out what will happen to his son Abijah who had fallen ill); 2 Kgs. 22:12ff (Hilkiah etc. sent to Huldah the prophetess to consult her on the book of law, "to seek guidance of the LORD"); and Jer. 21: I ff (Zedekiah sends Passhur etc. to Jeremiah with this request: "Nebuchadnezzar ... is making war on us; inquire of the LORD on our behalf. Perhaps the LORD will perform a miracle as he has done in the past times, so that Nebuchadnezzar will raise the siege").
244 "10 homers 4 seahs 5 litres (of barley received by) Aššur-aha-iddina on the 2nd day for the food rations of the prophets, prophetesses and assinnus of the Ištar temple" (a-na SÚG-at mah-hu-e mah-hu-a-te ù LÚ.SAL.MEŠ .ša É du.DAR), VS 19 I i 37f, see H. Freydank, "Zwei Verpflegungstexte aus Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta," AoF 1 (1974) 55-89. See also p. L on Ilussa-amur (the deliverer of oracle 1.5) as recipient of food rations from a temple in Assur.
245 Cf. n. 220 above.
246 See notes on oracles I. I :6f, 2.3 ii I 9, and 9:8-15. For no. I. I :6f cf. S. A. Picchioni, Il poemetto di Adapa (Assyriologia 6, Budapest 198 1 ), p. 1 1 8:43, Adapa ša šūti kappaša išbir "Adapa broke the wing of the south wind" (also ibid. 60 and r.5, 7 and I I); W. G. Lambert, "Inscribed Pazuzu heads from Babylon," FUB 12 (1970) 47:2f, IM.ME lemnu ša ZI-su nanduru "the evil wind, whose attack is fearsome ... " and ibid. 42:4 // STT 1 49 r.6f, ēdiššīja a-ra-a-šu-nu/i-zi-ri-šú-nu ušabbir "By myself I have broken their (the evil winds') wings." Note that a similar allusion to the Adapa myth is also found in Mari prophecy. see ARM 26 no. 200:7ff, and cf. Durand, ibid. p. 406. For "south wind" as a metonym for the cosmic witch (i.e., the powers of darkness in general) see T. Abusch, "Ascent to the Stars in a Mesopotamian Ritual," in J. J. Collins and M. Fishbane (eds.), Death, Ecstasy, and Other Worldly Journeys (SUNY 1995), p. 36 n. 10.
247 See notes on oracles 1 .10:5, 2.2 i 16f, 2.3 ii 17f, 3.1 i 4ff, 18, 23, 28, iii 2f, and 9:3, 5.
248 See nn. 132 and 175f above. Oracle 1.6 iii 23-27 has a close parallel in the esoteric commentary SAA 3 39:3 I f: "The middle heaven of saggilmut stone is of the Igigi gods. Bel sits there in a high temple on a dais of lapis lazuli and has made a lamp of amber shine there" (ina parakki uqnî ušib GIŠ.bu-ṣi-(in) NA4.elmeši ina libbi unammir). Note that while the deity enthroned in the middle heaven is here identified as Bel, in the oracle it is Ištar of Arbela, see nn. 8, 10 and 47 above. The three-layered scheme of heavens and the location of the throne of god (Ištar/Bel) in the middle heaven corresponds to the three-layered structure of the Assyrian tree of life and the position of ls tar in its centre (see fig. 14), as well as to the three-graded structure of the soul (n. 133 above); it is also attested in early Jewish mysticism, see Gruenwald Apocalyptic, pp. 34f, 43f, 48 and 91 n. 54 (I Enoch xiv and 1xxi; 2 Cor. 12:2; Testament of Levi iii). The seven-layered scheme of heavens, which is predominant in later Jewish mysticism (cf. Gruenwald, ibid. p. 48), does not represent a later development but is an alternative scheme already attested in second- and first-millennium BC Mesopotamian texts; see Chap. IX in Horowitz Cosmic Geography, and nn. I 1 6f above.
249 See just above on oracle 1.6:23ff, and note that the material of the middle heaven (blue saggilmut stone) corresponds to that of the firmament underneath God's throne ("sapphire") in Ex. 24:10 and Ezek. 1:26 and 10: l; see Horowitz Cosmic Geography, Chap. I, and Gruenwald Apocalyptic, p. 35 n. 21. "The lamp of elmešu" of oracle 1.6:23 corresponds to the "lamp of God" of Job 29:2, to the "likeness of ḥašmal" of Ezek. 1:4 and 27, and to the fire burning before God in Jewish apocalyptic visions (cf. Gruenwald Apocalyptic, pp. 31ff). Note the prominent association of ḥašmal with lightning striking from heaven in the Babylonian Talmud (Hagigah 13a), to be compared with cuneiform passages such as TCL 15 24 vi 8, "I (Enlil) flash over the country like elmesu." The enigmatic elmešu/ḥasmal (Septuagint: elektron) has now been established as a loanword from Baltic *helmes "amber," see M. Heltzer, "On the Origin of the Near Eastern Archaeological Amber (Akkadian elmešu; Hebrew ḥašmal)," Michmanim 11 (Haifa 1997) 29-38. The notion of God watching (harādu) the king from heaven in oracles 1.4 and 1.6 can be compared with the vision of "a Watcher, a Holy One coming down from heaven" to fell the cosmic tree symbolizing the haughty king in Dan. 4:13 and 23 (cf. 4:17). Note that the Aram. verb 'wr "to wake, watch" (Payne Smith, p. 407), from which the word "Watcher" ( 'yr) of Dan. 4 is derived, is an exact semantic equivalent of NA harādu "to wake, watch," and that in kabbalistic tradition, the sefirah of Tiferet (= Ištar, see nn. 47, 114, 121 and 134 above) is called "the Watcher" and associated with the Watchman of Dan. 4 (see Z. Halevi, The Way of Kabbalah [Bath 1991 l, p. 53, and idem, The Tree of Life [2nd ed., Bath 1991], p. 40; cf. Idel Kabbalah, p.177, citing R. Meir ibn Gabbay: "When the supernal luminary watches men and sees their good and proper deeds, [then] in accordance with what they stir below, they stir above"). For Ištar as the "Holy One" see above, n. 91, and cf. n. 69.
250 See above, nn. 110, 119, 132, 140 and 244, and note the esoteric dimension of OT prophecy discussed above, n. 55f.
251 See SAA 10 284 = ABL 58 r. 1-9; LAS 317 = ABL 1 49; SAA 10 352 = ABL 437:23-r.3; SAA 10 109 = ABL 12 16:9; ABL 1217 r.2-5; ABL 1 249; CT 53 969 r.4-17 (n. 214 above); Streck Asb p. 24 iii 4-10 (below, n. 259), 48 v 95-104 and 1 20 v 93-96 (n. 243); Thompson Esarh. pl. 14 ii 9-16 (n. 240). On the central role of the king in pre-exilic Israelite prophecy see Weippert, ARINH (1981), p. 1 04ff and Nissinen, AOAT 232 (1993) 230ft'. Note also 2 Sam. 24: l l ff, "Meanwhile the command of the LORD had come to the prophet Gad, David's seer, to go and speak to David: 'This is the word of the LORD: I have three things in store for you; choose one and I will bring it upon you. ' So Gad came to David and repeated this to him."
252 See Nissinen, "Falsche Prophetie in neuassyrischer und deuteronomistischer Darstellung," T. Veijola (ed.), Das Deuteronomium und seine Querbeziehungen (Schriften der Finnischen Exegetischen Gesellschaft 62, Helsinki/Göttingen 1996), 1 72-1 95, esp. l 78ff.
253 Cf. oracles 1.4:38 and 9:8-25, and see nn. 7, 10, 119, 140 and 257.
254 Note that the Mari oracles "are often critical of the king for failing in his duties to various gods and temples. Once the king is even reminded of his duties to promote justice" (H. Huffmon, "The Origins of Prophecy" [n. 226 above], p. l 73f, with reference to A. 1121 + A. 2731 [now B. Lafont, "Le roi de Mari et Jes prophètes du dieu Adad," RA 78 (1984) 7-18] r.49ff: "Am I not Adad. the lord of Aleppo, who raised you in my armpit and returned you to the throne of your father's house? I have never asked you for anything. When a woman or a man who has suffered injustice appeals to you, answer their plea and do them justice"). Note also ARMT 13 113 (enemy invasion seen in a vision attributed to religious indifference of Kibri-Dagan, governor of Terqa), and cf. A. Malama!, "Prophetic Revelations in New Documents from Mari and the Bible," SVT 15 (1966) 207-227.
255 See oracle l .4:27f.
256 See oracle 2.3: 17-19 and the discussion of the prophet name La-dagil-ili, p. Lf. Cf. Isa. 8:5ff: "Once again the LORD said to me: Because this nation has rejected the waters of Shiloah, (...) therefore the Lord will bring up against it the king of Assyria; ...and he warned me not to follow the ways of this people." Cf. also Jer. 5:21 "Listen, you foolish and senseless people, who have eyes and see nothing, ears and hear nothing," and see above, nn. 49, 107, 135 and 139.
257 Compare the missionary activity and outspokenly "prophetic" appearance (long hair, shabby clothes, etc.) of the gnostic "itinerant apostles" (Rudolph Gnosis, p. 217), and see n. 213 above. Note in addition the Chaldean Oracles (nn. 130 and 134f above) and the gnostic document Thunder (above, p. XXXIIIf with n. 130), both of which proclaim, in the voice of the Goddess, salvation from the bonds of the material world.
Simo Parpola
Simo Parpola, 'Prophecy and the Cult of Ištar ', Assyrian Prophecies, SAA 9. Original publication: Helsinki, Helsinki University Press, 1997; online contents: SAAo/SAA09 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2021 [http://oracc.org/saao/saa09/assyrianprophecy/prophecyandthecultofitar/]