Authorship Indications and Other Scholia to the Oracles

In addition to oracles proper, all the tablets of the corpus contain other kinds of information as well: brief notes specifying the origin of the oracle and possibly its context and date. The individual tablets exhibit considerable variation in the formulation and placement of such notes, depending on the text type. The reports normally open with a brief note introducing the oracle, while in the collections the notes follow the oracle and are rigorously standardized in formulation. Some of the introductory notes to the reports have close parallels in the biblical corpus.^[[282]]

In addition, no. 6 has a postscript added in smaller script after the oracle: "Tašmetu-ereš, a prophet [ ... ], prophesied (this) in Arbela" (r. 11 f). This note has a parallel in collection 3 (iv 31-35) and hence may have been routinely added to many more oracle reports. For the time being it seems, however, that such postscripts were the exception rather than the rule, since two of the reports (nos. 7 and 8) certainly close with the oracle (followed by a horizontal ruling).^[[283]] None of the tablets is dated.

Judging from other comparable Ninevite archival texts, it is likely that all the oracle collections opened with a short heading specifying the content of the tablet and ended with a colophon and/or an eponym date.^[[284]] The beginnings of nos. 1-4 are almost completely destroyed, but the breaks offer sufficient room for short (1 to 2 line) headings. The "one-oracle collection" no. 9 begins as follows:

This could be interpreted as a heading, taking the restored word kidinnu as a technical term for "(oracle of) protection," to be compared with the term šulmu "(oracle of) well-being" in nos. 3.2 and 3.3 (see p. LXIV below and the commentary on p. 23). However, since the passage is not separated from the rest of the text by a ruling, as is usual in the case of headings,^[[285]] it is more likely to be part of the oracle itself and thus to be interpreted as an address formula in the vocative (see below, p. LXV, and cf. line 22 of the text).

Collections I and 2 insert after each individual oracle a stereotypical authorship note which is also found in the "one-oracle collection" no. 9. The note is structurally identical in all three texts ("from/by the mouth of PN + origin") but its exact formulation varies slightly from tablet to tablet. The following variants occur:

Variants 7-9 (especially 7) show that the expression ša pî"of/by the mouth" has to be understood literally (cf. above, p. XXVI) and not just as an idiomatic expression for "according to."^[[286]] The fact that the term raggimu/raggintu "prophet/prophetess" does not occur in the formula (in contrast to the authorship notes of nos. 3, 6, 7 and 10) indicates that it was superfluous in the context and underlines the basically oral nature of Neo-Assyrian prophecy. Considering that variants 2 and 3 are for all practical purposes identical, it is possible that the scribe of no. 9 was using (the 30-years older) no. I as a model when preparing the tablet.

Following the authorship note, no. 9 has an eponym date. If the scribe indeed used no. 1 as a model, it would stand to reason that the latter likewise ended in a date. There is room for 8 lines of text at the end of the tablet, but since the space before the break is uninscribed, it is possible that the uninscribed space extended further down leaving room only for the date in the break.^[[287]] Collection 2, which parallels no. I in structure and was written by the same scribe, has a break of about 6 lines at the end of the tablet, which would leave just enough room for the final lines of the last oracle, an authorship note, a ruling, and a date.

Collection 3, which contains several oracles delivered by a single prophet on a very special occasion (see below), does not insert an authorship note after each oracle. Instead, it specifies the author in a postscript resembling that of no. 6:

The last two oracles of the tablet (3.4 and 3.5) are separated from the beginning of the text by a double ruling. It could be argued, consequently, that the authorship note pertains only to the last two oracles. However, who would then have delivered the first three? Considering the pains taken elsewhere in the corpus to specify the authors of the oracles, it appears extremely unlikely that the prophet who delivered such important oracles as 3.2 and 3.3 would have been left unnamed. It is therefore perhaps best to accept La-dagil- ili as the author of all the oracles and not to assign undue significance to the double ruling. After all, we do not know what it stood for.

Oracles 3.2 and 3.3 are followed by postscripts defining them as šulmu, "(oracles of) well-being," and indicating that copies of them were on display in Ešarra, the temple of Aššur in Assur; the term šulmu has to be understood here as referring to the universal harmony restored through Esarhaddon' s accession (cf. 3. 1 and see above, pp. XXIV and XLIIlf). In addition, the postscript to 3 .3 contains ritual instructions showing that the collection, defined as "the covenant tablet of Aššur," was to be read in the presence of the king. Oracle 3 .1 seems to describe a procession led by the king to Ešarra; 3.2 addresses a body of Assyrians probably convened in the courtyard of the temple, where a copy of this oracle was placed; and 3.4 refers to a covenant meal administered on the terrace of the temple immediately outside the cella of Aššur. Combining these indications it can be concluded that the oracles were embedded in the coronation ceremonies of Esarhaddon and probably were all publicly delivered by the prophet La-dagil-ili. Considering the date of Esarhaddon' s accession (28th Adar, 681, i.e., only a few days before the great New Year's festival of Nisan, where the whole ruling class of Assyria was present), it is possible that the tablet was also read at subsequent New Year's receptions, to impress on the audience the divine support for Esarhaddon's kingship (cf. oracle 3.4 and the biblical passages cited in the commentary to 3 ii 32).

282 Cf. no. 5:1 with Mal. 1:1 and no. 8:1f with Ob. 1:1.

283 The last line of no. 5 is unclear, but it is unlikely to be a scribal addition.

284 Cf., e.g., CA pl. 3:1-4, "[The n]ew [rites] which [Ass]urbanipal, king of Assyria, [perfor]med from the 16th [of Shebat] through the 10th of Adar, eponymy of Bel-Harran-šadû'a"; SAA 7 48 = ADD 1075: 1-2, "Silver[ ... ) of the queen [mother ... )"; SAA 757 = ADD 928: I, "[ ... l of silver"; SAA 760 = ADD 930: 1-4, "[These are) the objects [of the god]s of Akkad, [which we]nt [to] Elam"; SAA 7 71 = ADD 687:1, "Silver, collection"; SAA 7 167 = ADD 968: I, "Consignment of [ ... ]"; SAA 11 36 = ADD 1036: I, "[Distribution of t]ribute"; SAA 11 90 = ADD 754: 1-2, "Distribution of levy of oxen and sheep."

285 All the headings listed in n. 284 except SAA 11 90 = ADD 754 are followed by rulings. The introductory lines of the reports (nos. 5-8, see just above) are not followed by rulings and thus should not be understood as headings.

286Thus W. G. Lambert, AfO 17 (1954-56) 320:8 and JCS 16 (1962) 72ff. Note that the authorship indication ša pî in the "Catalogue of Texts and Authors" (JCS 16 59-77) basically refers to divinely inspired compositions received in visionary experiences, see SAA 10 p. XVIIf with nn. l 8f and 34. For ša pî as a term for (authoritative) oral lore see Y. Elman, JANES 7 (1975) 21 ff. The proper expression for "according to" was ana pî or kī(ma) pî, see Hunger Kolophone p. 6, though it should be noted that ana pî also had the literal meaning "according to dictation" (Elman, loc. cit., p. 22).

287 Cf., e.g., the last column of 82-5-22,533 = SAA 7 51 (photograph JNES 42 [1 983) 20), which contains only a two-line date in the middle of the column; similarly SAA 7, nos. 1, 3 and 5 (note also nos. 159-161, photographs ibid. pl. IX).

Simo Parpola

Simo Parpola, 'Authorship Indications and Other Scholia to the Oracles', 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/theprophecycorpus/authorshipindicationsandotherscholiatotheoracle/]