Divine Aggression in Psalms and Inscriptions: Vengeful Gods and Loyal Kings

by Collin Cornell

The aggression of the biblical God named Yhwh is notorious. Students of theology, the Bible, and the Ancient Near East know that the Hebrew Bible describes Yhwh acting destructively against his client country, Israel, and against its kings. But is Yhwh uniquely vengeful, or was he just one among other, similarly ferocious patron gods? To answer this question, Collin Cornell compares royal biblical psalms with memorial inscriptions. He finds that the Bible shares deep theological and literary commonalities with comparable texts from Israel's ancient neighbours. The centrepiece of both traditions is the intense mutual loyalty of gods and kings. In the event that the king's monument and legacy comes to harm, gods avenge their individual royal protégé. In the face of political inexpedience, kings honour their individual divine benefactor.

325 pages, Hardcover

Published October 15, 2020

Reviews

[Luke Wagner · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book (a published version of the author's PhD dissertation), Collin Cornell seeks to critically re-examine and interrogate Julius Wellhausen’s contention that there was a fundamental difference between how ancient Israel’s neighbors (namely, the national gods of Moab, Edom, and Ammon) viewed their respective patron deities, and how Israel viewed their patron deity (that is, YHWH), specifically in regards to how patron deities related to their "client" countries. Wellhausen famously argued that while for these other nations, "[t]he job of the patron deity was to bless and protect his client country,” only Israel’s God was “independent of his client nation"; YHWH "freely chose to love Israel—and can choose (and has chosen) to aggress against his client country" (4). According to Wellhausen, for these other nations, "the gods' role was to be the national ‘helper,’ and divine aggression against king and country could only then be limited, occasional, or recuperative” (12). While Wellhausen's proposed contrast between YHWH and other Iron Age deities from the Levant has been widely accepted within the field (Cornell notes the importance of Wellhausen's argument in the work of Walther Eichrodt), Cornell concludes that this view "deserves scrutiny" (12), and thus, his study "seeks to answer the question, ‘Is the aggression of Yhwh really uniquely devastating relative to the patron gods of the nations?’" (8–9).

In order to scrutinize this view of Wellhausen (among many others), Cornell turns his attention to examining royal inscriptions from ancient Israel’s neighbors, and specifically Iron Age Levantine "memorial inscriptions." Rather than comparing royal inscriptions with biblical narratives, which has been a commonplace in scholarship (especially comparisons with the Former Prophets), Cornell compares inscriptions with psalms (specifically royal psalms; e.g., Pss 2, 20, 21, 110).

Ultimately, after much examination of a handful of royal inscriptions from ancient Israel's neighbors (e.g., the Mesha Inscription, the Tel Dan Inscription) and a number of royal psalms, Cornell concludes that "the contrast that Wellhausen drew between Yhwh and the 'gods of the nations,' and which many other scholars have reproduced in his wake," is not entirely warranted, and Cornell finds that the "'gods of the nations' are simply more aggressive ... than Wellhausen acknowledged," not only against external enemies, but against their own client countries (200). Notably, however, the memorial inscriptions do not envision the possibility that a patron deity could aggress against the individual king of the nation who was responsible for the inscription and who speaks through it. This does seem to be a distinct view of ancient Israel, which recognized the freedom of YHWH to not only aggress against enemies, but against the king of the nation (see Pss 89 and 132).

Cornell's study is clear and relatively concise, and accomplishes what it sets out to do. It also introduced me to the world of royal inscriptions, which is an area with which I am not familiar; as a result of reading Cornell's book, however, my curiosity is now piqued. Cornell is also a very close reader of the biblical text, which I appreciate, and his exegesis of the royal psalms is impressive. Due to the nature of this work, I'm sure most goodreads users will not read it and/or enjoy it, but I found it quite interesting!

[Matthew Lynch · Rating 5 out of 5]

A careful, and deeply researched study on the question of distinctiveness of Israel. Helpful positioning of Wellhausen and Eichrodt on the role of divine aggression. Wellhausen argued that ancient Israel was similar to nations like Moab, in that they had a high god who was their national god. However, in the face of the Assyrian crisis, the ancient Israelites were able to make a theological adaptation that the Moabites weren’t. “By envisioning Yhwh as independent of his client nation, the prophets laid the groundwork for the worship of Yhwh to survive national downfall. By absorbing the destructiveness of Assyria into their God-concept, they inoculated themselves theologically against it. The whole Bible, Wellhausen argued, lies downstream from Amos and his prophetic colleagues.” (quoting Cornell here). For Eichrodt it was the threat of covenant annulment at Sinai (breaking with the tradition of a natural land-deity-people bond). But both distinguished Israel in terms of their unique view of divine judgement against the people. Cornell offers a thoughtful comparison of memorial inscriptions from Israel's neighbors, where the allegedly pro-royal language features, and compares these with royal psalms (e.g., Ps 2, 110; 89, 132). While there are notable similarities between Pss 2, 110 and the supportive-of-king ancient material, Pss 89 (esp) and 132 are notable in that at least Ps 89 accuses Yhwh of complete abrogation of the Davidic covenant. A helpful corrective to certain views of Israel's distinctiveness, but also affirming of certain aspects of Wellhausen's and Eichrodt's views.