Project Details
Projekt
Antikes Ugarit und antikes Israel: Sphärenwechsel der Macht im ugaritischen Baal-Yamm-Mot-Zyklus und in hebräischen Yhwh-Königund Königs-Psalmen
Applicant
Professor Dr. Hermann Spieckermann
Subject Area
Protestant Theology
Term
from 2015 to 2019
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 235014259
Ugarit's mythic cycle about the gods Baal, Yamm, and Mot and the Hebrew Bible's mythicallyinspired Psalter both document a worldview that firmly connects the world's peril and preservation with a specific conception of kingship. At Ugarit, the connection between city royalty and divine monarchy assumes a great significance, with peril to and preservation of the world undergoing configuration as a shift among spheres of power. Thus, the myth cycle centers on a decisive but never decided battle for kingship between the weather god Baal, the chaos god Yamm, and the nether god Mot. Variously and inconsistently explained, the continued change in power appears in several different forms, all attempting to reconcile worldly threat and maintenance - with a marked preference for the latter. Only stratigraphic analysis of the mythic cycle and a subsequent identification and sequencing of its diverse mythemes and motifs can illuminate these complex dimensions and processes.Conceptions of dynastic kingship and divine monarchy throughout the Psalter betray striking affinities to the Ugaritic texts. Since the intervening links of the great mediation process still remain unknown, a careful and critical comparison of the textual artifacts from Ugarit and the Hebrew Bible proves essential. However, comparative difficulty only increases since the psalms about the king and Yhwh as the king represent a theological history that spans over almost half a millennium. Within these psalmic texts, hardly any shift in power takes place between rival numinous beings. Instead, the relationship of Yhwh to his king on the throne of David conveys the shifts in power: these changes then enforce Yhwh's rule upon the earth. Psalms 2 and 110 hold a special significance in this regard. Whereas the divine, heavenly ruler "bears" his kingly son on Zion upon the day of his coronation in Ps 2, in Ps 110 Yhwh allows his mandatary on earth to reign at his own right hand, thus collocating divine and kingly thrones. This particular form of changes in domain ultimately portrays Yhwh's decisive action against potential threats to the world. Received from ancient Syrian tradition, the mythemes and motifs in Ps 110 require renewed evaluation alongside stratigraphic textual analysis, but this undertaking first demands an assessment of all texts that center on Yhwh and(/as) king and on the king alone within the anthology of Ps 2-110 and, furthermore, an evaluation and subsequent sequencing of their various mythemes and motifs. In Ugarit and Israel alike, mythemes conceptualize the theological thought that prevails throughout the texts to undergo scrutiny.
DFG Programme
Research Units
