Prophecy was thought of as an unreliable, low-grade form of divination in much of the Near East. In Mesopotamia, divination was a professional science while prophecy was considered merely spontaneous outbursts--divine slam poetry. Why, then, was ancient Hebrew literature built around prophecies? - ThreadSky

nabalkattu.bsky.social • 63 days ago

Prophecy was thought of as an unreliable, low-grade form of divination in much of the Near East. In Mesopotamia, divination was a professional science while prophecy was considered merely spontaneous outbursts--divine slam poetry. Why, then, was ancient Hebrew literature built around prophecies?

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haydentank.bsky.social•62 days ago

Might have to have you back on the show to talk a bit about this, perhaps.

nabalkattu.bsky.social•62 days ago

I think it's important but not widely recognized!

lbrzn.bsky.social•63 days ago

The well known story of Nebuchadnezzar who saw a hand writing MENE MENE, TEKEL UPHARSIN... is an example. He called for ..."magicians", "enchanters", "chaldeans", and "astrologers" to interpret the meaning. I wonder what chaldeans did in relation to magicians, etc.

nabalkattu.bsky.social•63 days ago

That story has a polemical, anti-professional, anti-divination tone since Daniel's exegesis and prophecy, which is always right, comes straight from God rather than through technique. I get into a bit of this here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/prooftexts.37.1.01

lbrzn.bsky.social•63 days ago

Thanks for this paper, I'll read it completely ^-^. Daniel 5:11 reads: "there is a man (Daniel) in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods". How Daniel look like to be the subject of such an evaluation? I mean isn't possible such an evaluation without "techniques" of dressing or makeup.

nabalkattu.bsky.social•63 days ago

Well, Mesopotamian divination is very technical and professionalized in that it takes years of text study in a scholarly and royal court context, as well as habits and techniques (e.g. the most important divinatory work, Enūma Anu Enlil, has advanced math and is 70 tablets long!)...

nabalkattu.bsky.social•63 days ago

...of course there is evidence of techniques of poetic and ritual performance that Mesopotamian prophets used, but they were not recognized as "professional" in scholarly and court circles. On the "suspect" view of OB prophecy, especially non-male prophecy, see Esther Hamori's excellent

lbrzn.bsky.social•63 days ago

This an important line of research that I haven't explored yet, absolutely fascinating! thanks for this text too ^-^.

rheinze.bsky.social•36 days ago

@tinido.bsky.social das ist doch vielleicht was für dich?

tinido.bsky.social•36 days ago

Oh ja, voll! Danke schön!

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