by
Damien F. Mackey
“It was the twelfth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, who
ruled over the Assyrians in the great city of Nineveh.
In those days Arphaxad ruled over the Medes in Ecbatana”.
Judith 1:1
Introduction
Although the Book of Judith immediately (1:1) introduces us to a real historical event in a real historical era, the names in their present form greatly confuse the issue and obscure the history.
It was indeed the 12th year of a Great King who ruled over the Assyrians in the city of Nineveh. But this king was Sennacherib, an Assyrian monarch.
It was apparently common for the ancients (Greco-Romans) to become confused about Sennacherib. For, as we learned from an expert in:
Sobna (Shebna) the High Priest
Dr. Stephanie Dalley of Oxford University’s Oriental Institute and author of the fascinating book, The Mystery of the Hanging Garden of Babylon, has explained that the ancients commonly confused Sennacherib of Nineveh with Nebuchednezzar of Babylon.
Perhaps complicating matters even further was the argument that I put forward in my university thesis:
A Revised History of the Era of King Hezekiah of Judah
and its Background
that Sennacherib was to be ‘folded’ with Nebuchednezzar I, a powerful ruler of Babylon. Whilst I think that this scenario may have a lot going for it, as more recently developed in my:
Bringing New Order to Mesopotamian History and Chronology
- and had thought at the time of my writing the thesis that this was the reason why Sennacherib was differently named as “Nebuchadnezzar” in the Book of Judith - I would now think it more likely that Dr. Dalley’s explanation of name ‘confusion’ is the better one in this case.
And I would apply this same comment to those other names in Judith 1:1: “… Arphaxad … Medes … Ecbatana”.
And again to the name, “Holofernes”, in Judith 2:4, etc.
That the ancients had also become confused about the “Medes” (“Media”) and “Ecbatana” is apparent from the chaotic geography pertaining to these names in the Book of Tobit. See my:
A Common Sense Geography of the Book of Tobit
“Arphaxad … Ecbatana”
“Arphaxad” makes perfect sense in the context of King Sennacherib of Assyria’s 12th year as Merodach-baladan. And this necessitates that the city over which “Arphaxad” ruled, designated “Ecbatana”, must in fact be Babylon over which city Merodach-baladan ruled.
I explained this in my thesis (Volume Two, pp. 37-38, 40):
“Twelfth year”. We are by now well familiar (e.g. from Chapter 6, pp. 163-164) with the fact that Sargon II (my Sennacherib), king of Assyria, had, in his “twelfth year”, successfully waged an eastern war against a stubborn opponent, Merodach-baladan. Sargon tells us:1237 “In my twelfth year of reign (Merodach-baladan) .... For 12 years, against the will (heart) of the gods, he held sway over Babylon ...”.
1237 D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. II, # 31.
Moreover, I went on to propose in that same volume, in Chapter 7, that the so-called ‘Middle’ Babylonian king, Nebuchednezzar I, was in fact Sargon II/Sennacherib as ruler of Babylon. Sennacherib in fact began to rule Babylon even before his rule over Assyria had commenced.1238
This, if correct, would immediately account for one of [Book of Judith’s] BOJ most controversial details, having a king named ‘Nebuchadnezzar’ ruling over the Assyrians at Nineveh!
Given this premise, then BOJ’s Arphaxad, with whom the Assyrian king fought in his Year 12, can only be Merodach-baladan of Babylon (cf. 2 Kings 20:12; Isaiah 39:1), whom I have suggested in Chapter 7 (p. 183) may have been the actual brother of Sargon II. Likely, then, this was a civil war between two mighty kings of Assyrian stock. Merodach-baladan’s rule over Chaldea and the Chaldeans (see p. 40 below) seems to be reflected in the name, ‘Arphaxad’ (Ur-pa-chesed), i.e., ‘Ur of the Chaldees’. And that is confirmed by what we are told in verse 6: “Thus, many nations joined the forces of the Chaldeans”, including the “Elymeans” (Elamites), perennial allies of Babylon against Assyria. Thus we can probably now isolate, as copyists’ mistakes, “Medes” and “Ecbatana” in 1:1, and also the associated “Ragau” mentioned in 1:5. Arphaxad/Merodach-baladan did not ‘rule over the Medes’, at least not primarily, as the current translations of BOJ 1:1 would have it. And this seems to be underlined by the fact that verse 6 identifies his army as Chaldean, without any mention here of the Medes.
….
(ii) “Ecbatana”
This problematical name element will turn out to be, as I suggested on the previous page, extremely complex. In 1:1 it would appear to stand for one of Merodach-baladan’s key cities: either Babylon or Dur-Yakin (Tell Lahm) in Sumer. And that indeed is surely the case further on, in 1:14, where we read that the Assyrian king, who had just defeated Arphaxad in battle, “took possession of [Arphaxad’s] towns and came to Ecbatana, captured its towers, plundered its markets, and turned its glory into disgrace”. Or, “its beauty into shame”, which, according to Charles, is “a play on words in the Hebrew ….”1245 This last was in the Assyrian king’s “seventeenth year”, as opposed to the first war BOJ records that Nebuchadnezzar waged against Arphaxad, which was in the former’s “twelfth year” (cf. 1:1, 5).
We can probably however discount Dur-Yakin for “Ecbatana”, since - as discussed already in Chapter 6 (on p. 165) - Sargon II claimed to have destroyed that city in his Year 14: “Dûr-Iakini, [Merodach-baladan’s] stronghold, I burned with fire; its high defences I destroyed, I devastated ...”. Thus Dur-Yakin, whilst still relevant in the Assyrian king’s Year 12 (cf. BOJ 1:1), had ceased to be relevant by Year 17 (1:14). So I take Arphaxad’s “Ecbatana” (1:1), seriously assaulted by Nebuchadnezzar in his Year 17 (1:14), to indicate Babylon.
[End of quote]
So, finally, I think that we may be in a position to disentangle that problematical opening verse (1:1) of the Book of Judith, which can be re-cast as follows, with my proposed alterations added in square brackets:
It was the twelfth year of the reign of [Sennacherib], who ruled over the Assyrians in the great city of Nineveh. In those days [Merodach-baladan] ruled over the [Chaldeans] in [Babylon] ….
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