Tool Alpha
The ANE Desk
Old Testament passages beside the ancient Near Eastern texts they are compared with, and what Israel does with what it shares.
Who will go?
The council faces a problem and needs someone to go. In Enuma Elish the elder gods fail and Marduk volunteers, at a price. In 1 Kings 22 a spirit steps forward from the host of heaven and simply goes.
1 Kings 22:19-23, in every translation this tool compares.
The real question: what does it mean that God asks his council who will go? The manager asked the team who would take the hard client. He might need help, or he might already know the answer and want someone to step up. The question is the same either way. Why does God ask in 1 Kings 22?
I sent Anu, but he could not withstand her; / Nudimmud was afraid and turned back. / But Marduk hath set out, the director of the gods, your son; / To set out against Tiamat his heart hath prompted him.
In both, a heavenly council faces a task, the question goes out, and one member takes it on. Smith calls the council's choosing of a champion a literary type-scene and notes that biblical tradition uses it in prophetic texts, where the prophet hears the council's proceedings (he cites 1 Kings 22 and Isaiah 6). The IVP Bible Background Commentary, at the parallel in 2 Chronicles 18, points to a Ugaritic text, the Epic of Keret, where El asks his assembly for volunteers. Walton notes that in 1 Kings 22, as in Isaiah 6, the council is looking for a messenger to send, and that this is the only place a member of the council is called a spirit.
Marduk names his price before he goes. His message to the elders reads "Appoint an assembly, make my fate preeminent and proclaim it." In 1 Kings 22 the spirit asks for nothing and gets nothing. In Enuma Elish the elder gods need a champion because they are afraid; Anu could not stand against Tiamat. Nothing threatens the Lord in 1 Kings 22. The council's business is the fate of a king of Israel. The IVP commentary notes that one would expect such a council to plan war on Israel's behalf, but here the discussion is directed against Ahab. Walton's general point holds here: members of the Israelite council are sent with a mission, not given a share of power.
The type-scene is Smith's observation and the IVP commentary's Keret parallel is a second example; both are about a pattern, not a borrowing. The particular pairing with Enuma Elish Tablet III is drawn here as the clearest example of the pattern in a text read in full for this entry. Keret was not read in a primary edition for this entry. Background explains the shape of the scene. It does not explain its hardest feature, a spirit sent to deceive, and none of the sources read here claims it does.
Not a vote. The council in 1 Kings 22 offers ideas. The Lord decides and the spirit is sent.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/divine-council-index\/isaiah-6-1-8\/","n":"Isaiah 6:1-8","s":"The throne room, the seraphim, and the plural question, who will go for us.","r":"Isaiah 6:1-8"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/the-lying-spirit\/","n":"The lying spirit","s":"A spirit who volunteers at God's throne to deceive a king's prophets.","r":"1 Kings 22:19-23"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/seraphim\/","n":"Seraphim","s":"Six-winged beings around God's throne in Isaiah's vision, described with a word that elsewhere means burning serpent.","r":"Isaiah 6:2"}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/gods-of-the-bible\/the-host-of-heaven\/","n":"The host of heaven","s":"Two things at once: God's heavenly army, and the sun, moon and stars Israel was told not to worship.","r":"1 Kings 22:19"}
- L. W. King, trans., Enuma Elish: The Seven Tablets of Creation (London, 1902), Tablets III-IV
- Mark S. Smith, The Ugaritic Baal Cycle, vol. 1 (E. J. Brill, 1994), commentary on KTU 1.2 I and n. 178
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament (InterVarsity Press), on 2 Chronicles 18:18-22
- John H. Walton, Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament, 2nd ed. (Baker Academic, 2018), ch. 4, Comparative Exploration 4.3: Yahweh's Council
