Nebuchadnezzar II's Prism explained
Nebuchadnezzar II's Prism, also known as the Hofkalender, EŞ 7834, The Court of Nebuchadnezzar, the Unger Prism, Nebuchadnezzar's Court Calendar, the Phillipps Cylinder, Nbk Zyl III,4, C34, and Nr. 9, is an artifact from the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The text is similar to, but different from, the Nebuchadnezzar cylinder C34, also known as the Middle Hill cylinder.
Date and context
The text states that it was written in Nebuchadnezzar's seventh year, or .[1] It was written on or after Nebuchadnezzar's 7th year
Da Riva dates the text to at the latest. Shea dates the text to or shortly thereafter, certainly before . He suggests the context for the passage is a recent revolt against Nebuchadrezzar in, with the beginning of the inscription as a gesture of gratitude to the gods for helping to suppress the revolt. The text is a review of the personnel of the Babylonian bureaucracy in order to ensure all remain loyal to Nebuchadnezzar.
Critchlow dates the artifact to during the reign of Amel-Marduk.
Contents
The first half of the text is devoted to Nebuchadnezzar's relationship with the gods, while the last half contains a list of more than fifty officials appointed by Nebuchadnezzar. The first segment describes Nebuchadnezzar's service to the gods by rebuilding their temples and supplying them with offerings. The second segment credits Marduk with providing various lands to Nebuchadnezzar and how the associated tribute from those lands had made Nebuchadnezzar wealthy. The third segment contains Nebuchadnezzar's prayer to Marduk asking that Marduk might continue to extend his rule over the lands.
The list includes a number of figures described in the Hebrew Bible, including imperial chancellor who is also known from 2 Kings 25:8-11 and Jeremiah 39:13. It also mentions Neriglissar, Hananiah, Meshach, and Abednego.
The Unger Prism contains a list of kings who were prisoners of Babylon during the reign of Amel-Marduk, including the kings of Tyre, Gaza, Sidon, Arvad, and Arpad.
The Unger Prism has been understood to confirm the historicity of the Biblical account of King Jeconiah of Judah's superior treatment to other kings held captive and his release from Babylon.
The arrangement of Babylonian regions in the Unger Prism corresponds to those mentioned in Ezekiel 23.
It describes the building of a royal palace in Babylon and includes a list of Babylonian court officials
The Unger Prism is the only extant source which describes the upper administrative structure of the Babylonian state.
Versions
A version of text was found at Babylon by Harford Jones-Brydges. This version was engraved on a short column of black basalt, with 619 lines of text divided into ten columns. The column was part of the India House Collection. That is the version published in .
Another version of the text was found in the Western Annex Building of the South Palace in Babylon on a clay prism. This prism originally had eight sides. Five columns of text on five sides were published in, and an additional side was published in . The base of the prism is 23.6 cm in diameter and has a maximum preserved height of 23.4 cm. Da Riva believes the original was 45–50 cm tall and thus that about 2/3 of the original text is missing. The prism is at the Istanbul Archaeology Museums.
Published editions
- Book: Gray . Clifton Daggett . 1901 . The East India House inscription of Nebuchadrezzar II, king of Babylon (601-565 B.C.) . 134–143 . Johnson . Rossiter . Assyrian and Babylonian literature: Selected translations . New York . D. Appleton & Co. . https://archive.org/details/ldpd_6951443_000/page/n241.
- Book: Inscription of Nebuchadnezzar . J. M. . Rodwell . Babylonian and Assyrian literature: Comprising the epic of Izdubar, hymns, tablets, and cuneiform inscriptions . The World's Great Classics . The Colonial Press . New York . 1901 . 250ff . https://archive.org/details/babylonianassyri00wilsiala/page/250 . . (HTML available from Bruce J. Butterfield and from Project Gutenberg)
- Da Riva . Rocio . Nebuchadnezzar II's Prism (EŞ 7834): A New Edition . Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie . Journal of Assyriology and Near Eastern Archeology . Walter de Gruyter GmbH . 103 . 2 . 1 December 2012 . 0084-5299 . 10.1515/za-2013-0013 . 196–229 . 199576117 .
References
Further reading
- Book: Cogan . M. . Tadmor . H. . II Kings: A New Translation . Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group . Anchor Yale Bible . v. 11 . 1988 . 978-0-385-02388-7 . 329.
- Da Riva . Rocío . The Figure of Nabopolassar in Late Achaemenid and Hellenistic Historiographic Tradition: BM 34793 and CUA 90 . Journal of Near Eastern Studies . University of Chicago Press . 76 . 1 . 2017 . 0022-2968 . 10.1086/690464 . 75–92. 222433095 .
- Garstad . Benjamin . Nebuchadnezzar's Siege of Tyre in Jerome's Commentary on Ezekiel . Vigiliae Christianae . Brill . 70 . 2 . 18 February 2016 . 0042-6032 . 10.1163/15700720-12341236 . 175–192.
- Gerardi . Pamela . Prism fragments from Sippar: New Esarhaddon inscriptions . Iraq . JSTOR . 55 . 1993 . 119–133 . 0021-0889 . 10.2307/4200371 . 4200371 . 193237843 .
- Book: Jursa, Michael . 2010 . Der neubabylonische Hof . The Neo-Babylonian court . 67–106 . https://www.academia.edu/957929 . Der Achämenidenhof. Akten des 2. Internationalen Kolloquiums zum Thema Vorderasien im Spannungsfeld klassischer und altorientalischer Überlieferungen, Landgut Castelen bei Basel, 23–25. Mai 2007 . The Achaemenid Court: Files of the 2nd international colloquium on the subject of the Near East in the area of tension between classic and ancient oriental traditions, Castelen estate near Basel . Bruno . Jacobs . Robert . Rollinger . Classica et Orientalia . 2 . Wiesbaden . Harrassowitz . 978-3-447-06159-9 . 679931623 . 2190-3638 . de.
- Odell . Margaret S. . 1998 . The Particle and the Prophet: Observations on Ezekiel II 6 . Vetus Testamentum . 38 . 3 . 425–432 . 10.1163/1568533982722405 . 1585243.
- Book: Pritchard . James B. . Oppenheim . A. Leo . A. Leo Oppenheim . Ancient Near Eastern texts relating to the Old Testament . 3rd . Princeton University Press . Princeton, N.J . 1955 . 1969 . 307‒308 . 0-691-03503-2 . 382005.
- Unger . Eckhard . Eckhard Unger . 1925 . Namen im Hofstaate Nebukadnezars II 1925 . The deposed rulers in Babylon, dating from about 570 . Theologische Literaturzeitung . Theological Literary Journal . 50 . 481–486 . de .
- Unger . Eckhard . Eckhard Unger . 1926 . Mitteilungen . Announcements . Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft . Journal of Old Testament Scholarship . 44 . 1 . 314–330 . 10.1515/zatw.1926.44.1.314 . 0044-2526 . de.
- Book: Unger, Eckhard . Eckhard Unger . Babylon: Die heilige Stadt nach der Beschreibung der Babylonier . Babylon: The holy city as described by the Babylonians . De Gruyter . Berlin . 1970 . 1931 . 978-3-11-086546-2 . 865833280 . de . 282–294 . Istanbul Museum Prism #7834, page 285 Column 4, Tafel (Plate) 55
- Book: Vanderhooft, David Stephen . Into the Eternal Shadow of Babylon . 9–60 . The Neo-Babylonian Empire and Babylon in the Latter Prophets . Harvard Semitic Museum Monographs . 59 . Brill / Scholars Press . 1 December 1998 . 978-90-04-36923-8 . 10.1163/9789004369238_003 .
- Book: Westbrook, R. . A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law (2 vols): Volumes 1 and 2 . Brill . Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 1 The Near and Middle East . 2003 . 978-90-474-0209-1 . 17 December 2019 . 916.
- Book: Zadok, R. . West Semitic toponyms in Assyrian and Babylonian sources: Appendix II: The Unger Prism ('Nebuchadnezzar's Court Calendar') and Ezekiel XXIII, 23ff. . Avishur . Yitshak . Blau . Joshua . Studies in Bible and the ancient Near East: Presented to Samuel E. Loewenstamm, on his seventieth birthday . E. Rubinstein's Pub. House . 1978 . 5075892 . 163–179 .
Notes and References
- See also