Blessing and Curse in Syro-Palestinian Inscriptions of the Iron Age (review)

Hebrew Studies 35 (1994) 121 Reviews "a dedicatory volume by current and former teaching staff and students in anticipation of further years of productive teaching and research" (p. 13). These essays certainly heighten the reader's anticipation. Ad mullos annos! Gregory Allen Robbins University ofDenver Denver, CO 80208 BLESSING AND CURSE IN SYRO·PALESTINIAN INSCRIPTIONS OF THE IRON AGE. By Timothy G. Crawford. American University Studies. Series VII, Theology and Religion 120. Pp. xv + 259. New York: Peter Lang, 1992. Cloth, $46.95. This volume represents the publication of a Ph.D. dissertation written under the direction of Joel Drinkard at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. It surveys the occurrences and uses of the verbs and nouns used for blessing and curse in six West Semitic languages attested epigraphically. The period covered by the texts studied here is Iron II, running parallel to the period of the Hebrew monarchy and the First Temple. Geographically, the texts extend from Kuntillet Ajrud in the south to Karatepe in the north. The languages, dates of inscribing, and publication information for the 40 plus texts studied are tabulated in a concluding appendix. This is followed by an up-to-date bibliography. No indices, photographs or line drawings are included. Following the introduction in chap. 1, chap. 2 presents a semantic survey of the words used for these functions in the various West Semitic languages, with Akkadian added for purposes of comparison. Aside from karlibu in East Semitic, brk is the only root used for blessing that is examined in this chapter . This is somewhat curious in view of the fact that 11m is described as a word for blessing in the introduction, and it occurs with some frequency in chap. 3. In terms of the cognate languages studied here, the Hebrew usage is closest to that in Phoenician. A greater variety of words was used for cursing, but they are attested less frequently in the inscriptions. qll and 'rr are the most commonly used of the words for curse, but the latter occurs only in Judahite Hebrew after 700 B.C.E. Nine major secondary studies of blessing and curse are taken up in the second half of the chapter. Crawford's deviation from the consensus here is, Hebrew Studies 35 (1994) 122 Reviews "Blessing consists of a wish for someone to receive the things considered good in life: land, numerous progeny, sufficient food, clothing, etc. Curse is the wish that someone be deprived of these same things" (pp. 25,231). The difference of opinion involved here is how these functions were thought of as operating. Crawford notes that theoretical studies have held that the magical view gave way to formulaic function; the correct words being spoken by the right person at the right time. Since he can find no evidence for such a development in the inscriptions under study, one would have to project this development back to an earlier period. Crawford classifies these texts according to whether they contain a blessing , a curse, or both, according to whether they name the deity invoked or not, and whether the words for blessing or curse are used or only implied. Blessing texts tend to be more general in their statements than curses. Chronologically earlier texts tend to be more specific and later ones more general in the nature of their statements. The god or gods involved in giving blessing are commonly named. The ones administering curses are almost never named. Some of the more prominent Hebrew inscriptions treated here include the Keteph Hinnom silver scrolls, an extra-biblical version of the Aaronic benediction, the syncretistic texts from Kuntillet Ajrud and the ostraca from Samaria, Lachish, and Arad. Among the non-Hebrew inscriptions the Phoenician texts of Yehimilk, Abibaal, Elibaal, and Shipitbaal present only blessings. The Aramaic texts of Zakir, Sefire, and the new inscription from Tell Fekherye convey both blessings and curses. The disputed language of the Deir Alla Plaster Texts emphasizes only curses and uses the uncommon verb qbb for them. One can use Crawford's compilation to perform a statistical comparison upon the corpus. These data indicate that the majority of the texts which contain only a blessing are in...