by
Damien F. Mackey
“… if Ahiqar was not an ethnic Assyrian,
he had evidently not only mastered the complicated cuneiform scribal art and
absorbed the Assyrian culture in full, but also had gained the trust of his
masters and the respect of the other courtiers for his wisdom”.
Takayoshi
M. Oshima
Ahikar (or Achior in the
Vulgate), the nephew of Tobit of the Israelite tribe of Naphtali, was a man of
many parts, having famously served as a high official under Sennacherib - as
the “Achior”, commander of the Elamites (not Ammonites), of the Book of Judith
- then as second (ummânū) to
Esarhaddon himself, who was Nebuchednezzar ‘the Great’. See e.g. my article:
Esarhaddon a tolerable fit for King Nebuchednezzar
and who may also have
been the “Bagoas” of the Book of Judith:
An early glimpse of
Nebuchednezzar II?
Ahiqar was also known as “Arioch”
(Judith 1:6): “Many nations joined forces with
King Arphaxad—all the people who lived in the mountains, those who lived along
the Tigris, Euphrates, and Hydaspes rivers, as well as those who lived in the
plain ruled by King Arioch of Elam. …”.
“Governor”, or “commander”, would probably be more accurate here
than “King”, though did not Sennacherib boast (Isaiah 10:8): ‘Are not my
commanders all kings?’
As “Arioch”, Ahiqar figures again in the Book of Daniel. See e.g. my
article:
Meeting of the wise - Arioch and Daniel
In Takayoshi M. Oshima’s article, “How “Mesopotamian” was Ahiqar the
Wise? A Search for Ahiqar in Cuneiform Texts”, we learn that the famous sage,
Ahiqar, was also known by this, his original, name, Ahī-yaqar. On p. 144
(section “Ahiqar in Cuneiform Texts from the 7th Century BCE”), we read:
Ahiqar in
Cuneiform Texts from the 7th Century BCE According to the Ahiqar narrative,
Ahiqar served the Assyrian kings Sennacherib and Esarhaddon as a high-ranking
courtier, specifically as cupbearer, seal-holder, scribe, counsellor and
treasurer. If this is true and if Ahiqar was not an ethnic Assyrian, he had
evidently not only mastered the complicated cuneiform scribal art and absorbed
the Assyrian culture in full, but also had gained the trust of his masters and
the respect of the other courtiers for his wisdom. In order to verify this
account, the obvious thing to do is to seek for an individual called Ahiqar or
the like in the cuneiform texts from the time of Sennacherib and Esarhaddon.
And indeed we do find references to a man or men bearing the name Ahīyaqar.16
Thus, SAA 6, no. 123, line 1 (dated to 698, in the reign of Sennacherib) refers
to an Ahī-yaqar, deputy governor of Arrapha (modern Kirkūk). The text SAA 6,
no. 246, refers to a certain Ahī-yaqar who acted as a witness for a slave-sale
(reign of Esarhaddon), but unfortunately his title has been lost (rev. 3).
Furthermore, in SAA 6, no. 287 (dated to 670, in the reign of Esarhaddon), the
name Ahī-yaqar appears as an eponym of the village Kapar-Ahī-yaqar (lit.: the
village of Ahī-yaqar) that was located near Sippar (line 12). Finally, a man
called Aqru is known from SAA 14, no. 215, rev. 10.17 Aqru is the adjective of
the Akkadian waqāru, a cognate of yāqar, but the name could be a hypocoristic
form of Ahī-yaqar. According to this text, Aqru was a cupbearer and citizen of
Nineveh, just like Ahiqar in the legend. These references indeed prove that one
or several persons called Ahī-yaqar existed and held important positions in the
7th century Assyrian administration .... because
And on p. 149 of
the same article, we learn of “Ahiqar in the Uruk List of Sages”.
King Sage
Designation Ayalu U4- dAn(60) abgal Alalgar U4- dAn(60)-du10.ga abgal
Ammeluanna En.me-du10.ga abgal Ammegalanna En.me-galam.ma abgal Enmeušumgalanna
En.me-bùlug.gá abgal Dumzi dAn(60)-en.líl.da abgal Enmeduranki Ù.tu-abzu abgal (Flood)
Enmerkar Nun.gal-pirìg.gal abgal [Gilgam]eš dSîn(30)-lēqi(TI)-unninni(ÉR)
lúummannu [Ibb]i-Sîn Kabtu(IDIM)-il-dMarduk(ŠÚ) lúummannu [Išbi]-Erra Si-dù =
dEn-líl-ibni(DU) ummannu [Ab]i-Ešuh Gimil(ŠU)-dGula(ME.ME) and
Ta-qišdGula(ME.ME) ummannū [Adad-apla-iddina? ] É-sag-gíl-ki-i-ni-apli(IBILA)
ummannu Adad-apla-iddina É-sag-gíl-ki-i-ni-ub-ba ummannu Nebuchadnezzar (I)
É-sag-gíl-ki-i-ni-ub-ba-LU43 ummannu Esarhaddon A.ba-dNINNU(5044-da-ri ummannu
[šá lú]aḫ-la-«MI»-mu-ú i-qab-bu-ú ma-ḫu-ʾi-qa-a-ri45 [x(x)]x46
mni-qa-qu-ru-šu-ú (Nikarchos?) ....
Figure 10:
Names and their definition in the Uruk List.
Some of these
names may be duplicates, though, because of the need to fold, e.g. Middle and
Neo Assyro-Babylonian history.
Thus, Nebuchednezzar
I and his ummânū, É-sag-gíl-ki-i-ni-ub-ba,
need to be folded (I think) with, respectively, Esarhaddon and his ummânū,
a-ḫu-ʾi-qa-a-ri (or A.ba-dNINNU), that is, Ahī-yaqar (Aba-enlil-dari).
John Day, Robert P.
Gordon, Hugh Godfrey Maturin Williamson write about the important sage, Ahiqar,
in Wisdom
in Ancient Israel, pp. 43-44:
The figure of Ahiqar has remained a source
of interest to scholars in a variety of fields. The search for the real Ahiqar, the acclaimed wise scribe
who served as chief counsellor to Sennacherib
and Esarhaddon, was a scholarly
preoccupation for many years. …. He had a sort of independent existence since he was known from a series of texts –
the earliest being the Aramaic
text from Elephantine, followed by the book of Tobit, known from
the Apocrypha and the later Syriac,
Armenian and Arabic texts of Ahiqar. …. An actual royal counsellor and high court official who had been removed from his position and later
returned to it remains unknown.
Mackey’s
comment:
I have also identified this Ahiqar (var. Achior,
Vulgate Book of Tobit) as the “Achior” (and also the “Arioch”) of the Book of
Judith; and as the “Arioch” of the Book of Daniel.
Day et al. continue:
…. E. Reiner
found the theme of the 'disgrace and
rehabilitation of a minister' combined with that of the ‘ungrateful nephew’ in
the 'Bilingual Proverbs’, and saw this as a sort of parallel to the Ahiqar
story.
Mackey’s
comment:
For my identification of the ‘ungrateful nephew’, Nadin (var. Nadab), see my
article:
"Nadin"
(Nadab) of Tobit is the "Holofernes" of Judith
Day et al. continue:
…. She [Reiner]
also emphasized that in Mesopotamia the ummânu was not only a learned man or craftsman but was also a high
official.
At the time that Reiner noted the existence
of this theme in Babylonian wisdom
literature, Ahiqar achieved a
degree of reality with the discovery in Uruk, in the investigations
of winter 1959/60, of a Late
Babylonian tablet (W20030,7) dated
to the 147th year of the Seleucid era (= 165 BCE).
Mackey’s
comment:
For my proposed radical revision of this Seleucid era, see my article:
A New
Timetable for the Nativity of Jesus Christ
Day et al. continue:
…. This tablet
contains a list of antediluvian kings and their sages (apkallû) and postdiluvian kings
and their scholars (ummânu).
The postdiluvian kings run from
Gilgamesh to Esarhaddon. This text
informs us (p. 45, lines 19-20) that in the time of King Aššur-aḫ-iddina, one A-ba-dninnu-da-ri
(= Aba-enlil-dari), (whom) the Aḫlamu (i.e., Arameans) call Aḫ-'u-qa-ri (= Aḫuqar), was the ummânu.
As was immediately noted, Aḫuqar
was the equivalent of Aḥiqar. ….
The names of
the ummânē of Sennacherib and
Esarhaddon are known to us from a variety of sources, but Ahiqar's name does not appear in
any contemporary source. ….
Mackey’s
comment:
But what is actually “contemporary” may now need to be seriously reconsidered
if there is any weight to my series:
Aligning
Neo-Babylonia with Book of Daniel. Part Two: Merging late neo-Assyrians with
Chaldeans
https://www.academia.edu/38330399/Aligning_Neo-Babylonia_with_Book_of_Daniel._Part_Two_Merging_late_neo-Assyrians_with_Chaldeans
Day et al. continue:
Indeed, it has been recently claimed that
the passage from the Uruk document
'is clearly fictitious and of no historical value’, for A-ba-dninnu-da-ri was
the name of a scholar known from
the Middle Babylonian period.
Mackey’s
comment:
That is exactly what I would expect to find, the sage ummânu existing in both the so-called Middle and
the neo Assyro-Babylonian periods, due to a necessary as demanded by revision)
folding of the Middle into the later period.
Day et al. continue:
….
Yet, the listing of Ahiqar
in a Late Babylonian tablet testifies to the fact that the role of Ahiqar, as known from the Aramaic version found at Elephantine, the book of
Tobit, and the later Ahiqar
sources, was firmly entrenched in Babylonian tradition.
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