Saturday, May 27, 2017

Jonah a Dove and Semiramis a Fish

 Semiramis and Nebuchadnezzar Build the Gardens of Babylon


by

Damien F. Mackey

 
 

““Jonah” means “dove,” both in Hebrew and Aramaic;

according to Diodorus, the name of Semiramis is linked to doves as well

(the etymology is probably based on the Akkadian word for “dove,” summu/summatu).

…. The fish motif: Jonah spends three days in the belly of a fish, which eventually

spits him out, reformed and almost reborn. Semiramis is the daughter of

the fish goddess Derceto, a kind of divine mermaid”.
 

Eckart Frahm

 

 

Introduction

 

As with the Noachic Flood, so with the tale of Jonah, there has sprung up an abundance of legends and mythologies whether based loosely, or more closely, upon the Hebrew original.

I touched upon just a few of these (Oannes; Jason; Endymion) in Part Two (iii) of my series:

 

Historical Window for Jonah's Nineveh Visit. Part Two: Jonah as a Contemporary of Jeroboam II. (iii) Putting Jonah Back Together: Fairytale?


 


https://www.academia.edu/32974769/Historical_Window_for_Jonahs_Nineveh_Visit._Part_Two_Jonah_as_a_Contemporary_of_Jeroboam_II._iii_Putting_Jonah_Back_Together_Fairytale


 


 


Now, whilst I have described the Hebrew versions of Noah and Jonah as the “original” ones, conventional scholarship would almost universally have it that the Hebrew texts were later versions of a, say, Greco-Roman original. This is apparent from the following article (which provides examples of other Jonah legends) whose very title betrays a presumed Hebrew dependence upon the Greeks: “Was the Book of Jonah inspired by Jason and the Argonauts?http://semiticcontroversies.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/was-book-of-jonah-inspired-by-jason-and.html#!/2014/05/was-book-of-jonah-inspired-by-jason-and.html


 


Having recently re-read Apollonius of Rhodes' 'Argonautica' it caused me to recall that in the early twentieth century several classical scholars wondered; and even argued, that some parts of the Old and New Testament had been consciously modeled on this popular account of the exploits of Jason and his crew of heroes. In particular they focused on the story of the romance of Jason and Medea arguing; not implausibly, that the anointing of Jason by Medea was the parallel drawn on by the gospels for the anointing of Jesus. (1)

 

In the Old Testament: scholars have focused on the book of Jonah as being the principle element that has been inspired by Apollonius' account of the adventures of Jason and his crew. Gildas Hamel has argued that the name Jonah; in terms of the book, is a deliberate anagram for Jason since Jonah in Greek is 'Ionas', while Jason in Greek is 'Iason'. Indeed Jason was a common Greek name taken by Hellenizing jews in Palestine and viewing it as an anagram of the Greek way of saying Jonah would go a significant way to explain its popularity.

 

Elsewhere others have noted the similarity of story of Jonah to the Greek story of Perseus (3) and Hamel himself points out that it also bears a striking resemblance in places to the labours of Hercules. (4)

 

Hamel's thesis is simple: we know that the 'Argonautica' (in its various editions) was a widely read Greek epic (being as popular as tales about Perseus and Hercules for example) and was especially popular among the masses. Given that the jews of the period that the book of Jonah was written; the late fifth/early fourth century BC [sic], had come into significant contact with the Greeks and their ideas via the close Greek relationship and interchange of ideas with the Phoenicians and the Persians.

 

It is unsurprising that a literate and well-read jew, which the author of Jonah most certainly was, (5) would have drawn on the popular oral traditions of non-jewish peoples he had come into contact with in order to ensure a wide dissemination of his work among his target jewish audience (which was; we should note, ultimately successful). It is also worth noting that the author of the book of Jonah; which is set in eighth century Assyria, used the general story of an actual Mesopotamian legend to provide the basis for his narrative. (6)

 

This amalgamation of mythical narratives into the book of Jonah has predictably given rise to a string of claims from less than careful writers that Jason was merely a mythological derivative of Hercules (viz Robert Graves) (7) or that the 'Argonautica' validates the truthfulness of the Bible (with the assumption that it was written before it when in fact the inverse is almost certainly true). (8)

 

Aside from these enthusiastic attempts to re-write Greek religious history or validate Christian cosmogony: we can further note that there was a 'Tomb of Jason' with a drawing of what we may presume to be the Argo constructed in the first century BC in Jerusalem. (9) This in itself would be decidedly odd if there wasn't a strong tradition among the jews honouring Jason since the jews were notoriously inhospitable to Greek and Roman influences at this time. (10)

 

We also know that in some versions of the 'Argonautica' Jason meets with Triton; the merman of Greek mythology, (11) and this is perhaps transliterated via the Mesopotamian myth (12) into the famous description of Jonah's encounter with the 'big fish'.

 

While the meaning of 'Jonah' in Hebrew is 'dove' and he is guided to land by god, while Jason and the Argonauts are led through the Clashing Rocks by the good will of the gods and the agency of a dove. (13) Also worthy of note is the Hebrew term for the wind blowing Jonah along used in the original text of the book of Jonah verse 1.2; 'boreath', which is almost certainly derived from the Greek god of the north wind: Boreas. (14)

 

These are but a select few of the parallels that Hamel draws and it is clear that what he is describing is a piece of synthesis between different religious traditions and the formative works of Judaism, which clearly suggests that the idea of Judaism as a 'pure religion' or even a unique religious tradition without many non-jewish elements is increasing absurd.

 

The point being that if the book of Jonah is in effect a jewish writer combing Greek and Mesopotamian myths together then setting it in a jewish religious context: then it offers a strong counter to the idea that the Tanakh (i.e. the Hebrew Bible) is derived from God, but rather is a human work of mythology not one of divine inspiration.

 

After all if Jonah is simply Jason then are Yeshivas going to start using the 'Argonautica' as an aid to studying it?

[End of quote]

 

But, as I have consistently noted, the Greeks (and Romans) have often been credited with contributions to culture and civilisation (literary, technological, architectural, etc.) that were already in existence in far earlier times and kingdoms. And I gave a perfect example of this from the findings of Dr. Stephanie Dalley in my article:

 

Sobna (Shebna) the High Priest

 


 

Dr. Dalley has been able to demonstrate (actually in situ) that the screw pump, famously attributed to Archimedes (C3rd BC), was already being used by the Assyrians about half a millennium earlier, at the time of Sennacherib.                                       

[End of quote]


Mesopotamian Traditions of Jonah

 
 

“After Ninus’s death, Semiramis becomes the sole ruler of the

Assyrian empire, which she expands through numerous military campaigns.

When she eventually dies, after many years on the throne, she is, according to

the testimony of some witnesses, turned into a dove”.

 
Eckart Frahm

 
 

Jonah Coincides with Semiramis

 

Now it was at the time of this same Sennacherib, or at least during the hiatus period immediately after his assassination by two of his sons, when Assyria was in turmoil with no Assyrian king upon the throne - but only a high functionary, or governor - that I have identified as being, for me, the most likely period of time for Jonah’s arrival at Nineveh.

One will find the arguments for this revised scenario set out in my above-mentioned series: “Historical Window for Jonah's Nineveh Visit”.

Importantly, this precise phase of neo-Assyrian history, which featured an uncommonly powerful queen, Naqia (= Zakutu), who has actually been likened to the famous Sammuramat (Semiramis), I have in fact newly co-ordinated in my revision of Assyrian history:

 

Re-shuffling the pack of neo-Assyrian kings


 

with the very era of Queen Sammuramat herself.

That would make the prophet Jonah, in his visitation to Nineveh, an exact contemporary of Queen Sammuramat’s (of Semiramis’s), and might therefore explain the various Jonah-style legends associated with the Assyro-Babylonia of that queen’s day.

 



 

Eckart Frahm has discussed some of these in his article, “Of Doves, Fish, and Goddesses: Reflections on the Literary, Religious, and Historical Background of the Book of Jonah” (http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/docserver/9789004324749_webready_content_s025.pdf?expires=1495845886&id=id&accname=id23226&checksum=7245DD80F40E9D4274F0A51B574FF013), the relevant parts of which I shall produce here with occasional comments relating to my historical reconstruction of the prophet Jonah and of Queen Sammuramat:

 

The Semiramis legend is best known in the version found in the second book (1–20) of the Bibliotheca historica of Diodorus Siculus, a first-century [BC] Roman historian writing in Greek.7 According to Diodorus, Semiramis is the daughter of the goddess Derceto of Ascalon and a Syrian youth.

 

Mackey’s comment: Likewise Queen Naqia is considered to have been non-Assyrian: “Sennacherib died in January 681 [sic] by parricide, probably at Nineveh. He was survived by his principal wife Naqia, mother of his heir Esarhaddon; her non-Assyrian name suggests that she was of either Jewish or Aramaean origin”.

 

Her mother, ashamed of her sinful union with a mortal man, exposes her newborn child in the wilderness and then throws herself into a lake, where she is changed into a fish with the head of a woman.

 

Mackey’s comment: Compare this with the Assyrian fish-man (pictured above).

 

Against all odds, the abandoned little girl survives, nurtured by doves, and is eventually recovered by a group of shepherds, whose headman, Simmas, gives her the name Semiramis, after “the word which, in the language of the Syrians, means ‘dove’ ” (Diodorus II 4.6).

 

Mackey’s comment: Jonah’s Hebrew name (יוֹנָה), too, as we read, means “dove”.

 

Raised by Simmas, Semiramis grows up and becomes a great beauty. In due course, she catches the eye of an Assyrian officer, Onnes, who encounters her while inspecting the royal herds during a journey to the Levant.

 

Mackey’s comment: “Onnes”, better known as “Oannes”, is often identified with the Assyrian fish man, and also with Jonah, whose name compares favourably with “Oannes”. Interesting that Oannes is in “the Levant”, not Assyria. And that he is “inspecting the herds”, compatible with my view that the prophet Jonah is to be identified with Amos the herdsman (Amos 7:14).

 


Description: Image result for oannes
Description: Image result

 

Onnes takes her as his wife, but their marriage has no future. When the Assyrian king Ninus, founder of Nineveh, makes Semiramis’s acquaintance during his siege of Bactra, he falls in love with her, forces Onnes to commit suicide, and marries her himself. After Ninus’s death, Semiramis becomes the sole ruler of the Assyrian empire, which she expands through numerous military campaigns.

 

Mackey’s comment: Though many consider that “Ninus” refers to the biblical Nimrod, apparent “founder of Nineveh” (cf. Genesis 10:11) - perhaps he is a composite of Nimrod and a later Assyrian king (or kings) - he fits very well here with Sennacherib, a builder of Nineveh, and whose death led to the empowerment of (my composite) Sammuramat/Naqia, that is, Queen Semiramis.

Frahm continues:

 

When she eventually dies, after many years on the throne, she is, according to the testimony of some witnesses, turned into a dove.

There are several conspicuous parallels between this strange story and the book of Jonah. The most important ones were identified by Moshe Weinfeld in a short but highly stimulating 1991 article.8 Weinfeld, however, was interested primarily in the etymology of the name Semiramis and dealt with the links between the two stories only in passing. This, and the fact that Weinfeld’s observations have been largely overlooked by the Hebrew Bible scholars who have written about Jonah since his article appeared, has prompted me to revisit the issue here. The main features the two stories have in common are the following:

 

• The dove motif and the names of the protagonists: “Jonah” means “dove,” both in Hebrew and Aramaic; according to Diodorus, the name of Semiramis is linked to doves as well (the etymology is probably based on the Akkadian word for “dove,” summu/summatu). As seen above, other features of the Semiramis story are likewise associated with doves.

• The fish motif: Jonah spends three days in the belly of a fish, which eventually spits him out, reformed and almost reborn. Semiramis is the daughter of the fish goddess Derceto, a kind of divine mermaid.9 It may be meaningful that the Hebrew word for fish used in the book of Jonah, דג , appears once, in Jonah 2:2, with a feminine ending.10

• Eastern Mediterranean port cities: Jonah boards a ship in Joppa, while Semiramis’s mother is worshipped in Ascalon. Both are cities on the Eastern Mediterranean. They are located some 40 kilometers apart, but during certain periods, especially in the late eighth and seventh centuries [BC], Jaffa belonged to the territory of Ascalon.11 It may or may not be noteworthy that 9 Others have suggested that the fish motif in Jonah goes back to Indian models (see Meik Gerhards, “Zum motivgeschichtlichen Hintergrund der Verschlingung des Jona,” TZ 59 [2003]: 222–47), but this seems rather far-fetched, not least because the relevant Indian texts are all very late. Among the many attempts made over the centuries to explain the episode, there are some that border on the comical. Note, for example, the suggestion by the 18th-century German professor and abbot Hermann von der Hardt (mentioned by Gerhards, “Verschlingung,” 222 n. 4) that Jonah had actually reached an alehouse on an island in the middle of the sea that was called “The Whale” (see Ludwig von Holberg, Allgemeine Kirchenhistorie von dem Jahr Christi 1700 bis 1750, Funfter Teil [Ulm/Leipzig 1773], 156–57).

…. according to the early Jewish hagiographic collection Vitae prophetarum

Jonah was born near Azotos (Ashdod), situated between Ascalon and Joppa,

whence he later moved, together with his mother(!), to Tyre.12

• The Assyrian capital Nineveh: The life journey of both Jonah and Semiramis

ends in Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian empire.

 

Mackey’s comment: That “Jonah was born near Azotos (Ashdod), situated between Ascalon and Joppa” accord tolerably well with my Jonah was born near Azotos (Ashdod), situated between Ascalon and Joppa”, that the prophet Jonah (= Micah) hailed from Moresheth-Gath (See Map).

 

Description: Image result for moresheth gath map

 

A few other features of the two stories invite comparison as well, although

their similarities are less obvious. In Jonah 3:6, the Assyrian king bears the title

“king of Nineveh” and not “king of Assyria,” which is used for him elsewhere

in the Bible. ….

 

Mackey’s comment: “King of Nineveh”, we have found, could indicate a “governor” of the city. The likeliest candidate at the time would seem to me to be the highly important Ahikar, second only to the king of Assyria.

 

…. Finally, there is the issue of the name of Semiramis’s first husband, Onnes. As has

been observed before,14 “Onnes” is apparently derived from the name of the

Mesopotamian primeval sage Uanna(-Adapa), who was known to the Greeks

as Oannes. The Babylonians and Assyrians imagined Uanna/Oannes as a creature

with the body of a fish, which makes him the male counterpart of the mermaid-

like goddess Derceto and provides a further, albeit indirect, link with the

Jonah story. ….

 

Or, there is this other consideration (Grant R. Jeffrey, Unveiling Mysteries of the Bible, p. 107):

 

It is interesting to note that both the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, and the New Testament Greek text spell the name Jonah as Oannes with the addition of the letter I before it (Ioannes). The eminent Assyriologist Dr Herman V. Hilprecht revealed that in the Assyrian inscriptions the letter J in foreign words is written as I, or is dropped completely.