What the Bible owes to Mesopotamia (continued), Persia and the Greeks

The image of Persia in the Hebrew Bible

Overall, the image of Persia is extremely positive in the Hebrew Bible. One could even speak of " persophilia " : the Persian kings (or even the Persians at all) are never the object of prophetic oracles of condemnation ; the arrival of Cyrus is presented in Deutero-Esaiah (Isa 30-55) as that of Yhwh's messiah, and likewise in 2 Ch 36:22-23 (these texts were probably inspired by the Persian propaganda of the Cyrus cylinder) ; the Persian king sides with the Jews in the Book of Esther. It is also worth noting that, for the Hebrew Bible, the Persian period is the last to be explicitly mentioned (the Maccabees or Sirach are not part of the TaNaK), which might suggest that the last editors of the Hebrew Bible considered the Persian period to be the end of history.

Imperial authorization

The theory of imperial authorization puts forward the hypothesis that the Persian authorities were accustomed to encouraging the publication of the religious texts of the various local communities, including of course the Pentateuch (cf. Esd-Ne). However, we have few parallels outside the Hebrew Bible for such a practice. The only known example is that of the Egyptian high official and priest Udjahorresnê (^6th c. B.C.), who bears many similarities to the mission of Ezra (Ezra 7) : a scribe who is also a priest is sent by the Persian king to the country of origin with resources made available by the Achaemenid court, with the aim of restoring one or more of the country's cultic centers. However, the Pentateuch is very different from the cult restored at Saïs ; moreover, if it had been intended to be aggregated by the Persians, it should have been written in Aramaic and not in Hebrew.

" The god of the heavens "

Esd 7 mentions the expression " god of the heavens ", a term also used by the Judean diaspora in Elephantine when its leaders applied to the Persian governor Bagôhi for permission to rebuild the temple of Yahô (destroyed by the Egyptians) : the term is used to designate both Yhwh and Bagôhi's god, and in his reply Bagôhi uses the expression probably to refer to the supreme Persian god Ahura-Mazda.

Persian influences in the Hebrew Bible

It is very difficult to form a clear idea of the religious system adopted by the Achaemenid rulers. Indeed, it is difficult to determine how close this system is to the Zoroastrianism that would later emerge, given the difficulty researchers have in dating Zoroaster's activity (see the work and caution of J. Kellens).

It is more likely that it was " mazdeism " that was first practised as part of the official royal religion, with Ahura-Mazda as its principal deity. It is assumed that Persian Mazdaism constituted a kind of syncretistic or inclusive monotheism, which regarded other deities as local manifestations of Ahura-Mazda (probably including Yhwh/Yahô). Such a relationship to other deities can also be applied to Yhwh in some post-exilic psalms, where he is depicted as enthroned in the midst of the heavenly assembly and surpassing all other gods (Pss 81.2; 89.7), who have, in effect, degraded themselves into " angels " or " saints " (Pss 89.6; 103.20). This retention of the ancient pantheon can be explained, at least in part, by a double Persian influence : Yhwh is presented in the image of the great Persian king (who is in fact the only true king) dominating all the kings of the other peoples ; but Yhwh also corresponds in this way to Ahura-Mazda who, after the Zoroastrian reform, sits, the only true God, sovereignly established at the summit of the traditional pantheon.

The second influence of Mazdeanism may lie in a form of dualism that pitted the supreme god Ahura-Mazda against an evil spirit called Angra Mainyu, who could be likened to the figure of " satan " in some biblical texts, principally the Book of Job.

A third influence of Mazdeism, or even Zoroastrianism, can be seen in the importance given to vegetable offerings and fire. It may well be for this reason that Governor Bahôgi only authorized the rebuilding of the temple at Elephantine on condition that animal sacrifices were not performed. This also raises the question of whether the vegetarian ideal of the Creation story in Gen 1 is not influenced by the rejection of animal sacrifice in Zoroastrianism (cf. also Mal 1:11).

A final influence may have had an impact on Judean apocalyptic thought : in texts attributed to the late Avesta of the Achaemenid period, mention is made of a Saviour, " Astuuat-ereta " (" the one who gives bones to harmony ") who will make the demons flee and " stand up " the dead (cf. Ez 37). The opposition between the two spirits Spenta Mainyu and Angra Mainyu may have influenced the mention of the two spirits in the community rule at Qumran, in which we learn that God arranged for man two spirits, one of truth and the other of falsity. It's hard to say whether Judean apocalyptic thought or Mazdean eschatology influenced the other (see the work of J. Kellens).

Greece

Several biblical texts came into being during the Hellenistic period : the Song of Songs, Esther and Qoheleth (which have often been compared with certain currents of Hellenistic philosophy). However, Greek influence on the texts of the Hebrew Bible is not limited to the period of Greek domination of the Levant, since contacts between Greece and the Levant date back to trade as early as the ^7th-6th centuries BC. Traces of this can be found in certain biblical words clearly borrowed from the Greek language (seranîm, which is said to come from the Greek τύραννος " tyrant ", in the story of the Ark to designate Philistine chiefs). It has also been suggested that the type of armor worn by Goliath in 1 Sam 17 appeared among Greek mercenaries between the ^7th and^5th c. BC.

The Book of Judges and Greek mythological traditions

Three main stories from the Book of Judges have been linked to Greek mythological traditions :

(1) the story of Jephthah's sacrifice (Jdg 11) and the sacrifice of Iphigenia in Euripides' tragedy. There are many parallels : the formulation of a vow that turns into the unwanted sacrifice of the protagonist's daughter ; in both cases, it is the daughter who shows her heroism by accepting her fate. Jdg 11 undoubtedly reflects a period of " theological crisis " concerning the intervention of the gods on behalf of mankind, reflecting on their absence (in contrast to Gen 22), but also on man's responsibility, even folly (cf. Qo 5:3-4) ;

(2) the fable of Yotam, included in the story of an Abimelech who wants to make himself king over Israel (Jdg 9), and a fable by Aesop. It is difficult to establish which of the two stories influenced the other ; it is possible that the biblical text took over a Greek fable, which in its transmission, in a Christian context, was also influenced by the LXX version ;

(3) the figure of Samson and that of Greek heroes. The motif of the link between hair and strength (Apollo, Dionysus, Orestes, etc.) ; numerous links with the story of Heracles (born of an encounter between a divine being and a human, the encounter with a woman who plays on him, the killing of a lion with his bare hands, the theft of the gates of Gaza, which recalls the columns of Heracles, Samson's donkey jaw and Heracles' club). Whether or not the author of the Samson story was consciously inspired by the myths surrounding Heracles is an open question, but a Hellenistic influence cannot be ruled out.

The story of Abraham

Three stories show parallels with Greek traditions :

(1) the visit of the three beings to Abraham in Gen 18:1-16 (who reward Abraham for his hospitality by announcing the birth of a son to the elderly couple with no descendants) has echoes in several ancient traditions (from which the editors of this text certainly drew inspiration), including a Greek version recounted by Ovid (The Fastes) with the visit of Jupiter, Neptune and Mercury to the old man Hyriaeus. In both stories, the child is a gift from the gods in return for the hospitality insistently offered, and the two hosts gradually discover the true identity of their guests, who eventually reveal it for themselves. It's hard to say whether this is a conscious reworking, or a shared motif between East and West ;

(2) the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah mentions the fact that Lot's wife is transformed into a pillar of salt after turning around, despite the ban, to watch the catastrophe. This text is reminiscent of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, where the woman finally ends up in the underworld after her husband, Orpheus, turns around to look at her ;

(3) the story of Sodom and Gomorrah ends with the incredible episode in which Lot's two daughters, taking refuge with him in a cave, make their father drink wine and then sleep with him in order to produce offspring (Gen 19:30-38). The combination of wine and cave is also found in one of the myths of Dionysus, son of Zeus and a human woman. To escape the wrath of Hera, Dionysus hides in a cave, where he plants the first vine and lets his nymphs taste his wine.

The question of Greek influence on biblical traditions needs to be pursued, as does the investigation into whether some of these traditions are more the fruit of a " common tradition " than the result of direct influence. Conversely, we might also ask whether certain Greek myths originated as a result of influences from the East. Finally, these few investigations have shown us that we must not erect some kind of impenetrable barrier between West and East, between the Greek world and the ancient Near East.