Don't Know Much About the Bible - Kenneth C. Davis [91]
RULERS OF ASSYRIA
(All dates are approximate and BCE)
Ashur-dan II
934-912
Adad-nirari II
912-891
Tukulti-Ninurta II
891-884
Ashurnasirpal II
884-859
Shalmaneser III
859-824
Shamshi-Adad V
824-811
Adad-nirari III
811-783
Shalmaneser IV
783-773
Ashur-dan III
773-755
Ashur-nirari V
755-745
Tiglath-pileser III
745-727 (Identified as Pul in the Bible)
Shalmaneser V
727-722
Sargon II
722-705
Sennacherib
705-681
Esarhaddon
681-669
Ashurbanipal
669-627
Ashur-etel-ilani
627-624
Sin-shumu-lishir
624-623
Sin-shara-ishkun
623-612
Ashur-uballit II
612-609
(Source: The Illustrated Guide to the Bible)
Based on the plains of the Tigris River, the Assyrian empire dominated the ancient Near East for three hundred years (between 900 and 600 BCE). Its greatest period came under a succession of kings who appear in the Bible and often are made to be instruments of God in their oppression of Israel. The most famed city of the Assyrian empire was Nineveh, a splendid capital dedicated to the goddess Ishtar, and the city to which the noted prophet Jonah would be sent by God. While their art and libraries, which preserved older Sumerian cultures, were sophisticated, the Assyrians also had a reputation for ruthlessness. As Cyrus Gordon and Gary Rendsburg put it in their history of the period, “Brutality was justified from the Assyrian viewpoint on religious grounds. The god Assur had willed that his country and his king should achieve world domination; and all other gods, kings, and peoples had to be subservient to Assur’s will. Any resistance meant rebellion against the great god and was put down with…severity.” (The Bible and the Ancient Near East, p. 249)
Does that assessment have a familiar ring? Sounds a lot like another God we all know.
As cruel as they might seem, the Assyrian methods of mass deportations of conquered people are certainly not unique. The “removals” of Native Americans by the U.S. government in the early nineteenth century, as well as the “ethnic cleansing” of the twentieth century, are merely updated versions of an ancient practice. As another biblical writer would later put it in Ecclesiastes, “There is nothing new under the sun.”
Who wrote the “Book of the Law”?
When the northern kingdom of Israel fell, the southern kingdom of Judah tried to maintain its independence but suffered from a combination of weak kings and the onslaught of the powerful Assyrian empire. Among these “bad” kings was Ahaz, who attempted to curry favor with the Assyrian overlords by placing an Assyrian altar in the Temple of Jerusalem. That was clearly not an idea that sat well with the Temple priests.
In stark contrast, Ahaz’s son Hezekiah (715-687 BCE) was a king regarded favorably by the priestly authors of the Bible. He attempted to make religious reforms and destroyed some of the alien shrines that remained scattered throughout Judah. But what works for God doesn’t always work in the realm of ancient Near Eastern power politics. In his attempt to fend off the Assyrian threat, Hezekiah made alliances with kings in Babylon and Egypt, but their combined strength could not stave off the Assyrian advance. The strategic city of Lachish fell in 702 BCE. Biblical accounts diverge from other historical material in describing the Assyrian threat to Jerusalem. According to the Bible, the city was saved by a divine miracle. Other sources suggest that Hezekiah paid off the Assyrians.
Hezekiah was followed by one of the most notorious kings of Judah, Hezekiah’s son Manasseh (687-642 BCE). Hoping to preserve his throne, he tried to negotiate with the Assyrians and reintroduced Assyrian idol worship to Jerusalem. In the view of the authors of the Bible, his actions were so reprehensible to God that they ultimately caused the kingdom’s downfall. Manasseh’s tactics proved feeble anyway; he was carted off to Babylon in shackles. His son Amon