SUMMARY: A recent British Museum exhibit provides fresh, dramatic insight into the ruthless enemy of ancient Israel – the Neo-Assyrian Empire and its most powerful king, Ashurbanipal. In Part 1, we consider the story conveyed by surviving artifacts.
“Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury! Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets… For he says: ‘By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding; I remove the boundaries of peoples, and plunder their treasures; like a bull I bring down those who sit on thrones. – Isaiah 10:5,6; 13 (ESV)
Museums, Libraries, and the COVID: Can Any Escape?
As the wave of coronavirus infections began to spread across Europe and the US, some of the first public venues to close were museums, libraries, exhibitions, and galleries. In some instances, these were set to host programs assembled around biblical studies related themes. One such major exhibit had been set to launch on March 20 at The British Library in London.
The event was a major exhibition scheduled to run for about four and a half months. Titled “Hebrew Manuscripts: Journeys of the Written Word,” it was to be the centerpiece of a program offering courses of study including Hebrew language, manuscript studies, religion, and cultural studies. Sadly, just three days before its launch, the library was closed indefinitely to the public due to the COVID.
Ashurbanipal in London: A Neo-Assyrian King Outruns a Modern Pandemic?
Another example of a major exhibit featuring artifacts relevant to biblical backgrounds was the 2018-19 Ashurbanipal exhibit at the British Museum. In this case, the exhibit occurred well before the arrival of COVID and so ran ahead of the pandemic. The exhibit was important for biblical studies because of the dominant interplay between this ancient superpower and Israel. In fact, Assyrian Kings made reference to no less than nine biblical kings in their records, including Omri, Ahab, Jehu, Menahem, Pekah and Hoshea in the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
In the Southern Kingdom of Judah, Azariah, Ahaz and Hezekiah are mentioned. Conversely, Assyrian geography, people, and interactions feature prominently in the biblical narrative. The reader may recall that Assyria often served as God’s rod of chastening for the Israelites (Isa 10:5). For around two centuries, it repeatedly extracted tribute, deported, and vexed the Israelites before finally conquering the Northern Kingdom and leading its people into captivity in 722 BC.
Other noteworthy distinctions include its uniqueness as the only nation to which a Hebrew prophet was sent, as recorded from Jonah’s fishy perspective. Nahum, for his part, composed his biblical oracle about the demise of this Mesopotamian superpower and its capital, Nineveh. So in the end, Assyria can legitimately be described as the most significant nation for Israel and Judah during the period after the United Monarchy. Ashurbanipal is known as ancient Assyria’s last great king, reigning from 669–631 BC. (See how the Isis demolition of a Jonah shrine in Nineveh revealed the palace of an Assyrian king.)
The Ashurbanipal Exhibit: Assyrian Art and Literary Culture
The cultural heritage left behind by the Assyrian Empire is abundant, and stunning representative selections were on full display at the British Museum exhibit. As noted by museum director Hartwig Fischer, “The exquisitely carved stone reliefs that adorned the walls of his [Ashurbanipal’s] palaces are among the most important holdings of the British Museum. They boast of Ashurbanipal’s prowess as a ruler, his military victories and the royal lion hunts.” [1]
Tens of thousands of records written in cuneiform on clay tablets, inscriptions, and reliefs were left behind by Ashurbanipal and his predecessors. Together, these comprise the greatest extra-biblical record available for understanding the history of the Levant during the early first millennium BC. Those who attended the exhibit were able to stand close-up to these, photograph them, and for those able, read actual cuneiform texts created by the hand of the warrior scholar himself some 2600 years ago.
An entire hallway lined with magnificent and stunning reliefs, guarded by statues of Assyria’s famous great winged lions was reconstructed. Another entire wall was lined with part of Ashurbanipal’s library. According to the British Museum’s blog, “In total he gathered hundreds of thousands of these [cuneiform] tablets, around 30,000 of which are now in the British Museum.” The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, depicting the biblical king Jehu bowing to Shalmaneser was featured, as was the oldest known example of the Epic of Gilgamesh. The exhibit would have been impactful simply due to the aura created by such exquisitely crafted artifacts that have survived for over two and a half millennia. However, this is just the beginning.
Assyrian Worldview on Display: A Dark and Foreboding Threat
Artifacts have a way of drawing people in and allowing them to touch the past. In this case, it is the ancient past. But besides the sheer impact of the beautiful antiquities, another reality stirs deep emotion as one gazes on Assyrian material culture. The ideas, actions, and values represented in these relics are deeply disturbing. Visible both in the art, as well as in the written records, an ancient value system is preserved that is both sophisticated and dark.
At this sort of exhibit, one is immediately confronted with an ancient polytheistic people about whom God warned the Israelites, and for good reason. Their worldview, including their views of reality, concept of knowledge, ethics and aesthetics are fully visible in their art and literary heritage. It is always the case that a culture’s product conveys its values, and the ancient Assyrians left a lot of cultural heritage.
Most impactful, though, is the horrific history preserved in these ancient annals. Recall the decree issued by the King of Nineveh at the preaching of Jonah? The focus on turning from “violence” was emphasized for a reason. The text says:
“And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. – Jonah 3:7-8 (ESV)
As described by one reviewer, these artifacts depict “Some of the most appalling images ever created.” The stunning artwork so masterfully created millennia ago by Ashurbanipal, and showcased at the exhibit, celebrates an ancient and brutal civilization at the height of its power. Ashurbanipal’s cruel exploits were graphically memorialized in an impressive number of exquisitely carved stone reliefs. Many of these ornamented the walls of his palaces and commemorated his lion hunts, adeptness as an administrator, but most ghastly of all, the brutality of his military victories.
As explained by museum director Hartwig Fischer, “Ashurbanipal commanded a terrifying war machine and had himself portrayed as a valiant warrior. Military conquest was followed by the extraction of wealth, the deportation, and resettlement of conquered populations and the restructuring of local economies.” It is difficult to grasp the combined power and cruelty of this war machine. [2]
Readers of the Bible, though, will recall the various horrifying and explicit descriptions of judgement that disobedience would incur at the hand of ruthless foreigners. This was possible because as the Israelites strayed from God, they forfeited His protection and became fair game for the exploitation of the worst kinds of pagan culture.
[T]herefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you. The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand, a hard-faced nation who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young. – Deut. 28:48-50 (ESV)
Assyrian History Meets Animation: An Ancient Scene in Modern Light
To illustrate just how “hard-faced” and brutal a threat that Assyria was, the Ashurbanipal exhibit sheds just a glint of light. In one alcove of the self-guided tour, a large relief covering a whole wall was highlighted by an animated light-narration sequence. As visitors stood gazing at the panels, special effect lighting would project onto key scenes depicted synchronized with a narration.
As the light projected onto one scene after another, at last, it alighted on one gruesome set of images featuring the Assyrian army at work – in awful detail. This particular depiction shows the Assyrians excising the tongues of the defeated enemies so that their screams would be muffled as they were then flayed alive. The list of conflicts, skirmishes, and battles in which the Assyrian army engaged during the reign of Ashurbanipal is dizzying. But one such battle serves to illustrate the nature of Assyrian conflict. It occurred between Ashurbanipal and his brother, Shamash-shum-ukin, the King of Babylon.
When Shamash-shum-ukin rebelled against his brother Ashurbanipal, the Assyrian army besieged Babylon for three years. Finally, when the siege was over, Shamash-shum-ukin committed suicide by burning down his palace over himself and his family rather than face Ashurbanipal. To commemorate the victory, Ashurbanipal recorded his successful subjugation of both Babylon and its allies as follows:
“Not one escaped; not one sinner slipped through my hands, of those whom the gods had counted for my hands. The chariots, coaches, palanquins, his concubines, the goods of his palace, they brought before me. As for those men and their vulgar mouths, who uttered vulgarity against Assur, my god, and plotted evil against me, the prince who fears him – I slit their tongues and brought them low. The rest of the people, alive, by the colossi, between which they had cut down Sennacherib, the father of the father who begot me, – at that time, I cut down those people there, as an offering to his shade [memory]. Their dismembered bodies I fed to the dogs, swine, wolves and eagles, to the birds of heaven and the fish of the deep.”[3] (See the possible connection between Sennacherib and the missing Hanging Gardens of Babylon.)
Other reliefs depict a conquered general as he was prepared for beheading, as well as copious amounts of blood sport, featuring lion hunts. These reliefs lined the walls of the king’s palaces providing ever present graphic reminders of his victories and successes. However, Ashurbanipal possessed some unusual distinctions for an Assyrian king. He was atypical in that he did not lead his army into battle. He was also unusual in that he was both a scholar and a sage. (See scenes of Ashurbanipal’s lion hunts in this Update on biblical plants and animals. )
The companion volume to the Ashurbanipal exhibit is entitled, “I am Ashurbanipal, King of the world, King of Assyria.” In Chapter 1, editor Gareth Brereton notes that,
“For Ashurbanipal, it was important to be perceived as strong both in body and in mind. Often portrayed with a stylus tucked into his belt, he claimed to be unlike any king before him, since he possessed an unrivaled ability to master the scribal arts, solve complex mathematical problems, and debate with expert scholars and diviners. It is not clear whether all Assyrian kings could read and write, but Ashurbanipal’s claims of literacy are substantiated by rare instances of cuneiform texts written in his own hand.” [4]
Conclusion
Under the rule of Ashurbanipal, the kingdom of Assyria reached its Zenith. It encompassed over 540,000 square miles and reached from Egypt to Iran, from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. Its capital city of Nineveh was the largest city in the ancient world, and it can legitimately be described as the world’s first true Empire. It was strong and powerful at its height and served as rod by which Israel was chastened.
However, Ashurbanipal was lifted up in pride, and boasted:
I am Ashurbanipal, great king, mighty king, king of the world, king of Assyria, king of the four quarters (of the world), offspring of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, governor of Babylon, king of the land of Sumer and Akkad, descendant of Sennacherib, king of the world, king of Assyria. [5]
And as happened with other great nations lifted up in pride, that greatness was soon to be shattered. Ashurbanipal was the last great king of Assyria, and its demise was only a few short years away. But that aspect of the story will have to wait until Part 2. Until then, KEEP THINKING!
References
[1] Fisher, Hartwig. “Forward.” In I am Ashurbanipal: king of the world, king of Assyria. Ed. By Gareth Brereton. London: Thames & Hudson, 2018. P. 7.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Luckenbill, Daniel David. Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia Volume 2: Historical Records of Assyria From Sargon to the End. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1927. OCLC 926853184.
[4] Brereton, Gareth. “Nineveh: The Centre of the World.” In I am Ashurbanipal: king of the world, king of Assyria. Ed. By Gareth Brereton. London: Thames & Hudson, 2018. P. 17
[5] Ibid. P. 10. Royal inscription of Ashurbanipal.
TOP PHOTO: (Credit: R. Brian Rickett; The Ashurbanipal Exhibit, The British Museum)
NOTE: Not every view expressed by scholars contributing Thinker articles necessarily reflects the views of Patterns of Evidence. We include perspectives from various sides of debates on biblical matters so that readers can become familiar with the different arguments involved. – Keep Thinking!
