Kingship  and the Psalms

Part-III: Chapter 1-2

Rites of New Year and Enthronement outside Israel Mesopotamia

Most commonly compared with the Israelite festivals are the akitu celebration, attested in various form and places in Mesopotamia in the first three millennia. Simply we understand akitu ceremony was the big procession of gods to and from the shrine outside the city and it was to convey the blessing of fertility to the fields. There the journeys through sacred streets and gates and by canal would increase public participation and festivals were marked with general rejoicing and feasting. The participation of the king was a principal feature. It was celebrated in Babylon. The rituals were extending from 1 to at least 11 Nisan. The priest enters the great temple to recite praise and prayer before the image of Marduk also called Bel ‘Lord.’ He begs him a good destiny for the king and life for the people of Babylon here Marduk is considered as god of creation. He forms the sky above and the earth beneath. In the sky he fixes the order of the heavenly bodies and forms the system of the seasons, the years, and months, day and night. The images of the great gods were conveyed to Babylon from their respective cities and eventually they went in procession with Marduk along the stations of the complex of the akitu sanctuary outside the city.The heart of the rite is the acceptance, authorization and empowering of the king by the gods. The king is thus made the instrument of the god’s rule as is brightly indicated when the king is first carried into the temple preceded by the priest of the god Ashur, who strikes an instrument and calls repeatedly ‘Ashur is king, Ashur is king!’. The priest of Ashur then crowns and invests and priestly service to Ashur. After returning to the place the king takes his throne. The Babylonian rite has similarities with the Assyrian enthronement, repeating essential items of enthronement: the king’s prostration before the god, the depositing of royal insignia before the expression of the god’s favour, the investiture the words of blessing. Assyrian and Babylonian enthronement ceremonies are indicated by allusions in royal inscriptions.

Egypt  

The material from Egypt relevant to kingship and the great festivals have long been profuse, including vivid pictorial record. It is difficult to understand the cultic myth and ritual, and Egyptian sources offer little in the way of connected interpretation. The understanding of the king’s divinity is the emphasized on the humanity of the pharaoh, which has helped the Egyptian institution with the Israelite. The significance of the annual burial rites of Osiris remains disputed. The influential works was seen as the fertilization of the earth. The rites show the triumph of piety over evil by commemoration the piety of Isis, who secured the reconstitution and burial of Osiris’ body as a mummy. There is much evidence order given in kingship. The Ptolemaic period kept a wealth of data which preserved sanctuaries throw much tight on the ancient ceremonies and structure.

The Egyptian divided their year into three seasons; inundation, winter summer. Each of these seasons was inaugurated with festivals of foundational and renovatory significance. The beginning of inundation, when the Nile rose in June was obviously rich in promise of renewal. A New Year festival extended from the end of the old year perhaps the fifth day of the New Year.

The ceremonies included renewal of the temple (Ptolemaic temple of Horus at Edfu). The main ceremony on New Year’s Day is as procession of the statues on the roof to be united with the rays of the midday sun. In these great rites the king was in principal as divine and human spheres and god being on the king’s life and welfare. The beginning of the season of winter in October was a good time for a king full enthronement his coronation. The coronation affected by the god began with the king’s baptismal purification, conveying divine life and power and given dominion over all plains and mountain lands. He was recognized as son of the god begotten from the sun god Re. 

The renewal of the king is attested in the first place by the sed festival, it was celebrated every three or four years. The festival began with procession of the king and the god whose statues had been brought from all over the country. The king danced over a field, to sanctifying his country and renewing his dominion over it. The falcon headed statue of Horus and a real falcon selected by oracle for a year’s reign. The kingship is effected by god’s choice and presentation of the sacred falcon as his ‘heir.’ Litanies were sung in prayer. The beginning of the season of winter is named in the calendar the day of the New Year feast of Horus the Behdetite. The king hauls a sacred pillar the dead column upright; vengeance and victory are represented by mock battle and procession. The son of Orisis, Horus is to be crowned on the first day of winter his New Year feast and the coronation of the Pharaoh to be renewed.

The beginning of the summer was marked by a New Year and harvest festival the festival of god Min. A shrine was set up in the fields and the king ceremonially reaped corn; rite on behalf of the kingship included the loosing of geese to the four points of the compass.  

Another festival with the character of a New Year and harvest celebration including a sacred marriage is known of Edfu lasted from new to full moon in the third month of summer. The image of Hothor was brought by boat from Dendera to be met by that of Horus; together they entered the temple of Horus to spend their marriage night. It was the necropolis for the cult of the ancestors and rites of harvest.

This abundance of rites the main theme is reasonably clear; the change of ruler, the turn of the seasons the rites of kingship represent the overcoming of the chaos and the renewal of the divine cosmic order.

c. Hittites 

Similar influence could be expected from Hittite penetration of the area. The Hittite king took a leading part in the purulli festival in the spring. There are some resemblances to the Babylonian festivals. A myth of the god’s victory over the Illuyankas dragon was connected with their celebration. An autumn festival extended over sixteen days; the king with his queen and his heir, made processions from city to city with sacrifice and assemblies. The rites included the opening of storage jars which had been field in the autumn festival processions of a shield which may have represented a protecting deity, a visit to the temple of the dead, offerings before the image of dead rulers, and celebrations at a sanctuary situated in a grove outside the capital.

One of the Hittite festivals is indicated an ornate chariot brought to the temple and decked with red, white and blue ribbons, the god’s image seated in it and progressed behind a column of sacred women dancers and torch bearers to a woodland shrine. Little we know about Hittite king’s enthronement. He was installed in rites which included anointing, robbing crowning and giving of a royal name; emphasized on his appointment as god’s chief priest.  

        d. Canaanites

Canaanite festivals have much suggestive material in the Old Testament and in Ugaritic literature. Baal took his throne at the autumn New Year festival. He was greeted with the cultic shout ‘Our king is Alien Baal and none is above him! Baal worshiper’s saw in him the powerful king who drove across the sky on the clouds and him mighty voice is heard in the crash of thunder. He triumphs over his opponents; sent rains and promoted fertility. When autumn came the rain begins, it was Baal who return to ensure fertility and ascend the throne. In the festival cultic drama was presented, Baal enthronement and the dedication of his temple which took place a new each year.

A few deductions have been made from. The king is said to have washed himself and made himself red. It was the ceremony of purification in which he washed away from sin and ritual impurity with the blood of the sacrificial animal and consecrated for the sacred acts which he was about to perform.

The Israelite autumn festival as clarified by Mowinckel.

The chief annual festival

 Of Israel’s, three annual pilgrimage festivals were the most important in the time of the kings. The festival of Yahweh, inauguration of the temple and others remained in obscurity. The pentateuchal references to the festivals are difficult to use as evidence for Jerusalem under the kings, in exodus, where the month of Passover, the Nisan of the Babylonian calendar is designated as the first of the year. The aspects of New Year could be attached to the beginnings of several seasons.

The autumn was a major annual turning point under the kings. The dominant festival under the Jerusalem monarchy was the autumn pilgrimage and this would be the context for the society to renew its foundations. Purifying and re sanctifying men and institutions, re-experiencing the divine salvation which had created its world and life and hope. The pilgrimage feast of booths (sukkot) takes place from days 15-22; proceeded by two-one day observances. The tenth day is in fact given in Lev.25: 9, the fanfare announcing a jubilee year and in the Mishna, its ceremonies include a dance of maidens. The main festival was the week that we see beginning at the full moon first and tenth days considered as holy day.

The celebration of Yahweh’s kingship.                                                        

Throughout the time of Davidic dynasty the autumn festival included a special celebration of Yahweh as king. The psalms had brought into relief the hymns in which Yahweh is proclaimed and manifested as king in something like an act of enthronement and this must have been part of the supreme festival that of autumn. The location of such pattern in Jerusalem’s annual festival related with Jewish tradition. Yahweh’s kingship control of the waters and universal dominion are firmly attached to the keeping of the autumn festival in Jerusalem and that worship is shown by the way is used by pre-exilic and exilic prophets. Nahum predicted the doom of Nineveh. Yahweh manifests himself in fury to combat him enemies. His roar destroys the sea and over whelms the residence of the hostile goddess.

They announce the era of peace and urge Judah to celebrate her festivals. Yahweh is proved king victor over all rivals. Habakkuk applied the festal story to history.

The end of the summer sees a parched and bared land the festival brings confidence that Yahweh will show his supremacy over the chaos powers and bring salvation to his anointed and to his people.

Zephaniah reflects the festal idea, God’s purifying wrath bearing upon Jerusalem. His sovereignty is expressed in words against the nations. To purified Zion he ten comes as king, victorious and saving champion loving spouse, and restorer of the happy state.

The harvest and summer are ended and Yahweh is supposed to be present in Zion as her king and bringer of salvation. Amos demands for torrents of righteousness. Isaiah sees Yahweh manifest as king in his Zion temple dominating the world in radiant majesty, pronouncing the destiny of his people. Zechariah shows Yahweh’s kingship at Jerusalem as bound up with his mastery of the rain-sources.

Dramatic character of the celebration.

The proclamation of Yahweh’s kingship in psalms 93, 96-99 etc. say his triumph over rival and received excited joy. The dramatic mature of the cultic scene is agreed. It was applied to great tuning points of history by Nahum, Zephaniah, and the rest and eschatological drama of the apocalyptists.

We have seen the festival of Mesopotamia and Egypt had a dramatic character and actualization archetypal events similar to the Israelites rites, which prefigure the divine warfare, triumph exaltation and epiphany. The triumph underlying God’s exaltation as cosmic king assumes various forms; he mastered waters, destroyed Pharaoh’s hosts in the exodus, conquered the inhabitants of Canaan and made Jerusalem his sanctuary. Yahweh’s supremacy was dramatized in the festival. Yahweh’s work of salvation is a ‘modelled’ of his covenant keeping in the midst of his temple. Here the ‘modelled’ is used in appropriate for a symbolic representation. It can be compared with Egyptian rites of Osiris.

The involvement of the Davidic kingship

In psalms 75; 118,132, are the general material for the festival and king’s enthronement was re-celebrated annually in connection with the New Year festival. It is generalization that the king stands at the centre of the festivals and he obtains the power and blessing from Yahweh. Yahweh defeated the forces of darkness and death which were represented as the kings of the earth attaching Jerusalem. The divine warfare was here projected on the earthly plane, it would be likely to involve Yahweh’s ruler in Jerusalem, the Davidic king. In psalms 89, 18, 118 belonging to this drama; king is seen as leader forces against the hostile kings. The glories shown in the drama were potential and challenging; the well-tried and exalted king represented in the drama by the present king was likewise an unrealized idea; true response was given to God.

Bibliographty

EATON, H. John: King and the Psalms. jsot press, Enland,1986.