Week 4: Readings/Lectures/Discussions Tiglath-Pileser Principle

Halpern’s “Tiglath-Pileser Principle” is a story about an Assyrian king named Tiglath-Pileser I (1115 BC-1076 BC). Basically, this story surrounds a king that is driven by power and a need conquer. During his reign, he was able to occupy Moschi, Kommagene and eastern Cappadovia. During his fifth year as king, he had his victories engraved on copper plates that were located in a fortress that surrounded his Cilician conquests (wikipedia). This story has some relevance to biblical studies in that the Bible is filled with stories that are geared towards conquering and recording one’s place in history. Another story that has some relation to biblical studies is the Epic of Gilgamesh. In this story Gilgamesh is a powerful king that that spends most of his time conquering and showing off his power. He has relations with all of the women of Uruk, which causes strife between him and the other men. In an attempt to calm Gilgamesh, the men turn towards the gods for assistance. The Gods send Enkidu as buffer that will slow Gilgamesh down, but instead of becoming foes they become friends. Eventually, the gods kill Enkidu and this causes Gilgamesh to seek immortality. He fails at his attempt and is forced to respect his position as a mortal. This is a slight parallel to events that occur in the Bible with Moses. In the Bible, Moses sought immortality through the Promised Land. Unfortunately, when God showed the Promised Land to him, he dies on the spot, therefore forfeiting his chance at immortality.
The Bible is filled with etiologies or stories that explain the reason or origin of something. For example, in the book of Genesis, you can find etiologies throughout the text. There is the one about why Adam and Eve were sent out of the Garden of Eden. We find out that snakes once walked on legs, but due to sin were forced to slide around on their bellies. We also learn how the world and its creatures were created. If I had to create an etiology about why students are required to take this course I would say that one would be destined for an eternity of darkness without the light of knowledge concerning religion and its importance on a moral society.
In Auerbach’s “Odysseus’s Scar”, it tells a the story of an Israelite king, and a Judge, Ehud who is able to successfully kill this king. Ehud enters the king’s chambers with a sword or weapon on him. When the guards search him he is able to elude them because they expect everyone to carry their weapons on the left side since the majority of people are right handed. Ehud hides his weapon on his right side because he is left handed due to a mangled right hand. In Friedman’s “Deception for Deception” he discusses how Jacob deceives his blind father into thinking that he is his brother in order to inherit his birth-right. These stories are interrelated because both of the main characters use deception to gain what they want. there are different ways to interpret the context of stories such as the afore mentioned. Two of these devices or approaches are historical criticism and literary criticism. With historical criticism, critics approach a work of literature by evaluating it for evidence that would lead to conclusions about the economic and political events going on during the time that the work was produced. With literary criticism it basically involves the overall study, evaluation and interpretation of a particular literary work. From the prospective of a biblical scholar it seems that the historical literary approach would be the preferred method to approaching biblical text because it takes in consideration the overall environment of the time.

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