Inhalt: | Frontmatter -- TABLE OF CONTENTS -- LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS -- LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS -- INTRODUCTION -- REPORT/RUMOR -- ARE THE KUSHITES DISPARAGED IN ISAIAH 18? KUSH APPLIED AS A LITERARY MOTIF IN THE HEBREW BIBLE -- EGYPT OR GOD? WHO SAVED JUDAH FROM THE ASSYRIAN ATTACK IN 701 BCE? -- “THOSE WEANED FROM MILK”: THE DIVINE WET NURSE MOTIF IN ISAIAH 28’S CEREMONY FOR THE COVENANT WITH MUT -- SENNACHERIB’S DEPARTURE AND THE PRINCIPLE OF LAPLACE -- THE RESCUE OF JERUSALEM: A VIEW FROM THE NILE VALLEY -- ISRAELITE INTERACTION WITH EGYPT DURING THE MONARCHY: A CONTEXT FOR INTERPRETING 2 KINGS 19:8–13 -- THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM BY SENNACHERIB -- AUBIN’S THE RESCUE OF JERUSALEM: AN ASSYRIOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT -- RESPONSES -- RESPONSE TO MARTA HØYLAND LAVIK: THE KUSHITE MISSION’S HISTORICAL CONTEXT -- RESPONSE TO SONG-MI SUZIE PARK: SOME THEOLOGICAL ISSUES IN 2 KINGS 18–19 -- RESPONSE TO CHRISTOPHER HAYS: HAYS POSES A TIMELY QUESTION ON SCHOLARSHIP -- RESPONSE TO JEREMY POPE: THE EMPTINESS OF THE THEORY OF HEZEKIAH’S SURRENDER -- RESPONSE TO AIDAN DODSON: ASSESSING THE STRENGTH OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH DYNASTY’S ARMY IN 701 BCE -- RESPONSE TO LESTER GRABBE: WAS THE BATTLE OF ELTEKEH DECISIVE -- RESPONSE TO ALAN B. LLOYD: WHY MINIMIZE THE KUSHITE ROLE IN 701 BCE? -- RESPONSE TO K. LAWSON YOUNGER, JR.: THE PUZZLE OF TAHARQO’S ROUTE TO JUDAH What saved Jerusalem from destruction by the Assyrian army in 701 BCE? The seemingly invincible Assyrians — the only superpower of the day — had been about to assault the city when they suddenly departed. The Bible says the “angel of the Lord” swept down on the Assyrian camp, killing 185,000 troops as they slept, obliging the survivors to retreat to their homeland in present-day Iraq. Historians for more than a century have generally agreed that if Jerusalem — the only Hebrew city that the invaders had not destroyed — had been seized and the survivors deported (as per imperial policy in such cases), Hebrew society could have been permanently extinguished. Judaism would therefore never have evolved several centuries later and neither of its two kindred monotheisms, Christianity and Islam, would have developed. As if to underscore the event’s importance to Hebrew society, the Bible tells the story of Jerusalem’s miraculous deliverance, three times — in the books of Second Kings, Isaiah and Second Chronicles. The Old Testament/Tanakh/Hebrew Bible presents no other story so often. Modern historians have proposed more down-to-earth explanations for the failure of the Assyrian emperor, Sennacherib. These include an epidemic that caused him to flee, a crisis elsewhere in the empire with which he had to deal, and a simple surrender by Jerusalem’s King Hezekiah. But now another theory — advanced in a 2002 book, The Rescue of Jerusalem: The Alliance between Hebrews and Africans in 701 BC, by a Canadian journalist, Henry Aubin — is rallying new respectability: an army led by Africans from present-day Sudan repelled the Assyrians. The army’s commander would have been a young Kushite, Taharqo, who later became Pharaoh. After 18 years of the book’s obscurity, the Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, is breathing new life into it, commissioning eight specialists in this period of history to judge the theory’s plausibility. The verdict: six of the scholars tilt in favor of the theory, one is undecided, and only one rejects it |
