myBibleHistory

Echoes Across Civilizations

Covenants shaped like treaties

Did ancient kings make treaties in the same shape as God's covenant at Sinai?

What the relationship labels mean
  • Possible historical contact: The cultures were in contact, so one tradition could have known the other.
  • Shared literary world: The stories appear to share older roots or a common cultural setting.
  • Similar human experience: Different peoples responding to similar realities, such as river floods.
  • Resemblance only: A real similarity worth noticing; no historical connection has been established.
  • Modern speculative theory: A modern interpretation, not an ancient source. Not supported by authenticated evidence.

Hittite · Anatolia and Syria

Hittite vassal treaties (e.g. Mursili II with Duppi-Teshub of Amurru; Suppiluliuma I with Shattiwaza)

Possible historical contact
Composed
14th–13th centuries BC
Earliest surviving copy
Clay tablets from the Hittite capital Hattusa (Boğazköy), Turkey

A typical Late Bronze Age treaty has a preamble naming the great king; a historical prologue recalling his past kindness to the vassal; stipulations, beginning with exclusive loyalty; a clause requiring the tablet to be deposited in the temple and read publicly; a list of divine witnesses; and blessings and curses.

Similar

  • Opens with the great king's name and what he has done for the vassal
  • Exclusive loyalty first, then detailed obligations
  • The text deposited in a sacred place and read publicly
  • Blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience (fully in Deuteronomy 28)

Different

  • The great king of Sinai is God Himself, not a human king
  • No gods are called as witnesses; heaven, earth or stones serve instead (Deuteronomy 30:19; Joshua 24:27)
  • The covenant is made with a whole people, not with a single vassal ruler

Read it: G. E. Mendenhall, Law and Covenant in Israel and the Ancient Near East (1955); K. A. Kitchen and P. J. N. Lawrence, Treaty, Law and Covenant in the Ancient Near East (2012)

Assyrian · Mesopotamia

The Succession Treaty of Esarhaddon (Vassal Treaties of Esarhaddon)

Possible historical contact
Composed
672 BC
Earliest surviving copy
Tablets from Nimrud and from Tell Tayinat in Turkey

Esarhaddon bound his vassals to be loyal to his heir Ashurbanipal, to love him "as yourselves," to report disloyal words even from family members, and to teach the oath to their children, under long lists of curses.

Similar

  • Commands to love the overlord with all one's heart
  • Duty to report even relatives who incite disloyalty (compare Deuteronomy 13:6–10)
  • Curses close in wording to Deuteronomy 28:23–35

Different

  • Lacks the historical prologue of the older Hittite form
  • Loyalty to a human dynasty, not to God

Read it: S. Parpola and K. Watanabe, Neo-Assyrian Treaties and Loyalty Oaths, State Archives of Assyria 2 (1988); J. Lauinger, "Esarhaddon's Succession Treaty at Tell Tayinat," JCS 64 (2012)

Full investigations

Back to the story

  • The Ten Commandments →God speaks the Ten Words from the mountain. They begin with deliverance, not demand, and they appear twice in the Bible, in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, with telling differences. The oldest copy outside the Dead Sea Scrolls is a scrap of papyrus from Egypt.
  • The Covenant Sealed →Moses writes down God's words, builds an altar with twelve pillars, and seals the covenant with blood. The elders see the God of Israel and eat and drink before Him. Then Moses enters the cloud for forty days.
  • The Covenant Spoken Again →Moses repeats the Ten Commandments to the new generation. The words are almost those of Exodus 20, but the Sabbath is grounded in the release from slavery rather than creation, and the coveting commandment is worded differently. The Samaritan Torah adds a commandment about Mount Gerizim.
  • Prophets, Idolatry, and Loyalty →A prophet who works a sign and then calls Israel to other gods must not be followed. Even a brother, a son or a wife who secretly entices to idolatry is not to be spared, and a town that turns to other gods is to be destroyed. Scholars have compared these laws with the loyalty oath an Assyrian king imposed in 672 BC.
  • The Blessings and the Curses →Fourteen verses of blessing and fifty-four of curse: disease, drought, defeat, siege, famine so terrible that parents eat their children, and exile. Several of these curses closely resemble the curses of an Assyrian loyalty oath from 672 BC. How close, and what that means, is one of the liveliest debates about Deuteronomy.
  • The Covenant for the Generations →In Moab, Moses makes a covenant with everyone present, from leaders to wood-cutters and water-carriers, and "with him that is not here with us this day." One hidden idolater can poison the whole community. And the hidden things belong to God; the revealed things belong to us and our children.
  • The Covenant at Shechem and the Burials →At Shechem Joshua tells Israel's history from Abraham's idol-worshiping father to the gift of the land, and asks them to choose whom they will serve. The people choose the LORD. Joshua writes the words in the book of the law and sets up a great stone under an oak. Joshua, Joseph's bones and Eleazar are buried in the land.
  • Samuel's Farewell →At Gilgal Samuel asks the people to testify whether he ever cheated them; they say no. He reviews Israel's history from Egypt through the judges, then calls on the LORD to send thunder and rain during wheat harvest. The people are afraid. "Fear not… serve the LORD with all your heart… I will teach you the good and the right way."