myBibleHistory

Ancient Mysteries & Interpretations

Esarhaddon's Succession Treaty and Deuteronomy

In 672 BC the Assyrian king Esarhaddon made his officials and vassals swear loyalty to his son Ashurbanipal. A complete copy of the oath was found at Tell Tayinat in Turkey in 2009. Its demands to report disloyal prophets and relatives, and some of its curses, closely resemble Deuteronomy 13 and 28. How close, and what that means, is debated.

Treaty: authentic, excavated · Specific parallels: real · Direct translation: disputed

1 What Scripture says

"If thy brother… or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom… entice thee secretly… thou shalt not consent" (Deuteronomy 13:6–8). "And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron" (28:23).

2 What evidence we might expect

  • If Deuteronomy adapted Assyrian oaths, specific shared wording and order, not only general themes.
  • If both drew on a common tradition, similar curses in other treaties too.

3 What ancient sources survive

Esarhaddon's Succession Treaty (adê)

Language
Akkadian
Composed
672 BC
Oldest surviving copy
Tablets from Nimrud (found 1955) and Tell Tayinat (found 2009)
Status
Not scripture

Sworn by officials and vassals at the succession of Ashurbanipal; long curse sections invoking many gods.

Source: S. Parpola and K. Watanabe, Neo-Assyrian Treaties and Loyalty Oaths, State Archives of Assyria II (1988); J. Lauinger, "Esarhaddon's Succession Treaty at Tell Tayinat: Text and Commentary," Journal of Cuneiform Studies 64 (2012)

Sefire treaties

Language
Old Aramaic
Composed
Mid-8th century BC
Oldest surviving copy
Basalt stelae from Sefire, Syria
Status
Not scripture

Treaty curses in a West Semitic language.

4 What discoveries exist

In 2009 the University of Toronto's excavation at Tell Tayinat (ancient Kunalia) found a large tablet of the treaty in a temple's inner room, where it had apparently been displayed as a sacred object. It is the best-preserved copy.

ThemeEsarhaddon's treatyDeuteronomy
Report the disloyalReport anyone, including brothers, sons, daughters, prophets, ecstatics and diviners, who speaks against the crown princeDo not spare a prophet, dreamer or family member who entices to other gods (13)
Love the overlordLove Ashurbanipal "as yourselves"Love the LORD with all your heart (6:5)
Future generationsBinds sons and grandsons yet to be bornWith those "not here with us this day" (29:15)
Bronze sky, iron earthCurse making ground like iron and sky like bronze28:23 (in reverse order)
Curse sequenceSkin disease, blindness, carcasses for birds, wife taken by another28:26–35 in a similar sequence

5 How interpretations compare

Scholarly reconstruction

Adaptation in Josiah's time

A Judahite scribe of the 7th century BC reworked the Assyrian oath, transferring absolute loyalty from the Assyrian king to Israel's God.

Source: M. Weinfeld, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School (1972); H. U. Steymans, Deuteronomium 28 und die adê zur Thronfolgeregelung Asarhaddons (1995)

Traditional reading

An older covenant form

Deuteronomy's overall structure is closer to Hittite treaties of the Late Bronze Age, supporting an early origin; later editors may have added Assyrian-era wording.

Assessment: The Hittite comparison concerns overall structure; the Assyrian comparison concerns specific wording.

6 The strongest supported reconstruction

Esarhaddon's Succession Treaty is authentic and specifically close to parts of Deuteronomy 13 and 28. It shows that Deuteronomy speaks the language of ancient political loyalty oaths. It does not name Israel or Moses, and it does not by itself prove that Deuteronomy was written in Josiah's time.

7 What remains possible or unknown

  • Whether Judahite scribes saw a copy of this oath.
  • How much of Deuteronomy the parallels affect.
  • Whether Aramaic intermediaries carried the wording.

8 How this material came to us

The Nimrud tablets were published by D. J. Wiseman in 1958; the Tayinat tablet by Jacob Lauinger in 2012. A standard edition and translation is Parpola and Watanabe, SAA II.

What the evidence shows

Where this connects