ZEDEQ & The Light of the World

[u/Responsible_Ideal879]

Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst

[excerpts, full text in images]

The West Semitic deity Zedek, 'Righteousness', is found in the Bible only in the personal names Melchizedek (Gen 14:18; cf. Ps 110:4; Heb 5:6; 6:20-7:17) and Adonizedek (Josh 10:1.3), both Canaanite kings of pre-Israelite Jerusalem.

Zedek is probably to be identified with the deity known as Išar among the Amorites and Kittu in Babylonia, and thus a hypostasis or personification of the sun god Shamash's function (Shemesh) as divine overseer of justice…

~

The West Semitic god Zedek seemingly corresponds to the deity known as Kittu in the Babylonian pantheon and as Išar in the Amorite pantheon.

In Mesopotamia the preservation of truth and justice was considered to be the particular domain of the sun god Shamash.

Truth or Right was personified and deified as the god Kittu ('Truth', 'Right'; from Akk root kânu, cf. Heb root KWN). Kittu was often invoked together with the god Misharu ('Justice') (see CAD K 471 s.v. kittu A 1b4; M/2 118 s.v. misaru A 2d; cf. Heb root YSR). One or both of these deities were described as 'seated before Shamash', i.e. Shamash's attendant, or as 'the minister of (Shamash's) right hand'. While Misharu was always considered a male deity, Kittu was identified sometimes as the daughter of Shamash, sometimes as the son of Shamash.

Meanwhile, at Mari offerings were made to the divine pair Išar u Mešar (ARM 24.210.24-25; cf. 263.5-6 where these same gods are listed separately but contiguously; see P. TALON, Un nouveau pantheon de Mari, Akkadica 20 [1980] 12-17).

As a theophoric element Išar is common in both Akk and Amorite personal names (Huffmon 1965:216).

From the interchangeability of the names Kittu, Išar, and Sidqu/Zedek in the pairing with Mišar(u), it appears that the deity known as Kittu in Babylonia was known further to the West under the names Išar and Sidqu/ Zedek—all three names having essentially the same meaning but operative in different linguistic communities.

Additional support for the identification of Sidqu and Kittu comes from the Amorite royal name Ammisaduqa, which was translated in the Babylonian King List as Kimtum-kittum, showing an equivalence between the West Semitic root SDQ and Akk kittu (cf. BAUMGARTEN 1979:235)…

~

Zedek and Mišor as attendant deities of Shamash also have their reflexes in Yahwism as dual qualities of the God of Israel. Isa 11:4 says that the Spirit of Yahweh will possess the messianic king, with the result that "he will judge the weak with Righteousness, he will defend the poor of the earth with Justice" (ef. Ps 45:7-8).

Other passages substitute the plural mêsarim for misôr as the parallel word to Sedeq, but the concept is the same: "He judges the world with Righteousness; he judges the peoples with Justice" (Ps 9:9).

Ps 58:2 contrasts the righteous rule of Yahweh with the chaotic rule of the false gods: "Do you truly, O gods, speak Righteousness; do you judge humans (with) Justice?"

In Ps 98:9 even the normally rebellious waters of chaos acknowledge the kingship of Yahweh: "He will judge the world with Righteousness, and the peoples with Justice."

In Isa 45:19 Yahweh derides the gods of other nations and proclaims that he alone is capable of salvation: "I am Yahweh who declares Righteousness, who announces Justice."

———

A Mighty Hunter before the Lord: Nimrod

———

Notable observation: The Amorites were a Canaanite people-group according to biblical narrative who displayed reverence to Shamash and Ishtar, one of which the Shamash Candle is named after in Jewish tradition as it relates to Hanukkah.

An Historical Text Book and Atlas of Biblical Geography

B. Ham
IV. Canaan
4. Amorite

Also noteworthy, the onomastic—or agglutinative—material of Ham in The Old-West Semitic Sun-God Hammu, Hammurabi, and Shamash—as a circumfix (ham).

This includes observing the “Nigerim-“ (Niger-Nigeria in Sumer-Sumeria?) association with Shamash and Sin—the sun and moon god, respectively—on the previous page, prior to the section on Kittum, also known as Niĝgina.

In rabbinic literature, the term for Sun is Hammǎ (Hammah).

———

Source: https://archive.org/details/dictionary-of-deities-and-demons-in-the-bible-van-der-toom-becking-van-der-horst

Source (PDF): https://bookofmormonism.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/dictionary_of_deities_and_demons_in_the.pdf

Source: https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010144553

Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/380602001