Private shrine to Aten & Akhenaten

Spring 2007

REL 607
Ancient Religious Rhetoric

Thursdays 12:30-3:15 p.m. in HL 504
Instructor: JIM WATTS (Ph.D.)
Office: 505 HL 
Phone: 443-5713 
E-mail: click here


The purpose of this course is to introduce rhetoric as an analytical tool for studying religion, introduce religious discourse as a distinctive form of and problem for the study of rhetoric, and introduce ancient Near Eastern literature as a resource for the study of both comparative rhetoric and religion.

Ancient Near Eastern texts offer abundant material for studying comparative religious rhetoric. These works from Egypt, Mesopotamia, Syria and Israel often invoke religious ideas for overtly persuasive goals. Yet their various physical and literary forms illustrate the complicated roles played by texts in ancient cultures, while their distinctive rhetorical forms relativize and contextualize the history of Greco-Roman rhetorical theories.

This seminar will train students to:

  1. interpret ancient Near Eastern texts in translation with sensitivity to their original cultural contexts, their religious roles, and the conditions of their preservation and publication in modernity;
  2. analyze the rhetoric of ancient texts to understand their persuasive effects on ancient and contemporary audiences;
  3. evaluate claims for the distinctiveness of religious rhetoric(s) in comparison with other forms of social discourse.

Course Requirements:
Students are expected to be prepared to discuss in class all the required readings (listed below under Sources and Analysis).  In addition, each student will (1) prepare and present a report on one additional book or set of essays (listed after Report), and (2) write a substantive and original research paper on a subject related to the course topic, presenting the class with a summary during the last class meeting. (The finished research papers are due on or before May 7th.) Late papers and reports will not be eligible for "A" grades.

Required Texts:

  • Burke, Kenneth. A Rhetoric of Motives. Berkeley: U. of California, 1969 [1950].
  • Carr, David M. Writing on the Tablet of the Heart: Origins of Scripture and Literature. New York: Oxford, 2005.
  • Kennedy, George A. Comparative Rhetoric: An Historical and Cross-Cultural Introduction. New York: Oxford, 1998.
  • Lipson, Carol and Roberta Binkley (eds.). Rhetoric Before and Beyond the Greeks. Albany: SUNY Press, 2004 (= RBBG below).
  • Snell, Daniel C. Life in the Ancient Neat East. New Haven: Yale, 1997.
  • Recommended: New Oxford Annotated Bible = New Revised Standard Version (Oxford) or the New Jewish Study Bible = Tanakh - New Jewish Publication Society Version (Oxford).

All students are required to read Snell before the first class meeting. The source material, as well as additional readings in rhetorical theory and analysis, will be available on-line or in class readers. For a full list of resources relevant to the topic of this course, consult the Bibliography below. 


Topics and Readings (for full citations, see bibliography below; underlined sources are online; all other sources except biblical texts are in the course reader; analysis readings not found in the required texts are also in the course reader):
Day Topic Texts:
Jan 18 Introductions
in Spector Room, 6th floor, Bird Libr
Snell, Life in the Ancient Near East (all)
Ancient Rhetorical Settings
Jan 25 Instruction & Persuasion

Sources: Ptah-hotep, Satire on the Trades, Eloquent Peasant, court cases (Egyptian)
Debate between Sheep & Grain (other Sumerian debates)
Gilgamesh and Akka (Sumerian)
Genesis 18; Exodus 32; Judges 9; 1 Samuel 8; Proverbs 15-16 (Hebrew)
Aristotle, Rhetoric 1.1-3, 2.1 (Greek)
Analysis: - Fox, “Ancient Egyptian Rhetoric.
- Hallo, "The Birth of Rhetoric." RBBG 25-46
- Wills, “Speaking Arenas of Ancient Mesopotamia.”
- Sweeney, “Law, Rhetoric, and Gender in Ramesside Egypt,” RBBG 99-113
- Zulick, “The Active Force of Hearing: The Ancient Hebrew Language of Persuasion.”

Feb 1 Persuasion & Religion

Sources: Debate between a Man and his Ba (Egyptian)
Babylonian Theodicy [scroll down] (Akkadian)
Job 1-7, 38-42; Proverbs 7-8 (Hebrew)
Plato, Republic 2.364-366; Laws 10.884-888d [scroll to end] (Greek)
Analysis: Kennedy, Comparative Rhetoric, prologue & chaps. 1, 2, 4, 6

Divine Rhetoric
Feb 8 The Divine Audience:
Spells & Curses

Sources: magic spells, omen lists (Akkadian)
Pyramid Texts, Book of the Dead
[scroll down] (Egyptian)
Deuteronomy 28 (Hebrew)
Analysis: - Thomas, Literacy and Orality 74-100.
- Burke, Rhetoric of Motives xiii-xv, 19-46
Report on Thomas, Literacy and Orality in Ancient Greece

Feb 15 The Divine Rhetor:
Prophecy & Law

Sources: Mari letters, Neo-Assyrian prophecies (Akkadian)
Exodus 19-24, Jeremiah 2, 7, 36 (Hebrew)
Analysis: - Carr, Writing on the Tablet of the Heart 3-61
- Burke, Rhetoric of Motives 49-78, 90-142, 174-80
Report on Patrick, Rhetoric of Revelation

Feb 22 The Divine Audience:
Hymns & Prayers

Sources: Osiris, Aten, Hymns to Sesostris III, Amun-Re (Egyptian)
Exaltation of Inanna, Lament over Ur (Sumerian), Neo-Assyrian prayers, Neo-Babylonian lament, prayers to personal gods (Akkadian)
Psalms 6, 11, 18, 46-49; Isaiah 38; Qumran Hymns (Hebrew)
Analysis: - “The Rhetoric of Origins and the Other: Reading the Ancient Figure of Enheduanna,” RBBG 47-63
- Newsom “Kenneth Burke Meets the Teacher of Righteousness" [scroll down]
- Burke, Rhetoric of Motives 183-97, 208-12, 252-333
Report
on Burke, Rhetoric of Religion

Rhetorical Texts & Theories
Mar 1 Problem of Persuasive Texts: Letters

Sources: Personal correspondence (Sumerian, Egyptian), Royal correspondence (Sumerian, Egyptian), Letters to the dead (Egyptian), Letters to gods (Sumerian, Egyptian)
Analysis: - Poster, "Economy of Letter Writing" [scroll to end]
- Lipson, “Ancient Egyptian Rhetoric: It All Comes Down to Maat,” RBBG
- Carr, Writing on the Tablet of the Heart 63-109
Report on Jean Bottéro, et al. Ancestor of the West

Mar 8 Problem of Persuasive Texts: Inscriptions

Sources: Kadesh Inscription of Ramses, Merneptah Stela, Piye Stela (Egyptian), Sargon, Rim-Sin, Hammurapi, Iahdun-Lim, Shamshi-Ilu, Sennacherib (Akkadian), Mesha Inscription (Moabite), Azatiwada, Yehawmilk (Phoenician)
Analysis: - Judge, “The Rhetoric of Inscriptions
- Hoskisson & Boswell, “Neo-Assyrian Rhetoric: The Example of the Third Campaign of Sennacherib (704-681 BC),” RBBG 65-78
- Carr, Writing on the Tablet of the Heart 111-73
Report on Jost & Olmstead, Rhetorical Invention & Religious Inquiry

Mar 22 Problem of Persuasive Texts: Rituals

Sources: Installation Ritual from Emar (Akkadian), Daily Ritual of Amun-Re (Egyptian), Rites of Vintage (Ugaritic), Marseilles Tariff (Punic)
Instructions to Priests and Temple Officials (Hittite)
Leviticus 1, 6, 9-10, 16 (Hebrew)
Analysis:
- Watts, “Ritual Rhetoric in ANE Texts
- Swearingen, “Song to Speech: The Origins of Early Epitaphia in Ancient Near Eastern Women’s Lamentations,” RBBG 213-25
- Carr, Writing on the Tablet of the Heart 177-214
Report on Schüssler Fiorenza, Rhetoric and Ethic

Spoken & Written Rhetoric
Mar 29

Literacy & orality:
Myths & Epics

Sources: Gilgamesh, Enuma Elish, Tukulti-Ninurta [scroll to bottom] (Akkadian)
Kirta [scroll down] (Ugaritic)
Shipwrecked Sailor, Horus & Seth (Egyptian)
Analysis: - Baines, "Interpreting the Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor"
Report on Ong, Orality and Literacy
Due: Paper topics and texts

Apr 5

Literacy & orality:
Stories & Histories

Sources: Sinuhe (Egyptian)
Babylonian king lists and chronicles (Akkadian)
Numbers 1, 13-14; 2 Samuel 11-24, 2 Kings 16-17, 1 Chronicles 10 (Hebrew)
Analysis: - Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature 1:1-12
- Lorton, "Reading the Story of Sinuhe"
- Metzger, “Pentateuchal Rhetoric and the Voice of the Aaronides,” RBBG 165-81
- Duke, "The Strategic Use of the Enthymeme"
Report on Bakhtin, Dialogic Imagination

Legacies in Rhetoric & Religion
Apr 12 Heritage of Ancient Near Eastern Rhetoric Sources: Deuteronomy 5-6, 31; Nehemiah 8-9 (Hebrew)
Analysis: - Watts, “Story-List-Sanction: A Cross-Cultural Strategy of Ancient Persuasian,” RBBG 197-212
- Enos, “The Art of Rhetoric at Rhodes: An Eastern Rival to the Athenian Representation of Classical Rhetoric,” RBBG 183-96
Due: Paper thesis, bibliography and outline
Apr 19 Rhetoric of Scripture

Sources: Genesis 1-3, Judges 4-5, Proverbs 31 (Hebrew)
Analysis: - Kugel, The Bible As It Was, 1-82
- Trible, God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality, 72-143
- Carr, Writing on the Tablet of the Heart 241-97

Apr 26
1-5 p
Paper presentations  
May 7 Research Papers Due  

Course Bibliography: Primary Texts, Ancient Rhetoric, Comparative Rhetoric, Theories
(starred * items are on reserve in Bird Library)

Ancient Near Eastern Texts in Translation (grouped by culture) :

  • * Hallo, W. W. and K. L. Younger, Jr., eds. The Context of Scripture: Canonical Compositions, Monumental Inscriptions, and Archival Documents from the Biblical World. 3 vols. Leiden: Brill, 1997, 2000, 2002.
  • Jacobsen, Thorkild. The Harps that once ...: Sumerian poetry in translation. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987.
  • Vanstiphout, Herman. Epics of Sumerian Kings: The Matter of Aratta. SBL Writings from the Ancient World 20. Atlanta: SBL, 2003.
  • Black, Jeremy, Graham Cunningham, Eleanor Robson, and Gábor Zólyomi, The Literature of Ancient Sumer. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
  • ONLINE: The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
  • Foster, Benjamin R. Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature. 2 vols. Bethesda, MD: CDL Press, 1993.
  • * Foster, Benjamin R. From Distant Days: Myths, Tales and Poetry of Ancient Mesopotamia. Bethesda, MD: CDL Press, 1995.
  • Roth, Martha T. Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. SBL Writings from the Ancient World 6. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995.
  • Nissinen, Martti. Prophets and Prophecy in the Ancient Near East. SBL Writings from the Ancient World 12. Atlanta: SBL, 2003.
  • Michalowski, Piotr. Letters from Early Mesopotamia. SBL Writings from the Ancient World 3. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1993.
  • Bryce, Trevor. Letters of the Great Kings of the Ancient Near East: the Royal Correspondence of the Late Bronze Age. London/New York: Routledge, 2003.
  • Luukko, Mikko and Greta van Buylaere. The Political Correspondence of Esarhaddon. State Archives of Assyria XVI. Helskinki: Helsinki University Press, 2002.
  • Beckman, Gary. Hittite Diplomatic Texts. SBL Writings from the Ancient World 7. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1996.
  • Hoffner, Harry A., Jr. Hittite Myths. SBL Writings from the Ancient World 2. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990.
  • Singer, Ithamar. Hittite Prayers. SBL Writings from the Ancient World 11. Atlanta: SBL, 2002.
  • Parker, Simon B. Ugaritic Narrative Poetry. SBL Writings from the Ancient World 9. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1997.
  • Pardee, Simon. Ritual and Cult at Ugarit. SBL Writings from the Ancient World 10. Atlanta: SBL, 2002.
  • * Lichtheim, Miriam. Ancient Egyptian Literature. 3 vols. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973, 1976, 1980.
  • Foster, John L. Ancient Egyptian Literature: An Anthology. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001.
  • Foster, John L. Hymns, Prayers and Songs: An Anthology of Ancient Egyptian Lyric Poetry. SBL Writings from the Ancient World 8. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995.
  • Murnane, William J. Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt. SBL Writings from the Ancient World 5. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995.
  • Wente, Edward. Letters from Ancient Egypt. SBL Writings from the Ancient World 1. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990.
  • Moran, William L. The Amarna Letters. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.
  • ONLINE: Ancient Egyptian texts and papyri
  • Lindenberger, James M. Ancient Aramaic and Hebrew Letters. 2nd. ed. SBL Writings from the Ancient World 14. Atlanta: SBL, 2003.
  • ONLINE: Ecanon (Bible)
  • ONLINE: Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions (Persian)
  • ONLINE: Perseus Digital Library (Greco-Roman)
  • Charlesworth, James H., ed. The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. 2 vols. Garden City: Doubleday, 1983.
  • Kugel, James L. The Bible As It Was. Cambridge: Belknap, 1997.

Studies of Ancient Rhetoric (alphabetical):

  • Brown, Peter R. L. Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity: Towards a Christian Empire. Madison, WI: U. of Wisconsin Press, 1992.
  • Binkley, Roberta A. “The Rhetoric of Origins and the Other: Reading the Ancient Figure of Enheduanna,” RBBG 47-63.
  • Dozeman, Thomas B. “OT Rhetorical Criticism.” Anchor Bible Dictionary. Ed. D. N. Freedman. New York: Doubleday, 1992. 5:712-15.
  • Duke, Rodney K. The Persuasive Appeal of the Chronicler. A Rhetorical Analysis. Journal for the study of the Old Testament. Supplement series 88. Sheffield: Almond, 1990.
  • Duke, Rodney K. "The Strategic Use of the Enthymeme and Example in the Argumentation of the Book of Chronicles." In Rhetorical Argumentation in Biblical Texts, ed. A. Eriksson, T. H. Olbricht, and W. Ubelacker. Harrisburg: Trinity, 2002. 127-140.
  • Enos, Richard Leo. “The Art of Rhetoric at Rhodes: An Eastern Rival to the Athenian Representation of Classical Rhetoric,” RBBG 183-96.
  • Fox, Michael V. “Ancient Egyptian Rhetoric.” Rhetorica 1 (1983) 9-22.
  • Gitay, Y. Prophecy and Persuasion: A Study of Isaiah 40-48. Bonn: Linguistica Biblica, 1981.
  • Hallo, William H. "The Birth of Rhetoric." RBBG 24-46.
  • Hess, Richard S. “Smitten Ants Bite Back: Rhetorical Forms in the Amarna Correspondence from Shechem.” Verse in Ancient Near Eastern Prose. Ed. J. C. de Moor and W. G. E. Watson. Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1993. 95-111
  • Hoskisson, Paul Y. and and Grant M. Boswell, “Neo-Assyrian Rhetoric: The Example of the Third Campaign of Sennacherib (704-681 BC),” RBBG 65-78.
  • Howard, D. M. “Rhetorical Criticism in Biblical Studies.” Bulletin for Biblical Research 4 (1994) 87-104.
  • Hutto, David. "Ancient Egyptian Rhetoric in the Old and Middle Kingdoms." Rhetorica 20/3 (2002) 213-33.
  • Judge, Edwin A. “The Rhetoric of Inscriptions.” Handbook of Classical Rhetoric in the Hellenistic Period, 330 B.C. – A.D. 400. Ed. S. E. Porter. Leiden: Brill, 1997. 808.
  • Lenchak, Timothy A. "Choose Life!": A Rhetorical-Critical Investigation of Deuteronomy 28,69-30,20. Analecta Biblica 129. Rome: Pontificio Instituto Biblico, 1993.
  • Lipson, Carol S. “Ancient Egyptian Rhetoric: It All Comes Down to Maat,” RBBG 79-97.
  • Metzger, David. “Pentateuchal Rhetoric and the Voice of the Aaronides,” RBBG 165-81.
  • Moran, William L. “UET 6, 402: Persuasion in the Plain Style.” Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Studies 22 (1993) 113-120.
  • Newsom, Carol A. “Kenneth Burke Meets the Teacher of Righteousness: Rhetorical Strategies in the Hodayot and the Serek Ha-Yahad.” In H. W. Attridge, J, J. Collins, and T. H. Tobin, S.J. (eds.), Of Scribes and Scrolls: Studies on the Hebrew Bible, Intertestamental Judaism, and Christian Origins presented to John Strugnell. College Theology Society Resources in Religion 5. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1990. Pp. 121-131.
  • O’Connor, M. “The Rhetoric of the Kilamuwa Inscription.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 226 (April 1977) 15-29.
  • Patrick, Dale and Allan Scult. Rhetoric and Biblical Interpretation. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement 82. Sheffield: Almond, 1990.
  • Patrick, Dale. The Rhetoric of Revelation in the Hebrew Bible. Overtures to Biblical Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1999.
  • Poster, Carol. "The Economy of Letter Writing in Graeco-Roman Antiquity." In Rhetorical Argumentation in Biblical Texts, ed. A. Eriksson, T. H. Olbricht, and W. Ubelacker. Harrisburg: Trinity, 2002. 112-124.
  • Redford, Donald. “Scribe and Speaker.” In Ehud ben Zvi and Michael H. Floyd [eds.], Writings and Speech in Israelite and Ancient Near Eastern Prophecy. SBL Symposium. Atlanta: SBL, 2000. 145-218.
  • Renz, Thomas. The Rhetorical Function of the Book of Ezekiel. Leiden: Brill, 1999.
  • Romilly, J. de. Magic and Rhetoric in Ancient Greece. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1975.
  • Schniedewind, William H. “Orality and Literacy in Ancient Israel.” Religious Studies Review 26/4 (2000) 327-32.
  • Swearingen, C. Jan. “Song to Speech: The Origins of Early Epitaphia in Ancient Near Eastern Women’s Lamentations,” RBBG 213-25.
  • Sweeney, Deborah. “Law, Rhetoric, and Gender in Ramesside Egypt,” RBBG 99-113.
  • Thomas, Rosalind. Literacy and Orality in Ancient Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
  • Trible, Phyllis. God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality. Overtures to Biblical Theology Series. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1978.
  • Trible, Phyllis. Rhetorical Criticism: Context, Method and the Book of Jonah. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1994.
  • Watts, James W. Reading Law: The Rhetorical Shaping of the Pentateuch. Biblical Seminar 59. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999.
  • Watts, James W. “Ritual Rhetoric in Ancient Near Eastern Texts,” forthcoming.
  • Watts, James W. “Ritual Rhetoric in the Pentateuch: The Case of Leviticus 1-16,” in Colloquium Biblicaum Lovaniense 2006: Leviticus and Numbers, ed. Thomas Römer, Beitrage zum Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses, Leuven: Peeters, forthcoming.
  • Watts, “Story-List-Sanction: A Cross-Cultural Strategy of Ancient Persuasian,” RBBG 197-212.
  • Wills, John. “Speaking Arenas of Ancient Mesopotamia.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 56 (1970) 398-405.
  • Zulick, Margaret D. “The Active Force of Hearing: The Ancient Hebrew Language of Persuasion.” Rhetorica 10 (1992) 367-80.

Comparative Rhetoric:

  • Kennedy, George A. Comparative Rhetoric: An Historical and Cross-Cultural Introduction. New York: Oxford, 1998.
  • Lipson, Carol and Roberta Binkley (eds.). Rhetoric Before and Beyond the Greeks. Albany: SUNY Press, 2004.

Theories of Rhetoric and Religion:

  • Aristotle. Rhetoric. Translated by J. H. Freese. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1926.
  • Bakhtin, Mikhail M. The Dialogic Imagination. Ed. M. Holquist. Austin: U. of Texas, 1981.
  • Burke, Kenneth. A Rhetoric of Motives. Berkeley: U. of California, 1969 [1950].
  • Burke, Kenneth. The Rhetoric of Religion: Studies in Logology. Berkeley: U. of California, 1970 [1961].
  • Combrink, H.J. Bernard. “The Rhetoric of Sacred Scripture.” In S.E. Porter and T.H. Olbricht (eds.), Rhetoric, Scripture and Theology (JSNTS 131; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996), pp. 102-123.
  • Jost, Walter and Wendy Olmstead (eds.). Rhetorical Invention and Religious Inquiry. New Haven: Yale, 2000.
  • Kennedy, George A. Classical Rhetoric and its Christian and Secular Tradition from Ancient to Modern Times. Chapel Hill, NC: U. of North Carolina Press, 1999.
  • O'Banion, John D. Reorienting Rhetoric: the Dialectic of List and Story. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1992.
  • Ong, Walter J. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. London: Methuen, 1982.
  • de Romilly, Jacqueline. Magic and Rhetoric in Ancient Greece. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1975.
  • Schüssler Fiorenza, Elisabeth. Rhetoric and Ethic: The Politics of Biblical Studies. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1999.

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