![]() Shamash’s attendant, or as ‘the minister of (Shamash’s) right hand.’ Depictions of Shamash show him holding a ring of coiled rope and a rod, objects ascribed to surveyors and therefore, when linked to rulership, denoting the act of setting things right. One or both of these deities was described as ‘seated before Shamash’, i.e. Kittu was often invoked together with the god Misharu (‘Justice’). Truth or Right was personified and deified as the god Kittu (‘Truth’, ‘Right’ from the Akkadian root kanu. In Mesopotamia the preservation of truth and justice was considered to be the particular domain of the sun god Shamash. The West Semitic god Zedek apparently corresponds to the deity known as Kittu in the Babylonian pantheon and as Isar in the Amorite pantheon. Found in Sippar (Tell Abu Habbah), in Ancient Babylonia it dates from the 9th century BC and shows the sun god Shamash on the throne, in front of the Babylonian king Nabu-apla-iddina (888-855 BC) Who was Zedek? In what other ways was he known? Relief image on the Tablet of Shamash, British Library room 55. Sadeq is used in a statutory or legislative sense (2 Samuel 15:4), an act of speech where judgment is issued (Deuteronomy 25:1), a punitive sense (Isaiah 50:8) and redemptive function as well (Daniel 12:3, Genesis 44:16). ![]() It is used in the sense of having a just cause (Job 9:15), being justified (Job 11:2, Isaiah 43:9), or being just in general (Psalm 51:4, Job 10:15). The verb zedek happens to be in several locations in the Old Testament. The verb צדק ( sadeq) means to be just or righteous, which is a term that comes from the Phoenician god Zedek. Deuteronomy 16:18 gives the command to appoint judges to execute mishpat tzedek, righteous judgment. The name of the god Zedek is not attested directly elsewhere in the biblical text, but indirect evidence is found from other sources, specifically the Amorite and Babylonian pantheons, and in the names of West Semitic peoples. Philo, who claimed to get his information from the Phoenician writer Sanchuniaton, noted that the Phoenicians numbered among their gods “Misor and Sydyk, that is, ‘Easy to loosen’ and ‘Righteous’ ( Misor kai Sydyk, toutestin eulyton kai dikaion) they invented the use of salt.” (Quoted by Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica i.10.13 instead of Sydyk, some manuscripts have Sydek or Sedek.) 1 Evidence for this deity in the biblical text is persuasive, and perhaps the most conclusive is a statement by Philo of Byblos (64-141 CE) that the Phoenicians had a god named Sydyk, i.e. The pagan god Zedek may be related with the Amorite deity known as Isar, or the Babylonian deity Kittu, and thus a hypostasis or underlying substance, or the personification of the sun god Shamash’s function as the divine overseer of justice. At times these neighboring gods became synomyms for Yahweh, and at other times these gods were used to describe God, his power, or some other way of understanding God according to the manner of their speaking. ![]() Sometimes the qualities or characteristics of other gods of Israel’s neighbors became repackaged into actual attributes of their God Yahweh. In short, the writers, prophets, and poets that assembled the record of the Old Testament recontextualized the gods of their neighbors to teach truth about God as they understood him. Over time, the Semitic deity Zedek became an attribute of the God of the Israelites, and a root of one of the names of the heroes of the Old Testament, Melchizedek, for which the Melchizedek priesthood is named after. What is an ancient pagan god of the Near East doing in the Bible? Why is he in here? The term “zedek” is found throughout the various writings of the Old Testament. The West Semitic deity Zedek, ‘Righteousness’, is found in the Old and New Testament in the personal names Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18 Hebrews 5:6 6:20-7:17) and Adonizedek (Joshua 10:1), both Canaanite kings of pre-Israelite Jerusalem.
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