Dr. Claude Mariottini - Professor of Old Testament
This blog is a Christian perspective on the Old Testament and Current Events from Dr. Claude Mariottini, Professor of Old Testament at Northern Baptist Seminary.
Many people today have a stereotypical view of Jews when it comes to the matter of money. Most of these stereotypes about Jews and money reinforce anti-Semitic views and should be strongly condemned by all.
Rabbi Avi Shafran, writing for the Jewish World Review, has a good article about Jews and money and the secret of their economic success. He wrote that the Hebrew people, “at least the materially successful among us — [have] a keen awareness of the fact that even a small thing has value.”
To illustrate his point, he used as an example the patriarch Jacob and what the Talmud has to say about him. He wrote:
As the Talmud puts it, "Each and every penny contributes to a large sum" (Bava Basra, 9b).
As it happens, the Jewish ideal of valuing even the smallest thing goes beyond the realization that things add up. It is a recognition of the inherent value of every thing.
In mere weeks, Jews in synagogues the world over will read the Torah portion in which our forefather Jacob, after transporting his family and possessions across a river, took pains to cross back over again, endangering himself. The Talmud conveys a tradition that the reason Jacob returned was to retrieve some "small jars."
"From here we see," the Rabbis went on to explain, "that the possessions of the righteous are as dear to them as their bodies."
That comment is not counseling miserliness; Jacob is the forefather emblematic of the ideal of "truth" or honesty. What the Talmud is conveying, rather, is a quintessentially Jewish truth: Material things, no matter how seemingly "worthless," have worth.
The lessons we learn from Jacob’s life and Rabbi Shafran’s conclusion is worth pondering:
Possessions are tools, in their essence morally neutral; put to a holy purpose, they are sublime. And so, Judaism teaches, valuing a simple, small coin can be a sign not of avarice but of wisdom. And what is more — and even more important — just as small amounts of money can in fact be worth much, so can small acts of goodness.
Claude Mariottini Professor of Old Testament Northern Baptist Seminary
In a previous post on Jacob bowing seven times before Esau, I wrote:
When Jacob bowed before Esau, Jacob indirectly recognized him as a god. Jacob said: “To see your face is like seeing the face of God” (Genesis 33:10).
Thus, it is possible that the act of bowing seven times before a person in a superior position was to acknowledge that person as having the characteristics or the attributes of a god.
In that post I listed three examples from the Amarna Letters in which vassals of Pharaoh bow seven times and call him “my Sun-god” or “the Sun-god of the lands.” I then concluded: “Thus, bowing seven times before Pharaoh was an act that acknowledged him to be not only lord and king, but also a god.”
At the end of my post, I made the following statement:
It would be interesting to find out whether in other literature of the Ancient Near East the vassals bowed seven times before their overlords and called them gods.
In a recent post, Chip Hardy at Daily Hebrew has provided several Ugaritic epistolary examples that mention progressive bowing. According to Chip, “The Ugaritic examples provide additional evidence of the broader ‘Amorite’ practice.”
Chip wrote:
In a common Ugaritic epistolary formula, one finds a similar practice of the progressive genuflection in multiples of seven, demonstrating subservience from an inferior to a superior between non-royal, servant to master relations (see RS 29.093:8-10, l . pʿn . bʿlny’ ṯnỉd . šbʿd mrḥqtm . qlny "At the feet of our lord, we fall fourteen times at a distance"; also RS 19.102 and RS 92.2010), non-royal to royal personages (RS 9.479A:6-11, l . pʿn ʾadtyšbʿd w . šbʿʾid mrḥqtm qlt "At the feet of my lady, I fall at a distance seven times and seven times"), and between royal personages (an abbreviated formula is found in RS 11.872:5-6, l .pʿn . ủmy qlt "Before the feet of my mother, I fall"; also RS 16.379 et passim).
I want to thank Chip for this informative update that confirms my view that progressive bowing was also practiced in other societies of the Ancient Near East.
Claude Mariottini Professor of Old Testament Northern Baptist Seminary
During the meeting of the G-20 leaders in London, President Barack Obama bowed before King Abdullah, King of Saudi Arabia. In response to Obama’s gesture, King Abdullah did not bow back.
Obama’s act of prostration before the king of Saudi Arabia has caused moral outrage throughout the United Sates because Obama has broken a long-standing protocol that American presidents do not bow down to kings and queens.
In response to the furor raised by Obama’s bowing down before King Abdullah, the White House has released a statement declaring that President Obama did not bow down but was stooping down to shake both of the Saudi King’s hands.
The video below clearly shows Obama bowing before the king of Saudi Arabia.
After Jacob returned from serving Laban, he prepared to meet his brother Esau. When Jacob saw Esau coming to meet him and accompanied by 400 men, Jacob was afraid. So he divided his children according to their mothers. He put the servant wives and their children in front, then Leah and her children, and then Rachel and Joseph last. Jacob then went in front of his family to meet his brother. As Jacob came near Esau, Jacob bowed down to the ground seven times before his brother (Genesis 33:3).
Jacob’s act of submission to his brother is followed by his wives and children. Like Jacob, each wife and their children bowed down before Esau.
The servant wives and their children came to Esau and bowed down before him (Genesis 33:6). Then Leah and her children approached Esau and they also bowed down before him (v. 7a). Lastly, Rachel and her son Joseph came forward and they also bowed down before Esau (v. 7b).
Jacob’s decision to bow down to Esau reflects an ironic reversal of the blessing he received from his father: “Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you” (Genesis 27:29).
In the Old Testament, the act of bowing was the customary act of self-abasement performed by an individual before a person in a superior position. The Hebrew verb translated “bow down” can be translated “to prostrate oneself”; “to worship.” Bowing down was a gesture of respect before and act of submission to superiors, persons in authority, government officials, and God.
After Joseph became the governor over the land of Egypt, his brothers came before him and bowed themselves with their faces to the ground (Genesis 42:6).
When Abraham needed to buy a portion of the land in Canaan to bury his wife Sarah, Abraham bowed to the Hittites, the people of the land who lived in Hebron, as a sign of submission (Genesis 23:7).
Abraham also bowed before the Lord and his companions who visited him at Mamre (Genesis 18:2). Lot bowed down before two angelic visitors who came to him while he was living in Sodom (Genesis 19:1).
The act of bowing down or prostration in antiquity was a common act of submission of an inferior before a superior. One classical example was the image of Jehu bowing down in an act of submission to Shalmaneser III on the Black Obelisk.
Bowing seven times was a demonstration of reverence that was the customary act of homage a vassal offered to his overlord. According to Claus Westermann (Genesis 12-36 [Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1995]), Jacob greeted his brother as a vassal greeted his overlord with an act of reverence that had its origin in the royal court.
“The text describes an attestation of submission. The whole procedure with all its details is such as could take place between an overlord and his rebellious or otherwise culpable vassal. The narrator has in view some such court ritual as, for example, the Amarna letters show, with the oft-occuring formula, ‘I fall prostrate at the feet of my lord, seven and seven times’” (pp. 524-25).
I have selected three examples from the Amarna letters to show a vassal’s attitude of self-abasement before the king of Egypt. In these examples, the vassals show their submission to Pharaoh by bowing seven and seven times at the feet of the king.
Amarna Letter No. 244:
“To the king, my lord, and my Sun-god say: Thus Biridiya, the faithful servant of the king. At the two feet of the king, my lord, and my Sun-god, seven and seven times I fall.”
Amarna Letter No. 137:
“Rib-Addi spoke to the king, his lord, the Sun-god of the lands. Beneath the feet of the king, my lord, seven times, and seven times I fall.”
Amarna Letter No. 147:
“To the king, my lord, my pantheon, my Sun-god say: Thus Abimilki, thy servant. Seven and seven times I fall at the feet of the king, my lord.”
The expression “seven and seven times I fall at the feet of the king, my lord” is found more than fifty times in the Amarna letters.
Generally a single bow was sufficient to express great reverence. So, why did Jacob and the vassals of Pharaoh bow seven times?
It is possible to interpret the act of bowing seven times as a demonstration of complete submission to the overlord. However, I would like to suggest another possible reason why Pharaoh’s vassals bowed seven times before his feet.
In the three examples listed above, the vassals of Pharaoh call him “my Sun-god” or “the Sun-god of the lands.” Thus, bowing seven times before Pharaoh was an act that acknowledged him to be not only lord and king, but also a god.
It would be interesting to find out whether in other literature of the Ancient Near East the vassals bowed seven times before their overlords and called them gods. When Jacob bowed before Esau, Jacob indirectly recognized him as a god. Jacob said: “To see your face is like seeing the face of God” (Genesis 33:10).
Thus, it is possible that the act of bowing seven times before a person in a superior position was to acknowledge that person as having the characteristics or the attributes of a god.
It is clear that Obama bowed before the king of Saudi Arabia, and without intending to send a message to the world, his action implied that the inferior was bowing before the superior. I am just glad that Obama did not bow seven times.
Claude Mariottini Professor of Old Testament Northern Baptist Seminary
I have been professor of Old Testament at Northern Baptist Seminary since 1988. I was born in Brazil. I graduated from California Baptist College, Golden Gate Baptist Seminary, The Southern Baptist Seminary, and have done additional graduate work at the Graduate Theological Union. I have pastored churches in California, Kentucky, Missouri and Illinois.
I have published more than 150 articles and book reviews in English, Spanish, and Russian. My academic works have been published in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, The Mercer Dictionary of the Bible, The Holman Bible Dictionary, Jewish Bible Quarterly, Perspective in Religious Studies, Biblical Illustrator, Old Testament Abstracts, Catholic Biblical Quarterly, The Journal of Biblical Literature, and Biblical Archaeologist.
