The Rabshakeh in Late Biblical and Post-Biblical Tradition

The Rabshakeh in Late Biblical and Post-BiblicalTradition

STEPHEN D. RYAN

1. Introduction

In the year 408 a blind priest from Spain wrote to Saint Jerome seekingassistance in his struggle against sin. Jerome's response, Letter 76, re-fers to "slaying the Rabshakeh within". He assures the Spanish priestthat had the Rabshakeh been alive within him, he never would havethought to write for assistance.' This reference to the Rabshakeh, madeover 1000 years since he stood outside the walls of Jerusalem to ad-dress King Hezekiah in the year 701 (2 Kgs 18: 17,Isa 36: 2), is part of along tradition of allegorical and polemical reference to this Assyrianofficer, whose title means "Chief Cupbearer".'

The brief but fiery speeches attributed to this figure in the HebrewBible have received considerable attention in biblical scholarship. Thedaring nature of the Rabshakeh's words, which are never adequatelyanswered in the biblical text, and the fact that he spoke in Hebrew,have made him an intriguing but troubling character to generations ofexegetes. Jewish and Christian traditions understood the Rabshakeh tobe an apostate Israelite, thereby increasing the enormity of his crimes.Schooled by psalm titles, glosses, catenae, and commentaries, genera-tions of Christian readers learned to see hidden references to the Rab-shakeh throughout the Bible, particularly in the Psalter and the MinorProphets, and in almost any text referring to malicious speech.

Jerome, EpistuJa: "Quod autem precaris, ut nostris monitis Nabuchodonosor etRapsaces et Nabuzaradan et Olofernes in te occidantur, numquam nostra auxiliapostulares, si in te uiuerent" (epistula 76,3).

2 SPERLING, Rab-Shakeh.

184 STEPHEN D. RYAN

2. The Biblical Accounts

The Rabshakeh is first introduced in 2 Kgs 18:17 as one of three Assyr-ian officials sent by Sennacherib to Jerusalem. A parallel account of thestory in 2 Kgs 18-19 is given in Isa 36-37. In his first speech theRabshakeh claims to have been sent by the Lord to destroy Judea andJerusalem.' In the second speech he claims that Israel's God will be asimpotent in protecting Jerusalem as the pagan gods have been inprotecting their cities from the Assyrian juggernaut' The powerfulrhetoric of the Rabshakeh's speeches, their skillful critique of [udaeantheology and cunning attack on the theology of the Deuteronomisthave been discussed by PETER MACHINIST in a recent article in HebrewStudies. MACHINIST has shown that the speeches externalize an inner-[udaean critique of Hezekiah's policies, identifying the position ofHezekiah's critics with that of the hated Assyrian enemy.'

I shall argue that within the biblical and post-biblical texts a tra-jectory can be traced that reveals a concern to diminish the force ofthe Rabshakeh's words. For this reason I need to briefly discuss thehistorical layers of this text. Within the Kings account scholars haveidentified three sources: A, B, and B,6 Source A is short, only fourverses (2 Kgs 18:13-16). It gives a brief account of Sennacherib'sinvasion and Hezekiah's payment of tribute. Sources B, (2 Kgs 18:17-19: 9a, 36-37) and B, (2Kgs 19:9b-35) are much longer and have beenunderstood as parallel accounts of a single event. The Rabshakeh ismentioned by name only in B,. This source, the earlier of the two,mentions the Rabshakeh eight times and gives a full form of the Rab-shakeh's proclamation of Sennacherib's letter-address to Hezekiah'sofficials and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. In this source responses tothe Rabshakeh are all relatively brief.

3 2 Kg, 18'25' "M '" h.. .oreaver, IS it Wit out the LORD that I have come up against thisplace to destr~y It? TheLOR~ ~aid to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it."Unless ot,herWlse noted, all biblical translations are taken from the New Revised Stew-dard VerSIOn, occasionally with slight modificatio2 Kgs 18:35: "Who among 11th d f h ns". .

t f h a ego sot e countries have delivered their countnesau a my and, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?"MACHINIST,Rab Sageh I a t f I P f .

1· d f . . m gra e u to ro essor MACHINIST for his commen ts on anear ier ra t of this paper w .tt f dS . 2 K n en or a gra uate seminar at Harvard University.2O:gr~e:9~b_3g5: 18-

MI9:A - 2 Kgs 18:13-16; a, - 2 Kgs 18:17-19:9a, 36-37; 82-

. • see ACHINIST Rab Sag-h 154 156 f ..rhetorical cont t f th B I e -; or a recent discussion of theen 0 e j speech see RUDMAN,Rabshakeh.

4

5

6

The Rabshakeh in Late Biblical and Post-Biblical Tradition 185

In source B, the Rabshakeh is not mentioned by name, being re-placed by a more general reference to messengers of the King of Assyria.It has a much briefer account of the Rabshakeh's letter-address andexpands the Judaean response. As MACHINIST has shown, this accountin B, provides a more effective answer to the Rabshakeh's speeches,rejecting the Assyrian critique and reestablishing the legitimacy of theJudaean theology.' The dangerous rhetoric of the Rabshakeh has begunto receive a reply within the development of the biblical tradition.

While the parallel description of the above events found in Isa36-37 is nearly identical to the passage in 2 Kgs, the version in 2 Chr32:6- 23 represents a late harmonization of sources B, and B2• InChronicles, as in source B" the Rabshakeh is not mentioned by name:Sennacherib is said to speak through unnamed servants. The rhetoricalforce of his speech is severely curtailed and shortened from 15 to 6verses. In addition to military preparations, Hezekiah is said to haveassembled the people and "spoken to their hearts" (2 Chr 32:6). Thepresent function of the preparatory speech of Hezekiah in 2 Chr is toframe the searing blasphemies of the Rabshakeh's words with words ofcomfort and assurance. One final change to be noted is the Chronicler'sdescription of the results of the angelic intervention. Whereas in 2 Kgsthe text says that the angel of the Lord stuck down 185 000 in the campof the Assyrians, 2 Chr 32: 21 specifies that the angel cut off "all themighty warriors and commanders and officers in the camp of the kingof Assyria". The three officers named in 2 Kgs 18: 17 but omitted fromthe Chronicles account, that is, the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Rab-shakeh, are surely included in this group. The Chronicler thus solves aproblem left by the earlier account in Kings, which narrated the punish-ment of Sennacherib but had left the fate of the Rabshakeh unstated.2 Chr 32 witnesses to an inner-biblical attempt to deal with thetroubling words of the Rabshakeh preserved in 2 Kgs and Isaiah. TheChronicler has shortened and domesticated the fiery speeches and re-moved the person of the Rabshakeh from the narrative while at thesame time clearly indicating that his crimes were not left unpunished.

Four additional references to the blasphemies of either Sennacheribor the Rabshakeh are found in the books of Tobit, Sirach, 1 Mace, and3 Mace.

In singing the praises of Hezekiah, Sirach writes: "During his reignSennacherib led an invasion, and sent Rabshakeh (;'Ij?'O :11 / Prnlxrxnv):

7 MACHlNIST, Rab Saqeh 161£.

186 STEPHEN D. RYANThe Rabshakeh in Late Biblical and Post-Biblical Tradition 187

He shook his fist at Zion, and blasphemed God in his pride" (48: 18)"SKEHANand Dr LELLAunderstand the Rabshakeh to be the subject ofthe verbs "shook" and "blasphemed".' Sirach gives the Rabshakehmore prominence than he is given in the B2 and Chronicles accounts,where he is not named. At the same time Sirach silences the Rabshakehby not repeating his words, and rebukes him by characterizing hisspeech as blasphemy. .

Tob 1: 18 refers to King Sennacherib and his blasphemies very briefly:"I also buried any whom King Sennacherib put to death when he carnefleeing from Judea in those days of judgment that the king of heavenexecuted upon him because of his blasphemies." No mention is madeof the Rabshakeh. What is decisive for the author of Tobit is that KingSennacherib had been duly punished by the King of Heaven.

A second text, Tob 1:22, mentions a different Rabshakeh. Tobitidentifies his nephew Ahikar as arab saqeh (chief cupbearer) servingunder Sennacherib's son Essarhadon: "Now Ahikar was chief cup-bearer ("pili ~j),keeper of the signet, and in charge of administrationof the accounts under King Sennacherib of Assyria; so Esar-haddonreappointed him"." One wonders if the later Jewish tradition makingthe Rabshakeh of 2 Kgs an Israelite, something the Bible does not do, isin any way related to this account about Tobit's nephew, who is bothan Israelite and a Rabshakeh.

A brief reference to the invasion of Sennacherib is found in 1 Mace7:41: "When the messengers from the king spoke blasphemy, yourangel went out and struck down one hundred eighty-five thousand ofthe Assyrians." 3 Mace 6:5 contains a slightly longer reference:

Sennacherib exulting in his countless forces, oppressive king of the Assyr-ians, who had already gained control of the whole world by the spear andwas lifted up against your holy city, speaking grievous words with boast-ing and ~solence, you, 0 Lord, broke in pieces, showing your power tomany nations.

Neither reference mentions the Rabshakeh. The operative element inboth contexts is the divine defeat of the insolent enemy.

3. Post-Biblical Traditions

A Talmudic tradition recorded in b. Sanhedrin 60a suggests that theRabshakeh was not a native Assyrian but rather an apostate Israelite:

Rab Judah said that Samuel said: "He who hears the Divine Name blas-phemed by an idolater is not obliged to rend his clothes. But if you say,'What about the case of Rabshakeh?' He was an apostate Israelite." 11

The Targum to Qoh 10: 9 makes the Rabshakeh brother to the wickedKing Manasseh:

King Solomon the prophet said, "It was revealed before me that Manassehthe son of Hezekiah will sin and worship images ofstone. Therefore he willbe handed over to the power of the king of Assyria ... and Rabshakeh hisbrother will worship images of wood and forsake the words of the Torah. Therefore he will be burned with fire by means of the angel of the

Lord." 12

Other traditions make him the son of Isaiah himself, or his grandson.For example, manuscript M of Berakoth lOb reads:

Finally [Isaiah] gave [Hezekiah] his daughter [in marriage] and there is-sued from him Manasseh and Rabshakeh. One day he [Hezekiah] carriedthem on his shoulder to the Synagogue and one of them said, "Father'sbald head is good for breaking nuts on," while the other said, "It is goodfor roasting fish on." He thereupon threw them both on the ground andRabshakeh was killed, but not Manasseh."

HAyrM TADMOR has argued for an historical basis for the tradition thatthe Rabshakeh was an aposta teo According to TADMOR, of the threeAssyrian officials mentioned in 2 Kgs 18: 17 only two, the Tartan andthe Rabsaris are known to have performed military roles in the neo-Assyrian empire. He finds little evidence that the "Chief Cupbearer"regularly performed the kind of military role assigned to him in thebiblical account." To explain this apparent breach of protocol, that is,that the Rabshakeh does all the talking even though these otherofficials outrank him, TADMORsuggests it was the Rabshakeh's statusas an Israelite that qualified him to speak. The theory that he was anapostate Israelite would thus account for his knowledge of the Hebrewlanguage and of things Judaean and help to explain the apparentbreach of protocol. TADMOR'S argument is attractive but overlooksThis translation follows SKEHAN / 01 LELLA, Wisdom 538. The Hebrew text can be

found in BEENTjES, Book 86.SKEHAN / 01 LELLA, Wisdom 538. The Bibel ill gerectster Sprache interprets the text in~~:e~;.me way: "und Rabschake erhob seine Hand gegen Zion" {BAlLet al. [eds.],

10 4Q196 Fragment 2 reads: i1i?lV:Ji; for a convenient synopsis of the original texts seeWEEKS/GATHERCOLE/SruCKENBRUCK (eds.), Book 90f.

B

9

11 EPSTEIN, Edition, b. San 60a.12 Translated from SPERBER (ed.), Bible 165.13 EPSTEIN, Edition 55 n. 7.14 TADMOR, Rabshakeh.

188 STEPHEN D. RYAN

some neo-Assyrian texts in which chief cupbearers do appear to havefulfilled military and important administrative roles 15 Whether or notit has any historical basis, the jewish tradition that the Rabshakeh wasan apostate Israelite was well known in Christian sources, and to thesetexts we now turn.

3.1 The Rabshakeh as Apostate

Theodore of Mopsuestia records a tradition about the Rabshakeh'sjewish origins in his commentary on the Book of Psalms. In a discus-sion of the title of Ps 52, which is said to refer to the boastings andblasphemies of Sennacherib and the Rabshakeh, Theodore writes:"Such was the Rabshakeh, jewish by race but a convert by religion"."

The 9" century Syriaccommentator Ishodad ofMerv offers consider-ably more detailed speculation in his commentary on 2 Kgs 18: 17:

Rabshakeh was the son of Pekah, son of Remaliah; he became a pagan andworshipped the idols of the Assyrians, and the Assyrian made him head ofall his armies; this is the reason that he is called 'Rabshakeh', by whichis understood: chief of the royal offspring (saqe'), who themselves wereunder him; they are the satraps. But it is not, as others say, because he wastall and had long legs (saqa'). or because he was the chief butler (rabsaqawata'). This Rabshakeh had indeed promised the king to seize the citywithout a battle, for he was an expert in the stratagems of his own peopleas well as their languageY

Here Ishodad cites a different genealogy: the Rabshakeh is made to bethe son not of the judaean King Hezekiah (against whom he wouldlater be sent by Sennacherib) but of the Israelite monarch Pekah. Pekahis a plausible choice because an Israelite deportation to Assyria oc-curred during his reign (2Kgs 15: 29) and he had an evil reputation(2Kgs 15:28), thus making him a more fitting father for the Rabshakehthan King Hezekiah. Wemight also note Ishodad's punning etymolo-gIes of the Rabshakeh's name, in which he rejects several etymologies,among them the linguistically correct one, that of chief butler.

15 GELB sagu A in rab sag' it t ts i hi h h', 1, Cl es ex SIn W lC C ief cupbearers appear to direct troopsand o.verseeyrovinces. VAN DER KOOI], Heer 104 n. 77, discusses the rank of theAssyrian offlCl~lsand gives instances in Akkadian texts where the position of theRabshakeh vanes between second and third rank.

16 Theodore of Mopsuestia. Commentaire 342.17 lshodad of Merv, Commentaire Ill, 142f.

The Rabshakeh in Late Biblical and Post-Biblical Tradition 189

The tradition of the Israelite origin of the Rabshakeh was wide-spread in the Latin Fathers as well. Jerome, one of the earliest sourcesof this tradition in the Latin West, makes the following comment on Isa36:

The Rabshakeh, however, who spoke the Hebrew language, is said to bethe son of Isaiah the prophet and to have become a traitor, while thereremained to Isaiah another son called Yasub, which in our tongue means"remnant". Still others believe that he was a Samaritan, and thus he knewHebrew, and blasphemed the Lord so boldly and impiously."

Here Jerome gives yet another genealogy: the Rabshakeh is Isaiah'sown son. One possible origin of the tradition is the phrase in Isa 1:2,"Sons I have raised and brought up, but they have rebelled againstme." Another possible connection is that Isaiah and his son Shearja-shub are told in Isa 7: 3 to stand at a place outside of jerusalem desig-nated as "the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Fuller'sField." This is the identical spot on which the Rabshakeh stands to givehis infamous speeches against the walls of jerusalem (Isa 36:2) andthis place is mentioned only in these two instances and the parallel in2 Kgs.

3.2 Hidden References to the Rabshakeh in the Bible

Early Christian commentators found in the prophetic books ancillarymaterial for developing their notions concerning the character andmeaning of the Rabshakeh and his blasphemies. They brought to lightwhat might be called hidden references.

In his commentary on Isa 14: 32, a text which refers obscurely to ananswer being given to an unnamed "messenger of the nations", ("mes-senger" is plural in Hebrew but singular in Syriac) Ishodad of Mervfinds a reference to the Rabshakeh.

The messenger of the nations: Rabshakeh. This refers to his coming toJerusalem. Not as if this [the receiving of such an answer] occurred bymeans of [actual] speech, but rather it occurred in thought as the result ofthe actual events."

The language of this comment is cryptic but it is clear that Ishodadwants to find here the reply to the Rabshakeh that is lacking in the

18 Jerome, Commentaires 1182.19 Ishodad of Merv. Commentaire TV, 22.

190 STEPHEN D. RYAN

biblical text. He sees the Lord's destruction of the Assyrian army and

I 1I· f Jerusalem as the answer God provided to the Rab-the sa va on 0

h k h' d An answer that was conveyed in deeds, rather than bysaeswors.words. . . II

The Rabshakeh also served as a trigger for polernics agamst a the. d nemies of the Church In his Commentary on Isaiah theperceIve e .

monk Herveus of Bourg-Dieu writes:Rabshakeh, because he functions as a type for Jews a,nd h~retics as well as

gans speaks in the voice of all of these ... What 15 designated by Rab-pa, . dhPI.71shakeh if not the famed friendship of the senbes an t e 'iansees .... etus by Rabshakeh understand the Pharisees and the ~adducees and t.heleaders, in such a way that we also allow that name to include secondarilyother leaders of the adversaries of the church, i.e., the leaders of the hereticsand the gentiles."

This 12'h century monastic commentator gives us an indication of whythe Rabshakeh was so fascinating to Christian commentators. Thissingle figure was uniquely qualified to serve as a type of not only theapostate, but of the blasphemer, the heretic, and the pagan ruler aswell.

Christian readers found explicit mention of the Rabshakeh inpsalm titles in Greek, Syriac, Ethiopic, Latin, and Anglo-Saxon Biblesand in commentaries on the Book of Psalms. Theodoret of Cyrus, totake just one example, argues that Psalm 52 contains:

.. a prophecyof thefrenzyof the Rabshakeh,wholeft the company of theHebrews, thenwas takencaptive and learned theimpiety of the Assyrianswho had reducedhim to slavery; he used blasphemous words against God,and tried to cheat theJewish populace with deceptive speeches."

Several psalms were read as either prophecies of the future speech ofRabshakeh (he lived after King David, author of many of the Psalms),or as direct references to his earlier blasphemies. This is one of manyways in which classical biblical commentary linked unrelated biblicaltexts, thereby uniting the various narratives of the Bible into one coher-ent and cohesive narrative.

20 Herveus of Bourg-Dieu, Commentariorwn in Isaiam 336. On the author and hiscommentary see MEGIER, Converts 18-23.

21 Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary 1-72, 304.

The Rabshakeh in Late Biblical and Post-Biblical Tradition 191

3.3 On Not Responding to the Rabshakeh

Passages in the Prophets and Psalms interpreted as references or allu-sions to the Rabshakeh can also be understood as a way of answeringthe Rabshakeh, or at least of depriving him of the last word. Commen-tators suggested to readers of glossed Bibles that the Rabshakeh begrouped with the larger class of those who sin with their lips. Thebiblical text mentions that no response was given to the Rabshakeh'sblasphemies by order of Hezekiah himself (2 Kgs 19:36). But whywould Hezekiah give such an order? Would it not have been desirableto have someone rebuke this blasphemer and reassure those who hadbeen listening and had become terrified by his words? Patristic authorsprovided answers to questions such as these that might occur to read-ers of the biblical account. Jerome, for example, who borrows heavilyfrom Eusebius in his commentary on Isa 36, marshals a number ofbiblical texts to support Hezekiah's not responding to the Rabshakeh:

And all the people were silent and did not respond to him in any way, forindeed it was a command of the king that they not respond. Trulyjustifiedwas Hezekiah, who did all things faithfully, everything with counsel (d.Prov 13:10). Indeed for that reason he ordered that the blasphemies of theAssyrian not be responded to, so as not to provoke greater blasphemies.Hence it is written: "Kindle not the coals of sinners" (Sir 8:10 [13]);and inthe psalm we read: "When the sinner stood against me, I was dumb andhumbled and kept silencefrom good things" (Ps39:2-3); and again:"Setawatch, 0 Lord, over my mouth and a strong door in front of my lips;do notincline my heart to words of malice" (Ps 141:3_4).22

Here again the proper response of the wise person is silence, as Heze-kiah demonstrated and as the texts Jerome can cite from the psalmsand wisdom books confirm.

3.4 The Rabshakeh in Polemics and Preaching

Some of the earliest Patristic references to the Rabshakeh occur inpolemical contexts. Gregory Nazianzus suggests that the apostateemperor Julian imitates the Rabshakeh by relying not only on force ofarms but on deceptive blandishments as well." Cyril of Alexandriacompares the unbridled and intemperate speech of the Rabshakeh with

22 [ereome, Commentaires 1189.23 Gregory of Nazianzus, Contra [ulianum 648.

192 STEPHEN D. RYAN The Rabshakeh in Late Biblical and Post-BiblicalTradition 193

that of the heretics of his own day, among whom he includes Nesto-rius." Such use of the Rabshakeh's name continued well into moderntimes. An anonymous pamphlet published in London in 1691 wasentitled Rabshakeh Vapulans (Rabhsakeh Thrashed);" A similar workappeared four years later: Rabshakeh Rebuked, and His Railing Accusa-tions Refuted.26 Both pamphlets deal with confessional and politicalcontroversies in late seventeenth-century Britain.

In homiletic usage the Rabshakeh came to be seen as a symbol ofmoral evil. Bonaventure writes: "By the Rabshakeh. who was sent bythe King of the Assyrians to blaspheme God, is understood the badChristian, who is sent by a diabolical suggestion to commit sin, andthus blaspheme God."" Jerome's spurious etymology of the nameRabshakeh as "chief of kissing" or "abundant in kissing"." an etymolo-gy found in the Glossa Ordinaria to 2 Kgs 17, led later preachers suchas Gottfried of Admont (12'" century) to draw a connection betweenthe Rabshakeh and sexual excess. Gottfried explains: "The nameRabshakeh, which is interpreted as 'chief of kissing', or 'abundant inkissing', signifies - not inappropriately - the spirit of carnal desire." 29

In a model marriage sermon from the 13'" century, the Dominican friarGerard de Mailly compares the Rabshakeh to the Devil. He under-stands Hezekiah's command not to respond to the Rabshakeh (Isa36:21) to mean that a bride should not reply to the speeches or sugges-tions of the Devil, even if she cannot help but to hear them."

by editing. Continuing efforts in the same direction can be foundthroughout the Patristic material as well. The Rabshakeh's wordsare not transmitted but rather characterized as blasphemy and hispunishment, not mentioned explicitly in the biblical text, is alludedto more directly.

b. Secondly, Christian interpreters over the course of nearly twomillennia have found it a useful polemical tool to compare theiropponents with this notorious biblical blasphemer. In doing sothey could draw on one or more of the varied traditions associatedwith the Rabshakeh as they needed, painting their opponentseither as pagan idolaters, impious blasphemers, treacherous apos-tates, or more generally as doers and speakers of evil to whom Godhimself will give answer.

c. Finally, we have seen that the Rabshakeh, whose title begins to beused as a personal name already in the Bible, has entered into theChristian imagination. Finding references to this figure throughoutthe Bible helped Christian readers to relate diverse biblical texts tothe larger narrative of Scripture. When contemporary translationsrender the Hebrew words rab saqeh as "Chief Cupbearer", orwhen the Melchizedek ofPs 110 is replaced by "the King of Salem",readers are brought closer to the original text, which is clearly again, but are simultaneously removed from the rich interpretiveafterlife of the biblical text.

4. Conclusion

In the annotations to his translation of Theodore!' s Commentary onthe Psalms, the prodigious translator ROBERTC. HILL was repeatedlypuzzled by numerous references to the Rabshakeh. Hill was unable tofathom why this minor figure should have caught Theodoret's fancy,and ascribed it to a personal fascination.'! In this regard Theodoret wasnot being eccentric, but was rather heir to a long tradition of interpre-tation, a tradition with roots in the Bible itself.

This paper has studied the interpretive life of the Rabshakeh in Jewishand Christian sources. Three general conclusions from our survey ofthe biblical and post-biblical materials can be proposed:

a. The first is that already in the Hebrew Bible, as exemplified in theB2 account and in 2 Chr 32, there has been an attempt to removesome of the sting of the Rabshakeh's words, a type of diminution Bibliography

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Deuterocanonical andCognate Literature

Edited by

ri dricb V. Reiterer, Pancratius C. Beentjes,uria Calduch-Benages, Benjamin G. Wright

Walter de Gruyter . Berlin. New York

Yearbook 2008

Biblical Figures in Deuterocanonicaland Cognate Literature

Edited by

Hermann Lichtenberger

and Ulrike Mittmann-Richert

Walter de Gruyter . Berlin· New York