Texts in Conversation
Genesis's search for a bride shares Kirta's journey to ensure descendants, giving a servant's peaceful mission the role of a king's military campaign.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
KTU 1.14 III:39
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
the two messengers back to him:—'What need have I of silver and yellow-glittering gold; . . . . . . . . . . and perpetual slaves; a groom, horses, chariots, from the stables of the son of a handmaid? A possession that is not in my house you shall give! Give me Lady Hurraya, the fairest of the offspring of your firstborn; whose grace is like the grace of Anat, [whose] beau[ty] like the beauty of Athtart; whose eyeballs are the pureness of lapis, whose pup[ils] the gleam of garnet . . . [ ] . .— let me bask in the brightness of her eyes— whom in my dream El bestowed, in my vision the Father of Man (Adam). And let her bear offspring to Kirta, and a lad to the Servant of El.'"—
Genesis 24:4
Hebrew Bible
2 Abraham said to his servant, the senior one in his household who was in charge of everything he had, “Put your hand under my thigh 3 so that I may make you solemnly promise by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth: You must not acquire a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living. 4 You must go instead to my country and to my relatives to find a wife for my son Isaac.” 5 The servant asked him, “What if the woman is not willing to come back with me to this land? Must I then take your son back to the land from which you came?” 6 “Be careful never to take my son back there!” Abraham told him.
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Notes and References
“... The stories about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and his sons in
Genesis 12–50 have broad and specific correlations with the
Kirta and Aqhat tales from Ugarit dating to the fourteenth
century BCE [...] The biblical
and Ugaritic stories concern a father, portrayed as pious or
favored by the god(s), who lacks an heir or a wife. The deity
or deities promise the father that he will have offspring to
carry on the line, but this promise is compromised in some
manner. The challenge is remedied, although in some cases the
expected heir fails to qualify or does not survive to inherit, and
a younger or socially liminal (female in the Ugaritic texts)
family member either inherits or comes to the aid of the
father’s interests. [...] Within this framework of general correlations, the biblical
stories contain specific motifs similar to those found in the
Ugaritic tales. [...] travel to another city or region
to acquire a wife (Gen 24:1–67; KTU 1.14 ii 30–iii 44; iv 8–
1.15 i 8) [...] The overall range of similarities is such to allow for
positing a cultural affinity between the two bodies of
literature, especially given the geographical, linguistic, and
general chronological proximity of the biblical texts to Ugarit. ...”
Baden, Joel S., Jeffrey Stackert, and Christoph Berner (eds.)
The Oxford Handbook of the Pentateuch
(p. 729–730) Oxford University Press, 2021
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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