Prof. Dr. Markus Saur

עבדות – cabdūt. Dependency in Ancient Israel and Judah

Forms of slavery and dependency are expressed in the Hebrew Bible by several words, most of them deriving from the verb cābad ("to serve"). The noun cabdūt for "slavery" or "dependency" can be found three times in the Hebrew Bible: While Ezra 9:8–9 reflects upon the dependency of the Judeans in the Achaemenid Empire, the use of cabdūt in Nehemiah 9:17 refers to the slavery of Israel's ancestors in Egypt. Both texts refer to the history of Israel and Judah as to a history of dependency.

An exemplary exposition of these dependencies can be found in the portrayal of King Solomon and the Solomon tradition. Solomon is introduced in 1 Kings 1–11 as successor of King David. The text highlights in particular Solomon's international relationships. In 1 Kings 5, the Phoenician king Hiram of Tyre is named as Solomon's trading partner; the report summarizes the complex dependency of Jerusalem, Judah and Israel on the economically and culturally superior Phoenician cities in the first millennium BCE.

Thus, the text points out in an exemplary way to what extent Israel and Judah are related to the cultures of the Ancient Near East. This can be seen beyond the depiction of Solomon also in the Solomon tradition: The Book of Proverbs, attributed to Solomon, delivers a form of wisdom, which corresponds to parts of wisdom traditions from the Ancient Near East. The Book of Qohelet, which contains implicit references to Solomon, is also part of a larger tradition of wisdom literature that can be compared, for example, to passages of the Akkadian epic of Gilgamesh. And the Song of Songs is associated with Solomon by its title and is part of a broad tradition of ancient oriental love poetry.

In the cluster project, the cultural dependencies between Israel and Judah and the Ancient Near East will be examined by the example of Solomon and the Solomon tradition with a special focus on the Book of Proverbs, Qohelet and the Song of Songs.

2007                        
Venia Docendi/Habilitation for Old Testament, University of Basel, Switzerland

2003                        
Dr. theol., University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany

2000–2002            
Doctoral studies, University of Heidelberg, Germany

1993–1999            
Undergraduate and graduate studies in Theology, Ancient History and Philosophy at the Universities of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Montpellier and Kiel, Germany and France

since 2017       
Professor for Exegesis and Theology of the Old Testament, University of Bonn, Germany

2009–2017            
Professor for Old Testament and Biblical-Oriental Languages, University of Kiel, Germany

2007–2009             
Lecturer for Biblical Hebrew, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany

2002–2007            
Assistant/Lecturer for Old Testament, University of Basel, Switzerland

2018                        
Senior Fellow at the Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg Greifswald

2000–2002            
Scholarship Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

1993–1999            
Scholarship Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes