William S. Morrow, Queen's Theological College
"To Set the Name" in the Deuteronomic Centralization Formula:
Assyrian Borrowing or Native Development?

Abstract:

A number of scholars derive the phrase lešakken šemô in the Deuteronomic (Dtn) centralization formula (e.g., Deut 12:11; 14:23; 16:2; 26:2) from the Akkadian idiom šuma(m) šakanu. The Dtn formula is certainly unusual, because the standard idiom for “setting the name” in West Semitic is sûm šem. A problem arises, however, with identifying possible routes of transmission. Various scholars believe that the well-attested Akkadian literacy of Bronze Age Canaan was a vehicle for the transmission of cuneiform texts to Iron Age Israel and Judah. But such a model needs to be abandoned on three grounds: archaeology, the politics of language usage, and the education of scribes in Late Bronze Age southern Canaan. Consequently, Akkadian influence on Deuteronomy must be limited to the Iron Age. But this poses a problem for a connection between the Akkadian and the Dtn phrases, as wide distribution of the idiom šuma(m) šakanu is not apparent from Neo-Assyrian monuments, the most likely source for such a borrowing. Two other considerations come to bear. First, the centralization formula is not used in ways that obviously recall Assyrian political instruments (unlike, e.g., the employment of the rhetoric of the Esarhaddon Vassal Treaties in Deuteronomy 13 & 28). Second, if the Assyrian background was so important, why was the idiom changed in secondary additions to the centralization layer (e.g., Deut 12:21; 14:24)? There is a case, therefore, for suggesting that the resemblance of the Dtn formula to the Akkadian idiom is accidental and that it was coined as a result of the engagement of the Dtn writer(s ) with native traditions. The paper will weigh the evidence for both Akkadian influence and inner-Israelite development and suggest which is the most likely.