Assignment Three Primary Sources for Assyria, Israel, and Persia

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Montclair State University *

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201

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Religion

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Oct 30, 2023

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docx

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1. Accounts of the Campaign of Sennacherib, King of the Assyrians, against the Kingdom of Judah, 701 BCE What do both accounts describe? How do events play out? Both accounts describe how Sennacherib sieged Judah and took over from Hezekiah. When Sennacherib takes over, he sends Hezekiah to prison. While in prison, he prayed to God for help and God sent an angel to destroy the Assyrians. Then Sennacherib’s son’s ending up killing him. What are the similarities between the Assyrian account and the Biblical account? The similarity between the Assyrian account and the Biblical account is that both talk about how Hezekiah gave silver, gold among other things to get him to leave Judah, which he did and both accounts describe that later, Sennacherib is killed by his sons. What are the differences between the Assyrian account and the Biblical account? The difference between the Assyrian account and the Biblical account is that according to Sennacherib, Hezekiah did not submit to him or wasn’t loyal which is the reason why he decided to invade Judah. But in the Biblical account it mentions that even though Hezekiah was loyal and faithful to Sennacherib, he still decided to invade Judah. Another difference between the accounts is the tone of the account. The first account sounds prideful and boastful. For example, “Himself I made a prisoner in Jerusalem, his royal residence, like a bird in a cage. I surrounded him with earthwork in order to molest those who were his city's gate.” Emphasis on “like a bird in a cage” and “I surrounded him” because with reading the whole account these two phrases come in as prideful and boasting about what he did. But with the Biblical account, it sounds informative, like there is no bias there. 2. Herodotus, On the customs of the Persians (circa 400s BC/E) What are the religious customs of the Persians? How might they differ from Greek Religion? One of the religious customs of the Persians was to not have any images nor altars of gods because they were considered “signs of folly”. Another one of their customs was to go to a mountain and offer

their sacrifices to the sun, wind, earth, fire and moon. They differ from Greek religion because they did not have temples or images of gods because they considered those to be foolish. The Persians did not believe the gods had “the same nature with men,” like the Greeks believed. How do the Persians view the world around them? How do they view other countries? Do they view them positively, negatively, or both? The Persians saw the world around them as examples and took ideas from them. He viewed countries as places to take custos from and adapt to them, which they did and quickly. The Persians took ideas from other countries and used them themselves. They could view them both negatively and positively because once they heard or saw something from any country, they would take it as their own. And sometimes that would result in a negative outcome because, for example, they learned from Greeks about lust, which in turn, came their many concubines and many wives. But also, positive because they also used the Egyptian breastplate. What practices do the Persians employ when coming to decisions? Why do you think they might employ such practices? A practice the Persians employ when coming to decisions is to decipher whether the person is lying or not because for the Persians, they believe that the worst thing someone can do is to lie. They also believe that after telling a lie, having debt is the next disgraceful thing. What Persian practices stand out for you and why? A Persian practice that stands out to me is where/how they kiss in order to determine each other’s ranks. For example, if two people kiss on the lips, they have the same rank, but if someone kisses someone on the cheek, it shows that they are a little inferior. And if someone is higher ranking, the person that is inferior must prostrate himself on the ground. This stood out for me because today, it could be said that rank is really the most important thing to most people when meeting someone. Another practice that stood out for me was when a mother has a child, they must stay with the child until they are 5 years old, the father can only see the child until 5 years old. The reason for that is so that if the child dies young, the father won’t be affected by the loss. This stood out to me because now, this sounds ridiculous. That only the mom has to suffer the pain of losing her child young and the father is spared.

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