RBL 08/2009 Nissinen, Martti, and Risto Uro, eds. Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer University of Aberdeen Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom

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1 RBL 08/2009 Nissinen, Martti, and Risto Uro, eds. Sacred Marriages: The Divine-Human Sexual Metaphor from Sumer to Early Christianity Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, Pp. xii Hardcover. $ ISBN X. Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer University of Aberdeen Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom This collection of twenty essays, written by an international team of scholars, explores the various expressions that employ sexual symbolism to denote the relationship between humans and the divine as sexual and gendered. The term sacred marriage is defined as a real or symbolic union of two complementary entities, imagined as gendered, in a religious context. This allows for the plurality of the concept with regard to its manifestations in different and diverse cultural contexts. In some cases, the sacred marriage is between humans and the divine, while in others it is between two divine beings. Moreover, in some cases the marriage is acted out ritually between two humans, while in others it remains a metaphor. The essays neither advocate a certain way of thinking about sacred marriage nor share a specific methodology. Rather, each essay approaches the material using separate and often diverse methodologies, ranging from historical and philological methods to incorporating the perspectives of psychology, gender, literature, ritual studies, and cognitive science of religion. Each essay further looks at the matter in a distinct textual, geographical, and/or historical context, including ancient Mesopotamia, Ugarit, Egypt, Greece, the Hebrew Bible, the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, the New Testament, and early Christian writings. Finally, while some essays focus on the actual ritual of the sacred

2 marriage, others explore the more nonritual uses of the imagery, with focus on its literary, ideological, and social aspects. Yet others investigate more broadly the divine-human sexual metaphors found in select texts. The first four essays look at sacred marriage in Mesopotamia. Pirjo Lapinkivi detects affinity between Sumerian material depicting sexual unions between a deity and a human and gnostic and kabbalistic writings. This affinity suggests that the Sumerians regarded the goddess Inanna as a paragon of the human soul and, as a consequence, that Sumerian sacred marriage texts describe a soul s union with her divine bridegroom, the human king. Along similar lines, Beate Pongratz-Leisten looks at the role of Ishtar as an oracular deity. She suggests that, rather than being an actual ritual, hierogamy and theogamy are best understood as metaphors for the transfer of knowledge and blessings from the gods to the humans. Part of this interaction is later replaced by prophecy. Saana Teppo looks at the gender of the cult functionaries of Ishtar (assinnu, kurgarrû, and kulu u), and argues that, although they all seem to be born male, their appearance was either totally feminine or they had both male and female characteristics. As they break the boundary between men and women in Mesopotamian society, they become not only sacred and powerful but also impure and feared. Mark S. Smith argues that, contrary to many scholars, KTU/CAT 1.23 does not contain a reference to a sacred marriage. The sexual relationship in this text provides merely background information to the narrative. Moving beyond the confines of Mesopotamia, Mia Rikala explores aspects of the sacred marriage between Amon and Hathor in the New Kingdom of ancient Egypt. It was understood to be carried out on earth by the king and the queen, resulting in the birth of the heir to the throne. Rikala argues that circumstantial evidence, such as its strong association with certain festivals, is suggestive of a ritual enactment of the sacred marriage. Aphrodite A. Avagianou explores the sacred marriage in ancient Greek religion. It was defined as a permanent relationship between two immortal parties initiated by a ceremony akin to that of a human marriage ceremony. Avagianou argues that the sacred marriage was conceived as a ritual of initiation and as a rite of passage. Moreover, there was a reciprocal relationship between human and sacred marriage in that the former was considered to be guaranteed and sanctified by the latter.

3 The following four essays relate to the Hebrew Bible. Martti Nissinen provides an extensive survey of scholarly opinions as to whether or not Song of Songs contains imagery related to sacred marriage. He maintains that, although Song of Songs in its present form has nothing to do with a sacred marriage ritual, it is possible that its imagery belongs in the Mesopotamian erotic-lyric tradition connected with sacred marriage. Peggy L. Day explores the ways in which the metaphors of YHWH s broken marriage are employed in the prophetic writings. She argues that the figurative marriage and infidelity expressed through these metaphors do not always conform to what we know about literal marriages in ancient Israel. Rather, they go beyond reality in order to describe military defeat and death by the hands of enemies. It is therefore inaccurate to describe YHWH as a spousal abuser on the basis of these passages. Ruben Zimmermann investigates what he calls the love triangle between Lady Wisdom, the wise man (i.e., her human lover; Prov 1 9; Ben Sira 51:13 30), and God (her divine lover; Prov 8:22 31; Philo of Alexandria). In this way, Lady Wisdom becomes a link and a facilitator between God and humans: living in relationship with Wisdom is a criterion for securing God s love. John J. Collins looks at the motif of the sexual union between the sons of God and the human daughters as found in Gen 6:1 4, and he explores its subsequent development in later Jewish and Christian traditions. While the Genesis account regards this union as a threat to the boundary between the human and the divine, later texts transform it into a paradigm of sin and folly. Going beyond the confines of sacred marriage, Kristel Nyberg looks at the related question as to whether or not sacred prostitution existed in the biblical world. She concludes that a close reading of the relevant biblical and Greek texts reveals sacred prostitution to be a myth. Six essays look at sacred marriage in the world of the New Testament. Like Day (above), David M. Carr and Colleen M. Conway explore both the gendered construction of Israel as the often faithless wife of the male God against the background of marriage in the ancient Near East and the gendered construction of the church as God s pure bride against the background of marriage in the Greco-Roman world. Heikki Räisänen asks when Jesus becomes the Son of God. He argues that the different Gospel accounts relate in different ways to Jesus origin and to the notion of virgin conception. Notably, Luke s and Matthew s accounts of the conception and birth differ

4 widely in tone. Räisänen further looks at potential Greco-Roman influence on the notion of a virginal conception and discusses its place in early Christianity. Kari Syreeni focuses on the literary and the ideological functions of the marital imagery of Jesus as a bridegroom as found in the Gospels (e.g., Mark 2:18 20; Matt 25:1 13; John 2 4) and in the book of Revelation (e.g., Rev 19:6 9). He further highlights that, although the Gospels use marriage-related metaphors, they are reluctant in identifying the bride. Carolyn Osiek discusses Eph 5:22 33 from multiple perspectives (its historical and social context, its literary genre, and ecclesiology) but always within a feminist framework of interpretation. She argues that the connection between the Christ-church marriage and human marriage encourages men to identify with Jesus and women with the church, thus not only promoting female submission but also demoting feminine imagery for God. Dale B. Martin explores questions related to Jesus sexuality. He clarifies that history cannot give us any secure answers. Rather, they must remain products of the imagination. Martin then discusses four types of imaginations, prioritizing none: the popular imagination; the historical imagination; the patristic imagination; and the gay imagination. Petri Merenlahti explores the resemblance between psychoanalytic theory and the Gospel of Mark, with focus on the bipolar description of Jesus: on the one hand, Jesus is portrayed as never having to yield to the powers of nature; on the other hand, he is also portrayed as suffering and dying. Merenlahti argues that this divine-human relationship is structured in a way that is closely analogous to the dynamics of sexual desire, as both power and suffering are connected to sexuality and gender. The final three essays explore the wider connotations of sacred marriage in the postbiblical world. Richard Valantasis investigates the connections between asceticism and sacred marriage and argues that the ultimate goal in all asceticism is complete absorption into the divine. To demonstrate his point, he discusses the writings of the Western modern Christian ascetical theologian Adolphe Tanquerey ( ) and the Eastern Christian Macarius the Egyptian ( C.E.). Risto Uro investigates the claim, made initially by the church fathers but adhered to even today, that the Valentinians practiced a ritual related to sacred marriage. Uro first explores to what extent the Gospel of Philip, commonly labeled a Valentinian text, lends itself to the reconstruction of the rituals of the Valentinians. Subsequently, through a cognitive approach, he attempts to establish the role that rituals played in the Valentinian movement.

5 Finally, Ingvild Sælid Gilhus, looking at the Apocryphon of John, examines the notion that matters of spirituality and salvation are described using sexual metaphors related to sacred marriage, procreation, and birth. A point in case is the myth of the serpent in Genesis, where the ideas of cogition and procreation, carnal knowledge, and spiritual knowledge are blended. She argues that this use of sexual imagery renders sexuality devalued. In summary, this is a very valuable collection of essays that sheds much needed light on the notion of sacred marriage. It can be highly recommended.