Hammurabi, Hammurapi, and the Rephaim: Seth L. Sanders blogs

Seth L. Sanders has blogged on the spelling of Hammurabi’s name.

But it’s not really just the spelling that is at stake. Spelling leads Seth to consider the Babylonian king’s claim that he had a special relationship with legendary royal ancestors. And more excitingly for fans of giants, Seth discusses the Rephaim at Ugarit (or Rapi’uma, if you will).

In one part of his post, Seth mentions the frequent attempt to interpret the Rephaim as “healers”, probably still the leading interpretation of the Rephaim/Rapi’uma in Hebrew and Ugaritic texts. But the interpretation has some serious problems. Here’s one:

“As Matthew Suriano has most recently pointed out, among the seven or eight useful narrative and ritual contexts in Ugaritic, Hebrew and Phoenician, there is not one case of the rpˀ healing, being healed, or being depicted as either particularly healthy or sick (“Dynasty Building at Ugarit: The Ritual and Political…