Temples and Priest History

Political legitemacy

• Hammurabi's Code which was written on Akkadian cuneiform clay tablets

• and on a diorite stele in the shape of a huge index

• Had statues that stood tall in the village

  • it protected the divine power of the king

  • Picture of hammuabi receibing his royal blah blah blah from hammrabiur

Monumental temples in ancient mesopotamia

• Ziggurat of Ur-Nammu

• The diffrent levels allows trhe priest to control acces

• The bottom is where you go to make sacrifices

• 2nd levle is where regular people cant go. Its for like government people and priest/ The temple reminds people who is important and who is not

• The top part is where GOD was at. where the priest goes up to speak with the gods

• THE ESAGILA TEMPLE IN BABYLON

  • Still had the same setup as the other temples even though it looked different

  • Each year during bew year which is called the Akitu

  • Fesrival for the king to show is presence to god

  • In that moment where the king gets slapped by the priest he is not the king

    • Priest smacks him a second tine after he is king. to see if he cries.

    • He ends up crying that shows that the gods are listening

    • It shows that theres a split of power in their system

    • The king aceppts it because the king is dependent on the temple

  • The king says that he did not overthrow babylon did not treat the babylons badly (He is cleansing his conscious) The king overthrew his own city

  • babylon had a lot of different kings

  • Need to look up more about akitu and the whole process

• Etemenaki ziggurat dedicated to marduk in babylon

  • It is very proportional

  • They layout was very calculated

  • It was demoed by alexandee the great with plans to rebuild but he died

Control over writing also meant temples wileded significant economic power

• The early school scribes were attached to temples

• The king needs the temple to rule his country

  • Writing was a lot about acconting

  • Temples played a huge rule in that economic organization

  • The temple manages agriculture and seeds

  • The temple has stores where people can put their crops(used by everyone)

  • Temple is where records were kept

  • Temple manages resources(big part of the economic state)

  • They gave credit organized division of labor agriculture

Theres a symbiotic relationship between the palace the temple and the high priest

• temple provided continuity when the king might not

• peformed for audieneces- inside the sanctuary of marduk outside the ceremonial doors to the temple, and (in terms of the later sacrifice) in the exalted courtyard” the smaller courtyard.

The temple pplayed simillar roles in other societies

• Hebrew temple in israel(first of the religion) had a lot of documentation in the book of kings

• Destroyed by the neo babylonion empire in 587 bce

• It was built adjacent to solomons palace   

  • With solomons temple there was a lower level where they made sacrifices

  • very simillar to mesopatamian temple

  • Walls are covered in goal ceiling made of ceder

  • It was built to impress people

  • The god of the israelites does not reside in the temple he resides everywhere

  • A temple meant for the people to use

  • It was a place for law and justice

    • It works because there is a expectation that when you do something wrong you have to tell the truth in the temple

    • If you dont god will punish you

    • Expectation that god will forgive if you are honest

Solomon makes a big speech ourisde the tempte

• A speech telling people god chose hin to be king

• God says to david to build a temple and solomon his son completed his mission

Being a king is not enough to stay king

• His views were not popular

• The people did not agree with his use of resources and building fancy things

• The new king was Rehoboam he had a chance to change what solomon did. and he did

• He told people he will chastice with scorpions and the priest did not like that and he ended up losing his kingdom

Conclusion

• a tight relationship between religion and power

• Temples were very important for economic stability

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