MARDIKH

Archaeological site in northern Syria; It is located about halfway between Hama, to the south, and Aleppo, to the north, although somewhat closer to the latter than the former, and about a kilometer east of the main road between these two cities.

This is a discovery of great importance, which has sparked numerous discussions, including political ones, and which has provided a great deal of data on the development of civilization in that area of the world. However, this article will only address those issues that have the most direct relevance to the Bible.

Tell Mardikh (see TELL) is the stratified ruin mound of ancient Ebla, previously known only in Akkadian inscriptions. The excavations of this large tell were begun in 1964 by an Italian team from the University of Rome, led by Paolo Matthiae.

Confirmation of suspicions that it could be Ebla came in 1968 with the discovery of some votive inscriptions, in which King Ibbit-Lim identifies himself as king of Ebla. But in the 1974/75 campaign came the great discovery: the public and royal archives of the city were discovered, collecting around 15,000 clay tablets written in cuneiform.

This and several other discoveries in the city of Ebla gave evidence that it had been an imperial metropolis, that it exercised political control over an extensive area, and that it had commercial dealings with very remote places, including Ur near the Persian Gulf, Ashdod and Lachish. in southern Palestine, Akaba on the Red Sea, Kanish in Asia Minor, and Nineveh and Assur.

The political power that he achieved is evidenced by the text of a treaty that establishes the conditions of commercial exchange and protection of subjects in the areas controlled by Ebla over Assur, in which the king of Ebla is the dominant power ( TM.75.G.2420, cf. G. Pettinato: “The Archives of Ebla”, PP. 103-105).

A. The language of these cuneiform texts has been described as “Paleo-Canaanite”, showing strong linguistic affinities with Phoenician, Ugaritic and Hebrew. Thus, Eblaite belongs to the family of languages from which the Hebrew spoken by the Israelites would emerge.

B. Historical framework.
The archaeological levels of Tell Mardikh range from protohistoric (Mardikh I assigned dates 3500 2900 BC) to late Roman and Byzantine (Mardikh VII 3rd to 7th centuries AD). The levels of greatest interest regarding the biblical relevance of Ebla are Mardikh II B 2, which covers, according to Paolo Matthiae, the period from 2250-2000 BC. and Mardikh II A, where texts from “the archival era” (around 2500 BC) have been found, with itineraries, vocabularies, commercial transactions, etc., and with mentions of the land of Canaan and Canaanite cities.

C. Ebla and Canaan.
Prior to the discoveries at Tell Mardikh, the first known extrabiblical mention of Canaan was that of Alalakh, much later, by many centuries, than the era of the patriarchs. For this reason, it was claimed that the biblical chapters referring to the patriarchs were late, precisely because of their reference to Canaan.

However, a tablet from Ebla recounts the sending of a statue to the “lord of Canaan” (‘be kà-na-na-im). This mention, found in the Mardikh II A level, leaves no doubt that this name was known and used in the time of the patriarchs and before them. Other interesting mentions are those of the cities of Byblos, Ashdod, Jafa, Akko (Acre), Sidon, Beirut, Alalakh, Megiddo, Lachish, Damascus, Homs and Hama.

D. The cities of the plain.

The claim that Genesis 14 and 18-19 are ahistorical passages has long been maintained in “critical” circles due to extrabiblical silence about the five cities of the plain mentioned there: Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Bela.

Of great interest was, therefore, the communication given by Giovanni Pettinato, chief epigrapher of the Tell Mardikh expedition, about the relationship of Ebla with the five cities of the plain. Speaking before the joint annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, the American Academy of Religion, and the American Schools of Oriental Research, held in St. Louis on October 29, 1976, he reported the discovery of a tablet with a large economic text in which, among many names of cities that maintained commercial transactions with Ebla, he had identified the names of the five cities of the plain.

And the cities on the tablet were listed in the same order as those of Genesis 14:2: “si-da-mu” (Heb. “Sêdõm”, Sodom), “è-ma-ra” (Heb. “‘Ãmõrãh », Gomorrah), «adma» (Heb. «’Admãh», Adma), « si-ba-i-um» (Heb. «Zeboiim», Zeboim), «be-la» (Heb. «Bela’» , Bela). David Noel Freedman, editor of “Biblical Archaeologist”, states in his article “The real story of the Ebla Tablets” (BA, vol. 41, Dec. 1978, pp. 150, 151), that Bela’s alternative name, Zoar (cf. Gen. 14:2) also appears on another tablet from Ebla.

This tablet explains that Zoar is a town in the Bela district, which was a larger urban complex. Furthermore, Freedman states that in a private conversation with Pettinatus he informed him that another tablet discovered in the archives gave the names of the kings of the pentapolis of the plain (cf. Gen. 14:2). Pettinato remembered the name of the king of Adma, which on the tablet was “bi-ir-sa.” This name corresponded morphologically with the Birsa of Gn. 14:2 (Heb.: “birsa’”). In Gen. 14:2 The one who has this name is the king of Gomorrah. This leads to two reflections:

(a) It must be remembered that the Ebla texts and the passage from Gen. 14:2 do not reflect contemporary characters, but separated by a space of several generations.

(b) However, the mention of this name, which only appears in this biblical text, places it in its proper historical framework. One must remember the obvious fact that the same names can and are given to different people, so it is not surprising that there were different kings of different cities with the same name.

This is a common fact in history (cf. Jehoram, king of Israel, 2 Kings 1:17; Jehoram king of Judah, 1 Kings 22:50, and Jehoram, son of Toi king of Hamath, 2 Sam. 8 :10, etc.). It is possible that the two Birsas belonged to the same dynasty, or that there were more or less close ties of descent between them.

This whole issue took an unexpected turn when Pettinato backed down from his previous statements. The Syrian government, alarmed by the evident links between Ebla and the biblical framework of Genesis, and fearful that this could constitute additional support for the Zionist theses on which the state of Israel is based, pressured the researchers to deny the claims. previous communications, and imposed a censorship on the Ebla tablets (cf. Biblical Archeology Review, March-April 1979; July-August, PP. 9-11).

As a result, the current position is one of extreme caution in the statements of the members of these excavations, which are taking place on Syrian soil and with the sponsorship of the Damascus government. This, together with Syrian censorship, has made this whole issue lead to a tense and regrettable situation.

However, it is still granted that there “may” be mention of “si-da-mu” (Sodom) and “sa-bi-im” (Zeboim) in the Ebla tablets (M. Dahood, S. J., in an appendix to the work of Giovanni Pettinato: “The Archives of Ebla”, p. 278).

Furthermore, Freedman publishes Dahood’s statement that “Giovanni [Pettinato] tells me that he considers the reading of the first two names, Sodom and Gomorrah, to be quite true” (Freedman, cited article, p. 143).

0Also, M. Dahood, in “Eblaite and Biblical Hebrew,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly, vol. 44 (1982), PP. 17, 18, gives evidence about Sodom, showing that “sa-dam’” (text TM75.6.2231 obv. X4) and “ak-kà-bù’” (Ákaba) appear in the same column (obv. X12). Dahood documents that the aforementioned “si-da-mu’” variation is an orthographic variation of cuneiform (cp. Dahood, op. cit., p. 287).

E. Divine names.

Another factor of extreme interest is the appearance on the tablets of names with component elements in “-il” and “-ya” (corresponding to “EL” and “YAH”). Some of these names are: “en-an-il” and “en-an-ya”, “is-ra-il” and “is-ra-ya”, “is-ma-il” and “is-ma -ya”, “mi-kà-il” and “mi-ká-ya”. There are many others.

Pettinato offers conclusive evidence that “-il” and “-ya” are generic divine names, and that they have no other role, as some have alleged. For example, it has been argued that “-ya” could have the role of forming the diminutive of the name. This attempts to deny the early knowledge of the name Yah applied to divinity. Pettinato observes (“the Archives of Ebla”, p. 249), that the particle “-ya” replaced the particle “-il” in names during the reign of Ebrium.

In addition to this fact, which points to a religious reform during the reign of Ebrium, Pettinato indicates names in which it is not possible for “-ya” to have a diminutive function, such as e.g. e.g., «’ìa-ra-mu», «He is already exalted», where it is at the beginning of the name and is accompanied by the determiner «dingir» (god).

In addition, numerous other names show different suffixes in which they are names of other deities. Thus, it can be noted: “a-dam-ma-lik”, “the man of Malik” (Moloch); «ib-na-ma-lik», «Malik has created»; “i-ad-da-mu”, “hand of Damu”; «is-má-da-mu», «Damu has heard»; «i-ti-il/ya», «Il/Ya has given»; «en-na-il/ya», «Il/Ya has shown favor»; “mi-kà-il/ya”, “who is like Il/Ya?”

These names constitute evidence that at that time there persisted a memory of the primordial revelation of God, which had been known by Noah and his descendants, and whose knowledge was preserved in increasingly smaller and smaller lines (cf. Melchizedek; Rom. 1:18-23, etc.). According to Pettinato, “this culture, certainly polytheistic, was on the way towards a virtually declared “henotheism” [belief in a supreme God over other gods]” (“Archives of Ebla”, p. 260).

This interpretation arises from the prior acceptance of an evolutionary concept of religious thought. All the evidence points rather to a constant abandonment of monotheism and the gradual decline towards polytheism. There is no proof of the evolutionary conception (see MONOTHEISM). However, traces of an original monotheism remain, in the hymn to the creator God preserved in one of the tablets (TM.75.G. 1982):

Lord of heaven and earth:
the earth was not, you created it,
daylight was not, you created it,
You had not [yet] made the morning light exist.
Lord: effective word

Lord: prosperity
Lord: heroism
Mister:…
Lord: tireless
Lord: divinity

Lord: who saves
Lord: happy life

The implications of this text are clear. Despite the five hundred recorded gods of the Eblaitic pantheon and the crude polytheism manifested in the religion of the people, there is a precedent, in increasing oblivion, of primitive monotheism: God is the Lord of the heavens and the earth, of light, and is also busy in the daily life of men.

Here we see an evident remnant of the ancient monotheistic faith. The epigrapher of Ebla, Pettinato, who maintains the position that an evolution towards monotheism was taking place, nevertheless affirms the intrinsic value of this hymn: «Who, in fact, is the Lord of heaven and earth? He certainly is not Dagan, nor Rasap, nor Sipis, but GOD in capital letters »(« the Archives of Ebla », PP. 259-260).

F. Ebla, 240 km southwest of Haran, would have been one of the cities visited by Abraham on his migration from Ur of the Chaldees to the land of Canaan. The extent of the empire of Ebla, its intense commercial relations with Ur and Canaan, the existence of numerous urban centers at that time, all of this constitutes a coherent framework with that indicated in Genesis as the background of the patriarchs.

Despite all the problems that appeared in the Ebla excavations, the political pressures and the resulting differences between researchers, the statements and retractions, it is evident that the Ebla finds are of great importance due to their relationship with the Bible.

Freedman (see Bibliography) considers that these discoveries are of such magnitude that they must be taken as a basis for the reevaluation of the positions that have been maintained until the present regarding the transmission of the biblical tradition.

He takes the position that biblical precision in the recording of names and places requires the existence of written material that covers the period between the time of the patriarchs and that of the final writing of the text (“The Tell Mardikh Excavations, the Ebla Tablets , and Their Significance for Biblical Studies”, Near Eastern Archaeologist Society Bulletin (13[1979], p. 35).