Judges, Ruth: Revised Edition (The NIV Application Commentary)

by K. Lawson Younger

the cult image was seen to be the joint product of human and divine artisans, the human artisans were perceived to be acting on behalf of the gods in fashioning the statues, and any skill that they displayed was ultimately that of specific craft deities. Thus we end up with human artisans even disavowing that they have crafted the deity, for, in Esarhaddon’s words, “the making of [images of] the gods and goddesses is your [i.e., Ashur’s and Marduk’s] right, it is in your hands.”107 It is clear that statues could not “become divine” through mere human activity. The living presence of the god in the image was magically accomplished through the famous pīt pî or mīs pî (“opening of the mouth” or “washing of the mouth”) ceremony.108 This nocturnal ritual109 was performed in the craftsman’s workshop so that the work of human hands was thought to magically come alive. The cult image became the vessel for the deity. In fact, precise methods of production of cult images were followed in the ancient Near East. The statues had to be made of specific materials, and detailed procedures had to be followed in their manufacture. If these things were not done and done properly, the magical indwelling of the cult image by the deity could not take place. One Akkadian text reads: “This [statue?] without the mouth-opening ceremony [pīt pî] cannot smell incense, cannot eat food, and cannot drink water.”110 Once this ceremony had taken place, the cult image became the primary focus of the deity’...