Acknowledgments
This book represents a revision of my doctoral dissertation, defended at New York University in April 2018. It is with deep appreciation that I thank those people who helped guide this book to completion. For twenty years, I have called Daniel Fleming and Mark Smith my teachers. In 2003, I entered Dan’s undergraduate course on Ancient Israel and something clicked. Dan taught me that biblical texts can always be read anew while thinking about larger social and political categories. As my graduate research interests developed around questions of prophecy and society, I planted the seeds for the dissertation in an Akkadian class paper on the royal women at Mari. Over the years, Dan introduced me in a serious way to the world of Old Babylonian politics and religion. Dan has read numerous iterations of this work, guiding me to articulate my ideas at each stage, to reframe my analysis of every chapter, and to think about how the details of the biblical texts interact with the ancient Near Eastern paradigms. I am truly grateful.
In 2004 Dan advised me to take a course with his colleague Mark Smith, not realizing how much my future would be affected by this decision. First as undergraduate thesis adviser, and then throughout graduate school, Mark has taught me how to find my own voice in biblical studies. With an open-door policy that invited questions and nurtured careful analysis, he has been a constant presence, no matter the geography. Mark has generously given of his time, first as we read through narratives in the books of Kings and discussed aspects of social network theory. He subsequently commented on multiple drafts of every chapter, advancing the interpretation and never failing to motivate me. Most recently, Mark offered pivotal feedback on the comparative analysis of episodes of biblical mediation, and I sincerely thank him.
Back in that Akkadian course, I was introduced to Dominique Charpin and the history of scholarship on Mari. Dominique, je vous remercie. I am grateful that Dominique agreed to serve on my committee and that we had a chance to interact during the project’s progression. My time in Paris in summer 2015 was shaped by conversations at the Collège de France, where Dominique answered numerous questions. As I prepared this monograph, the global COVID-19 pandemic delayed my return to the Collège to complete research for revisions. In summer 2022, Dominique graciously granted me permission to access the library that was closed to the public. Over the past few years, his written feedback has been invaluable as well. My gratitude also goes to Nele Ziegler, who welcomed me to Paris in 2015 and 2022, and who offered her historical expertise on the royal women of the Mari palace. During my time in Paris, Francesca Nebiolo and Antoine Jacquet became colleagues and friends, and I thank them for their generosity.
The outside readers on my committee likewise played a central role in the development of this work. Esther Hamori helped launch the project as an integral member of my prospectus committee and through several discussions over the past few years. Additionally, Esther remains a constant support as a fellow female academic in the field. I also thank Alex Jassen for his ongoing encouragement of the work. While we share an interest in the topic of prophecy, Alex reminded me that my biblical inquiry is connected to the later history of interpretation and to the field of Jewish studies.
The Skirball Department at NYU was my academic home as an undergraduate and as a doctoral student. I remain indebted to David Engel and Marion Kaplan for their advice throughout the years. I also thank the administrative team of Ryan Grubbs, Madeline Goico Hardie, Shayne Figueroa, and Yarmine Fernandez. The support of an Andrew Mellon Dissertation Fellowship in the Humanities, a Henry M. MacCracken Doctoral Fellowship, and summer funding from the Antonina S. Ranieri International Scholars Fund and the Provost’s Global Research Initiative enabled me to pursue my studies.
Since fall 2019, I have been fortunate to serve on the faculty of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Saint Joseph’s University. My department colleagues graciously welcomed me and have provided unwavering support since day one. In particular, I thank Paul Aspan for his guidance about all matters administrative and for our conversations about pedagogy. I also thank Aaron Reich, Katie Oxx, James O’Sullivan, and Adam Gregerman for their friendship and for discussions about various topics contained in this book. From the start, Maria Marsilio in Classics and Susan Liebell in Political Science have supported my research and I am grateful for their collegiality. This monograph would not exist without a summer grant from the Board on Faculty Research and Development at Saint Joseph’s University, and research funding from the Office of the Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences. I thank Jay Carter, Nathan Baird, and Peter Norberg for their commitment to interdisciplinary research. The opportunity to teach a new course on comparative prophecy in spring 2021 generated many ideas, and I thank my students for their questions and insights.
Previous teachers have fostered my growth as a scholar and continue to impact my work. In particular, I thank Elizabeth Bloch-Smith and Marc Brettler for their ongoing support. My appreciation also goes to Elizabeth Bloch-Smith and Mark Smith for their warm hospitality in Philadelphia. I thank my teachers at The Jewish Theological Seminary, my other academic home: Amy Kalmanofsky, Alan Cooper, Robert Harris, David Marcus, Stephen Geller, and Stephen Garfinkel. Outside of formal coursework, Martti Nissinen offered specific points of assistance and provided important feedback during several conference panels. I also thank Michael Houseman of the École Pratique des Hautes Études for his engaging discussions about anthropology and social network theory.
I am thrilled to be publishing my first monograph in Brill’s Culture and History of the Ancient Near East series. I thank the editor-in-chief, Jonathan Stökl, for his enthusiasm regarding my project, for our conversations about prophecy and divination, and for encouraging me to submit a book proposal. I extend my appreciation to Brill’s anonymous peer reviewers who offered supportive feedback and valuable suggestions for revision. I sincerely thank Brill’s editorial team, including Katie Chin, Katerina Sofianou, and Erika Mandarino, and Bart Nijsten of TAT Zetwerk. I am indebted also to Katharine Baker, Michael Stahl, and Raleigh Heth for their astute copyediting and indexing skills over the course of the publication process.
Completion of this book necessitated use of several university libraries, both in the United States and in Europe. I thank the devoted staff of the Francis A. Drexel Library at Saint Joseph’s University. I am grateful for Loraine Marcheix’s guidance in summer 2022 when I returned to the Bibliothèque d’assyriologie et d’études ouest-sémitiques of the Collège de France. Additionally, I thank the staff of the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies of the University of Pennsylvania: Steven Weitzman, Bruce Nielsen, and Josef Gulka. At several recent conferences, I had the chance to discuss ideas found in this book. I thank the organizers of the Historiography and the Hebrew Bible Section at SBL 2022, Deuteronomistic History Section at SBL 2021, State and Territory in the Ancient Near East Section at ASOR 2019, and Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale 2019. I also presented a paper on chapter 4 in April 2019 at the Columbia University Hebrew Bible Seminar, and I thank my colleagues. Finally, select extracts were previously published in my article, “Prophecy in the Ancient Levant and Old Babylonian Mari,” Religion Compass 14/6 (2020): 1–11 [© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd].
On a personal note, I have shared the study of the ancient world with four colleagues whom I thank for their abiding friendship and trusted advice: Xandy Frisch, Heidi Fessler, Elizabeth Knott, and Zachary Margulies. I found a warm community of graduate students both in New York and Boston. This includes Anna Marsh, Ryan Higgins, and David DeLauro at JTS; Nancy Highcock, Michael Stahl, Dylan Johnson, Jonathan Valk, and Zachary Levine at NYU; and Eric Harvey, Nathaniel Lollar, Jason Gaines, Esther Brownsmith, and Lenny Prado at Brandeis. I also thank my NYU cohort for reading drafts of two chapters: Judah Bernstein, Matthew Goldstone, Danielle Drori, and Adrian Sackson. Several NYU alumni, now established professors, have generously given of their time. I thank Stephen Russell, Sara Milstein, Lauren Monroe, and Mahri Leonard-Fleckman for the kindness they have shown in conference settings.
Outside the world of academia, the boundless encouragement of close friends over several decades reaffirmed that I was doing the right thing in pursuing academia as a profession. My thanks to Marlo Dublin, Daniel Bloch, Eva Heinstein, Preeti Dixit Nevatia, Eric Woodward, Katharine Baker, Nika Finelt, Anna Rathkopf, Alice Northover, and Emma Current. Over long meals, telephone conversations, and travels, their questions made me articulate my ideas more clearly and their confidence propelled me to finish.
For as long as I can remember, my family has cultivated my fascination with history and literature. I am grateful to my uncles and cousins for asking probing questions and for cheering me along. Thanks to my aunt, Claudie Bernard, for her ongoing support and for being a stone’s throw away in NYU’s French Department. I also thank the Stein family in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for their hospitality during various trips to Israel. As I mark the completion of this book, I recall with loving memory my grandmothers, Dora Wortsman and Elise Deluty, and my great-aunts, Risa El-Neanai Grundorfer and Stefanie Isser. I remember their love of learning, and I take comfort in the knowledge that they would have valued reading this work.
In everything I do, my parents are my first teachers and the ones who nurture my curiosity and foment my resolve. Knowing full well the travails of pursuing a doctorate in the social sciences or humanities, they have never wavered in their encouragement. My father, Marvin Deluty, introduced me to the Jewish textual tradition and to the biblical narratives that would pique my fascination. As I carved out my own niche in the ancient world, he took an interest in my studies, attentive to the details while often asking about the larger topic of biblical prophecy. My mother, Evelyn Wortsman Deluty, has simultaneously been editor, model pedagogue, and library partner. Through the dissertation and now book, she has taught me how to ask questions and build an argument, and how to find joy in the process of critical inquiry.
Together with my parents, if there is anyone who was certain that I would complete this monograph, it was my sister, Alisha Deluty. I admire her commitment to public service, which offers a modern framework to think about the systems of communication in our government. More than this, she is the best of friends.
I dedicate this book to my parents and sister with love.