Andrew Brown
This chapter, on religion and culture in Neo-Babylonia, reveals the high level of stratification that was characteristic of the ideological administrative structure. Beyond prebendaries, who were simply employed by the temple, erib-biti were above prebendaries, and in order to be a chief temple administrator, having been a prebendary was a prerequisite. The high level of stratification within the temple is especially evident from the litany of names and titles of those employed.
Another thing I found very interesting in this chapter was the unfavorable response to Nabonidus’ attempt to promote the god Sin as the head of the Babylonian pantheon. While this internal disagreement reveals the Babylonian ideological administrative body’s resistance to reorganization of the hierarchy of gods, it also reveals a degree of autonomy possessed by the temple. In the last chapter, we saw the palace’s infiltration of the temple administrative structure and its attempts to control the temple. However, in this section, Johannes depicts a somewhat assertive temple administration that stood up to the political body of power in Neo-Babylonia in the interest of ideological continuity.
Johannes goes on to talk about how permeation of foreign ideological concepts into the Babylonian ideology was mostly marginal. The fact that the Babylonian ideological structure did not fully incorporate elements of foreign religious ideals until Christianity is a testament to how resistant to restructuring the ideological structure/administration was.
The final element of this chapter that piqued questions in me was the description of religious statues and the measures taken to protect them. This made me wonder if the statues were protected so heartily to keep them away from enemies or if the purpose of hiding ideological artifacts was to prevent people from doubting the magical power possessed by the statue and, indirectly, the entire Babylonian pantheon.
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