Privatization of Religion

The prominence of the temple and religion in neo-Babylonian society suggests an inherent complexity necessary to run such a large institution. The organizational sophistication and the surprisingly large amount of privatization of temple activities are especially notable for such an ancient system.

The structure of the temple system in its offerings and rituals to gods was extravagant, but the hierarchy of the temple servants shows a privatization of the system that almost seems to undermine the sanctity of the enterprise. The deities of the temple would be cared for primarily in the form of four daily meals as offerings and enormous feasts during special ceremonies and holidays (Joannes 182). While the offering of food to the god is in itself not surprising, the amount of food combined with the frequency of the offerings suggests an enormous amount of food being sacrificed. The types of foods sacrificed during major holidays at feasts, which included bread, beef, poultry, mutton, and alcoholic drinks, were expensive and must have required extreme financial resources (Joannes 182). In the case of Ishtar at Uruk under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II, the equivalent of one hundred people’s rations was sacrificed every day. Furthermore, the division of the daily sheep sacrificed for Ishtar at Uruk followed class lines with those at the top in higher positions receiving the better parts of the animal (Joannes 183), a practice that, while rational and economical in saving food, is seen more as enjoying the perks of a government position.

The service of the prebends in the temple also draws attention to the portrayal of the temple as a private business rather than a government entity. The primary point responsible for this view is the fact that prebends, who were bound to the temple’s employment in essentially slavery, were viewed as assets and could be passed from generation to generation (Joannes 189). While the prebends themselves held significant roles in the temple and could rise higher in the ranks through achievement, their delegation as property of the prebendaries, who managed the prebends and the temple, nevertheless adds a sense of the temple as a business with a distinct social hierarchy, not unlike those in 18^th century Western Europe. This parallel can also be drawn to the role of education and literacy in neo-Babylonian society where higher class citizens were almost always capable of managing their own archives and documents, although specialized scribes did exist (Joannes 191).