Blane W. Conklin, «Arslan Tash I and other Vestiges of a Particular Syrian Incantatory Thread», Vol. 84 (2003) 89-101

The first part of this article is a new translation and interpretation of the first incantational plaque from Arslan Tash in northern Syria. Each of the three succeeding sections identifies and discusses elements of this incantation that find resonance in texts from Ugarit, Egypt, and the Hebrew Bible, respectively. At Ugarit we find texts predating Arslan Tash which describe incantational activity involving Horon and the Sun-deity, both of whom are present in the Arslan Tash text, and who have similar roles in the two traditions. Horon is also present in Egypt during the last centuries of the city of Ugarit, and is there also associated with the Sun-deity and performs similar functions as at Arslan Tash. In the Passover account of Exod 12 there are several elements in common with Arslan Tash, albeit in the distinctive form that might be expected in the theological and literary tradition of the Hebrew Bible.

"dark room", the night-time aspect of AT1 was not clear until the new reading established by Pardee in his 1998 study of the original (see note 2). Du Mesnil du Buisson recorded the reading in line 20 as {llyn}, and this became the standard reading ⁴⁴. As Pardee reports⁴⁵, what on the copy looks like the upper part of a {y} is actually just a surface scratch, and without it the sign is a perfect {z}. In addition, he finds no evidence for reading a {n} after this sign⁴⁶. This reveals the correct reading of {ll z}, "this night". That death is the risk in AT1 is evident both from the mention of "stranglers" in line 4, and the iconography of the lower figure on the recto, who is devouring a human. The second Arslan Tash plaque also has a beast devouring a human, and in that text there is a specific reference to barring the door (n‘lt mn‘l, "I have secured the door", line 7). This first parallel helps explain why Passover began as a family rite, and apparently continued so even after centralization of the cult occurred⁴⁷. It had to be a family rite, because naturally only one family can fit into one house, and the rite was (originally) about keeping harmful beings out of the house.

        Second, the morning, specifically, the sunrise, is the time when it is safe to leave (AT1 lines 22-26; Exod 12,22)⁴⁸. This is the import of what is preserved in the text on the verso figure. The sun-deity, S0ams\, shines upon the doorway and the need for the night-time incantation is over (see comment on line 22).

        Third, the basis for the prevention of intrusion is the beneficence of deities as expressed in an agreement (AT1 lines 9-18; Exod 12,14.17.24-5) ⁴⁹. In AT1 the word ’lt is used with three distinct nuances: 1) "curse" (line 1); and the two relevant to this point: 2) "treaty" (’lt ‘lm, "eternal treaty", in lines 9-10, and perhaps ’lt in line 13), and 3) "oath" (lines 14-15, perhaps 13). In Exod 12 it is Ml( tqx (masculine qx in v. 24). In Hebrew, hqx is properly a "statute", but in both its feminine and masculine form it is found in parallel with tyrb, "covenant" (e.g., 1 Kgs 11,11; Ps 105,8-10; Lev 24,8-9), and in its