Adad-guppi

Life

In her inscription, Adad-guppi states that she was born in the twentieth regnal year of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, which corresponds to about 649–648 BC. Her birthplace is uncertain. Some consider her a native of Harran because she was deeply devoted to that city and was buried there. Others, however, point out that there is no clear evidence that she was born in Harran. Her husband is known to have been Nabu-balatsu-iqbi, a "learned counselor."

Over her long life she witnessed the collapse of the Assyrian Empire and the founding of the Neo-Babylonian Empire by Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar (Nebuchadnezzar II). After Nebuchadnezzar's successors were removed one after another amid struggles for power, her only son, Nabonidus, ascended the Babylonian throne around 556 BC. The inscription records that she lived to the age of 104 and saw her descendants to the fourth generation. The date of her death depends on how it is calculated. One view places it in 547 BC, the ninth year of Nabonidus's reign, while another places it around 544 BC. Because the figures given in the inscription do not fully agree with the standard chronology, some suggest that the scribe miscounted the years.

Activities and Inscription

Adad-guppi is known almost entirely through the inscription preserved in her name. Two copies have been discovered. One is a broken stele found at Harran in 1906 by the Frenchman H. Pognon. The other was found in 1956 by D. S. Rice among the paving stones of the steps at the north entrance of the Great Mosque of Harran. The inscription is thought to have originally been a funerary stele erected in E-hulhul, the temple of the moon god at Harran.

The inscription is written in the first person. Adad-guppi presents herself as having served Sîn, Ningal, Nusku, and Sadarnunna from her youth. She records that in the sixteenth regnal year of Nabopolassar, Sîn became angry and departed to heaven, and the city and its people fell into desolation. To appease the god, she then renounced fine clothing, jewelry, and perfumed oil and sought Sîn day and night. According to the inscription, Sîn, seeing her piety, called her son Nabonidus to the kingship and promised through him to rebuild E-hulhul and to restore Harran to greater glory than before. She also claimed to have exercised influence at the courts of the Babylonian kings. In addition, she wrote that Nabonidus was descended from Ashurbanipal, and on this basis some scholars regard her as a daughter of Ashurbanipal (Stephanie Dalley, 2003). Another view holds that she was a high priestess of the temple at Harran (Édouard Dhorme, 1949). Others counter that there is no clear evidence that she held such an office.

Influence on the Korean Church

Adad-guppi is not named in the Bible, and no activity or influence directly connected with the Korean church has been identified. She is nonetheless useful for understanding the background of the Bible. Because Belshazzar, who appears in Daniel 5, is known to have been the son of Nabonidus, Adad-guppi was Belshazzar's grandmother. Moreover, Harran, the site of the temple she served, is where Terah and Abraham stayed before going on to Canaan (Genesis 11:31; 12:4). She may therefore be mentioned in discussions of the background of the Babylonian Exile or of the patriarchal period.

Assessment

The Adad-guppi inscription is a rare record in which a woman of the ancient Near East narrates her own life in the first person. It is therefore an important source for the study of late Neo-Babylonian history and of moon-god worship at Harran. However, the inscription was not written by Adad-guppi herself; it is a funerary document composed after her death, and scholars sometimes call it a "pseudo-autobiography." Accordingly, some hold that claims such as her age of 104, her connection to the Assyrian royal line, and her influence at court should be read in light of an intent to legitimize Nabonidus's kingship and to promote the worship of the moon god. From the perspective of the Christian faith, her religion belongs to the worship of foreign gods that the Bible warns against, namely idolatry. She is therefore not treated as a figure of church history or as a model of faith, but is presented as a historical figure who illustrates the world surrounding the biblical era.