“Ah, Assyria!”

by Neil Earle

“Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir,
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,
With a cargo of ivory,
And apes and peacocks,
Sandalwood, cedarwood and sweet white wine.”

As best we know, the poet John Masefield was no Assyriologist. Yet his elegant word-picture of the ancient Assyrian trading empire underscores a useful proverb – there’s more going on with Assyria than meets the eye.

Living by Trade

For one thing, as historians Moore and Lewis assert, it is important not to let Assyria the Warrior, overshadow Assyria the Merchant Prince (The Origins of Globalization, page 63). For another, the Assyrian-American community of the United States (of which more later) insists that the stereotype of Assyrians as ruthless barbarians is unfair and one-sided. The Assyrians of the flat plains in what is today northern Iraq saw themselves as targets of fierce tribes to the north and east. Their key city of Nineveh more than once suffered from ruthless tribes from areas the Bible labels as Urartu, Elam and Media. Like the ancient Romans, in Northern Mesopotamia it was often a matter of arm yourself or get smashed.

Old Assyria, the region that appears in history about 2000-1750 BC, was indeed more involved with Mammon than militarism. “Located on the Tigris in the very [heartland] of Assyria,” writes Professor Marc Van De Mieroop of Columbia, “Ashur was the central point of a network that traded tin from the east, textiles from Babylonia, and silver and gold from Anatolia” (A History of the Ancient Near East, ca 3000 to 323 BC, pages 89-90). The flat plain around Nineveh near modern-day Mosul was good for raising sheep but poorly fitted for agriculture. With few resources, no ports and no defensible borders, early Assyrians were forced to send trading companies into modern-day Turkey, 1000 kilometers from home or down south into always prosperous Babylon and on to the Persian Gulf.

All of this is fascinating enough but for students of the Old Testament, mention of ancient Assyria hits home with force. At least three Biblical prophets – Jonah, Isaiah and Nahum – dealt extensively with the Assyrians both as instruments of God’s wrath and as originators of an impressive and highly advanced civilization. Here is a culture which contributed the 360 degree circle, latitude and longitude, and medical schools. The famous Nimrud Lens indicates a sophisticated knowledge of astronomy. Since merchants and exporter-importers need reliable information Assyrians preserved careful chronological data. But even more intriguing for Bible students are seven interactions between Assyria and ancient Israel which enliven the Old Testament text. Portrayals of the Assyrians in books such as First and Second Kings dovetail very well with what historians have uncovered.

Read on. Here is a fascinating story of Biblical history and archaeology, indeed, a theme that stands near the beginning of archaeology’s first epoch.

The New (Neo) Assyrians

Assyria was around so long that historians divide the Empire into two parts – Old Assyria and the Neo or New Assyrian Empire. The New Assyrian period stretches from 900-612 BC when a galaxy of aggressive and expansionist Assyrian kings sought to extend the borders of the empire by military conquest. Sometimes expansion has a defensive basis to it – as is argued for America’s War of 1812 or Mexican War – but the story of this period is one of Assyria’s armies relentlessly perfecting the arts of war until what is called “imperial overstretch” set in, leading to Nineveh’s utter collapse in 612 BC.

It was during this era that Nineveh reached the heights alluded to in the book of Jonah, a city of “three day’s journey” – taking three days perhaps to encompass its suburbs and outlying districts. If ancient historians are to be believed, the city stretched over 1800 acres and was enclosed by an inner wall 7 miles around. It was intersected by 15 huge gates protecting an area that held 18 canals and fed by at least one aqueduct some 25 miles way. This was a colossal city with construction feats that rivaled the later Roman Empire.

According to his own detailed records, in 853 BC, the energetic Shalmaneser III, pushing west, encountered an alliance of twelve kings led by the rulers of Damascus and Hamath and “Ahab the Israelite.” Shalmaneser was stopped at the battle of Qarqar, a key event for dating Biblical chronology. Ahab is cited as possessing the strongest Allied force at Qarqar – 2000 chariots and 10,000 infantry. For Bible readers this dovetails nicely with Ahab as the great military king and his affinity for fighting in chariots (1 Kings 22:34).

By 841 BC Shalmaneser was back again, initiating Round Two of the Israelite-Assyrian encounter. At Mount Carmel where Elijah had defeated the prophets of Baal, Shalmaneser paused to receive tribute from “the inhabitants of Tyre, Sidon and from Jehu the son of Omri.” Jehu is pictured on a most famous column at the British Museum called the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser. Omri was Ahab’s father but the dynasty was extirpated by this same Jehu as told in 2 Kings 10. Now blood-thirsty Jehu is depicted kneeling before his Assyrian master. Here again is striking indirect testimony to some of the details of Biblical history – an Israelite king actually carved onto the Assyrian monuments. These stone mementoes include some of the most realistic portrayals the ancient world had yet seen. (Another inscription in Assyria mentions yet another Israelite king, Joash, about 796 BC).

Assyria was flexing her muscles and about to reach her imperial peak. The crowded 700s BC are almost an encyclopedia of Nineveh’s forays into Palestine, with the prophet Jonah representing an Israelite response at the command of Yahweh, God of Israel. The great love of God for all nations, including specifically Nineveh (Jonah 4:11 ) was the reason for Jonah’s summons to call upon mighty Nineveh to repent. Surprisingly, the king of Assyria did repent, something which Jesus noted favorably in the Gospels (Matthew 12:41). Remember, Assyria had hostile neighbors to the north and east and a total solar eclipse followed by flooding and famine in 763 BC may well have rattled the Ninevites enough to heed a dire prophetic warning (Wiseman, New Bible Dictionary, page 826). Assyrian policy was intentionally cruel and ruthless in the 800s but softened somewhat in the 700s when deportation became the favored Assyrian tactic. Maybe Jonah had a lasting impact (3:8 – note “turn from violence”). In the words of one writer: “God wanted Israel exiled, not destroyed.”

Round Four comes with the writings of the prophet Isaiah whose whole first chapter might be summarized as “The Assyrians are coming.” Isaiah 7-12 is a complex set of scriptures with the Assyrians lurking dangerously in the background ever ready to move in on the divided petty princes around Palestine. Isaiah 10:5 gives us the dramatic explanation, “Ah, Assyria” (or Ha!). Here the prophet shows that God will use Assyria to punish Israel but then will deal with them in turn. This process began in 721-718 BC when the Assyrians, utilizing newly constituted tactics and weapons developed by the innovative Tiglath-Pileser III (744-727), deported the northern nation of Israel. Tiglath created huge standing armies. Tactics shifted from the clumsy 4-wheeled Egyptian chariot to the more maneuverable two-wheeled variety. Throwing spears from fast-moving chariots was a favorite Assyrian tactic which explains their love for the war-horse, theme of many of their wonderfully carved monuments. Isaiah described the well-equipped Assyrian armies spiked by the top-notch Assyrian cavalry in a swiftly-moving pen-portrait (Isaiah 5:27-29). In 733 these invincible legions had already removed some of the northern Israelites into captivity – the “light affliction” of Isaiah 9:1.

The climax of this dramatic era came with Round Five – Assyria besieging and capturing the northern Israelite capital of Samaria in 721-718 BC. Some 27, 290 people were deported, according to the records of Sargon II (733-716). Round Six comes as almost an anticlimax to this uprooting of the northern Ten Tribes which left Judah and Jerusalem as a bare remnant (Isaiah 1:9; 2 Kings 17). King Hezekiah in Jerusalem foolishly joined an anti-Assyrian rebellion and provoked a most well-documented attack on the cities of Judah by King Sennacherib in 701 BC. One of the most pertinent monuments for Bible students is the detailed relief back in Nineveh of the siege of Lachish, a city that guarded the southern approaches to Jerusalem (Isaiah 36:2). When Lachish fell, Jerusalem was next and “somehow” the capital eluded capture.

Restored Assyrian remains in Nineveh Province in northern Iraq.

The Unseen Hand

That “somehow” enshrines one of the best tales of deliverance in Bible history, one which points to an Invisible hand guiding events behind the scenes. Returning to Assyria, Sennacherib listed the fortified cities he captured – Sidon, Joppa, etc. This “Taylor prism” in the British Museum reads: “As to Hezekiah the Jew, he did not submit to my yoke, I laid siege to 46 of his strong cities…I drove out of them 200,150 people…Himself I made a prisoner in Jerusalem, his royal residence, like a bird in a cage.” What is happening? Did Hezekiah escape? Both 2 Kings 19:35 and Isaiah 37:36 state Sennacherib suffered disaster outside Jerusalem. As Jack Finegan wisely states: “In view of the general note of boasting which pervades the inscription, it is hardly to be expected that Sennacherib would record such a defeat” (Light from the Ancient Past, pages 211-213). Well put. Round Seven was a disastrous setback for Assyria but a divine deliverance for the Jews in Jerusalem.

But Assyria’s Empire was not yet done. Around the 620s BC a Jewish prophet named Nahum detailed four specific prophecies about the fall of Nineveh that were delivered in blistering style, considering how long the Assyrian yoke had rested on the nations. The Assyrians had shown the world how to do empire, how to build a hemisphere-wide economic network (Moore and Lewis, page 74) but it could not last forever. Imperial overstretch characterized the 600s even as Assyria reached its height of new construction projects and monumental artistry. But Nahum was right. Nations were closing in for the kill on proud Nineveh. Nahum wrote that Nineveh would fall quickly, that its leaders would be captured in a state of drunkenness, that the river Tigris would flood the city and a fire would burn the remains. Most striking of all, Nahum recorded that the city would be buried: “I will dig your grave…you will be hidden” (Nahum 1:14; 3:11).

That last was amazingly accurate. For 1500 years Nineveh virtually disappeared from view until in 1840 a French consul excavated some earth mounds outside Mosul. He discovered Sargon II’s castle. Near Eastern archaeology was on its way.

Assyria: The Work of My hands

So why this fascination with a long-dead empire? For one thing the discovery of Assyria virtually launched modern archaeology and Assyriology. For another, the Biblical intertwining and interconnections are fascinating to say the least. And for another there is what could be called the “New Testament side” of this subject. How ironic that the same prophet who warned of Assyria’s demise, also included an oracle that predicted a godly future for the once-towering Empire. “Blessed be Assyria, the work of my hands” it says in Isaiah 19:25. It is indeed a striking fact that the remnant of the Assyrian population which lived along northern Iraq and the borders of Turkey and Armenia are considered to from one of the oldest Christian bodies. Known mainly as the Assyrian Church of the East, there are many lively offshoots. Their history takes them back to First Century Christianity, connected by the trade routes from Antioch in Syria to the Gospel story that first played out in Palestine.

Bible teachers know Antioch in Syria was Paul’s missionary base for going west, but now much evidence is becoming accessible showing that Christians were penetrating into the East as well – along the Silk Road as far as China, in fact. That story of missionary expansion east of the Roman Empire is summarized in The Lost History of Christianity by Philip Jenkins. In short the Assyrians did live on, to be persecuted by Arabs, Turks and formed into the Royal Assyrian legion by the British overlords of Iraq (1919-1933). Today, under attack from Kurdish extremists, Sunnis and Shiites, many have fled to the Western world. The Patriarch of the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East sits in Chicago, not Baghdad (Jenkins, page 24).

Perhaps not even Isaiah could have known how far his vision would reach. From Assyria the Rod of Anger to Assyria My Inheritance. What a story encompassing both Testaments.