Phoenician snakes and a prophetic parallelism : an implication for Zephaniah 1:9 of a recent discovery in the Egyptian Pyramid Texts

Abstract

The parallelism in Zeph 1:9 is not prima facie clear: how can the act of jumping over the threshold be connected to the bringing of violence and deceit into the realm of the Temple? The discovery of early west Semitic lines in the Egyptian Pyramid Texts revealed a scenario in which a guarding deity protected the inner realm of the tomb against infiltrating serpents. In assuming that Zeph 1:9 refers to the presence of a guarding deity at the threshold, the jumpers can be seen as people wanting to avoid this guardian and hence as persons who were unwelcome in the temple.