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The kuppuru took place on the fifth day of the Akitu, in the sanctuary of the scribal god Nabu as he visited Marduk's temple in Babylon.21 Its purpose was to protect Nabu from demonic influences as he copied down the decrees of Marduk. Thus, both Marduk and Nabu come to the fore in this ritual, as we might expect from the Neo-Babylonian period onward.22 The ritual is not entirely understood, but it involved the cleansing of Nabu's sanctuary by slaughtering a ram and rubbing or wiping (kuppuru) the temple cella with its carcass. After completing this procedure, the ram's body was thrown into the river, and Tiffany Money Clips on sale asipu-priest ("exorcist") who performed the kuppuru left the city for open country, accompanied by the ram's slaughterer. Because of their uncleanness, these two ritual figures could not return to Babylon until the Akitu was completed. The purpose of the ritual is expressed explicitly in its incantation: "They are purifying the temple . . . Marduk purifies the temple . . . Great demon, may Bel [i.e., Marduk] kill you! May you be cut down wherever you are!"23 In terms of modern technical vocabulary, the kuppuru was obviously an elimination rite, an exorcism whose purpose was to cleanse the temple cella of demonic presences that might unduly influence the fate decrees for the coming year.

After the kuppuru was completed, the king and high priest entered Marduk's cella for a confirmation ritual known as the "royal ordeal." The king was stripped of his royal insignia and was symbolically forced to bow Tiffany Necklaces on sale Marduk while confessing, "I have not sinned . . . I have not neglected your divinity . . . I have not caused the destruction of Babylon," and similar exculpations.24 After this declaration of innocence, the priest slapped the king's face in what amounted to a test: if tears came to the king's eyes, it was a sign of the god's pleasure; no tears portended evil. Following the rite, the king's insignia were restored, and he "seized the hand" of Marduk and led a public procession of the gods to the great convocation at the Akitu house just outside of the city. A still grander procession would mark Marduk's return.

Anyone familiar with P's annual atonement ritual, described in Leviticus 16, will already recognize the striking similarities between the Mesopotamian and Israelite rituals.25 Both rites marked a transition to the New Year. Both rites involved the ritual slaughter of an animal and the use of its carcass or blood to cleanse the temple cella. In both cases the animal's body was removed from the temple precinct, and in both the carcass polluted those who touched it. The Tiffany Rings on sale rite was called the kuppuru; the Israelite ritual, .... The two terms are related both etymologically and morphologically, insofar as they share the same consonantal root (kpr) and are in a D verbal stem (with the doubling of the middle radical). In Akkadian the D-stem is reserved exclusively for ritual contexts.26 In Hebrew the pattern is somewhat different, but in a way that is perhaps significant for my thesis. Though there is ongoing debate about the particulars, there is a consensus among scholars that ... is employed differently in priestly and non-priestly texts.27 In the latter ... is not a formal ritual act but points directly to the appeasing or assuaging of anger, both divine and human. This is very different from priestly uses of the term in P, Ezekiel 40-48, and Chronicles. Here ... is always a ritual act performed by a priest, and in at least some cases its function is to remove ritual uncleanness. The list of cleansed objects Tiffany Pendants on sale the altar, the sanctuary, the temple, the land, houses, and human beings (both individuals and groups). These priestly ... rites are close to the Mesopotamian conception of kuppuru in ways that non-priestly uses of ... are not. A possible explanation would be that Mesopotamian practice has to some extent influenced P's use of ... . If this is right, then we have in P a semantic shift that is in some respects similar to what we see in the Qur'an, where kafara ("to cover") was pressed into service, under influence from Hebrew ..., as kaffara ("to absolve").28

If it appears likely that the form of the Israelite ... ritual has been intentionally fashioned to mimic the Mesopotamian kuppuru rite, then this conclusion is made still surer by the evidence that I have gleaned from P's creation story in Genesis 1. That evidence strongly suggests that P knew the Mesopotamian myth recited immediately before the kuppuru, that is, Enurna Elish. So P was familiar with both the rites and the myths of Tiffany Accessories on sale Akïtu. The conclusion that Israel adapted Akïtu rituals for use in Jerusalem is further reinforced by the fact the Persians did the same in Persepolis.29 Elite emulation can appear in many contexts, not only among the conquered but also among the conquerors.30