The Deuteronomistic History and the Name Theology: Leshakken Shemo Sham in the Bible and the Ancient Near East

This monograph is a comparative, socio-linguistic reassessment of the Deuteronomic idiom, *leshakken shemo sham*, and its synonymous biblical reflexes in the Deuteronomistic History, *lashum shemo sham*, and *lihyot shemo sham*. These particular formulae have long been understood as evidence of the Name Theology - the evolution in Israelite religion toward a more abstracted mode of divine presence in the temple. Utilizing epigraphic material gathered from Mesopotamian and Levantine contexts, this study demonstrates that *leshakken shemo sham* and *lashum shemo sham* are loan-adaptations of Akkadian *shuma shakanu*, an idiom common to the royal monumental tradition of Mesopotamia. The resulting retranslation and reinterpretation of the biblical idiom profoundly impacts the classic formulation of the Name Theology.