February 22, 2023

Book Summary: “‘Wordplay’ in Ancient Near Eastern Texts” by Scott Noegel

Jennifer Hunter interviews Scott Noegel, Professor and Director of Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East Program in the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Culture (MELC), about his open-source book “Wordplay” in Ancient Near Eastern Texts.

Professor Scott Noegel describes his latest book, “Wordplay” in Ancient Near Eastern Texts, as containing “really everything and anything” he knows about such linguistic devices as they occur across a range of ancient Near Eastern languages. As readers flip through this book, they will realize just how much anything and everything really is as they encounter examples of dozens of linguistic devices as they occur in Sumerian, Akkadian, Egyptian, Ugaritic, Hebrew, and Aramaic.

And yet, what is wordplay, and why does Prof. Noegel qualify the term wordplay with quotations in the title of the book? It is these questions and more that I sought to find out as he sat down with me for an interview to discuss the content and motivation that lies behind his new book.

It comes as no surprise that Prof. Noegel explains that the quotation marks around “wordplay” in the title originate in his attempt throughout the book to problematize the term. He explains the problem with “wordplay” by breaking it down into its two parts: word and play.

He explains that the problem with the term “word” is that it does not fully explain the function of these devices within non-alphabetic writing systems, “The problem with the term wordplay for those systems like Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Sumerian, etc., is that we aren’t dealing with words; we’re dealing with signs as the main elements of these devices. The main constituent element, the main component that is operative in these many kinds of devices that we consider wordplay is not the word at all, but the sign, because signs have logographic values, not just alphabetical, consonantal, or syllabic ones.”

With regard to the second part of the term “wordplay,” Prof. Noegel demonstrates that “play” does not accurately capture the purpose of these devices, “It’s always used for very solemn reasons, often in contexts that we might consider performative or ‘magical.’ So that’s why I’ve drawn attention to that term with the quotation marks, and of course I explain in the beginning part of the book why this is problematic.’”

However, it is not only the term wordplay that Prof. Noegel views as problematic. He also argues that terms like pun, alliteration, etc. have been used so loosely in scholarship on the ancient Near East that they too have become almost meaningless or at least, not helpful. He explains, “So terms like wordplay, pun, alliteration, these kinds of terms, I just find them unuseful. So I’ve tried to create a new taxonomy for how we can understand the many devices that we call ‘wordplay.’”

This desire of Prof. Noegel to create a new taxonomy for linguistic textual devices is at the heart of the book, which he hopes will serve as a reference work for both scholars and students who work with these ancient languages.  While he does provide an explanation of the various language systems in the book for those unfamiliar with them, the book is not intended for the general public. He explains, “This book is really addressing mostly students and scholars in the field, who have been talking about and interested in this phenomenon for a long time.”

By creating a consistent terminology for devices, which he divides into those of sound and meaning, Prof. Noegel hopes the taxonomy he presents in the book will serve as a foundation for renewed interdisciplinary dialogue, helping the disciplines become less isolated from one another by creating a shared vocabulary. As an example, he explains that many of the linguistic devices that he includes in the book have historically been approached differently, depending on whether they are being discussed within the field of Biblical Studies or in fields like Egyptology or Assyriology, “I thought, maybe a healthy corrective was needed, because if you look at Biblical Studies, especially the last 50 years of scholarship, they are treated as literary devices or rhetorical tropes. They are always couched in these sorts of terms, as opposed to the performative or magical. So I wanted to dislodge Biblical Studies from thinking of these things as purely literary and rhetorical. I also wanted to encourage Egyptologists and Assyriologists from neglecting the literary side. I wanted to bring those different disciplines into a conversation in a way that was more useful than what has been going on, namely the general surveying and cataloguing of devices.”

When I ended the interview by asking Prof. Noegel whether he has a favorite linguistic device, he responded as a true linguaphile who does not like to play favorites, but admits that he has a special love for bilingual polysemy, which is when a text can say one thing in one language but mean something else in another language. And what are examples of that kind of polysemy? For the answer to that question, you will need to check out the book for yourself, which is available as an open source via the Society of Biblical Literature website.

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Jennifer Hunter is a Ph.D. candidate in the University of Washington’s Interdisciplinary Near and Middle Eastern Studies program with a specialization in early Christianity and ritual studies. Her research focuses on the ritualization of Christian marriage, sex, and procreation in the ancient Mediterranean and late antique Middle East.