느부갓네살 2세: 역사와 전승

Abstract

Nebuchadnezzar II, a king of New Babylonian kingdom, was known as the greatest and the most wicked king in history, because he was described in the Bible as a king who conquered Judah, destroyed the temple and Jerusalem, and exiled Jews to Babylon. Resources on Nebuchadnezzar II have been transmitted through three districts. First, Babylon produced chronicles, inscriptions, palace records which were written during new Babylonian kingdom. Second, the kingdom of Judah left a lot of writings in the Bible, apocryphal books, Talmud, and Josephus’ book. Third, some materials are left by Greek authors such as Megasthenes, Berossus, Eupolemus, and Polyhistor. If one compares materials from three districts, some differences are found. In Babylonian resources, only historical records during Nebuchadnezzar’s reign are found, whereas a lot of traditions and legends are added in materials inherited through Judah and Greece. This paper pursues an issue of ‘history and traidtion’ on Nebuchadnezzar II. Babylonian records did not tell ‘hanging garden’ which is one of seven wonders in the world, dream interpretation, insane picture of Nebuchadnezzar II. But later Judean and Greek historians added some local tradition more lively. It is very hard to distinguish history from traditions in ancient writings. I set Babylonian sources as historical facts, because they were written in reign of Nebucadnezzar II following their ancestral palace tradition, and they seemed to have no legends or stories. In this paper, I presented historical Nebuchadnezzar as a conqueror, a builder, and a religious man based upon Babylonian sources, and then investigated traditions and legends on Nebuchadnezzar in Greece and Judah. According to Babylonian sources, we cannot find the evidence that Nebuchadnezzar II destroyed foreign countries brutally, made huge construction like ‘hanging garden,’ and showed insanity in his old age. The Greek added heroic and mythological features to historical Nebuchadnezzar. Judah interpreted Nebuchadnezzar as an instrument for God. On expanding the image of Nebuchadnezzar as a conqueror, Judean people added abnormal behavior of Nabonidus to Nebuchadnezzar. Based upon historical Nebuchadnezzar, Greece and Judah developed the tradition and legend from their own concerns and interests.