Kudurru

The above photo is of a kudurru.  A kudurru is an ancient boundary stone used in Babylonia from the 16th to 12th century B.C.  This time period covers roughly the time period from the time the Israelites were in captivity in Egypt until just before the time of David.  

For our purposes, kudurru are important because they provide most of the evidence we have for the royal grant covenant.  The kudurru serve as a record of a land grant from the suzerain to his loyal vassal.   Two copies of the kudurru were made, with one placed in a temple and the other set up on the land as a boundary marker confirming legal ownership and detailing the boundaries of the land grant. Typically images of the gods who protect the covenant were inscribed on the kudurru along with a list of divine curses for anyone who broke the contract.  The kudurru of Abba-El to his servant contains an inscription that states, "may I (Abba-El) be cursed if I take back what I gave you.'

The kudurru above dates from the 12th century B.C. and records land granted from Governor Eanna-shum-iddina to his servant Gula-eres. The text at the bottom contains the names of 9 Babylonian gods who will curse any person who removes, ignores, or destroys the kudurru.  Since few people living in the ancient near east would have been literate, the top of the kudurru graphically illustrates the gods who protect the royal grant.  For example the crescent represents the moon god Sin, the 8 pointed star represents Ishtar, and the rayed disk represents the sun god Shamash.  

The Old Testament scholar, Moshe Weinfield, has done a lot of research on kudurru and shown a relationship between the royal grant arrangements detailed by the kudurru and the Abrahamic covenant.  

His conclusion is that the Abrahamic covenant differs substantially from the suzerain-vassal covenant since the Abrahamic covenant contains all the characteristic of a royal grant covenant.   According to Romans 5 and Galatians 3, Paul agrees with Weinfield that there is a difference between suzerain-covenants like the one God made with the Israelites at Sinai and royal grant covenants such as the one God made with Abraham.