The sacred dance

by W. O. E. Oesterley

The first passage in the Old Testament with which we are specially concerned is 1 Sam. x. 5 ff.:

... and it shall come to pass, when thou art come thither to the city, that thou shalt meet a band (ḥebel) of prophets coming down from the high place (bāmāh), and in front of them harp and drum and pipe and lyre, and they shall be prophesying...,

cp. xix. 20-24. It is true, no direct mention of the sacred dance is made here, but in view of the enumeration of musical instruments which, as we have seen, usually accompanied dancing, it is reasonable to assume that a ritual dance was taking place. That it was a religious exercise of some kind is made clear by the fact that they had come down from the high place (bāmāh), i.e. a sanctuary. The technical name for such a band of prophets, ḥebel, “rope” or “string” (cp. Josh. ii. 15), shows that the procession was in single file[175]; with which we may compare the sacred dance in single file depicted on the Hittite inscription at Boghazkeui (see [p. 59]). The account given in the Old Testament of the “prophesying” of these early prophets, and of the means employed whereby they reached the pitch of excitement required for the purpose, is so sober and restrained that it would be difficult to form a picture of the whole proceeding without the help of analogous performances among other peoples. And we are justified in believing that the practice of this type of dance among other peoples does throw light on its mode of performance among these Israelite prophets, because it is a question here of a phenomenon, a curious phenomenon, which appears at a certain stage of religious development, with few exceptions, all over the world. Its details may, and do, differ; but the essence of the rite is the same. There are innate tendencies in human nature which produce similar results; and this is one of them. So that when the means used for producing such results are given in greater detail in many cases, we are justified in believing them to have been similar in a case in which, for some reason or other, the details are only partially described. But if the details of the means used to produce the result are somewhat lacking in the Old Testament account, the result itself is stated clearly enough. The object of all that took place was to be “possessed,”—in this case by the spirit of Jahwe; for it was this “possession,” this indwelling of the deity, which enforced the “prophesying.” In the passage before us the centre of interest, in the eyes of the writer, is Saul. Of him it is said that, as a result of his contact with the “rope” of prophets prophesying, “the spirit of Jahwe” would come “mightily” upon him, and that he, too, would prophesy with them, and “be turned into another man”; the context shows that his contact with the prophets meant joining in their ecstatic dance, the effect of which is graphically described in verses 11, 12:

And it came to pass, when all that knew him beforetime saw that, behold, he prophesied with the prophets, then the people said one to another, What is this that is come unto the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?...

The surprise here expressed was natural enough seeing the extravagances to which the ecstatic state led, for in xix. 24 it is said of Saul that as one of the results of his “possession” he “stripped off his clothes ... and lay down naked all that day and all that night.”

The point with which we are primarily concerned is the means employed to get oneself into the ecstatic state required in order to become “possessed.” As is well known, these were of various kinds; but the one most prevalent in antiquity, as well as among men in a low stage of culture at the present day, was, and is, the sacred dance accompanied by music. While there is only one other passage (on which see below) in the Old Testament which deals in any detail with this type of sacred dance, it would be the greatest mistake to suppose that it was of only rare occurrence[176]. In the passage just referred to, there is no hint as to its being anything unusual; the only thing unusual was Saul’s “possession,” while the very saying, “Is Saul also among the prophets?” points to the peculiarity of the prophets as something recognized and well known. And from what we gather as to the existence of the ecstatic dance among other peoples, the fact of its existence among the Israelites does not strike one as other than what one would expect.

But we turn now to another passage in which we read of a sacred dance of a peculiar kind which seems to develop into an orgiastic form of ecstatic dance. This was a ritual limping dance performed at sanctuaries, and apparently in cases of great emergency. Its object was not the same as that form of it to which we have just referred; however, as it evidently must belong to the category of ecstatic dances, we consider it here. The passage is the familiar one, 1 Kings xviii. 26, where it is said that the prophets of Baal executed a special kind of limping dance around the altar: “They limped about the altar which was made.” This was done after the ineffectual calling upon the name of their god from morning till noon, so that it seems to have been regarded by them as a special means of appeal to which recourse was had as a last resort. The dance consisted of a step which had the effect of making the dancers look lame[177]. This is clear from the use of the root in other connexions. Thus, Mephibosheth “became lame” (2 Sam. iv. 4 and ix. 13), as the result of a fall. The same root is used in reference to men who are lame in 2 Sam. v. 6-8, and also in Lev. xxi. 18, where a lame man is not permitted “to offer bread to his God.” It is also used in reference to animals not regarded as fit to be sacrificed because of lameness (Deut. xv. 21, Mal. i. 8-13; cp. also Isa. xxxiii. 23, xxxv. 6, Jer. xxxi. 8, Prov. xxvi. 7, Job xxix. 15; and as a proper name it occurs in 1 Chron. iv. 12, Ezra ii. 49, Neh. iii. 6, vii. 51). In a figurative way, but connoting the same idea, the word occurs in 1 Kings xviii. 21: “How long will ye limp upon two legs?” That the prophet is making a word-play here is obvious; but the passage raises the question as to the kind of step in which the dance was performed. Limping on two legs can hardly mean that the “limping” was done on both legs at the same time, for a frog-leap of this kind would not suggest lameness! The limp must have been done on either leg alternately, yet neither leg being raised from the ground; as this involves the bending of the knees, one can form a fairly clear idea of what this dance looked like. The word for “legs” is used in Isa. xvii. 6, xxvii. 10 of the forked branches of a tree, cp. Ezek. xxxi. 6-8; if one pictures to oneself such a fork, gnarled and bent, it might certainly suggest the position of a man’s legs while performing this dance. The purpose of this curious dance-step may well have been that by simulating lameness it was thought that the pity of the god would be aroused, and that he would therefore be moved to answer petitions. As Robertson Smith says, “the limping dance of the priests of Baal in 1 Kings xviii. 26 is associated with forms of mournful supplication, and in Syriac the same verb, in different conjugations, means ‘to dance’ and ‘to mourn[178].’” While the dance began in sober style[179] it gradually increased to an orgiastic frenzy, as is clear from verse 28: “And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lances, till the blood gushed out upon them”; cp. Hos. vii. 14[180].

This dance was performed by the prophets of Baal, and it may therefore be objected that it does not reflect Israelite usage because the worship of these prophets was Phoenician (cp. 1 Kings xvi. 30-33); but to this it must be replied that the Old Testament gives ample evidence to show that the influence of the indigenous cults of the land was very powerful upon the Israelites[181]; the prophet Elijah himself regards practically the whole nation as under this influence (1 Kings xix. 10, 18). Moreover, we have mention of a ritual dance similar to that just referred to in Gen. xxxii. 30, 31 (31, 32 in Hebr.), though the word used is a different one (zalaʿ):

And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel; for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. And the sun rose upon him as he passed over Penuel, and he limped upon his thigh.