Biblical Demonology: 7iv – The Ittim, Ghosts in Isaiah

Who are the ittim (iṭṭîm), translated as ghosts in Isaiah 19:3?

Often we’re told that ghosts do not appear in the Bible, yet if you’re familiar with Ghosts, Ghouls and God, you’ll already know that ghosts pop up in all sorts of places within Scripture… if you know the original language, and if you have a Bible translation which acknowledges the cultural understandings of the words in the original languages.

Let’s look at the verse in question for this article:

Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be demoralized within them; And I will confuse their strategy, So that they will resort to idols (ĕlîlîm) and ghosts of the dead (ittim), And to mediums (ôbōwṯ) and spiritists (yiddə‘ōnîm).

Isaiah 19:3 (NASB)

The NASB is probably the best translation, though you can find all common English translations use slightly different words, which can really skew the understanding of the words used in this verse.

The word ittim is translated as “charmers” (KJV), “ghosts” (NRSV), “ghosts of the dead” (NASB), “spirits of the dead” (HCSB). The KJV is the odd one out here, as the remaining translations use words which convey the idea that these are spirits of the dead, ghosts. Why the change from “charmers” to spirits of the dead?

Ittim, a Hapax Legomenon

No, not a Lego Man Horcrux! A hapax legomenon is a word which is only found once in Scripture and the word ittim is one of these instances. It is therefore quite difficult to translate these words using only Scripture. The translators of the KJV would have had to use the context of the other words in the verse to be able to understand what this particular word might have meant.

And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols (ĕlîlîm), and to the charmers (ittim), and to them that have familiar spirits (ôbōwṯ), and to the wizards (yiddə‘ōnîm).

Isaiah 19:3 (KJV)

You can see why, when you’ve got all these physical objects: idols, those with familial spirits (mediums), and “wizards” – all perceived to be to do with spirits – that they might want to put in something else that had a physical presence [1]. Therefore, they chose to translate ittim as “charmers” as charmers were believed to have strange magical powers which were thought to exist in the same category as the others mentioned in this verse.

What the KJV translators didn’t have was archaeological evidence to help provide any other context and usage of the word outside of Scripture… With the advent of archaeology and ancient linguistic studies, we are able to provide the meaning of this strange word.

The Akkadian Eṭemmu

Archaeological discoveries have revealed that the Akkadian word eṭemmu, is the underlying term for the biblical ittim [2].

Eṭemmu seems to have its origin in the 17th Century BCE Babylonian creation of humans account called the Atraḥasis Epic, which begins after creation, but before humans are created. Fed up with doing all the work of digging out the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the younger gods rebel against the older gods who assigned them this task, and it is suggested that they create humans to do the work for them.

One of the gods, We-ilu, offers himself as a sacrifice to achieve this purpose, and his flesh and blood are mingled with clay by the mother goddess, Nintu, to create humans:

On the first, seventh, and fifteenth of the month
He made a purification by washing.
Geshtu-E [We-ilu], a god who had intelligence,
They slaughtered in their assembly.
Nintu mixed clay
with his flesh and blood.
They heard the drumbeat forever after.
A ghost came into existence from the god’s flesh,
and she proclaimed it as his living sign.
The ghost existed so as not to forget the slain god.

Atrahasis, Tablet I

Humans are therefore made from clay and the flesh and blood of – a slain god who has ṭemu, which can be translated as understanding / intelligence / psyche (soul), and humans survive death as an eṭemmu, which is consistently translated as “ghosts” [3], fitting modern translations of Isaiah 19:3 with its ittim derivative.

According to the DDD [4], the swift burial of the deceased is an important ritual to ensure the quiet repose of the eṭemmu in the afterlife. Failure to achieve this, or even disturbance of the buried body, could result in the loss of their human identity there, leading to them becoming unquiet dead who roam and cause trouble to the living. They could even become so non-human that they would move from Walton’s Class III to Class II daimones [5], in particular the Akkadian utukku (what we today would call evil demons).

Magical means were required to dispel utukku and lay to rest unquiet eṭemmu. Scurlock and Oppenheim [6] give a list of issues that were believed could create “unquiet dead”, including those of someone:

• dying abandoned in the steppe (a place of desert spirits (like those mentioned in Isaiah 13 & 34))
• dying in water, rivers, wells, irrigation ditches
• thirst, hunger, fire, chill,
• crimes against the gods and kings
• murderers
• left to die uncared for.

In an attempt to exorcise the spirit from the afflicted, certain rituals would be carried out: reburying the dead properly, salves and potions for engaging in dialogue with the dead (like those used by the Medium of Endor). Sometimes deceased family ancestors would be invoked to take the spirit down to the underworld (and conversely raise one up from the underworld, as per the Medium of Endor with her ‘ôb familial spirit, and the yiddeoni [1]. One Akkadian name for a necromancer is a mušēli eṭemmi [7] (one that raises ghosts).

If you have time (an hour), why not watch the amazing Irvine Finkel, a curator at the British Museum, who tells us about the first ghost stories, recorded on ancient Mesopotamian tablets:

Conclusion

We have seen that Isaiah 19:3 contains a strange, one-time only word iṭṭîm, which in times prior to the advent of archaeology could only be translated by a guess, based upon its literary context in the verse, hence “charmers” rather than the more accurate “ghosts”.

In more recent times, we have a wealth of archaeological evidence from various Akkadian tablets which suggest that the origin of ittim is from the word eṭemmu, which everywhere else in Akkadian literature is translated as “ghost”. Thus, modern Bible translators will translate ittim into “ghosts” or “spirit of the dead” for their translation of Isaiah 19:3.

We have thus found another mention of “ghosts” or “spirits of the dead” in the Scriptures, and can class these as “unquiet dead” who are making themselves known to the living for reasons unknown. According to Walton’s classification, these would be Class III daimones so we can update our diagram accordingly:

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Acronyms & Bibliography

DDD – Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible

Oppenheim, A. L. (ed.) (1958), The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago – Vol. 4 (E), Chicago, IL: Oriental Institute.

Scurlock, J. (2006), Magico-Medical Means of Treating Ghost Induced Illnessess in Ancient Mesopotamia, NV, Leiden: Brill Styx.

Van der Toorn, K., Van der Horst, P. W., et al (1998), Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible. Lieden, Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers.

Walton, J. H. and Walton, J. H. (2019), Demons and Spirits in Biblical Theology: Reading the Biblical Text in Its Cultural and Literary Context, Eugene, OR: Cascade.

Footnotes

[1] If you’ve been a regular reader of Ghosts, Ghouls and God articles, you will already be familiar (pun intended) with the word ō·ḇō·wṯ, or ‘ôb as a familial spirit which mediums back then used to go into the underworld and summon up the dead (and if you’re not, I do heartily recommend this article which explains it in great detail). We’ll look into the yid·də·‘ō·nîm or yiddeoni in a future article. Spoiler: these are non-human spirits which seem to be able to access future events for fortune telling purposes.

[2] DDD, 309.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid., 310.

[5] Walton, 56.

[6] Scurlock, 33, c.f. Oppenheim, 399.

[7] Oppenheim, 401.