Circa Eleventh Century B.C.E.
Exorcist And Scholar

Author. Esagil-kina-ubbib identified himself as the author of the so-called Babylonian Theodicy, which must have been an important text among Mesopotamian scholars, as many cuneiform copies have been found. He describes himself as an incantation priest or exorcist, and, judging by his name, he may have been involved with E-sangil, the temple of Marduk in Babylon. The Babylonian Theodicy is cast as a dialogue between somebody who suffers injustice and a friend who tries to explain it in relation to the justice of the gods. It is an acrostic poem made up of twenty-seven stanzas of eleven lines each. Within each stanza all lines begin with the same sign. Read once and in order, the signs may be translated as: "I, Saggil-kinam-ubbib, the incantation priest, am an adorant of the god and the king."

Source:

W. G. Lambert...