rab ṭabbāḥîm and śar haṭṭabbāḥîm, Commanders of the Royal Bodyguard?

This article argues that the terms rab ṭabbāḥîm and śar haṭṭabbāḥîm do not refer to the commender of the royal bodyguard, but echo an Assyrian title of a high official. The conclusion is that the common translation “chief of the royal bodyguard” cannot be supported by good arguments and should therefore be abandoned. The title as it appears in the Hebrew Bible is equivalent to (Babylonian) rab nuḫatimmi and (Greek) archimageiros. Its literal meaning is “chief cook” and it denotes a high royal functionary. The title can be compared to the title rab šāqê, literally “chief cup-bearer,” but equally denoting a high royal officer. In the cases of 2 Kgs 25, the book of Jeremiah, and Dan 2.14, the title is perhaps best rendered as “a high (royal) functionary.” In the case of Gen 40–41 one may suspect that, originally, the title was used literally to refer to the chief cook or head of the royal kitchen. However, in the final text of Genesis (with expansions of this title in 37.36 and 39.1 and the house of the śar haṭṭabbāḥîm as a prison) the best solution is to render the title similarly to the other cases, as a “high (royal) functionary.”