Download or read book The Concept of Fate in Ancient Mesopotamia of the First Millennium written by Jack Newton Lawson and published by Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. This book was released on 1994 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Urim and Thummim written by Cornelis Van Dam and published by Eisenbrauns. This book was released on 1997 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first exhaustive study of the Urim and Thummim since 1824, and in this book Van Dam sets out to rectify that lack of attention. He investigates all of the biblical data concerning this enigmatic oracular means of high-priestly revelation and its connection, in the historical books of the Old Testament, with the common phrase "to enquire of Yahweh/God." After surveying the history of interpretation and the treatment of the terms in the various versions and translations, Van Dam examines the implications of similar oracular devices and priestly dress within the larger cultural context of the ancient Near East. He places the Urim and Thummim within the context of divine revelation and human inquiry and the corollary probibition of divination in ancient Israel. He concludes that the breastpiece functioned as a pouch to hold the Urim and Thummim, which therefore clearly were tangible objects. Van Dam traces the use of this oracular instrument through the early monarchy under David--from the time of Joshua through the early monarchy under David--and its apparent disappearance by the time of the "classical" prophets, where a shift to primarily verbal oracles occurs. Concurrent with his study of the history of the oracle, Van Dam interacts with current discussion on the nature and process of God's revelation to humankind.
Download or read book Paradise Now written by April D. De Conick and published by Society of Biblical Lit. This book was released on 2006 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Origins of Biblical Monotheism written by Mark S. Smith and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2003-11-06 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the leading scholars of ancient West Semitic religion discusses polytheism vs. monotheism by covering the fluidity of those categories in the ancient Near East. He argues that Israel's social history is key to the development of monotheism.
Download or read book Supernal Serpent written by Andrei A. Orlov and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A certain king built himself a palace and summoned two persons to decorate it for him. The king divided his palace into two parts, putting one person in charge of one half and the second in charge of the other. One of the persons decorated his part of the palace with beautiful paintings of birds and animals. But the second person painted his half of the palace with black dye which was reflecting everything like a mirror. When the king came to judge the two decorations, everything he had seen in the first person's part he also saw in the second's part, since it was reflected in its black dye like in a mirror. Not only that, but even all the king could wish to put in the first half of his palace appeared in the second half. This found favor in the eyes of the king"--
Download or read book In the Path of the Moon written by Francesca Rochberg and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2010 with total page 469 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In the Path of the Moon" offers a collection of essays concerning Babylonian celestial divination. It investigates various aspects of cuneiform celestial omens, horoscopes, and astronomy and their wide-ranging influences on later Hellenistic science and philosophy.
Download or read book Divine Secrets and Human Imaginations written by Angelika Berlejung and published by Mohr Siebeck. This book was released on 2021-04-13 with total page 695 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The articles in this volume of collected essays, written over the last two decades and all revised, updated, and supplemented with unpublished material, are grouped around two themes: Divine Secrets and Human Imaginations. The first essays deal with the production, initiation, use and function, the abduction, repatriation, and the replacement of divine images, their outer appearance, and the many facets of the divine presence theology in Ancient Mesopotamia. The essays on the second topic deal with human imaginations, human constructs, and constructed memories, which assign meaning to the past or to things or experiences that are beyond human control. Thematically, several aspects of the human condition are examined, such as the ideas associated in the Old Testament and the Ancient Near East with death, corporeality, enemies, disasters, utopias, and passionate love.
Download or read book Spirit and Reason written by Dale Launderville and published by Baylor University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ezekiel's symbolic thinking is an integrative rationality in which reason is regarded as operating within the heart through the empowerment and guidance of the Spirit.
Download or read book Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament written by John H. Walton and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leading evangelical scholar John Walton surveys the cultural context of the ancient Near East, bringing insight to the interpretation of specific Old Testament passages. This new edition of a top-selling textbook has been thoroughly updated and revised throughout to reflect the refined thinking of a mature scholar. It includes over 30 illustrations. Students and pastors who want to deepen their understanding of the Old Testament will find this a helpful and instructive study.
Download or read book Fortune and Misfortune in the Ancient Near East written by Olga Drewnowska and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2016-12-27 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the week between July 21 and 25, 2014, the University of Warsaw hosted more than three hundred Assyriologists from all over the world. In the course of five days, nearly 150 papers were read in three (and sometimes four) parallel sessions. Many of them were delivered within the framework of nine thematic workshops. The publication of most of these panels is underway, in separate volumes. As is usually the case, the academic sessions were accompanied by many opportunities for social interaction among the participants, and there was time to enjoy the historical and cultural benefits of Warsaw. Special honor was accorded to two American Assyriologists whose origins can be traced to Warsaw, Piotr Michalowski and Piotr Steinkeller, and a special session to recognize their contributions to the study of ancient Mesopotamia was organized. In this book are presented papers on the main theme of the meeting, “Fortune and Misfortune in the Ancient Near East.” The 31 essays are organized into 5 sections: (1) plenary presenations on “What Is Fortune? What Is Misfortune?” ; (2) humanity and fortune/misfortune and luck, with discussion of specific examples; (3) additional papers on definitions of fortune and misfortune; (4) the effects on city and state; and (5) God and temple.
Download or read book Divine Doppelg ngers written by Collin Cornell and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2021-05-18 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Bible says that YHWH alone is God and that there is none like him—but texts and artwork from antiquity show that many gods looked very similar. In this volume, scholars of the Hebrew Bible and its historical contexts address the problem of YHWH’s ancient look-alikes, providing recommendations for how Jews and Christians can think theologically about this challenge. Sooner or later, whether in a religion class or a seminary course, students bump up against the fact that God—the biblical God—was one among other, comparable gods. The ancient world was full of gods, including great gods of conquering empires, dynastic gods of petty kingdoms, goddesses of fertility, and personal spirit guardians. And in various ways, these gods look like the biblical God. Like the God of the Bible, they, too, controlled the fates of nations, chose kings, bestowed fecundity and blessing, and cared for their individual human charges. They spoke and acted. They experienced wrath and delight. They inspired praise. All of this leaves Jews and Christians in a bind: how can they confess that the God named YHWH was (and is) the true and living God, in view of this God’s profound similarities to all these others? The essays in this volume address the theological challenge these parallels create, providing reflections on how Jews and Christians can keep faith in YHWH as God while acknowledging the reality of YHWH’s divine doppelgängers. It will be welcomed by undergraduates studying religion; seminarians and graduate students of Bible, theology, and the ancient world; and adult education classes.
Download or read book Organization Representation and Symbols of Power in the Ancient Near East written by Gernot Wilhelm and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2012-06-30 with total page 843 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In July, 2008, the International Association for Assyriology met in Würzburg, Germany, for 5 days to deliver and listen to papers on the theme “Organization, Representation, and Symbols of Power in the Ancient Near East.” This volume, the proceedings of the conference, contains 70 of the papers read at the 54th annual Rencontre, including most of the papers from two workshop sessions, one on “collective governance” and the other on “the public and the state.” As the photo of the participants on the back cover demonstrates, the surroundings and ambience of the host city and university provided a wonderful backdrop for the meetings.
Download or read book Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs written by John Hilber and published by Zondervan Academic. This book was released on 2016-01-12 with total page 944 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many today find the Old Testament a closed book. The cultural issues seem insurmountable and we are easily baffled by that which seems obscure. Furthermore, without knowledge of the ancient culture we can easily impose our own culture on the text, potentially distorting it. This series invites you to enter the Old Testament with a company of guides, experts that will give new insights into these cherished writings. Features include • Over 2000 photographs, drawings, maps, diagrams and charts provide a visual feast that breathes fresh life into the text. • Passage-by-passage commentary presents archaeological findings, historical explanations, geographic insights, notes on manners and customs, and more. • Analysis into the literature of the ancient Near East will open your eyes to new depths of understanding both familiar and unfamiliar passages. • Written by an international team of 30 specialists, all top scholars in background studies.
Download or read book The Standards of Mesopotamia in the Third and Fourth Millennia BCE written by Renate Marian van Dijk-Coombes and published by Mohr Siebeck. This book was released on 2023-04-05 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Depictions of standards form a fundamental part of the visual repertoire of ancient Mesopotamia. These depictions can offer great insight into the thought world of the peoples with which they are associated, because different standards were associated with different deities, and could be found in multiple contexts. In this book, Renate Marian van Dijk-Coombes examines the standards which are represented in the visual culture of the third and fourth millennia BCE, covering the Uruk, Early Dynastic, Akkadian and Neo-Sumerian periods. She analyses each of the different standards, how they looked, what they symbolised and the context(s) in which they were found. In addition, developments and changes in the representation of these standards are traced across the periods under discussion.
Download or read book Divining the Woman of Endor written by J. Kabamba Kiboko and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-02-23 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An examination of the language of divination in the Hebrew Bible, particularly in 1 Samuel 28:3-25-the oft-called “Witch of Endor” passage. Kiboko contends that much of the vocabulary of divination in this passage and beyond has been mistranslated in authorized English and other translations used in Africa and in scholarly writings. Kiboko argues that the woman of Endor is not a witch. The woman of Endor is, rather, a diviner, much like other ancient Near Eastern and modern African diviners. She resists an inner-biblical conquest theology and a monologic authoritarian view of divination to assist King Saul by various means, including invoking the spirit of a departed person, Samuel. Kiboko carries out a Hebrew word-study shaped by the theories of Mikhail M. Bakhtin regarding the utterance, heteroglossia, and dialogism in order to understand the designative, connotative, emotive, and associative meanings of the many divinatory terms in the Hebrew Bible. She then examines 1 Samuel 28 and a number of prior translations thereof, using the ideological framework of African-feminist-postcolonial biblical interpreters and translation theories to uncover the hidden ideology or transcript of these translations. Finally, using African contextual/cultural hermeneutics and cross-cultural translation theory, Kiboko offers new English, French, and Kisanga translations of this passage that are both faithful to the original text and more appropriate to an inculturated-liberation African Christian hermeneutic, theology, and praxis.
Download or read book Mesopotamian Divination Texts Conversing with the Gods written by Ulla Susanne Koch and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Piety and Politics written by Dale Launderville and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2003 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ancient kings who did not honor the gods overlooked an indispensable means for ruling effectively in their communities. In many traditional societies royal authority was regarded as a divine gift bestowed according to the quality of the relationship of the king both to God or the gods and to the people. The tension and the harmony within these human and divine relationships demanded that the king repeatedly strive to integrate the community's piety with his political strategies. This fascinating study explores the relationship between religion and royal authority in three of history's most influential civilizations: Homeric Greece, biblical Israel, and Old Babylonian Mesopotamia. Dale Launderville identifies similar, contrasting, and analogous ways that piety functioned in these distinct cultures to legitimate the rule of particular kings and promote community well-being. Key to this religiopolitical dynamic was the use of royal rhetoric, which necessarily took the form of political theology. By examining a host of ancient texts and drawing on the insights of philosophers, poets, historians, anthropologists, social theorists, and theologians, Launderville shows how kings increased their status the more they demonstrated through their speech and actions that they ruled on behalf of God or the gods. Launderville's work also sheds light on a number of perennial questions about ancient political life. How could the people call the king to account? Did the people forfeit too much of their freedom and initiative by giving obedience to a king who symbolized their unity as a community? How did the religious traditions serve as a check on the king's power and keep alive the voice of the people? This study in comparative political theology elucidates these engaging concerns from multiple perspectives, making Piety and Politics of interest to readers in fields ranging from biblical studies and theology to ancient history and political science.
