Download or read book The Encounter with the Divine in Mesopotamia and Israel written by H. W. F. Saggs and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-10-06 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While most of its contemporary religions have faded away, Israelite religion continues to have a major influence in the world. First delivered in 1975 as a Jordan Lecture in Comparative Religion, this volume argues that in its beginnings Israelite religion had much in common with ancient Mesopotamian religion and suggests that its endurance is due to its dynamic development of the concepts it shared with other religions.
Download or read book Secrecy and the Gods written by Alan Lenzi and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Secrecy and the Gods is a comparative mythological study of the human reception and treatment of divine secret knowledge in ancient Mesopotamia and biblical Israel. The human royal council was the social model for ancient ideas about divine knowledge being secret - just as human kings had secrets so too did the gods. Diviners who received this knowledge from the gods in an on-going, ad hoc manner were an essential link between the divine assembly and the human royal council for whom such knowledge was intended. Scribes eventually adapted the ad hoc divinatory means of receiving divine communications to their culturally significant texts. By discursively asserting a historical connection between themselves and unique mediators with a close divine affiliation (the apkallus and Moses), the scribes constructed myths that legitimated their texts as divine revelation and claimed these were received in history through normal scribal channels. In this manner, scribes fixed the secret of the gods permanently among humans in textualized form that valorized their own position within society. Although the origin of divine secret knowledge was rooted in a common mythological idea of the divine assembly, its treatment was quite distinct. The Mesopotamians guarded divine secret knowledge through various scribal means, including the attachment of a Geheimwissen colophon to certain tablets (treated exhaustively), whereas biblical Israel published it openly. The contrast in treatment of divine secret knowledge was directly related to different mytho-political self-understandings: Mesopotamia's imperial aspirations versus biblical Israel's vassaldom. As vassals to Yahweh, the divine imperial king, the kings of Judah and Israel as presented in the biblical material were not to formulate secret orders; they were only to obey them.
Download or read book Ancient Israelite Literature in Its Cultural Context written by John H. Walton and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 1994-07 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book surveys within the various literary genres (cosmologies, personal archives and epics, hymns, and prayers) parallels between the Bible and Ancient Near Eastern literature.
Download or read book Ancient Mesopotamian Religion and Mythology written by W.G. Lambert and published by Mohr Siebeck. This book was released on 2016-03-17 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The late W.G. Lambert (1926-2011) was one of the foremost Assyriologists of the latter part of the twentieth century. His principle legacy is a large number of superb critical editions of Babylonian literary compositions. Many of the texts he edited were on religious and mythological subjects. He will always be remembered as the editor of the Babylonian Job (Ludlul bel nemeqi, also known as the Poem of the Righteous Sufferer), the Babylonian Flood Story (Atra-hasis) and the Babylonian Creation Epic (Enuma elish). The present book is a collection of twenty-three essays Lambert published between the years 1958 and 2004. These endure not only as the legacy of one of the greatest authorities on ancient Mesopotamian religion and mythology, but also because each makes statements of considerable validity and importance. As such, many are milestones in the fields of Mesopotamian religion and mythology.
Download or read book Cult Image and Divine Representation in the Ancient Near East written by Neal H. Walls and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While biblical prophets ridiculed the notion of humans fashioning an idol that they would then worship, ancient Near Eastern theologians developed a sophisticated religious system in which divine beings could be physically manifest within the material of a cultic image without being limited by that embodiment. The four essays in this compact volume examine the intriguing subject of cultic images and divine iconography in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia and Syria-Palestine. This interesting and eclectic group of essays explores the textual and artifactual evidence for the creation and veneration of divine images in the ancient Near East. The recent resurgence of scholarly interest in the study of divine representation in ancient Israel and the Near East makes this comprehensive reexamination especially timely.
Download or read book Sin and Sanction in Israel and Mesopotamia written by K. van der Toorn and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2018-07-17 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Wisdom Literature in Mesopotamia and Israel written by Richard J. Clifford and published by Society of Biblical Lit. This book was released on 2007 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The last fifty years have seen a dramatic increase of interest in the wisdom literature of the Bible, as scholars have come to appreciate the subtlety and originality of Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes as well as of Sirach and Wisdom of Solomon. Interest has likewise grown in the wisdom literatures of the neighboring cultures of Canaan, Egypt, and especially Mesopotamia. To help readers understand the place of biblical wisdom within this broader context, including its originality and distinctiveness, this volume offers a collection of essays by Assyriologists and biblicists on the social, intellectual, and literary setting of Mesopotamian wisdom; on specific wisdom texts; and on key themes common to both Mesopotamian and biblical culture. --From publisher's description.
Download or read book Faith Tradition and History written by Alan Ralph Millard and published by Eisenbrauns. This book was released on 1994 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Israel s Original Sin written by Richard J. Rolwing and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2002-05 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WAS THE GOD OF JOSHUA THE GOD OF JESUS? A relook at modern Israel´s roots in ancient Israel, salva- tion history, biblical inspiration, partial revelation, imperfect theology, and misguided leaders among Jews, Muslims, and Christians. It asks, considering Mohammed, Ben Gurion, and Harry Truman, if Joshua has not had as much influence on western civilization as Jesus. "What on earth is God doing in the Middle East?" Do Uncle Sam and his protoge Israel justify divine providence in human history? Do victories in war and success in business prove God´s blessing, and do failures in finance and disasters in health (Aids) manifest God´s displeasure? How does Christ´s cross (theology) fit into history (politics)? "This book is indeed thoughtful and creative. It highlightsthe need for all of us today to be much more self-critical; especially for us Christians to see how domination theology has been a part of our own approach." Fr. (Dr.) James Bacik, author of Apologetics and the Eclipse of Mystery.
Download or read book Ancient Israel written by Niels Peter Lemche and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-19 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When this provocative text was first published, Lemche presented a new model of how we should understand Israelite society, its history and its religion. Lemche argues first that 'Israel' was the result of a social development among the Canaanite population of Palestine in the second half of the second millennium BCE. This implies that Israelite religion was originally 'Canaanite' and that what we think of as typically 'Jewish' religion did not arise until c. 500 BCE. Lemche's radical reassessment of Israelite history is based on the conviction that the Old Testament contains hardly any historical sources older than the seventh century BCE. The early history of Israel must therefore be reconstructed from archaeological results and non-biblical evidence, not from the Old Testament. In this new edition Lemche provides an extensive new introduction and bibliography, considering how the field has developed since the work first appeared.
Download or read book Essential Papers on Israel and the Ancient Near East written by Frederick E. Greenspahn and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 1991-06 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Bible and the Religions of Ancient Egypt Mesopotamia and Greece written by Robert Ignatius Letellier and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2023-05-12 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study examines how the cultures of Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece, with their highly developed senses of religion and spirituality, provide a useful and even crucial context for a fuller study and understanding of the Bible. The beliefs and practices of these ancient civilizations embodied in such important literary works as the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the Sumerian/Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh, and Homer’s perennially sublime Iliad and Odyssey, as well as the great Hellenic tragedies, are major cultural legacies that have enriched civilization and indubitably deepen our understanding of the Biblical Books, their cultural location, and their enduring moral authority.
Download or read book The Lost World of the Torah written by John H. Walton and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2019-02-26 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our handling of what we call biblical law veers between controversy and neglect. On the one hand, controversy arises when Old Testament laws seem either odd beyond comprehension (not eating lobster) or positively reprehensible (executing children). On the other, neglect results when we consider the law obsolete, no longer carrying any normative power (tassels on clothing, making sacrifices). Even readers who do attempt to make use of the Old Testament "law" often find it either irrelevant, hopelessly laden with "thou shalt nots," or simply so confusing that they throw up their hands in despair. Despite these extremes, people continue to propose moral principles from these laws as "the biblical view" and to garner proof texts to resolve issues that arise in society. The result is that both Christians and skeptics regularly abuse the Torah, and its true message often lies unheard. Walton and Walton offer in The Lost World of the Torah a restorative vision of the ancient genre of instruction for wisdom that makes up a significant portion of the Old Testament. In the ancient Near East, order was achieved through the wisdom of those who governed society. The objective of torah was to teach the Israelites to be wise about the kind of order needed to receive the blessings of God’s favor and presence within the context of the covenant. Here readers will find fresh insight on this fundamental genre of the Old Testament canon. The books in the Lost World Series follow the pattern set by Bible scholar John H. Walton, bringing a fresh, close reading of the Hebrew text and knowledge of ancient Near Eastern literature to an accessible discussion of the biblical topic at hand using a series of logic-based propositions.
Download or read book Israel s Past written by Bob Becking and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2021-10-04 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How should one write a history of Ancient Israel? In the last few decades, a lively discussion has taken place on the historiography of ancient Israel. Minimalists such as Philip Davies, Thomas Thompson, and Niels Peter Lemche challenged the usefulness of the Hebrew Bible as a source for constructing Israel's past. Maximalists like Baruch Halpern and William Dever argued instead that the data from the Hebrew Bible should be trusted until otherwise proven. Others – among whom we can name Hans Barstad, Rainer Albertz, and Lester Grabbe – took a third road. The essays in this volume follow that third road by applying insights from the field of philosophy of history. A dozen case studies from David to the earliest Samaritans demonstrate how difficult it is to write a history of ancient Israel without falling in the abyss of an ideology in one direction or another. The matrix designed by Manfred Weippert to look at the past through five windows (landscape, climate, archaeology, epigraphy and only at the end the Hebrew Bible) turned out to be more helpful. The conclusion of this research is that there are some stable pillars in the swamp of the past, but it comes with the warning that the space between these pillars is large and cannot easily be filled.
Download or read book The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel written by Benjamin D. Sommer and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-29 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sommer utilizes a lost ancient Near Eastern perception of divinity according to which a god has more than one body and fluid, unbounded selves. Though the dominant strains of biblical religion rejected it, a monotheistic version of this theological intuition is found in some biblical texts. Later Jewish and Christian thinkers inherited this ancient way of thinking; ideas such as the sefirot in Kabbalah and the trinity in Christianity represent a late version of this theology. This book forces us to rethink the distinction between monotheism and polytheism, as this notion of divine fluidity is found in both polytheistic cultures (Babylonia, Assyria, Canaan) and monotheistic ones (biblical religion, Jewish mysticism, Christianity), whereas it is absent in some polytheistic cultures (classical Greece). The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel has important repercussions not only for biblical scholarship and comparative religion but for Jewish-Christian dialogue.
Download or read book The Archaeology of Ancient Israelite Knowledge written by Robert S. Kawashima and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2022-07-05 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Archaeology of Ancient Israelite Knowledge reconstructs in carefully researched detail the worldview of the ancient Israelites writers responsible for the Hebrew Bible. What was the role of God in their lives? How did they see the relationship between God, nature, and themselves? Contrary to prevailing scholarly understanding, Robert Kawashima argues that the ancient Israelites saw God in a radically different way than the peoples around them. God no longer interconnected everything—humans, nature—but became seen as sharply separated from nature. Elegantly written and powerfully argued, The Archaeology of Ancient Israelite Knowledge is essential reading for anyone wanting to grasp the Hebrew Bible and the ancient world that gave rise to it.
Download or read book The Liberating Image written by J. Richard Middleton and published by Brazos Press. This book was released on 2005-03 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers a deeply informed take on a key Christian doctrine and its interpretation and relevance today.
