Constructing Prophetic Divination

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martti Nissinen
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Studies ◽  
Theoretical Foundation ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Source Material ◽  
The Other ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Common Category ◽  
Divine Knowledge ◽  
Historical Phenomenon

This chapter lays the theoretical foundation of the book, defining prophecy as a non-technical, or inspired, form of divination, in which the prophet acts as an intermediary of divine knowledge. It is argued that prophecy is as much a scholarly construct as a historical phenomenon documented in Near Eastern, biblical, as well as Greek textual sources. The knowledge of the historical phenomenon depends essentially on the genre and purpose of the source material which, however, is very fragmentary and, due to its secondary nature, does not yield a full and balanced picture of ancient prophecy. The chapter also discusses the purpose of comparative studies, arguing that they are necessary, not primarily to reveal the influence of one source on the other, but to identify a common category of ancient Eastern Mediterranean prophecy.

Keyholes for Comparative Reconstruction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martti Nissinen
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Important Thing ◽  
Common Category ◽  
Single Text ◽  
Cultural Sphere ◽  
The Common ◽  
Historical Phenomenon ◽  
Comparative Reconstruction

The most important thing to be taken into account when attempting to reconstruct ancient divination is the nature of the source material. Every single text tells us something about the historical phenomenon. When put together, the texts provide a set of “keyholes” that show parts of the historical prophetic landscape, but at the same time hide even bigger parts of it. This chapter draws together the views to be seen through the keyholes, identifying the common category of prophecy in the ancient Eastern Mediterranean cultural sphere. Without a comparative perspective, the picture of ancient prophecy available from fragmented sources would never grow bigger, and the question of the larger landscape visible through different keyholes would not emerge.

scholarly journals Prophetic Intermediation in the Ancient Near East

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martti Nissinen
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Near East ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Literary Interpretation ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Divine Knowledge ◽  
Historical Phenomenon ◽  
The Many

The chapter serves as an introduction to the written evidence of the historical phenomenon of prophecy in the ancient Near East. Prophecy is understood as intermediation of divine knowledge by non-technical means, constituting one of the many modes of divination. The documents of ancient Near Eastern prophecy are scarce and their chronological or geographical distribution is uneven, the majority of texts deriving from Mari (seventeenth century B.C.E.) and Assyria (seventh century B.C.E.). Nevertheless, the phenomenon can be observed across the Near East, allowing a historical and phenomenological comparison with the later evidence of Greek oracles. The chapter surveys the prophetic phenomenon from the perspectives of writing and literary interpretation, spirit possession, gender, and the relationships of prophets with religious and political institutions. Enough commonalities are found in the Near Eastern, Greek, and biblical texts to warrant the assumption of the existence of a common ancient Eastern Mediterranean prophetic phenomenon.

scholarly journals Ancient Prophecy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martti Nissinen
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Comprehensive Treatment ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Common Category

This book is a comprehensive treatment of the ancient prophetic phenomenon as it comes to us through biblical, Near Eastern, and Greek sources. Once a distinctly biblical concept, prophecy is today acknowledged as yet another form of divination and a phenomenon that can be found all over the ancient Eastern Mediterranean. Even Greek oracle, traditionally discussed separately from biblical and Mesopotamian prophecy, is essentially part of the same picture. The book gives an up-to-date presentation of textual sources, whether cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia, the Hebrew Bible, Greek inscriptions, or ancient historians, the number of which has increased substantially in recent times. In addition, the book includes comparative essays on topics such as prophetic ecstasy; temples as venues of prophetic performances; prophets and political rulers; and the prophets’ gender which can be either male, female, or non-gendered. The book argues for a common category of ancient Eastern Mediterranean prophecy, even though the fragmentary and secondary nature of the sources allows only a restricted view to it. The ways prophetic divination manifests itself in ancient sources depend not only on the socio-religious position of the prophets but also on the genre and purpose of the sources. The book shows that, even though the view of the ancient prophetic landscape is restricted by the fragmentary and secondary nature of the sources, it is possible to reconstruct essential features of prophetic divination.

Activity of Plasmin and Streptokinase-Activator on Substituted Arginine and Lysine Esters

1966 ◽  
Vol 16 (01/02) ◽  
pp. 018-031 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Sherry ◽  
Norma Alkjaersig ◽  
A. P Fletcher
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Structure ◽  
Methyl Ester ◽  
Comparative Studies ◽  
Esterase Activity ◽  
Methyl Esters ◽  
Hydrolytic Activity ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand

SummaryComparative studies have been made of the esterase activity of plasmin and the streptokinase-activator of plasminogen on a variety of substituted arginine and lysine esters. Human plasmin preparations derived by different methods of activation (spontaneous in glycerol, trypsin, streptokinase (SK) and urokinase) are similar in their esterase activity; this suggests that the molecular structure required for such esterase activity is similar for all of these human plasmins. Bovine plasmin, on the other hand, differs from human plasmin in its activity on several of the substrates studied (e.g., the methyl esters of benzoyl arginine and tosyl, acetyl and carbobenzoxy lysine), a finding which supports the view that molecular differences exist between the two animal plasmins. The streptokinase-activator hydrolyzes both arginine and lysine esters but the ratios of hydrolytic activity are distinct from those of plasmin and of other activators of plasminogen. The use of benzoyl arginine methyl ester as a substrate for the measurement of the esterase activity of the streptokinase-activator is described.

Elementy poetyki ludowej w powieści Rzeczy uprzyjemniające. Utopia T. Bołdak-Janowskiej

2020 ◽  
pp. 182-197
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Goral
Keyword(s):  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Text Analysis ◽  
Literary Text ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
The One ◽  
Cultural Features

The aim of the article is to analyse the elements of folk poetics in the novel Pleasant things. Utopia by T. Bołdak-Janowska. The category of folklore is understood in a rather narrow way, and at the same time it is most often used in critical and literary works as meaning a set of cultural features (customs and rituals, beliefs and rituals, symbols, beliefs and stereotypes) whose carrier is the rural folk. The analysis covers such elements of the work as place, plot, heroes, folk system of values, folk rituals, customs, and symbols. The description is conducted based on the analysis of source material as well as selected works in the field of literary text analysis and ethnolinguistics. The analysis shows that folk poetics was creatively associated with the elements of fairy tales and fantasy in the studied work, and its role consists of – on the one hand – presenting the folk world represented and – on the other – presenting a message about the meaning of human existence.

Kroniek van een aangekondigd ontslag. Twee opmerkelijke brieven van Alfons Van de Perre betreffende zijn afscheid als volksvertegenwoordiger in 1919

2007 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-63
Author(s):  
Luc Vandeweyer
Keyword(s):  
Political Party ◽  
First World War ◽  
Source Material ◽  
The Other ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Will ◽  
The One ◽  
First World ◽  
Member Of Parliament

In deze bronnenpublicatie ontleedt Luc Vandeweyer de parlementaire loopbaan van de geneesheer-politicus Alfons Van de Perre: hoe hij in 1912 feitelijk  tegen wil en dank  volksvertegenwoordiger werd, zich anderzijds blijkbaar naar behoren kweet van zijn taak en tijdens de eerste verkiezingen na de Eerste Wereldoorlog (1919) zijn mandaat hernieuwd zag maar meteen daarop ontslag nam. Volgens de bekende historiografische lezing was de abdicatie van de progressieve politicus een daad van zelfverloochening die enerzijds werd ingegeven door gezondheidsmotieven en  anderzijds was geïnspireerd door de wil om de eenheid binnen de katholieke partij te herstellen. De auteur komt op basis van nieuw en onontgonnen bronnenmateriaal tot de vaststelling dat Van de Perres spontane beslissing tot ontslag in de eerste plaats een strategische keuze was: in het parlement, waar hij zich overigens niet erg in zijn schik voelde, kon hij minder invloed uitoefenen op de Vlaamse beweging dan via de talrijke engagementen waarvoor hij voortaan de handen vrij had. Eén ervan was die van bestuurder én publicist bij het dagblad De Standaard.________Chronicle of the announcement of a resignation. Two remaekable letters by Alfons Van de Perre concerning his resignation as a Member of Parliament in 1919In this source publication Luc Vandeweyer analyses the parliamentary career of the physician-politician Alfons Van de Perre and he describes how Van de Perre became a Member of Parliament in 1912 actually against the grain, yet how he apparently did a good job carrying out his duties. During the first elections after the First World War (1919) Van de Perre found that his mandate was renewed, but he handed in his resignation immediately afterwards. According to the familiar historiographical interpretation the abdication of the progressive politician was an act of self-denial, which was prompted on the one hand by health reasons and on the other hand inspired by the will to restore unity within the Catholic political party. On the basis of new and so far unexplored source material the author concludes that the spontaneous decision by Van de Perres to hand in his resignation was above all a strategic choice: in the Parliament, which he did not much enjoy anyway, he could exert less influence on the Flemish movement than via his numerous commitments, which he was now free to take on. One of these was the post of director as well as political commentator of the newspaper De Standaard.

Middle Knowledge and the Soteriological Problem of Evil

1991 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
David P. Hunt
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Problem Of Evil ◽  
The Other ◽  
Alvin Plantinga ◽  
Subjunctive Conditionals ◽  
Middle Knowledge ◽  
Divine Knowledge ◽  
Considerable Controversy

According to the thesis of divine ‘middle knowledge’, first propounded by the Jesuit theologian Luis de Molina in the sixteenth century, subjunctive conditionals stating how free agents would freely respond under counter-factual conditions (call such expressions ‘counterfactuals of freedom’) may be straightforwardly true, and thus serve as the objects of divine knowledge. This thesis has provoked considerable controversy, and the recent revival of interest in middle knowledge, initiated by Anthony Kenny, Robert Adams and Alvin Plantinga in the 1970s, has led to two ongoing debates. One is a theoretical debate over the very intelligibility of middle knowledge;1 the other is a practical debate over its philosophical and theological utility.2

Magic, Modernity, and Orientalism: Conjuring representations of Asia

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 1451-1476 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTOPHER GOTO-JONES
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Technical Competence ◽  
Politics Of Knowledge ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Historical Phenomenon ◽  
Stage Magic ◽  
Magic Circle

AbstractThis article inquires into the cultural and political nexus of secular (stage) magic, modernity, and Orientalism at the turn of the twentieth century. It argues that these three arenas interacted in important and special ways to both shape and reflect the politics of knowledge of the period. In doing so, it draws attention to the ways in which secular magic has been overlooked as a historical phenomenon and highlights its utility in furthering our understanding of the great problematics of modernity and Orientalism; in particular, it suggests that magic actually provides an unusually vibrant and clear lens through which to view the politics of the Other and through which to explore issues of tradition and the modern.Focusing on two historical cases—the ‘Indian Rope Trick’ challenge issued by the Magic Circle in the 1930s and the astonishing ‘duel’ between the ‘Chinese’ magicians Chung Ling Soo and Ching Ling Foo in 1905—this article considers the ways in which discourses of origination, popular ideas about esotericism and the ‘mystic East’, and questions of technical competence interacted and competed in the culture politics of the early twentieth century.

Jews and Judaism in Classical Sufi Literature

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-164
Author(s):  
Elisha Russ-Fishbane
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Historical Role ◽  
The One ◽  
The Demonic

Abstract This paper addresses a paradox at the heart of the classical Sufi tradition. On the one hand, key Sufi writers express a radical universalism or ‘transconfessionalism’ in their mystical verse. This has led a variety of modern scholars to identify Sufism as an ecumenical and non-dogmatic tradition. On the other hand, in other writings the selfsame authors conduct a vigorous literary polemic and celebrate missionary efforts against unbelievers of all stripes, yet with a notable emphasis on Jewish unbelievers. This article examines the image of Jews and Judaism in key Sufi texts in both Arabic and Persian between the tenth and thirteenth centuries through a variety of motifs, including the construction of the Jew as embodiment of the demonic and as archetypal unbeliever. These images become critical to the literary function of the Jew in classical Sufi texts with little connection to their historical role in Near Eastern societies.

scholarly journals The marble head of a statuette from Mediana (excavations in 2001)

Starinar ◽  
2013 ◽  
pp. 237-243
Author(s):  
Bojana Plemic
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Archaeological Excavations

During the archaeological excavations in Mediana in 2001, the head of a marble statuette of exceptional beauty and craftsmanship was discovered. It was an isolated discovery, the sculpture probably having been imported from some Greek artistic centre or an eastern Mediterranean workshop, presenting a part of a larger ensemble of sculptures that had adorned an imperial villa with peristyle. Since the head was found in pieces and being just part of a sculptural representation with no reliable attributes, the question of its identification is a difficult task. It was possible to determine, using stylistic traits' analysis that the statuette was made under the influence of Hellenistic cult sculpture, namely that it followed the rules of the school of Praxiteles. On the other hand, the iconographic elements, in particular that of the hairstyle, lead us to the conclusion that this statuette could represent one of two Roman goddesses, either Venus or Diana.

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