Multiplying and Dividing Irrationally

2021 ◽  
pp. 149-160
Author(s):  
Trevor Davis Lipscombe
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Golden Ratio ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Irrational Numbers ◽  
Divine Proportion

This chapter describes how to multiply and divide, albeit approximately, by some of the world’s most famous irrational numbers, such as π‎, Euler’s number e, 2, 3, both of which occur frequently in the study of triangles, and the Golden Ratio, also sometimes called the Divine proportion. The approximations for π‎ stem from the Ancient World, including the Hebrew Bible, Greek, and Babylonian approximations. An example for 2 is provided by the medieval Jewish polymath, Maimonides. By use of various approximations, the sine of some angles can be easily computed, which can impress those with a grasp of elementary trigonometry. Some examples of “almost” formulas are presented.

A Pleasing Odour for Yahweh

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-24
Author(s):  
Anne Katrine De Hemmer Gudme
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Sacred Space ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The West ◽  
Sense Of Smell ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Crucial Part

This article investigates the importance of smell in the sacrificial cults of the ancient Mediterranean, using the Yahweh temple on Mount Gerizim and the Hebrew Bible as a case-study. The material shows that smell was an important factor in delineating sacred space in the ancient world and that the sense of smell was a crucial part of the conceptualization of the meeting between the human and the divine.  In the Hebrew Bible, the temple cult is pervaded by smell. There is the sacred oil laced with spices and aromatics with which the sanctuary and the priests are anointed. There is the fragrant and luxurious incense, which is burnt every day in front of Yahweh and finally there are the sacrifices and offerings that are burnt on the altar as ‘gifts of fire’ and as ‘pleasing odors’ to Yahweh. The gifts that are given to Yahweh are explicitly described as pleasing to the deity’s sense of smell. On Mount Gerizim, which is close to present-day Nablus on the west bank, there once stood a temple dedicated to the god Yahweh, whom we also know from the Hebrew Bible. The temple was in use from the Persian to the Hellenistic period (ca. 450 – 110 BCE) and during this time thousands of animals (mostly goats, sheep, pigeons and cows) were slaughtered and burnt on the altar as gifts to Yahweh. The worshippers who came to the sanctuary – and we know some of them by name because they left inscriptions commemorating their visit to the temple – would have experienced an overwhelming combination of smells: the smell of spicy herbs baked by the sun that is carried by the wind, the smell of humans standing close together and the smell of animals, of dung and blood, and behind it all as a backdrop of scent the constant smell of the sacrificial smoke that rises to the sky.

scholarly journals The Relation of Golden Ratio, Mathematics and Aesthetics

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 188-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gyan Bahadur Thapa ◽  
Rena Thapa
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
Golden Ratio ◽  
Divine Proportion ◽  
Logo Design ◽  
Geometrical Shapes ◽  
Natural Flora ◽  
The Universe

The Golden Ratio, mathematics and aesthetics are intricately related among each other. In this paper, we exhibit the presence of mathematics in aesthetic impression that appears in nature, classic art, architecture, logo design and much more. The divine proportion can be found in music, poetry and other forms of art, however our focus here is only in the visual ones. The Golden ratio is considered sacred due to its relationship to nature and even the construction of the universe and the human body. It has been used for centuries in the construction of architectural masterpieces by the great artists, who, being able to see its beauty used it in their designs and compositions. We explain how the applications of the Golden ratio in architectures, paintings and geometrical shapes create the mystery of beauty. Further we present the existence of the divine proportion in human body and natural flora and fauna. There are a diverse number of directions, paths and tangents to which the study of this beautiful concept could take us. Besides mathematicians and artists, we expect that this paper will be interesting for general readers as well.  Journal of the Institute of Engineering, 2018, 14(1): 188-199

She Painted Her Eyes and Looked Out of the Window (2 Kgs 9:30)

2021 ◽  
pp. 151-180
Author(s):  
Laura Quick
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Near East ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Sexual Practices ◽  
Female Character ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
The World ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Book Of Judith

Evidence for the production and application of perfumed oil and cosmetics is found throughout the ancient world. In contrast to the wider ancient Near East, where both men and women utilize cosmetics, in the Hebrew Bible cosmetics were associated with women in general—and with a certain type of woman in particular. Cosmetics are connected with immoral behaviour and deviant sexual practices. Yet certain biblical texts feature a female character applying perfumed oils without censure. This chapter considers these women and their application of perfumed oils in the books of Esther and Ruth from the Hebrew Bible, and the book of Judith and the story of Susanna from the Greek Bible. Turning from perfume to eye kohl, I then explore Jezebel’s application of eye pigment in the books of Kings. Examining evidence from the wider ancient world, we can uncover dimensions of how the painted eye communicated status and identity, anxiety and power, with implications for the relationship between self and other in the world of the Hebrew Bible.

The Divine Proportion, matrices and Fibonacci numbers

2008 ◽  
Vol 92 (523) ◽  
pp. 14-21
Author(s):  
H. Brian Griffiths
Keyword(s):  
Golden Ratio ◽  
Fibonacci Numbers ◽  
The Other ◽  
Matrix Approach ◽  
Mathematical Development ◽  
Divine Proportion

A friendly engineer recently sent me a version of Figure 1 below, and asked me to explain the connection between it and the well-known Fibonacci Problem (FP) about calculating a population of rabbits. He knew that Figure 1 was related to the ‘Divine Proportion’ or ‘Golden Ratio’ ϕ ( = ½(√5 - l), which also occurs in the solution to FP, and wondered how such different problems could be related by such a number. (He unfortunately regarded ϕ as 0.618 exactly, thus missing a lot of stuff to arouse curiosity.) I knew of various references that I could recommend, but none covered all the things my engineer mentioned, so I constructed the following mathematical development, leaving the relations with biology and architecture to be explained in the books referenced later, see for example [1]. A matrix approach is used here, and may be new to those readers of the Gazette who may be quite familiar with the other material.

Children in the Hebrew Bible and Childist Interpretation

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Faith Parker
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Many

This article traces the rise of research on children in the Hebrew Bible (HB). While early contributions to the field provided foundational insights, this area of scholarship has gained significant ground over the last ten years. This article begins by reviewing seminal points for studying children in the HB. I explain why this study is critical for our understanding of the Bible, and clarify how we discern who is a child in the text and the ancient world. Since the word ‘childist’ is still new to many in the academy, I discuss the origin of this term, define it, and urge its adoption. Most of the article assesses scholarship on children in the HB, with an emphasis on publications that have emerged recently as well as works forthcoming (at the time of publication). The conclusion sketches some of the many areas in this scholarly field that are ripe for further exploration.

scholarly journals The golden ratio in facial symmetry

2013 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-21
Author(s):  
E.P. Prokopakis ◽  
I.M. Vlastos ◽  
V.A. Picavet ◽  
G. Nolst Trenite ◽  
R. Thomas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Golden Ratio ◽  
Facial Aesthetics ◽  
Facial Symmetry ◽  
Divine Proportion ◽  
The Face

Symmetry is believed to be a hallmark of appealing faces. However, this does not imply that the most aesthetically pleasing proportions are necessary those that arise from the simple division of the face into thirds or fifths. Based on the etymology of the word symmetry, as well as on specific examples and theories of beauty, we conclude that φ-value, a ratio also known as the golden ratio or the divine proportion, can also characterize symmetrical forms. Therefore, we propose the utilization of this ratio in facial aesthetics.

Dress, Adornment, and the Body in the Hebrew Bible

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Quick
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Social Values ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
The Social ◽  
Body Adornment

Dress, Adornment and the Body in the Hebrew Bible is the first monograph to treat dress and adornment in biblical literature in the English language. Beyond merely filling a gap in scholarship, the book moves beyond a description of these aspects of ancient life to encompass notions of interpersonal relationships and personhood that underpin practices of dress and adornment. I explore the ramifications of body adornment in the biblical world, informed by a methodologically plural approach incorporating material culture alongside philology, textual exegesis, comparative evidence, and sociological models. Drawing upon and synthesizing insights from material culture and texts from across the eastern Mediterranean, I reconstruct the social meanings attached to the dressed body in biblical texts. I show how body adornment can deepen our understanding of attitudes towards the self in the ancient world. In my reconstruction of ancient performances of the self, the body serves as the observed centre in which complex ideologies of identity, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and social status are articulated. The adornment of the body is thus an effective means of non-verbal communication, but one which at the same time is controlled by and dictated through normative social values. Exploring dress, adornment, and the body can therefore open up hitherto unexplored perspectives on these social values in the ancient world, an essential missing piece in understanding the social and cultural world which shaped the Hebrew Bible.

Book of Judith

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence Wills
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
The Other ◽  
Cornell University ◽  
History Texts ◽  
Jewish Scriptures ◽  
Ethiopian Orthodox ◽  
Joseph And Aseneth ◽  
Book Of Judith

Judith is one of the books of the Apocrypha, the Jewish texts that were included in the Catholic and Orthodox Old Testaments (including Armenian, Syrian, and Ethiopian Orthodox Bibles), but not in the Protestant Old Testament or Jewish scriptures. Judith was placed with the history texts of the Old Testament, and, more specifically, it was located with Tobit and Esther, texts that were probably also seen as entertaining or didactic history. (The question of why Judith was not canonized as part of the Hebrew Bible is raised in Why Wasn’t the Book of Judith Included in the Hebrew Bible? [Atlanta: Scholars, 1992] and Esther not Judith: Why One Made it and the Other Didn’t (Crawford 2002), [Bible Review 18 [2002]: 22–31, 45] both cited under Texts of Judith and Reviews of Scholarship.) That Judith seemed to be inaccurate “history” was noticed in the ancient church, but the genre is now much discussed. It is sometimes taken as didactic or parabolic history, but it (along with Tobit, Esther, Susanna, and Joseph and Aseneth) is compared also with the developing genre of short and long novels (see Das Buch Judit (Haag 1995) [Dusseldorf, Germany: Patmos, 1995] cited under Commentaries and The Jewish Novel in the Ancient World (Wills 1995) [Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press] cited under Comparative).

Historiography and History Writing in the Ancient World

2020 ◽  
pp. 5-19
Author(s):  
Richard D. Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Careful Evaluation ◽  
History Writing ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
External Evidence ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ark Narrative ◽  
Written Sources

Historiography is a narrative that recounts a past derived from written and oral sources. History writers select, organize, and interpret past events to communicate significance and meaning. Biblical and other ancient historians favored a divine causation model to explain events. The Hittites had a sophisticated tradition of royal historiography. Mesopotamian culture recorded and wrote history in the form of inscriptions, king lists, chronographic or annalistic texts, and literary works. As comparative material, these texts help us understand the historical books of the Hebrew Bible and the sources used by their authors. Inscriptions sponsored by the kings of Syria-Palestine are also useful. The historical books used oral sources in the form of grave traditions, sanctuary legends, prophetic tales and miracle stories, heroic folktales, and songs. They also employed written sources of an administrative or archival nature such as rosters, king lists, district lists, and letters. Pre-existing narrative works of a literary nature were incorporated into the historical books, including an Ark Narrative, the Rise of David, an Elijah-Elisha cycle, and the Memoirs of Nehemiah. A legitimate history of Israel can be written on the basis of external evidence, archaeology, and a careful evaluation of the sources behind the historical books.

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