Material Culture, Iconography, and the Prophets

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brent A. Strawn
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
The Many

This chapter probes one aspect of material culture—namely, ancient Near Eastern iconography—for its pertinence for the prophets. It focuses on lion imagery in the book of Amos and lion iconography in the ancient Near East, but especially in the archaeology of ancient Israel/Palestine. The artistic remains contribute to a better understanding of this motif in Amos, and the same holds true for the many other images and metaphors that may be found in both the biblical text and the archaeology. In certain cases, as with the lion in Amos, attention to the iconographic data can cast light not only on singular instances of an idea in a specific verse or two, but also on wider complexes of ideas across larger units, if not entire prophetic books. Still further, the iconographic data can sometimes contribute to—or, in fact, chasten—debates about a book’s composition and redaction history.

scholarly journals The Storm-Gods of the Ancient Near East: Summary, Synthesis, Recent Studies Part I

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Schwemer
Keyword(s):  
Present Author ◽  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Many ◽  
Equal Space ◽  
First Time

AbstractIn many regions of the ancient Near East, not least in Upper Mesopotamia, Syria and Anatolia where agriculture relied mainly on rainfall, storm-gods ranked among the most prominent gods in the local panthea or were even regarded as divine kings, ruling over the gods and bestowing kingship on the human ruler. While the Babylonian and Assyrian storm-god never held the highest position among the gods, he too belongs to the group of 'great gods' through most periods of Mesopotamian history. Given the many cultural contacts and the longevity of traditions in the ancient Near East only a study that takes into account all relevant periods, regions and text-groups can further our understanding of the different ancient Near Eastern storm-gods. The study Wettergottgestalten Mesopotamiens und Nordsyriens by the present author (2001) tried to tackle the problems involved, basing itself primarily on the textual record and excluding the genuinely Anatolian storm-gods from the study. Given the lack of handbooks, concordances and thesauri in our field, the book is necessarily heavily burdened with materials collected for the first time. Despite comprehensive indices, the long lists and footnotes as well as the lack of an overall synthesis make the study not easily accessible, especially outside the German-speaking community. In 2003 Alberto Green published a comprehensive monograph entitled The Storm-God in the Ancient Near East whose aims are more ambitious than those of Wettergottgestalten: All regions of the ancient Near East—including a chapter on Yahwe as a storm-god—are taken into account, and both textual and iconographic sources are given equal space. Unfortunately this book, which was apparently finished and submitted to the publisher before Wettergottgestalten came to its author's attention, suffers from some serious flaws with regard to methodology, philology and the interpretation of texts and images. In presenting the following succinct overview I take the opportunity to make up for the missing synthesis in Wettergottgestalten and to provide some additions and corrections where necessary. It is hoped that this synthesis can also serve as a response to the history of ancient Near Eastern storm-gods as outlined by A. Green.

Placing Ancient Israel in Its Ancient Near Eastern Context

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor H. Matthews
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Historical Geography ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
History Writing ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Economic Context ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

The focus of this chapter is on the methods employed in examining the history writing (historiography) of the biblical writers and editors, and of the task associated with writing a history of ancient Israel. In every instance an effort is made to place ancient Israel into its social, political, and economic context as part of the world of the ancient Near East. Also included is the current library of extrabiblical sources available to scholars that throw light on the history of ancient Israel. Attention is then given to the role of historical geography as it relates to a study of the history of the countries of the Levant, as well as an introduction to the values and limitations of archaeology.

Amos vii 10-17 and Royal Attitudes Toward Prophecy in the Ancient Near East

2008 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 300-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Blake Couey
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis study examines the confrontation between the priest Amaziah and the prophet Amos in Amos vii 10-17 against the background of selected ancient Near Eastern texts that deal with royal attitudes toward prophecy. Texts from Mari, Nineveh, and Lachish all provide evidence for the role of royal officials, including priests, in reporting prophecy to the king in the ancient world. In light of this evidence, Amaziah's actions in this narrative appear to be motivated by state interests more than specifically cultic interests, as suggested in the text by his appeal to the royal sponsorship of the Bethel shrine (v. 13). Read in this way, the narrative points to the complexity of the relationship among priests, prophets, and kings in ancient Israel.

THE RECONCEPTUALIZATION OF KINGSHIP IN DEUTERONOMY AND THE DEUTERONOMISTIC HISTORY'S TRANSFORMATION OF TORAH

2001 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 511-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernard Levinson
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Public Office ◽  
Royal Authority ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Royal Power ◽  
Textual Authority ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
Judicial Administration ◽  
Constitutional Monarchy

AbstractBecause the royal ideology of ancient Israel was largely identical to that of the broader ancient Near East, the points of divergence are the more remarkable. In particular the legal corpus of Deuteronomy conceptualizes the king in a way that rejects all prevailing models of monarchic power, both Israelite and Near Eastern. Deuteronomy submits a utopian manifesto for a constitutional monarchy that sharply delimits the power of the king. This redefinition of royal authority takes place as part of a larger program (Deut. xvi 18-xviii 22) whereby the authors of Deuteronomy redefine the jurisdiction of each branch of public office (local and central judicial administration, kingship, priesthood, and prophecy). Each is subordinated, first, to the requirements of cultic centralization, and, second, to the textual authority of deuteronomic Torah. This utopian delimitation of royal power never passed from constitutional vision into historical implementation: it represented such a radical departure from precedent that the Deuteronomistic Historian, precisely while seeming to implement deuteronomic law, pointedly reversed the deuteronomic program and restored to the monarch all that Deuteronomy had withheld.

scholarly journals The Storm-Gods of the Ancient Near East: Summary, Synthesis, Recent Studies: Part II

2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Schwemer
Keyword(s):  
Present Author ◽  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Many ◽  
Equal Space ◽  
First Time

AbstractIn many regions of the ancient Near East, not least in Upper Mesopotamia, Syria and Anatolia where agriculture relied mainly on rainfall, storm-gods ranked among the most prominent gods in the local panthea or were even regarded as divine kings, ruling over the gods and bestowing kingship on the human ruler. While the Babylonian and Assyrian storm-god never held the highest position among the gods, he too belongs to the group of 'great gods' through most periods of Mesopotamian history. Given the many cultural contacts and the longevity of traditions in the ancient Near East only a study that takes into account all relevant periods, regions and text-groups can further our understanding of the different ancient Near Eastern storm-gods. The study Wettergottgestalten Mesopotamiens und Nordsyriens by the present author (2001) tried to tackle the problems involved, basing itself primarily on the textual record and excluding the genuinely Anatolian storm-gods from the study. Given the lack of handbooks, concordances and thesauri in our field, the book is necessarily heavily burdened with materials collected for the first time. Despite comprehensive indices, the long lists and footnotes as well as the lack of an overall synthesis make the study not easily accessible, especially outside the German-speaking community. In 2003 Alberto Green published a comprehensive monograph entitled The Storm-God in the Ancient Near East whose aims are more ambitious than those of Wettergottgestalten: All regions of the ancient Near East—including a chapter on Yahwe as a storm-god—are taken into account, and both textual and iconographic sources are given equal space. Unfortunately this book, which was apparently finished and submitted to the publisher before Wettergottgestalten came to its author's attention, suffers from some serious flaws with regard to methodology, philology and the interpretation of texts and images. In presenting the following succinct overview I take the opportunity to make up for the missing synthesis in Wettergottgestalten and to provide some additions and corrections where necessary. It is hoped that this synthesis can also serve as a response to the history of ancient Near Eastern storm-gods as outlined by A. Green.

REREADING CIRCUMCISION AS AN IDENTITY MARKER (GN 17:9-14): CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES ON MALE GENITAL MUTILATION AMONGST XHOSA COMMUNITIES IN SOUTH AFRICA

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Temba T. Rugwiji
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Female Genital Mutilation ◽  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Genital Mutilation ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
Female Genital ◽  
Male Genital

During biblical times in the Near Eastern world, circumcision was a common practice. Reasons for conducting the operation varied. In biblical times, only males were circumcised. This essay attempts to answer the following questions: (1) What was the significance of circumcision in the ancient Near East? (2) Can one say with certainty that circumcision amongst Xhosa communities was influenced by the biblical text? This article commences by examining circumcision in the ancient Near East. The study will then explore the rise of circumcision in ancient Israel when Yahweh commanded Abraham to circumcise all males in his household as a sign of keeping the covenant with Yahweh (cf. Gn 17:9-14). Next, the ideology of excluding women from being circumcised during biblical times is discussed. Thereafter, circumcision conducted in our modern postbiblical world - contemporary perspectives on circumcision, also known as male genital mutilation (hereafter, MGM) - is examined in terms of the following four themes: (1) the role of culture amongst Xhosa communities in motivating MGM, (2) the emergence of female genital mutilation (hereafter, FGM) in Africa, (3) the theory that circumcision reduces transmission of HIV which causes AIDS, and (4) the theory that a circumcised penis enhances orgasm during sex. Next, MGM in South Africa is explained as a violation of human rights. Lastly, this research concludes with possible solutions towards mitigating fatalities of MGM amongst Xhosa communities in South Africa.

Order from Chaos: Comparing Approaches to Violence in Anthropology, Assyriology, and the Study of the Hebrew Bible

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 160-175
Author(s):  
T. M. Lemos
Keyword(s):  
Structural Violence ◽  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Approaches To Studying ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Scholarship ◽  
Near Eastern Studies

This article compares the history of scholarship on violence in anthropology in the past one hundred years to major approaches to studying violence in the ancient Near East and ancient Near Eastern sources, including ancient Israel and Israelite literature. The article demonstrates that anthropology and ancient Near Eastern studies have diverged widely in their approaches to violence. In the past two to three decades, the concept of structural violence and new materialist approaches have dominated the study of violence in anthropology, while in Assyriology and the study of ancient Israel/Israelite literature, studies of violence have repeatedly turned to an order and chaos framework. The article ends by suggesting that scholars of ancient West Asia incorporate new materialist approaches more concertedly in studies of violence and either rethink or jettison the simplistic order/chaos dyad.

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.

Prologue to Genesis (1, 1-11, 26): Prophetic Revelation, History, Myth or Metahistory?

2020 ◽  
pp. 17-46
Author(s):  
Михаил Анатольевич Скобелев
Keyword(s):  
Mystical Experience ◽  
Near East ◽  
Literary Form ◽  
Traditional View ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Symbolic Form ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
The World ◽  
Genesis 1 ◽  
Book Of Genesis

В статье рассматриваются богословие, композиция и литературная форма сюжетов, входящих в состав Пролога книги Бытия (1, 1-11, 26). Во второй половине XIX - начале XX вв. в результате появления Документальной гипотезы и сопоставления Священного Писания с литературными памятниками Древнего Ближнего Востока большая часть сюжетов, составляющих Пролог, была объявлена мифами и древнееврейским фольклором (Ю. Велльгаузен, Г. Гунекель, Дж. Фрезер). Кроме выявленных ближневосточных параллелей, новому отношению к повествованиям Пролога книги Бытия способствовали: отсутствие в нём ясно выраженной исторической задачи и символичность изложения. Защищая традиционный взгляд на Пролог как на священную историю и пророческое откровение, епископ Кассиан (Безобразов) предложил рассматривать все библейские сюжеты, содержащие теофанию, как метаисторию. Протоиерей Сергий Булгаков, А. Ф. Лосев, Б. П. Вышеславцев, занимавшиеся феноменом мифотворчества, назвали библейское повествование о начале мироздания мифом, но в ином смысле, чем это делали Г. Гункель и Дж. Фрезер. Они обосновали новый положительный взгляд, согласно которому миф не есть выдумка или фантазия, а реальность, основанная на мистическом опыте. В статье анализируется каждый из перечисленных терминов: «история», «миф», «метаистория» применительно к Прологу, а также рассматривается возможность их согласования с традиционным церковным взглядом на эту часть книги Бытия. The article deals with the theology, composition and literary form of the narrations which constitute the prologue part of the book of Genesis (1, 1-11, 26). During the second half of the 19th and at the turn of the 20th cent., following the emergence of the Documentary hypothesis as well as the comparison of the Holy Scripture with the newly-discovered literary monuments of Ancient Near East, the greater part of the narrations that constitute the Prologue were labeled myths and ancient Hebrew folklore (J. Wellhausen, H. Gunkel, J. Frazer). In addition to the then detected Near Eastern parallels, this new attitude towards the narrations of the Prologue was fostered by its lack of a clearly expressed historical dedication and the symbolic form of their exposition. Defending the traditional view of the Prologue as sacred history and prophetic revelation, bishop Kassian (Bezobrazov) proposed to consider all the biblical narrations that contain theophanies as metahistorical. Archpriest Sergey Bulgakov, A. F. Losev and B. P. Vysheslavtsev, who analyzed the phenomenon of myth-making, called the Biblical narration of the origins of the world a myth, but in a sense different from that proposed by Gunkel and Frazer. They have founded a new and positive conception according to which a myth is not fiction but rather a kind of reality based upon mystical experience. The author of the article analyzes each of the terms enumerated - «history», «myth», «metahistory» - in their use relating them to the Prologue; he also examines the possibility of their harmonizing with the traditional ecclesiastical view of this part of the book of Genesis.

Of Fields and Forced Labor

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-152
Author(s):  
Carolyn J. Sharp
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Forced Labor ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Biblical Narratives ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
Economic Practices ◽  
Economic Control ◽  
History Of

Biblical narratives about ostensibly “local” barter (Abraham’s purchase of the cave at Machpelah), protection of battle spoils (Achan’s theft and subsequent execution), and commodification of labor and bodies (Ruth gleaning for hours and offering herself to Boaz) reveal much about ideologies of economic control operative in ancient Israel. The materialist analysis of Roland Boer provides a richly detailed study of Israelite agrarian and tributary practices, offering a salutary corrective to naïve views of Israelite economic relations. Highlighting labor as the most ruthlessly exploited resource in the ancient Near East, Boer examines the class-specific benefits and sustained violence of economic formations from kinship-household relations to militarized extraction. Boer’s erudite study will compel readers to look afresh at the subjugation of the poor and plundering of the powerless as constitutive features of diverse economic practices throughout the history of ancient Israel.

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