Michael the Syrian and Syriac Orthodox Identity

2009 ◽  
Vol 89 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothea Weltecke
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
The Self ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Times ◽  
Arabic Speaking ◽  
Syriac Orthodox ◽  
Religious Elements

AbstractThis paper discusses the concept of Syriac Orthodox identity in the chronicle by Michael the Great as it is expressed in terms for the self-designation (like mhaymnē, Suryōyē) and in the structure of the narrative. The heritage of the ancient Near East, based on the ethnical and historical conception of the Arameans (including the Chaldeans and the Ōturōyē as well as the Ōrōmōyē) since the times of the ancient empires was a very important element of the identity. Just as important to him was the historical legitimacy of the Orthodox Church as a group excluding other Aramaic-speaking Christians. This conception of identity was complex, dialectic, and multi-layered, comprising ethnic, historic, cultural, and religious elements. Not unlike modern people, he and the members of the Syriac Orthodox communities participated in different and overlapping cultures and identities throughout the Syriac Orthodox world. The Syriac Orthodox identity had been under polemical attack for a long time, against which both historical and theological answers were formulated over the centuries. At the same time, Michael can be a witness only for a certain group and a certain region. He speaks mainly for the Syriac-speaking regions of the Syriac Orthodox world and the clergy. Neither the Syriac Orthodox identity of Arabic speaking Syriac Orthodox Christians, for example in Takrit, nor the identities of laymen are of his concern.

The Intertextual Network of Ecclesiastes and the Self-Reflective Nature of Genre

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Will Kynes
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
The Self ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Wisdom Literature ◽  
Rugged Terrain

The numerous, often contrasting interpretations Ecclesiastes has inspired across history provide a clear example of the self-reflective character of genres. Rather than dismissing these readings completely, Wisdom included, because of their subjectivity, it is more profitable to understand each as a partial and selective perspective responding to some potential of the text. Whether inspired by the traditional collections before Wisdom Literature, intertextual links to other canonical genres, parallels to texts from across the ancient Near East, or comparisons based on the book’s literary features, such as form, tone, or content, each genre proposal reveals something about the nature of the text while falling short of comprehending the whole. Illuminating all the contours of the text’s rugged terrain while dispelling the “misleading shadows” of self-interested exegesis will require engaging with more rather than less of the subjective perspectives on its meaning.

scholarly journals Perspektiewe op erotiek en seksualiteit in die ou Nabye Ooste

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
DJ Human
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Behaviour ◽  
Near East ◽  
Sexual Experience ◽  
The Self ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Positive Power ◽  
The Creation

Sexuality and erotism form an integral part of life. Both these aspects mediate life fulfilling experiences of love. As part of the creation reality sexuality effects a positive power of life. Evidence from the ancient Near East, especially from Egypt, Canaan and Mesopotamia, confirms human’s facinasion for and participation in sexual behaviour. In the sexual experience the ‘I’ transcends the borders of the ‘self’. Whether the gods or humans are engaged in this act of heavenly ecstacy, it is evident that life’s meaning is captured in this life enriching experience of power, vitality and joy. 

FACEBOOK SEBAGAI MEDIA BARU TAFSIR AL-QUR’AN DI INDONESIA

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-80
Author(s):  
Wildan Imaduddin Muhammad
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Methodological Problem ◽  
The Self ◽  
Internet Technology ◽  
Basic Character ◽  
Hermeneutic Approach ◽  
The Times ◽  
Qur'anic Interpretation

This article analyzes the product of Salman Harun's Qur'anic  interpretation with  Facebook  as the medium. As one of the senior professors who pursue the field of interpretation, he has managed to follow the times by utilizing internet technology. There are two focus areas in the study; the first aspect of the sense of Indonesian tafsir attached to the self of Salman Harun, the two aspects of the novelty of discourse that became the basic character of social media. Both aspects are interesting to be studied with a hermeneutic approach. Given that  the  methodological problem that often arises from the hermeneutic approach is the context of the interpreter that is difficult to trace accurately, then this article finds its relevance to the case of Salman Harun's interpretation which uses the facebook media as the actualization of its interpretation product.

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.

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