Negotiating “White Rooster” Magic and Binitarian Christology

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-279
Author(s):  
Yishai Kiel
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Dynamic Nature ◽  
Jewish Culture ◽  
Ancient Judaism ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Roman Culture ◽  
The Cross ◽  
The One

The article explores a set of religious and mythical motifs found in a Jewish Babylonian Aramaic magic bowl from the Moussaieff collection (M 163), which includes references to the sun god Šamaš(-Mithra); Jesus, his heavenly Father, and the cross; binitarian Christology; the oppression of the Great Man of the End and Suffering Messiah; a cosmic bird referred to as White Rooster; and a semi-divine angelic figure called ḤRWM AḤRWM. These motifs are situated in the broader context of contemporaneous Jewish Babylonian traditions incorporated in the talmudic, mystical, and magical corpora, on the one hand, and the surrounding Christian, Syro-Mesopotamian, and Iranian cultures, on the other hand. The article contributes to the decentralization of Greco-Roman culture as the sole context for ancient Judaism as well as the decentralization of rabbinic expressions as representative of ancient Jewish culture at large. The cultural mapping of the religious and mythical motifs found in this magic bowl, both within and beyond the confines of Jewish Babylonia, exemplifies the complex and dynamic nature of the participation of Jewish Babylonian magic practitioners, not only in the larger fabric of contemporaneous talmudic, mystical, and magical currents in Jewish culture, but also in the broader framework of the Christian, Syro-Mesopotamian, and Iranian cultures that pervaded the Sasanian East.

No More Zealots in the House of the Lord

2013 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-30
Author(s):  
Joel Marcus
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
The Other ◽  
Military Occupation ◽  
Ethnic Cleansing ◽  
Ancient Judaism ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The One ◽  
The Temple

Abstract The word כְּנַעֲנִי in Zech 14:21b (“there will no longer be a כְּנַעֲנִי in the house of the Lord of hosts”), has usually been interpreted either in an ethnic (“Canaanite”) or in a mercantile sense (“trader,” “merchant”), and it is possible that in its original context it was a double entendre. In later exegesis, the mercantile interpretation comes to predominate, but the ethnic sense is never completely eclipsed. The New Testament allusions to the Zecharian text reflect both interpretations. On the one hand, the Markan and Johannine Jesus utilizes the mercantile interpretation when he forbids the commerce in the Temple to continue (Mark 11:15-17; John 2:14-17). On the other hand, Mark also seems to reflect the ethnic interpretation, at least indirectly, since he seems to be responding to revolutionaries who used it to justify their ethnic cleansing and military occupation of the Temple. But Mark, for his own part, may have employed the sort of punning exegesis common in ancient Judaism to interpret Zech 14:21b as a prophecy of the eschatological expulsion of these revolutionaries from their Temple headquarters: on that day, there will no longer be קַנְאָנִין (“Zealots”) in the house of the Lord of Hosts.

scholarly journals Imaginarium religijne w reklamie komercyjnej i społecznej na przykładzie wykorzystania wizerunków Ostatniej Wieczerzy oraz krzyża

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrzej Draguła
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Religious Symbolism ◽  
Last Supper ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Semantic Shift ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Christian Iconography ◽  
Visual Advertising ◽  
The One

Contemporary advertising, both commercial and social, appeals increasingly to religious symbolism as a rhetorical argument. Communicative as well as persuasive effectiveness of advertising depends indeed on the appropriate denotation and connotation of the iconography used in visual advertisements. Religious, and particularly Christian, symbolism is generally clear to the addressees in our culture. This paper aims to answer the question of the consequences which the cultural reinterpretation of Christian imagery in visual advertising brings. The author argues that this process results in a “semantic shift” involving the expansion of the original meanings. On the one hand, Christian iconography loses some of its genetic sacredness; on the other hand, it sacralizes the new reality which is being advertised. The author proves his thesis by means of pointing to the reinterpretation of two established Christian images, i.e. the Last Supper and the Cross.

The Values and Limits of Qohelet’s Sub-Celestial Economy

2014 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-33
Author(s):  
Scott C. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
The Other ◽  
New Order ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Empirical Observation ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One ◽  
Final Answer

Abstract Qohelet draws upon the metaphors of a mercantile economy in order to assign values to human life. The primary context in which he calculates these values is time-under-the-sun. In the economy of time-under-the-sun, there are both absolute and relative credits. On the one hand, the inevitable onset of death reduces all credits or debits to zero. Yet on the other hand, Qohelet claims that the enjoyment of one’s profits during one’s lifetime is a relative credit. The sage, however, also perceives another sort of reckoning which reaches beyond his empirical observation. He speaks of a matrix outside of the rule of the sun, which he calls עולם. In this space beyond time God has ordained a judgment in which the pious will profit and the impious will suffer loss. The onset of a new order beyond the sun raises the possibility that zero might not be the final answer after all.

scholarly journals Sea Mosaics from Thmouis, Queen Berenice II and Mendesian Aromas: A New Look at the Old Problem

2021 ◽  
pp. 5-24
Author(s):  
Andrii Zelinskyi ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Red Sea ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
The Other ◽  
Common Denominator ◽  
Southern Coast ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Naval Power ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One ◽  
Aromatic Oils

In this article, I will be focusing on the two artifacts that are now housed in the Greco-Roman Museum of Alexandria. These are two Hellenistic mosaic compositions from the Egyptian city Thmouis, which was located in Mendesian nome (GRMA №№ 21.739; 21.736). Both mosaics depict an armed woman in royal purple and surrounded by the elements of marine entourage. The modern researchers offer three options for identifying this woman: 1) the allegory of Alexandria; 2) Arsinoe II, the second wife of Ptolemy II Philadelphus; 3) Berenice II, the wife of Ptolemy III Euergetes. In the pages of this article, I offer several considerations and the arguments in favor of the identifying the woman from the mosaics of Thmouis as Berenice II. In particular, I assume the probability of the existence of a common denominator between Mendesian nome and the said queen. In my opinion, this common denominator was the production of the aromas. On the one hand, Mendesian nome was famous for making aromatic oils, that were known beyond Egypt. On the other hand, Berenice II showed a great interest in a perfume business. It was this interest that could be one of the reasons that prompted Ptolemy III to develop the southern coast of the Red Sea and to expand the Egyptian sphere of the influence beyond the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. As a result, Egypt gained access to a relatively cheap the vegetal raw materials, that were needed for the production of the perfume. The part of these raw materials, probably with the help of Berenice, could get to the Mendesean perfumers and, accordingly, helped to a improve the welfare of the nome. Thus, the woman represented in the sea mosaics, that were popular in Tmuis, must be Berenice II, as Mendesians associated the supply of cheap overseas aromatic substances with her name. In the same time, it is likely that a Mendesian interpretation of the plot of these mosaics differed significantly from the author's idea, that was related to the promotion of a Ptolemaic naval power.

Notions of Gentile Impurity in Ancient Judaism

AJS Review ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Klawans
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Ancient Judaism ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
History Of ◽  
Rabbinic Law ◽  
The One ◽  
Regular Contact

This study investigates the history and nature of Gentile impurity in ancient Judaism. It is deceptively simple to assume that Gentiles, who did not observe purity laws, would have been considered ritually impure as a matter of course. Indeed, a number of scholars maintain this position. In fact, however, the situation is a bit more complex. Ancient Jewish sources reflect two conflicting tensions. On the one hand, both biblical and rabbinic law(considered Gentiles to be exempt from the laws of ritual purity. On the other hand, Gentiles ate impure foods, came into regular contact with impure substances, and–what is worse–committed idolatry and defiling sexual acts. Ultimately, some rabbinic sources do state that Gentiles are, in fact, ritually impure (e.g., T. Zabim 2:1). The goal of this paper is to analyze, distinguish, and trace the history of these tensions and developments in ancient Judaism.

I.—On Kuiper's Theory of the Origin of the Solar System

1953 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
D. ter Haar
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Empirical Relation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Recent Theory ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One ◽  
The Masses

SynopsisKuiper's recent theory of the origin of the solar system is criticised on several grounds. Firstly, it is pointed out that the empirical relation between the ratio of the masses of two consecutive planets (satellites) on the one hand and the ratio of their distances from the sun (primary) on the other hand is not the one discussed by Kuiper. Secondly, it is shown that the densities needed for a successful application of Kuiper's theory are probably not attained in the system considered by him. Finally, some other points are discussed which enter into most theories about the origin of the solar system.

scholarly journals “Imaginary Lines”: Sources of St. John of the Cross by D.S. Merezhkovsky

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 224-245
Author(s):  
Maria Yu. Ignatieva (Oganissian)
Keyword(s):  
Russian Language ◽  
The Other ◽  
Complete List ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Cross ◽  
John Of The Cross ◽  
The One ◽  
The Russian Language ◽  
Insight Into

St. John of the Cross is the second part of the trilogy by D.S. Merezhkovsky dedicated to the saints of the Carmelite order. This trilogy is Merezhkovsky’s last work and is the only novelistic description of the life and views of John of the Cross (1542–1591) in the Russian language. The article analyzes the features of the sources that the writer used in preparing his biography: French editions of St. John’s works, the biography of father Bruno (1929), and the monograph by Jean Barusi (1924) as well as the ways of working with these sources. The article provides a complete list of sources that appear in the notes and footnotes to the novel and analyzes those publications that the author actually worked with. Of particular importance is the source referenced by Merezhkovsky himself — the author’s “apocryph,” which provided him with a deeper insight into the life and work of John of the Cross. The article analyzes some of these “apocryphal” ideas (in particular, the figure of the Materefather, the idea of divine matrimony, and “the abyss of contradictions”) and shows the ways of dealing with sources when constructing these apocryphs: association of ideas, hyperbolization, decontextualization, etc. The article argues that Merezhkovsky’s approach was literary in its essence: on the one hand, there is his “captivation by the words and reflections” (N.A. Berdyaev), on the other hand, there is ecstasy as both the theme and the technique of this biography. The study allows to better understand the late Merezhkovsky, and also to correct important author’s statements about the personality and the views of John of the Cross.

scholarly journals The poetics of survival: experience of the first months of emigration in N.A. Teffi’s “Istanbul and the Sun” collection of short stories

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-187
Author(s):  
Alexandr V. Ledenev ◽  
Kseniya S. Romanova
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Fairy Tale ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
Dual Status ◽  
The One ◽  
Established Order

The article analyses essays and stories included into N.A. Teffi’s “Istanbul and the Sun” book. The authors contend that interpretation of reality as an illusion or dream while staying awake is a notable characteristic of N.A. Teffi’s Istanbul prose. The authors conclude that one of the key themes of Teffi’s work - the perception of life as a dream - obtains in Istanbul sketches the dual status of a sociocultural verdict and a peculiar prescription for survival (concurrently aesthetical and psychological). On the one hand, dream seemingly deprives one’s consciousness of the course of time, i.e. the established order of days, months, and years. The writer views destitute life of Russian emigres in Istanbul as a social numbness or mirage which, however, may fade away some day. On the other hand, dream is a transition into the world of imagination, the sphere of fairy tale where historic upheavals have no significance, and which is granted the status of true reality in Teffi’s system of values.

scholarly journals Dynamics and statics in onomastics

Neophilology ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 33-39
Author(s):  
Maria S. Dzyuba
Keyword(s):  
Time Perspective ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
The Other ◽  
Dynamic Processes ◽  
Dynamic Nature ◽  
Cultural Preferences ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Systemic Nature ◽  
The One

We consider static and dynamic in onomastics. We establish that, despite the fact that the synchronic and diachronic approaches to language are quite independent techniques, it must be admitted that “static”, although it may seem paradoxical, is not a synchronic, but a diachronic fact, which can be discovered when considering the language in time perspective. We justify that ergonyms serve people of adjacent generations and, on the one hand, ergonyms are supposedly stable and static, but, on the other hand, they are subject to dynamic processes. This inconsistency is the basis for the existence of egronyms and the source from development. On the material of oikodomonyms with the onymic part “anthroponyms”, reflecting the territorial variants depending on the linguistic and linguo-cultural preferences of the Tambov inhabitants, and the word “home”, the static and dynamic nature of the ergonomic category is considered. We prove that the identification of what is static and what is dynamic is possible only after the establishment of certain historical stages (boundaries) in the language. This will allow a native speaker to perceive the language as an objectively existing means of communication, and a linguist – to establish the systemic nature of the language and evaluate it retrospectively and prospectively.

Androgyne or Undrogyne?: Queering the Gnostic Myth

Numen ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 61 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 509-524
Author(s):  
Jonathan Cahana
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
The Other ◽  
Sexual Practices ◽  
Apparent Discrepancy ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One ◽  
Internal Order ◽  
Holy Book

The androgyne, whether as a symbol, a concept, or a bodily reality, appears to be employed in different and sometimes apparently contradictory ways within gnostic discourse. On the one hand, the heavenly father himself is an androgyne (Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit 51–52); the divine Barbelo, herself, is a “mother-father” and a “thrice-named androgyne” (Apocryphon of John 12.1–8), and Adam can only long for his ungendered days, when s/he was higher than the creator god (Apocalypse of Adam 64.5–65.25). On the other hand, we also learn that Ialdabaoth himself, that same evil material creator, the most abject entity in gnostic myth, is also an androgyne (Hypostasis of the Archons 94.8–19). This apparent discrepancy serves as the focal point of this paper, which aims to explain the complex, albeit largely consistent, use of the concept of the queered gender in gnostic myth. By reading this myth according to its internal order of events, I attempt to show that gnostic androgyny, far from being a ratification of Greco-Roman discourse (as has been sometimes suggested), is actually a subversion of this very discourse, constructed so as to reify the gnostic disapproval of an important Greco-Roman cultural premise — one that has been aptly defined by David Halperin as “the ancients’ deeply felt and somewhat anxiously defended sense of congruence between a person’s gender, sexual practices, and social identity” (1990:23).

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