scholarly journals At the intersection of Myth and Science: Protoscience in ancient Mesopotamian Omens and the Hebrew Bible’s Primeval History

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-26
Author(s):  
Sandy Rogers

In "At the intersection of Myth and Science: Protoscience in ancient Mesopotamian Omens and the Hebrew Bible’s Primeval History," I use ancient Mesopotamian Omens and the Primeval History of the Hebrew Bible as examples of ancient protoscience. I show how the intellectual curiosity was mixed with understandings of the divine world.

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 78-90
Author(s):  
Theresa McCulla

In 1965, Frederick (Fritz) Maytag III began a decades-long revitalization of Anchor Brewing Company in San Francisco, California. This was an unexpected venture from an unlikely brewer; for generations, Maytag's family had run the Maytag Washing Machine Company in Iowa and he had no training in brewing. Yet Maytag's career at Anchor initiated a phenomenal wave of growth in the American brewing industry that came to be known as the microbrewing—now “craft beer”—revolution. To understand Maytag's path, this article draws on original oral histories and artifacts that Maytag donated to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History via the American Brewing History Initiative, a project to document the history of brewing in the United States. The objects and reflections that Maytag shared with the museum revealed a surprising link between the birth of microbrewing and the strategies and culture of mass manufacturing. Even if the hallmarks of microbrewing—a small-scale, artisan approach to making beer—began as a backlash against the mass-produced system of large breweries, they relied on Maytag's early, intimate connections to the assembly-line world of the Maytag Company and the alchemy of intellectual curiosity, socioeconomic privilege, and risk tolerance with which his history equipped him.


Author(s):  
Matthew Suriano

The history of the Judahite bench tomb provides important insight into the meaning of mortuary practices, and by extension, death in the Hebrew Bible. The bench tomb appeared in Judah during Iron Age II. Although it included certain burial features that appear earlier in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, such as burial benches, and the use of caves for extramural burials, the Judahite bench tomb uniquely incorporated these features into a specific plan that emulated domestic structures and facilitated multigenerational burials. During the seventh century, and continuing into the sixth, the bench tombs become popular in Jerusalem. The history of this type of burial shows a gradual development of cultural practices that were meant to control death and contain the dead. It is possible to observe within these cultural practices the tomb as a means of constructing identity for both the dead and the living.


Author(s):  
Donn F. Morgan

This chapter argues for the import and value of studying the Writings, the third canonical division of the Hebrew Bible. Special attention is given to the postexilic background of the Writings and the history of scholarship devoted to this literature as canon in the last fifty years. The challenges of studying this division are named and discussed, including the following: diversity and difference within the corpus; the puzzle of its structure; the use of many methods to evaluate and articulate its characteristics and message; its relationship to Torah and Prophets; and the much debated history of canonization. The significance of studying the Writings for both scholars and the faith communities that use them as scripture is a constant theme.


Author(s):  
Markus Saur

In this article, the historical localization of Hebrew Bible Wisdom Literature is discussed firstly with regard to the literary development of the books of Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes. By examining these books one can make several observations that help to reconstruct the history not only of the individual books, but also the history of Wisdom Literature as a whole. Wisdom Literature is understood in this context as the result of a process of discussion, interaction, and interdependence, and thus the documentation of a broader discourse surrounding Wisdom topics. This discourse is reflected in the whole of Wisdom Literature of the Hebrew Bible. From this point of view, the differentiation between the Wisdom books and some other Wisdom texts, such as the Wisdom Psalms or the book of Ben Sira, is finally placed within an era overview, and thus a short history of Wisdom Literature is presented.


2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
William Skiles

This article examines the nature and frequency of comments about Jews and Judaism in sermons delivered by Confessing Church pastors in the Nazi dictatorship.  The approach of most historians has focused on the history of antisemitism in the German Protestant tradition—in the works, pronouncements, and policies of the German churches and its leading figures.  Yet historians have left unexamined the most elemental task of the pastor—that is, preaching from the pulpit to the German people.  What would the average German congregant have heard from his pastor about the Jews and Judaism on any given Sunday?  I searched German archives, libraries, and used book stores, and analyzed 910 sermon manuscripts that were produced and disseminated in the Nazi regime.  I argue that these sermons provide mixed messages about Jews and Judaism.  While on the one hand, the sermons express admiration for Judaism as a foundation for Christianity, an insistence on the usage of the Hebrew Bible in the German churches, and the conviction that the Jews are spiritual cousins of Christians.  On the other hand, the sermons express religious prejudice in the form of anti-Judaic tropes that corroborated the Nazi ideology that portrayed Jews and Judaism as inferior: for instance, that Judaism is an antiquated religion of works rather than grace; that the Jews killed Christ and have been punished throughout history as a consequence.  Furthermore, I demonstrate that Confessing Church pastors commonly expressed anti-Judaic statements in the process of criticizing the Nazi regime, its leadership, and its policies.


Author(s):  
W. Edward Glenny

This essay discusses the textual history of the Minor Prophets in the Hebrew manuscripts and the Versions, excluding Qumran. The most important textual tradition for the Minor Prophets is the Hebrew Masoretic Text tradition from the medieval period (MT), which continues the earlier proto-masoretic textual tradition that is represented in the Qumran scrolls and is the basis of the translations of the Targums and Peshitta. The Septuagint (LXX) is the most important ancient Version of the Hebrew Bible, because it was the first complete translation and because its Hebrew source differed considerably from the other textual witnesses. Other important Versions of the Hebrew Bible are the Targums, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Latin Vulgate.


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