Syria-Palestine

Knowledge of the religion of ancient Syria has increased significantly in recent years thanks to key archaeological discoveries. Particularly important have been those from Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit), which may offer the best window available for an understanding of Canaanite religious beliefs and practices. Excavations have revealed structures of religious significance, such as temples, sanctuaries, and tombs, as well as numerous texts. Of special interest are those mythological texts which tell the exploits of Baal, El, and the other great gods. There are also legends, sacrifice lists, pantheon lists, and prescriptions for various rituals. Some of these, notably the legends of Keret, and of Danel and his son Aqhat, provide evidence for beliefs about the religious status and significance of the king. This material enables a more considered understanding of ideas and practices that may have impacted upon Israelite religion.

Influence on Early Christian Worship

This chapter traces the various ways in which the cultic language and imagery of the Hebrew Scriptures influenced and shaped the liturgical thought and ritual practices of early Christianity, from the first to the fourth century ce. At first, this was primarily through the metaphorical or spiritual application of such concepts as priesthood and sacrifice, but eventually there are indications of the beginnings of the adoption of a more literal correspondence between some elements of the Temple cult and aspects of Christian worship. Both corporate and individual practices of prayer are covered, including the use of the canonical psalms, as well as the appropriation of traditional ritual gestures and the emergence of Christian holy days out of biblical festivals.

Sickness and Healing

Following some methodological remarks the chapter briefly reviews the vocabulary of sickness used in the biblical Hebrew text. It then examines instances of sickness and healing that are described in the Hebrew Bible, in order to establish how sickness is understood and how ritual might therefore relate to it. Aspects considered include the relationship between sickness and sin; whether and how YHWH is involved in causing sickness; epidemics versus individual cases of sickness; and instances of ritual action, broadly understood, that are used to address sickness-related issues. Such instances of ritual action include consulting a functionary such as a priest or prophet, and performing ritual laments and prayers either at home or at a shrine. Two instances of concerns relating to childbearing are also considered, both of which are pictured in the context of ritual action at a shrine.

Sin and Expiation

Expiation refers to a ritual attempt to deal with sin, and while in the Hebrew Bible it can include such things as prayer and acts of mourning, we most frequently find it manifested in sacrifice. Biblical texts rarely explain how sacrifice functions in relation to sin, but sacrifice is described at greatest length in the Priestly writing, particularly in Leviticus 1–7, which has been described as a manual of sacrifice. Even here, however, P does not provide a theory of sacrificial expiation—does not, that is, explain how or why sacrifice functions as the proper ritual response to sin. Jacob Milgrom’s re-creation of the worldview that stands behind P’s understanding of sacrifice claims that the Priestly tradents understood sin as creating a miasma of impurity that polluted the sancta, and saw the blood of the sin or purification offering as a ritual detergent that cleansed the sanctuary. If we read the Priestly narrative without trying to reconstruct this worldview, but look rather for the ways in which P portrays sacrifice and expiation, we see that sacrifice functions as a way for Israelites to publically acknowledge their sin and to signal that they have no intentions of violating God’s commandments again. Part of this ritual message involves honoring God as sovereign, thus also acknowledging God’s right to command and indicating the sacrificers’ awareness that they must act as loyal subjects to their divine sovereign.

Ritualizing Iconic Jewish Texts

Bibles and parts of bibles are themselves used as ritual objects in Jewish and Christian worship. Their display and manipulation, oral performance, and semantic interpretation have been ritualized by synagogues and churches since antiquity. The origins of these practices are rooted in the Bible itself. Their influence has shaped every Jewish and Christian tradition and reaches beyond them to Muslims, Manicheans, and other religious communities. This chapter and its companions in this volume on Christianity and Islam focus mostly on how the iconic dimension of scriptures gets ritualized, because the iconic dimension has received less scholarly attention than the ritualization of scripture’s oral performance, artistic illustration, and semantic interpretation.

Ritual Objects and Artifacts

This chapter surveys material objects in the Old Testament associated with worship and ritual activities, including the ark, altars, wash basins, tables, lampstands, and items deemed to be illicit (idols, sacred poles, pillars, and the bronze serpent). Special emphasis is given to the material form of these objects as well as how they function in ritual processes, activate sensory experience, and/or make available the presence and power of the deity. Attention is also given to the theological systems that undergird the material dimensions of Israelite religion, including aniconism, Deuteronomistic cult reforms, and the construction and operation of the tabernacle and temple.

Mesopotamian Religion

This chapter presents the background situation that gave rise to Mesopotamian religious concepts, as well as the forms of the gods and their service in the classical theology of Mesopotamia. The chapter examines both the temple cult, that is, the public dimension of the religion, and the cult of the individual. It studies several supernatural beings, some active in the state pantheon, others in the sphere of family life, and discusses several literary works of religious significance. The chapter concludes its reflections on Mesopotamian religion with a short piece about the Epic of Gilgamesh, a profound Mesopotamian reflection on the meaning of life and death.

Welcoming the Sabbath on the Kibbutzim

The Kibbutz culture was one of resistance; its very essence was resistance to classical European Judaism and a commitment to create the new Jew in his historic homeland. The kibbutz members left behind them the religious and liturgical culture of the past and experimented in creating a comprehensive and all-inclusive society, encompassing all aspects of the economic, social, and cultural life of its members. Albeit secular and even atheist, some of the more creative expressions of Israeli spirituality resided within the gates of the kibbutzim. To this day, some of the most interesting Israeli ritual innovations have deep roots in kibbutz culture. This essay examines the communal Shabbat welcoming ceremonies celebrated before Friday night dinner in the Kibbutz dining room. It explores the discussions and often intense arguments that accompanied their creation, the content of these ceremonies. It addresses the controversies relating to the Shabbat candle lighting and the special secular liturgies that were composed in the kibbutzim for this practice. The essay also discusses the emergence of the Shabbat welcoming ceremony in its historic context and its gradual disappearance (or its change) due to the waning of Kibbutz ideology.

The Economics of Worship in Ancient Israel and Judah

In addressing the problem of the “economics of worship” in ancient societies it is advisable first to ascertain on what area of “worship” we should focus our investigation. And while one could indeed attempt to explore the economics of, say, the practices of family religion in ancient Israel and Judah, this does not seem to contribute much to deepening our understanding of the economics of worship generally—not because family religion was not representative of the overall practice of religion in that part of the world, but because, due to its very nature, it did not produce hubs of economic activity and therefore gives us no decisive insights into the correlation between economic and religious practices. By contrast, temples are indeed such hubs; this is true today and was no less true of ancient Israel and Judah. In fact, it was probably more obvious then than it is now that temples hosted economic transactions of various kinds and that some of them were veritable economic hubs of huge significance for the whole of the social formation that had brought them forth. Biblical and other ancient Near Eastern texts do not obfuscate the central significance of the economic basis and the economic consequences of cultic activity; on the contrary, they address them without any qualms.

The Ethics of Worship

The chapter examines the relation between ethics and worship in ancient Israel. It focusses on the way in which the cult was instrumental in instructing the people of Israel and Judah in the basic tenets of the moral life by drawing clear distinctions between the ways of the good and those of the wicked. It was in the context of worship that the people were reminded of the moral aspects of the character of God, and some psalms suggest that his character should be imitated in the lives of the pious. The chapter discusses the prophetic critique of Israel’s worship, especially their focus on the disconnect between the conspicuous displays of piety and the lack of ethical behavior on the part of the people. Some aspects of Israel’s worship are highly problematic from the ethical point of view, and the chapter discusses the so-called “imprecatory psalms,” which reflect a tone of resentment and a hunger for retaliation on the part of the worshipper.