Figurative Language in the Ancient Near East

Figurative Language in the Ancient Near East PDF Author: M. J. Geller
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135752591
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 166

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Book Description
A group of scholars from Britain, Holland, Germany, and Israel met at the WarburgInstitute and the School of Oriental and African Studies in November 1983, to discuss theuse of figurative language in Sumerian, Akkadian, Ugaritic, and biblical Hebrewliterature. The papers were presented in memory of Henri Frankfort, and consequentlyalso took into account figurative expression in ancient art and architecture. The originalimpetus for the colloquium came from Thorkild Jacobsen's extended visit to London asguest of the British Academy, and all of the participants came to honour both Frankfort'smemo.

Figurative Language in the Ancient Near East

Figurative Language in the Ancient Near East PDF Author: M. J. Geller
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135752591
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 166

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Book Description
A group of scholars from Britain, Holland, Germany, and Israel met at the WarburgInstitute and the School of Oriental and African Studies in November 1983, to discuss theuse of figurative language in Sumerian, Akkadian, Ugaritic, and biblical Hebrewliterature. The papers were presented in memory of Henri Frankfort, and consequentlyalso took into account figurative expression in ancient art and architecture. The originalimpetus for the colloquium came from Thorkild Jacobsen's extended visit to London asguest of the British Academy, and all of the participants came to honour both Frankfort'smemo.

Researching Metaphor in the Ancient Near East

Researching Metaphor in the Ancient Near East PDF Author: Marta Pallavidini
Publisher: Harrassowitz
ISBN: 9783447114370
Category : Akkadian language
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
Metaphor has intrigued philosophers, rhetoricians, and poets since Antiquity. The phenomenon of metaphor has been mostly interpreted as a figure of speech, and only in last decades of the 20th Century the so-called cognitive turn defined metaphor as a product first of the thought and then of the language. According to this view metaphor is used in everyday life and it is present, therefore, potentially, in every type of texts. Furthermore, metaphor can be identified also in images that convey specific concepts. Both as a figure of speech and as a cognitive phenomenon, the research of metaphor in the ancient Near Eastern written sources has never been thoroughly investigated. Yet the study of metaphor will consent to win a deeper knowledge of the texts and of the system of thinking of the cultures that produced those texts. Therefore, this volume edited by Marta Pallavidini and Ludovico Portuese aims to research metaphor from different perspectives by considering its presence in ancient Near Eastern written documents. The contributions focus on several ancient Near Eastern cultures and encompass more than two millennia as well as examine various topics, from Sumerian literature, to Hittite written sources, to Neo-Assyrian art to the Biblical world.

תהלה למשה

תהלה למשה PDF Author: Moshe Greenberg
Publisher: Eisenbrauns
ISBN: 1575060272
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 395

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Book Description
Forty-five scholars here combine their skills in tribute to their colleague, teacher, and friend. This collection includes 27 English and 18 Hebrew essays on literary criticism, rabbinic literature, Hebrew word studies, Septuagint, Qumran, textual criticism, and many other topics. Moshe Greenberg is perhaps best known for his commentary on Ezekiel in the Anchor Bible series.

Literary Motifs and Patterns in the Hebrew Bible

Literary Motifs and Patterns in the Hebrew Bible PDF Author: Shemaryahu Talmon
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 1575068540
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 520

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Book Description
This collection gathers together Professor Shemaryahu Talmon’s contributions to the literary study of the Bible, and complements his acclaimed Literary Studies in the Hebrew Bible: Form and Content: Collected Studies (Jerusalem: Magnes / Leiden: Brill, 1993). The articles included herein span a broad range of topics, closely and comprehensively assessing fundamental themes and stylistic conceits present in biblical literature. Each study picks up one of these motifs or patterns, and traces its meaning and usage throughout the entire Bible. In Talmon’s estimation, these literary markers transcend all strata of the Bible, and despite diachronic developments, they retain their basic meanings and connotations throughout, even when employed by different authors over a span of hundreds of years. He demonstrates this convincingly by marshaling dozens of examples, each of which is valuable in its own right, and when taken all together, these building-blocks form a solid edifice that validate his approach. He judiciously employs this synchronic method throughout, frequently invoking an exegetical principle according to which one biblical verse can be employed to interpret the other, if they are found in similar contexts and with overlapping formulation. To use an expression that he coined elsewhere, his hermeneutical method can be described first and foremost as “The World of the Bible from Within.” Throughout the articles that appear in this volume, one is repeatedly struck by his sensitivity to the language and style of the biblical authors. He was blessed with a rich literary intuition, and shares with his readers his ability to see, hear, and understand the rhythms and poetics of biblical literature. In this volume, many of Talmon’s contributions are made accessible in fresh form to the benefit of both those who already know his work and to a newer generation of scholars for whom his work continues to prove important.

Contexts of Metaphor

Contexts of Metaphor PDF Author: Michiel Leezenberg
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 0585473935
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 331

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Book Description
This study presents an approach to metaphor that takes contextual factors into account. It analyses how metaphors depend on and change the context in which they are uttered, and how metaphorical interpretation involves the articulation of asserted, implied and presupposed materials.

Plant Metaphors in Prophetic Condemnations of Israel and Judah

Plant Metaphors in Prophetic Condemnations of Israel and Judah PDF Author: Tina M. Sherman
Publisher: SBL Press
ISBN: 1628375523
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
Tina M. Sherman offers a first-of-its-kind, detailed analysis of prophetic passages that depict people as plants—from grasses and grains to fruit trees and grapevines—examining how the biblical authors exploited these metaphors to portray the condemnation and punishment of Israel and Judah in terms of the everyday work of crop farming and plant husbandry. Additionally, she explores how the prophetic authors employed plant imagery to construct national identities that emphasize the people’s collective responsibility for the kingdoms’ fate. Plant Metaphors in Prophetic Condemnations of Israel and Judah demonstrates the usefulness of combining conceptual metaphor theory with aspects of frame semantics in the analysis of patterns of thought and expression in biblical metaphor.

In the Garden of the Gods

In the Garden of the Gods PDF Author: Eva Anagnostou-Laoutides
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317117751
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
Examining the evolution of kingship in the Ancient Near East from the time of the Sumerians to the rise of the Seleucids in Babylon, this book argues that the Sumerian emphasis on the divine favour that the fertility goddess and the Sun god bestowed upon the king should be understood metaphorically from the start and that these metaphors survived in later historical periods, through popular literature including the Epic of Gilgameš and the Enuma Eliš. The author’s research shows that from the earliest times Near Eastern kings and their scribes adapted these metaphors to promote royal legitimacy in accordance with legendary exempla that highlighted the role of the king as the establisher of order and civilization. As another Gilgameš and, later, as a pious servant of Marduk, the king renewed divine favour for his subjects, enabling them to share the 'Garden of the Gods'. Seleucus and Antiochus found these cultural ideas, as they had evolved in the first millennium BCE, extremely useful in their efforts to establish their dynasty at Babylon. Far from playing down cultural differences, the book considers the ideological agendas of ancient Near Eastern empires as having been shaped mainly by class — rather than race-minded elites.

The Laws of Hammurabi

The Laws of Hammurabi PDF Author: Pamela Barmash
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197525423
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
Among the best-known and most esteemed people known from antiquity is the Babylonian king Hammurabi. His fame and reputation are due to the collection of laws written under his patronage. This book offers an innovative interpretation of the Laws of Hammurabi. Ancient scribes would demonstrate their legal flair by composing statutes on a set of traditional cases, articulating what they deemed just and fair. The scribe of the Laws of Hammurabi advanced beyond earlier scribes in composing statutes that manifest systematization and implicit legal principles, and inserted the Laws of Hammurabi into the form of a royal inscription, shrewdly reshaping the genre. This tradition of scribal improvisation on a set of traditional cases continued outside of Mesopotamia. It influenced biblical law and the law of the Hittite empire significantly. The Laws of Hammurabi was also witness to the start of another stream of intellectual tradition. It became the subject of formal commentaries, marking a profound cultural shift. Scribes related to it in ways that diverged from prior attitudes; it became an object of study and of commentary, a genre that names itself as dependent on another text. The famous Laws of Hammurabi is here given the extensive attention it continues to merit.

Esther's Revenge at Susa

Esther's Revenge at Susa PDF Author: Stephanie Dalley
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191527122
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
Why are the names of the chief characters in the biblical Book of Esther those of Mesopotamian deities? Stephanie Dalley argues that the narrative reflects real happenings in seventh-century Assyria, where the widespread belief that revenge belongs to the gods explains why Assyrian kings described punitive campaigns as divine acts, leading to the mythologizing of certain historical events. Ashurbanipal's sack of Susa, led by the deities Ishtar and Marduk, underlies the Hebrew story of Esther, and that story contains traces of the cultic calendar of Ishtar-of-Nineveh. Dalley traces the way in which the long-term settlement of `lost tribes' in Assyria, revealed by the fruits of excavation in Iraq and Syria, inspired a blend of pagan and Jewish traditions.

Patterns of Destiny

Patterns of Destiny PDF Author: Diane M. Sharon
Publisher: Eisenbrauns
ISBN: 1575060523
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
"Diane Sharon uses the tools of structuralist literary criticism to uncover social and theological patterns in the literature of the Hebrew Bible. After providing a brief framework for understanding the approach used in her study, she demonstrates that the social activity of eating and drinking, when accompanied by other literary motifs, is part of a pattern portending the establishment or condemnation of a cultural entity. This pattern she refers to as the Pattern of Destiny." "In addition to defining the "destiny pattern," Sharon shows that the "direction" of the eating and/or drinking event provides clues regarding the nature of the destiny portended: whether the event will turn out to the positive or negative for the individual or cultural entity is signaled by clues within the eating/drinking event, sometimes in opposition to the surface structure of the text in which these clues are embedded." --Book Jacket.