Scribal Secrets

Scribal Secrets PDF Author: James S. Diamond
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1532647999
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 207

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Book Description
The text of the Torah includes not only its words, but also various atypical scribal features. Prime among these are the dots over certain letters, various letters written either large or small, and the exceedingly odd placement of two inverted Hebrew letters surrounding one passage. What are these features doing there? How old are they? Do they carry meaning? How have they been interpreted over the years? James Diamond brings the reader on the journey through the Torah text in search of a response to these questions.

Scribal Secrets

Scribal Secrets PDF Author: James S. Diamond
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1532647999
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 207

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Book Description
The text of the Torah includes not only its words, but also various atypical scribal features. Prime among these are the dots over certain letters, various letters written either large or small, and the exceedingly odd placement of two inverted Hebrew letters surrounding one passage. What are these features doing there? How old are they? Do they carry meaning? How have they been interpreted over the years? James Diamond brings the reader on the journey through the Torah text in search of a response to these questions.

Antiguo Oriente - Volume 11 (2013)

Antiguo Oriente - Volume 11 (2013) PDF Author: Juan Manuel Tebes
Publisher: CEHAO
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 203

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Book Description
Antiguo Oriente (abbreviated as AntOr) is the annual, peer-reviewed, scholarly journal published by the Center of Studies of Ancient Near Eastern History (CEHAO), Catholic University of Argentina.

The Splintered Divine

The Splintered Divine PDF Author: Spencer L. Allen
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1614512361
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 480

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Book Description
This book investigates the issue of the singularity versus the multiplicity of ancient Near Eastern deities who are known by a common first name but differentiated by their last names, or geographic epithets. It focuses primarily on the Ištar divine names in Mesopotamia, Baal names in the Levant, and Yahweh names in Israel, and it is structured around four key questions: How did the ancients define what it meant to be a god - or more pragmatically, what kind of treatment did a personality or object need to receive in order to be considered a god by the ancients? Upon what bases and according to which texts do modern scholars determine when a personality or object is a god in an ancient culture? In what ways are deities with both first and last names treated the same and differently from deities with only first names? Under what circumstances are deities with common first names and different last names recognizable as distinct independent deities, and under what circumstances are they merely local manifestations of an overarching deity? The conclusions drawn about the singularity of local manifestations versus the multiplicity of independent deities are specific to each individual first name examined in accordance with the data and texts available for each divine first name.

From Apocalypticism to Merkabah Mysticism

From Apocalypticism to Merkabah Mysticism PDF Author: Andrei A. Orlov
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004154396
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 503

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Book Description
This volume represents the first attempt to study Slavonic pseudepigrapha collectively as a unique group of texts that share common theophanic and mediatorial imagery crucial for the development of early Jewish mysticism.

Problems of Canonicity and Identity Formation in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia

Problems of Canonicity and Identity Formation in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia PDF Author: Gojko Barjamovic
Publisher: Museum Tusculanum Press
ISBN: 8763543729
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 359

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Book Description
The term ‘canonicity’ implies the recognition that the domain of literature and of the library is also a cultural and political one, related to various forms of identity formation, maintenance, and change. Scribes and benefactors ‘create’ canon in as much as they teach, analyze, preserve, prom¬ulgate and change ‘canonical’ texts according to prevailing norms. From early on, texts from the written traditions of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt were accumulated, codified, and to some extent canonized, as various collections developed mainly in the environment of the temple and the palace. These written traditions represent sets of formal and informal cultures that all speak in their own ways of canonicity, normativity, and other forms of cultural expertise. Some forms of literature were used not only in scholarly contexts, but also in political ones, and they served purposes of identity formation. This volume addresses the interrelations between various forms of ‘canon’ and identity formation in different time periods, genres, regions, and contexts, as well as the application of contemporary conceptions of ‘canon’ to ancient texts.

Wisdom Literature in Mesopotamia and Israel

Wisdom Literature in Mesopotamia and Israel PDF Author: Richard J. Clifford
Publisher: Society of Biblical Lit
ISBN: 1589832191
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 116

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Book Description
The last fifty years have seen a dramatic increase of interest in the wisdom literature of the Bible, as scholars have come to appreciate the subtlety and originality of Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes as well as of Sirach and Wisdom of Solomon. Interest has likewise grown in the wisdom literatures of the neighboring cultures of Canaan, Egypt, and especially Mesopotamia. To help readers understand the place of biblical wisdom within this broader context, including its originality and distinctiveness, this volume offers a collection of essays by Assyriologists and biblicists on the social, intellectual, and literary setting of Mesopotamian wisdom; on specific wisdom texts; and on key themes common to both Mesopotamian and biblical culture. --From publisher's description.

Beholders of Divine Secrets

Beholders of Divine Secrets PDF Author: Vita Daphna Arbel
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791486850
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
Beholders of Divine Secrets provides a fascinating exploration of the enigmatic Hekhalot and Merkavah literature, the Jewish mystical writings of late antiquity. Vita Daphna Arbel delves into the unique nature of the mystical teachings, experiences, revelations, and spiritual exegesis presented in this literature. While previous scholarship has demonstrated the connection between Hekhalot and Merkavah mysticism and parallel traditions in Rabbinical writings, the Dead Sea Scrolls, apocalyptic, early Christian, and Gnostic sources, this work points out additional mythological traditions that resonate in this literature. Arbel suggests that mythological patterns of expression, as well as themes and models rooted in Near Eastern mythological traditions are employed, in a spiritualized fashion, to communicate mystical content. The possible cultural and social context of the Hekhalot and Merkavah mysticism and its composers is discussed.

The Enoch-Metatron Tradition

The Enoch-Metatron Tradition PDF Author: Andrei A. Orlov
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
ISBN: 9783161485442
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
Andrei A. Orlov examines the tradition about the seventh antediluvian patriarch Enoch, tracing its development from its roots in the Mesopotamian lore to the Second Temple apocalyptic texts and later rabbinic and Hekhalot materials where Enoch is often identified as the supreme angel Metatron. The first part of the book explores the imagery of the celestial roles and titles of the seventh antediluvian hero in Mesopotamian, Enochic and Hekhalot materials. The analysis of the celestial roles and titles shows that the transition from the figure of patriarch Enoch to the figure of angel Metatron occurred already in the Second Temple Enochic materials, namely, in 2 (Slavonic) Enoch, a Jewish work, traditionally dated to the first century CE. The second part of the book demonstrates that mediatorial polemics with the traditions of the exalted patriarchs and prophets played an important role in facilitating the transition from Enoch to Metatron in the Second Temple period.

Aramaica Qumranica

Aramaica Qumranica PDF Author: Katell Berthelot
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004194320
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 620

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Book Description
The Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls represent roughly 13% of the Qumran library and correspond to a wide range of genres and topics. This book consists of the proceedings of a conference on the Aramaic scrolls from Qumran which took place in Aix-en-Provence in 2008. It includes both the papers themselves and a transcription of the discussions. The 22 papers tackle linguistic, exegetical and historical questions, focusing in particular on: the relation of the Aramaic texts to what we know as the Hebrew Bible; their literary genres; the question of their sectarian or non-sectarian provenance; the character of the corpus, and specifically its relevance to the development of apocalypticism and messianism in the Jewish tradition.

Secret Gospels

Secret Gospels PDF Author: Marvin Meyer
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1563384094
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Marvin Meyer is one of the leading experts on the secret gospels Gospel of Thomas, Secret Gospel of Mark, and others who has changed forever how we read the canonical gospels and understand early Christianity. In this new collection of his work, Meyer looks at these revolutionary texts in original and illuminating ways. He writes, for example, about the naked youths in the villa of the Mysteries. On the walls of a villa in Pompeii, a famous mural depicts a naked male reading from a scroll, a look of wonder on his face. A naked youth again appears in the Gospel of Mark, abandoning his garment and fleeing naked when apprehended during Jesus' arrest. A similar youth appears in the Secret Gospel of Mark. These youths, Meyer proposes, serve as an image of religious initiation, candidates for the mysteries of Dionysus or of Christ. This is one of the many aspects of the secret gospels that Meyer examines with expert insight and creativity. Topics range from gender and infancy stories to discipleship and the relationship of the Gospel of Thomas to Islamic literature. Meyer's spellbinding readings of these materials offer fresh understandings of the canonical gospels. Marvin Meyer is Griset Professor of Bible and Christian Studies, and Director of the Albert Schweitzer Institute at Chapman University, Orange, California. He is author of The Secret Teachings of Jesus: Four Gnostic Gospels and The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus, and co-editor of Jesus Then and Now (Trinity Press International).