The Encounter with the Divine in Mesopotamia and Israel

The Encounter with the Divine in Mesopotamia and Israel PDF Author: H. W. F. Saggs
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1474280846
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Get Book

Book Description
While most of its contemporary religions have faded away, Israelite religion continues to have a major influence in the world. First delivered in 1975 as a Jordan Lecture in Comparative Religion, this volume argues that in its beginnings Israelite religion had much in common with ancient Mesopotamian religion and suggests that its endurance is due to its dynamic development of the concepts it shared with other religions.

The Encounter with the Divine in Mesopotamia and Israel

The Encounter with the Divine in Mesopotamia and Israel PDF Author: H. W. F. Saggs
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1474280846
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Get Book

Book Description
While most of its contemporary religions have faded away, Israelite religion continues to have a major influence in the world. First delivered in 1975 as a Jordan Lecture in Comparative Religion, this volume argues that in its beginnings Israelite religion had much in common with ancient Mesopotamian religion and suggests that its endurance is due to its dynamic development of the concepts it shared with other religions.

Secrecy and the Gods

Secrecy and the Gods PDF Author: Alan Lenzi
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 496

Get Book

Book Description
Secrecy and the Gods is a comparative mythological study of the human reception and treatment of divine secret knowledge in ancient Mesopotamia and biblical Israel. The human royal council was the social model for ancient ideas about divine knowledge being secret - just as human kings had secrets so too did the gods. Diviners who received this knowledge from the gods in an on-going, ad hoc manner were an essential link between the divine assembly and the human royal council for whom such knowledge was intended. Scribes eventually adapted the ad hoc divinatory means of receiving divine communications to their culturally significant texts. By discursively asserting a historical connection between themselves and unique mediators with a close divine affiliation (the apkallus and Moses), the scribes constructed myths that legitimated their texts as divine revelation and claimed these were received in history through normal scribal channels. In this manner, scribes fixed the secret of the gods permanently among humans in textualized form that valorized their own position within society. Although the origin of divine secret knowledge was rooted in a common mythological idea of the divine assembly, its treatment was quite distinct. The Mesopotamians guarded divine secret knowledge through various scribal means, including the attachment of a Geheimwissen colophon to certain tablets (treated exhaustively), whereas biblical Israel published it openly. The contrast in treatment of divine secret knowledge was directly related to different mytho-political self-understandings: Mesopotamia's imperial aspirations versus biblical Israel's vassaldom. As vassals to Yahweh, the divine imperial king, the kings of Judah and Israel as presented in the biblical material were not to formulate secret orders; they were only to obey them.

Cult Image and Divine Representation in the Ancient Near East

Cult Image and Divine Representation in the Ancient Near East PDF Author: Neal H. Walls
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 144

Get Book

Book Description
While biblical prophets ridiculed the notion of humans fashioning an idol that they would then worship, ancient Near Eastern theologians developed a sophisticated religious system in which divine beings could be physically manifest within the material of a cultic image without being limited by that embodiment. The four essays in this compact volume examine the intriguing subject of cultic images and divine iconography in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia and Syria-Palestine. This interesting and eclectic group of essays explores the textual and artifactual evidence for the creation and veneration of divine images in the ancient Near East. The recent resurgence of scholarly interest in the study of divine representation in ancient Israel and the Near East makes this comprehensive reexamination especially timely.

Ancient Israelite Literature in Its Cultural Context

Ancient Israelite Literature in Its Cultural Context PDF Author: John H. Walton
Publisher: Zondervan
ISBN: 9780310365914
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 264

Get Book

Book Description
This book surveys within the various literary genres (cosmologies, personal archives and epics, hymns, and prayers) parallels between the Bible and Ancient Near Eastern literature.

Ancient Mesopotamian Religion and Mythology

Ancient Mesopotamian Religion and Mythology PDF Author: W.G. Lambert
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
ISBN: 9783161536748
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Get Book

Book Description
The late W.G. Lambert (1926-2011) was one of the foremost Assyriologists of the latter part of the twentieth century. His principle legacy is a large number of superb critical editions of Babylonian literary compositions. Many of the texts he edited were on religious and mythological subjects. He will always be remembered as the editor of the Babylonian Job (Ludlul bel nemeqi, also known as the Poem of the Righteous Sufferer), the Babylonian Flood Story (Atra-hasis) and the Babylonian Creation Epic (Enuma elish). The present book is a collection of twenty-three essays Lambert published between the years 1958 and 2004. These endure not only as the legacy of one of the greatest authorities on ancient Mesopotamian religion and mythology, but also because each makes statements of considerable validity and importance. As such, many are milestones in the fields of Mesopotamian religion and mythology.

Sin and Sanction in Israel and Mesopotamia

Sin and Sanction in Israel and Mesopotamia PDF Author: K. van der Toorn
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 900435445X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Get Book

Book Description


Faith, Tradition, and History

Faith, Tradition, and History PDF Author: Alan Ralph Millard
Publisher: Eisenbrauns
ISBN: 9780931464829
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 376

Get Book

Book Description


Israel's Original Sin

Israel's Original Sin PDF Author: Richard J. Rolwing
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1401045251
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 312

Get Book

Book Description
WAS THE GOD OF JOSHUA THE GOD OF JESUS? A relook at modern Israel´s roots in ancient Israel, salva- tion history, biblical inspiration, partial revelation, imperfect theology, and misguided leaders among Jews, Muslims, and Christians. It asks, considering Mohammed, Ben Gurion, and Harry Truman, if Joshua has not had as much influence on western civilization as Jesus. "What on earth is God doing in the Middle East?" Do Uncle Sam and his protoge Israel justify divine providence in human history? Do victories in war and success in business prove God´s blessing, and do failures in finance and disasters in health (Aids) manifest God´s displeasure? How does Christ´s cross (theology) fit into history (politics)? "This book is indeed thoughtful and creative. It highlightsthe need for all of us today to be much more self-critical; especially for us Christians to see how domination theology has been a part of our own approach." Fr. (Dr.) James Bacik, author of Apologetics and the Eclipse of Mystery.

Ancient Israel

Ancient Israel PDF Author: Niels Peter Lemche
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0567662802
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 297

Get Book

Book Description
When this provocative text was first published, Lemche presented a new model of how we should understand Israelite society, its history and its religion. Lemche argues first that 'Israel' was the result of a social development among the Canaanite population of Palestine in the second half of the second millennium BCE. This implies that Israelite religion was originally 'Canaanite' and that what we think of as typically 'Jewish' religion did not arise until c. 500 BCE. Lemche's radical reassessment of Israelite history is based on the conviction that the Old Testament contains hardly any historical sources older than the seventh century BCE. The early history of Israel must therefore be reconstructed from archaeological results and non-biblical evidence, not from the Old Testament. In this new edition Lemche provides an extensive new introduction and bibliography, considering how the field has developed since the work first appeared.

Essential Papers on Israel and the Ancient Near East

Essential Papers on Israel and the Ancient Near East PDF Author: Frederick E. Greenspahn
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 081473037X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 488

Get Book

Book Description