Child Sacrifice in Ancient Israel

Child Sacrifice in Ancient Israel PDF Author: Heath D. Dewrell
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 1646022017
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 253

Get Book Here

Book Description
Among the many religious acts condemned in the Hebrew Bible, child sacrifice stands out as particularly horrifying. The idea that any group of people would willingly sacrifice their own children to their god(s) is so contrary to modern moral sensibilities that it is difficult to imagine that such a practice could have ever existed. Nonetheless, the existence of biblical condemnation of these rites attests to the fact that some ancient Israelites in fact did sacrifice their children. Indeed, a close reading of the evidence—biblical, archaeological, epigraphic, etc.—indicates that there are at least three different types of Israelite child sacrifice, each with its own history, purpose, and function. In addition to examining the historical reality of Israelite child sacrifice, Dewrell’s study also explores the biblical rhetoric condemning the practice. While nearly every tradition preserved in the Hebrew Bible rejects child sacrifice as abominable to Yahweh, the rhetorical strategies employed by the biblical writers vary to a surprising degree. Thus, even in arguing against the practice of child sacrifice, the biblical writers themselves often disagreed concerning why Yahweh condemned the rites and why they came to exist in the first place.

Child Sacrifice in Ancient Israel

Child Sacrifice in Ancient Israel PDF Author: Heath D. Dewrell
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 1646022017
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 253

Get Book Here

Book Description
Among the many religious acts condemned in the Hebrew Bible, child sacrifice stands out as particularly horrifying. The idea that any group of people would willingly sacrifice their own children to their god(s) is so contrary to modern moral sensibilities that it is difficult to imagine that such a practice could have ever existed. Nonetheless, the existence of biblical condemnation of these rites attests to the fact that some ancient Israelites in fact did sacrifice their children. Indeed, a close reading of the evidence—biblical, archaeological, epigraphic, etc.—indicates that there are at least three different types of Israelite child sacrifice, each with its own history, purpose, and function. In addition to examining the historical reality of Israelite child sacrifice, Dewrell’s study also explores the biblical rhetoric condemning the practice. While nearly every tradition preserved in the Hebrew Bible rejects child sacrifice as abominable to Yahweh, the rhetorical strategies employed by the biblical writers vary to a surprising degree. Thus, even in arguing against the practice of child sacrifice, the biblical writers themselves often disagreed concerning why Yahweh condemned the rites and why they came to exist in the first place.

Phoenicia

Phoenicia PDF Author: J. Brian Peckham
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 1575068966
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 609

Get Book Here

Book Description
Phoenicia has long been known as the homeland of the Mediterranean seafarers who gave the Greeks their alphabet. But along with this fairly well-known reality, many mysteries remain, in part because the record of the coastal cities and regions that the people of Phoenicia inhabited is fragmentary and episodic. In this magnum opus, the late Brian Peckham examines all of the evidence currently available to paint as complete a portrait as is possible of the land, its history, its people, and its culture. In fact, it was not the Phoenicians but the Canaanites who invented the alphabet; what distinguished the Phoenicians in their turn was the transmission of the alphabet, which was a revolutionary invention, to everyone they met. The Phoenicians were traders and merchants, the Tyrians especially, thriving in the back-and-forth of barter in copper for Levantine produce. They were artists, especially the Sidonians, known for gold and silver masterpieces engraved with scenes from the stories they told and which they exchanged for iron and eventually steel; and they were builders, like the Byblians, who taught the alphabet and numbers as elements of their trade. When the Greeks went west, the Phoenicians went with them. Italy was the first destination; settlements in Spain eventually followed; but Carthage in North Africa was a uniquely Phoenician foundation. The Atlantic Spanish settlements retained their Phoenician character, but the Mediterranean settlements in Spain, Sicily, Sardinia, and Malta were quickly converted into resource centers for the North African colony of Carthage, a colony that came to eclipse the influence of the Levantine coastal city-states. An emerging independent Western Phoenicia left Tyre free to consolidate its hegemony in the East. It became the sole west-Asiatic agent of the Assyrian Empire. But then the Babylonians let it all slip away; and the Persians, intent on war and world domination, wasted their own and everyone’s time trying to dominate the irascible and indomitable Greeks. The Punic West (Carthage) made the same mistake until it was handed off to the Romans. But Phoenicia had been born in a Greek matrix and in time had the sense and good grace to slip quietly into the dominant and sustaining Occidental culture. This complicated history shows up in episodes and anecdotes along a frangible and fractured timeline. Individual men and women come forward in their artifacts, amulets, or seals. There are king lists and alliances, companies, and city assemblies. Years or centuries are skipped in the twinkling of any eye and only occasionally recovered. Phoenicia, like all history, is a construct, a product of historiography, an answer to questions. The history of Phoenicia is the history of its cities in relationship to each other and to the peoples, cities, and kingdoms who nourished their curiosity and their ambition. It is written by deduction and extrapolation, by shaping hard data into malleable evidence, by working from the peripheries of their worlds to the centers where they lived, by trying to uncover their mentalities, plans, beliefs, suppositions, and dreams in the residue of their products and accomplishments. For this reason, the subtitle, Episodes and Anecdotes from the Ancient Mediterranean, is a particularly appropriate description of Peckham’s masterful (posthumous) volume, the fruit of a lifetime of research into the history and culture of the Phoenicians.

Urbanization in the Mediterranean in the 9th to 6th Centuries BC

Urbanization in the Mediterranean in the 9th to 6th Centuries BC PDF Author: Helle Damgaard Andersen
Publisher: Museum Tusculanum Press
ISBN: 9788772894126
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 476

Get Book Here

Book Description
This volume from the "Acta Hyperborea" series of archaeological studies covers the topic of urbanization in the Mediterranean in the 9th to 6th centuries BC. "Acta Hyperborea" is a periodical by a group of classical archaeologists associated with Danish universities and museums. Although primarily a journal of classical archaeology, it also covers other fields in classical scholarship. One of the main objectives of the periodical is the interdisciplinary approach to promote a dialogue between historians, philologists and archaeologists.

Catalogue of the Jewellery, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman

Catalogue of the Jewellery, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman PDF Author: British Museum. Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Art, Ancient
Languages : en
Pages : 772

Get Book Here

Book Description


Cult of Molek

Cult of Molek PDF Author: George C. Heider
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0567578895
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 465

Get Book Here

Book Description
Both scholars and popular writers have long been fascinated with the cult of Molek in the Old Testament. Writers from John Milton to Charles Dickens have been tantalized by the awful rite of sacrifice. Heider's volume evaluates the significance of the Molek cult with regard to the biblical, archaeological, and literary evidence. He begins with a broad history of scholarship on Molek from the seventeenth century onward, paying special attention to the contributions of Otto Eissfeldt and Moshe Weinfeld. He also surveys the literary evidence-in particular the Eblaite, Amorite, Ugaritic, Akkadian, and Phoenician evidence. He also examines the archaeological evidence from the Mesopotamian region. The book concludes with a detailed look at the relevant biblical texts, with a detailed look at Leviticus 18 and 20, Genesis 22, and various passages in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Minor Prophets.

The Civilized Shopper's Guide to Florence

The Civilized Shopper's Guide to Florence PDF Author: Louise Fili
Publisher: New York Review of Books
ISBN: 9781892145475
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Get Book Here

Book Description
Eight walks take shoppers to unique shops that uphold Italian standards of quality, craftsmanship, and creativity. With this discriminating book as a guide, visitors will find a trove of eighty shops that only native Florentines know well. In its pages you’ll find exquisite handmade lingerie, jewelry inspired by Renaissance paintings, handcrafted leather boxes, beautifully tailored shirts for men and women, vintage French and Italian designer clothing, shoes, hats, gourmet items, and much, much more. The walks include forty dining recommendations from where to get a quick caffe-ciok (“the best thing to ever happen to espresso, hot chocolate, and steamed milk”) to a sumptuous Tuscan meal. The book also serves as an informative guide to often perplexing opening days and hours, the always perplexing street numbering system, and shopping etiquette.

Engineering Geology and the Environment

Engineering Geology and the Environment PDF Author: Paul G. Marinos
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 9789054108825
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 434

Get Book Here

Book Description
Publication of volumes 4 and 5 from the June 1997 conference were significantly delayed (the first three volumes were published in 1997). Volume 5 contains general reports and post-symposium proceedings, including late contributions on engineering geology and geomorphological processes, natural and man-made hazards, urban and regional planning, and protections of geological, geographical, historical, and architectural heritage. Also includedd: a report stemming from a field trip to the Sterea Hellas and Corinth Canal, on the geological and geotechnical conditions of those areas; and the opening and closing speeches. There is no subject index. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR

Italy

Italy PDF Author: Ros Belford
Publisher: Rough Guides
ISBN: 9781843530602
Category : Italy
Languages : en
Pages : 1246

Get Book Here

Book Description
From Mantua's Pallazo Ducale to the precipitous coves of the Tyrrhenian coast, this book guides the independent-minded traveler through one of the most adored countries in the world. of color photos. 82 maps.

Moth

Moth PDF Author: Dorian Christo
Publisher: Dorian Christo
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 334

Get Book Here

Book Description
Moth was doing just fine in the Sunder, happy to forget his days topside, until a figure from his past appears with a puzzling message. He realises how murky his memories have gotten. How restless he feels. Perhaps he wasn't content after all...it was simply easier to forget the pain of the past, and start anew. Now that fate has come calling, he feels the pull in him grow stronger than ever, dragging him back to the surface to face a terrifying reality. Moth and the Gloaming Lance is the first in a series that follows runaway knight "Moth". Together with his lover, a meek blacksmith named Shy, and his long-lost, illustrious friend, Godlef, Moth travels to the Wake, and seeks to find out what has become of his parents, their kingdom, and the world at large.

The Oxford Handbook of the Phoenician and Punic Mediterranean

The Oxford Handbook of the Phoenician and Punic Mediterranean PDF Author: Carolina López-Ruiz
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197654428
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 787

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Phoenicians created the Mediterranean world as we know it--yet they remain a poorly understood group. In this Handbook, the first of its kind in English, readers will find expert essays covering the history, culture, and areas of settlement throughout the Phoenician and Punic world.