David and Hazael: War,Peace, Stones and Memory

Abstract

This paper reexamines the rise and fall of two regional empires: the Israelite kingdom of David and Solomon, and the Aramaic kingdom of Hazael and his son Bar-Hadad III. The author presents a comparison between these two regional empires, discussing the following main points: the rise to power of the founders: David and Hazael and their charismatic character; their wars and peace treaties; the boundaries and the administrative organization of these two empires, and the decline and fall of the kingdoms in the days of the founder's sons: Solomon and Bar-Hadad III. The author is of the opinion that the existence of a regional empire in the days of Hazael and his son is of great significance for the reality of the empire of David and Solomon, since the former clearly proves that in certain geopolitical circumstances the making of a regional empire that controlled most of the area between the Euphrates and Philistia was entirely possible. The phenomenon of the Aramaean regional empire of Hazael and his son does not prove the existence of an Israelite regional empire, but it indicates that the biblical account of the rise and fall of an Israelite empire in the days of David and Solomon was possible, and even reasonable.     

Review of Periodical Literature and Occasional Publications

Abstract

'Millenarians in the Pennines 1800–1830: Building and Believing Jerusalem'. The legend of the prophet John Wroe and his nineteenth-century millenarian followers remains a cherished part of Pennine folklore. In Ashton-under-Lyne and other mill-towns, Wroe attracted a following committed to his religious direction, living according to the Old Testament Law, and calling themselves 'Israelites'. In the 1820s, the Ashton community constructed an elaborate Sanctuary and four gatehouses, and called their town 'Jerusalem'. Wroe left Ashton in 1831 after sexual allegations; yet his movement persisted for decades. This article presents a new history of Wroe's Israelite sect before 1830, revealing its continuity — in ideas and people — with earlier religious traditions in the region. The phenomenon of a sect believing Ashton could be the New Jerusalem was not the work of one charismatic leader, nor the outcome of economic and religious conditions in one decade; nor were such beliefs a short-lived replacement for old securities. From a newly discovered archive and a range of sources in international and local collections, the buildings, the rites and the regime emergent in 1820s Ashton are shown to be merely the most prominent episode in a larger and more notable regional religious history. Acknowledging the agency available within this movement challenges existing conceptions of millenarianism in the period.     

Crimson,Scarlet, Murrey and Carnation: Red at the Court of Henry VIII

Abstract

Red, in all its various shades, was a colour with many associations at the court of Henry VIII. This article presents a thematic analysis of the key circumstances when red clothing was worn at Henry VIII's court, namely the robes worn at sessions of parliament by the nobility and secular clergy, the livery issued at coronations, as well as livery given to members of the king's household and his army in 1544. In addition, the king wore red for key days in the liturgical year as his medieval predecessors had, while it also formed part of his everyday wardrobe. Red was also significant for others at the Henrician court, including the secular and ecclesiastical élite. As such, it was a colour that was associated with wealth, status and parliamentary authority.     

Reading texts against an historical background: The case of lamentations 1 1

Abstract

In Part I, the paper offers an analysis of two narratives (1 Sam 25; 2 Sam 11) in which David is involved in a triangular relationship with another man and his wife. In the first narrative, both David and the woman (Abigail) are noble characters while the man (Nabal) behaves ignobly, but in the second these characteristics are reversed. David and the woman (Bathsheba) act badly, but the man acts well. In Part II, an attempt is made to see whether the confrontation between David and Uriah can be read coherently and consistently if it is supposed that Uriah knew what David was trying to achieve by sending him home to his wife, and David knew that Uriah knew. Although this reading allows a more complicated assessment of Uriah's character, it does not diminish the impression that he is a loyal and noble subject of the king. His loyalty, however, is married to a stern and uncompromising morality.     

ASHKELON

Abstract

The Bible refers frequently to sacrifices offered on high places (bamot) and altars 'on every high hill and under every leafy tree'. Archeological finds in the Land of Israel, however, include only a few altars for animal sacrifices. The altar described here is unique, an unprecedented find in the Land of Israel. It is hewn in the rock about 1.5 km west of Shiloh, in an area quite rich in ancient ruins and near a spring. There are no building remains, nor pottery relevant to the period, in its immediate vicinity. At the side is flat, blackened stone, apparently broken off the altar top because of the heat of its fire. The altar has four 'horns' and a levelled top, and its dimensions resemble those of the altar in the book of Exodus (27. 1–2). It stands not on a summit but in mid-slope. It may thus be conjectured that the altar was Israelite and used for monotheistic worship. The orientation of the altar is interesting: its corners, rather than its sides, are aligned with the four cardinal directions (north and south, east and west). In this respect the altar is similar to that discovered on Mount Ebal. The altar shares some features with 'Manoah's altar' below ancient Zor'ah; however, there are some basic differences, and the Shiloh altar is much more impressive.     

Negotiating episcopal support in the Merovingian kingdom of Reims (ad 561–75)

Minimal scholarly attention has been paid to the ecclesiastical policies of King Sigibert I of Reims (r. 561–75). An examination of Sigibert's policies suggests the lengths to which the king went to attract and maintain episcopal allies in strategic and politically divided civitates. While Gregory of Tours in his Decem Libri Historiarum blamed Sigibert's death on his stubborn refusal to heed episcopal counsel, the bishop of Tours recognized that the king of Reims was not consistently hostile to the church and its bishops, and saw the circumstances of Sigibert's untimely death as ultimately tragic.     

Yahweh's divorce in Hosea 2 — Who is that woman?

Abstract

The proposal that Yahweh's wife being divorced in Hos 2 is Asherah fails all tests that one puts to it. The monotheistic prophet would not have dignified the Canaanite Goddess with such a recognition. Nor would the Israelites have claimed the Canaanite mother of the Gods as their own mother. The city of Samaria is the only bride/divorcee around. (Israel, being masculine, is son m not wife — of Yahweh). Hosea does not create the idea of the city as woman; the usage is an ancient West‐Semitic way of speaking of cities. Hosea is simply one of the first Israelite prophets to use the Canaanite imagery for cities, but his utterance was preserved. He probably is distinctive as the first to have Yahweh divorce his city‐wife. Thus, Hosea in Chap 2 proclaims the future demise of Samaria.     

The Thesaurus Exemplorum Medii Aevi (ThEMA): An Introduction

Abstract

Johannes Borquardi was a priest-brother at Vadstena Abbey from 1428 until his death in 1447. He was a renowned preacher and has left three extant volumes of sermons. At the end of many of his sermons, he writes suggestions for yet another sermon on the same theme or for the same day. There are some 60 such short texts, some mentioning only one or two suitable sources, others listing many books; sometimes they even give a Vadstena shelf-mark. These texts are invaluable for our knowledge of the Abbey library in many aspects. In some cases, we can check how Johannes himself used his own suggestions, since we also have his next product for the same feast. In this paper, I have studied how Johannes used one of his 'endnotes' to compose a sermon for St Matthias by cribbing from Peregrinus de Oppeln and Guilelmus Peraldus. I hope to show just how skilfully he uses his sources and how elegantly he pastes in his quotations, so that the sermon becomes a new, consistent and homogeneous text.     

Leviathans Old and New: What Collingwood Saw in Hobbes

Summary

R. G. Collingwood presented his major work of political philosophy, The New Leviathan, as an updated version of Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan. However, his reasons for taking Hobbes's great work as his inspiration have puzzled and eluded many Collingwood scholars, while those interested in the reception of Hobbes's ideas have largely neglected the New Leviathan. In this essay I reveal what Collingwood saw in Hobbes's political philosophy and show how his reading of Hobbes both diverges from other prominent interpretations of the time and invites us to reassess Hobbes's complex association with the origins of liberalism. In doing so, I focus on Collingwood's science of mind, his ideas on society and authority, and his dialectical theory of politics, in each case showing how he engaged with Hobbes in order to elucidate his own vision of civilisation. That vision is based on the development of social consciousness, which involves people coming to understand the body politic as a joint enterprise whereby they confer authority upon those who rule.     

The Archbishop in the Beleaguered City: An Analysis of the Conflicting Roles and Political Oratory of Makarios

Abstract

In this paper I want to examine the significance of Makarios' combined roles of Archbishop and President of Cyprus for his style of leadership and his political oratory. In so doing I hope to shed some light on certain aspects of ‘The Cyprus Problem’ which has hitherto received scant attention by political scientists and sociologists.     

Ahab of LXX: Making Sense of the Swap of 1 Kgs/3 Kgdms 20-21

ABSTRACT

The article argues that the different sequence of chapters in the LXX (3 Kgdms 20-21) and MT (1 Kgs 20-21) is due to the different focus of each tradition. The LXX focuses on Ahab and portrays his life as an accumulation of the fatal sins of his main royal predecessors—Saul, David, Solomon, and Jeroboam—but in a reverse order. This reverse cycle of kings indicates that Ahab was a turning point in Israelite history. MT, on the other hand, focuses on Jezebel. The placement of the account of Naboth’s vineyard right beforw chapter 22 creates in the audience an expectation of Jezebel’s death which would not be realized until 2 Kgs 9.     

The messiah epithet in the Hebrew Bible

Rather than a reference ''to a present, political and religious leader who is appointed by God, applied predominantly to a king, but also to a priest and occasionally a prophet'' as proposed in 1985 by the first Princeton Symposium of Judaism and Christian origins, the term 'MSH' in the Hebrew Bible is an epithet or title which functions within a literary and mythic but not an historical context. The role of the messiah as played in the Hebrew Bible is not uniquely Jewish, but functions within the symbol system of ancient Near Eastern royal ideology and functions within a theology of divine transcendence and immanence. The coherence of the mythic role of the messiah is identified in relation to concepts of messianic time, as in the functions of expiating and mediating transcendence, of maintaining creation through war against the powers of chaos and the establishment of eternal peace. David's role as messiah in the Psalter is described in his role as ideal representative of piety, and as ruler over destiny bringing the good news expressed in various forms of ''the poor man's song.'' Finally, the role of the messiah myth is integrated with utopian concepts of a new Israel.     

Preliminary remarks on George Seferis' visual poetics

Abstract

This article makes some preliminary remarks on Seferis' photography, focusing mainly on its poetics as an act of seeing. The main intention is to highlight the direct relationship between Seferis' visual sensibility and his poetry. The article primarily discusses some technical features of Seferis' photography. It then examines his photography as a visual diary and draws attention to those cases where it is obvious that photographs hide behind specific poems. Finally, the article discusses the differences between photography and poetry regarding their relation to time. In this context, the poem 'M? τov τρóπo τov Γ.Σ.', which makes explicit reference to photography, is examined.     

The Wrong King: Apocalypse and Transformation (or Not) in the White House

Abstract

Jonathan Z. Smith has argued that apocalyptic discourse grew out of a political desire to remove the "wrong" king from the throne. Later, though, the same discourse was used to prevent a "wrong" king from taking the throne. Thus apocalyptic discourse can either motivate or resist transformative change. In US political history it has served both purposes. This article focuses on the trend in presidential discourse, especially in foreign policy, since Franklin D. Roosevelt to use apocalyptic language to resist transformation. The electorate's desire to prevent substantive change was the determining factor in the presidential election of 2008. In Barack Obama's first year in office, though he seemed to promote transformation, his dominant message was a reassuring one: The threat of fundamental change would continue to be contained both at home and around the world. No "wrong" rulers would be allowed to disturb the security of America.     

Opposing peace: English political pamphlets against the Treaty of Madrid in 1630

ABSTRACT

In November 1630 the Treaty of Madrid was signed between Philip IV, king of Spain, and Charles I, king of England. During the peace negotiations several pamphlets critical of the pro-Spanish policy of Charles I were printed in England. These publications contributed to the development of an increasing criticism of Charles I, by identifying his neutral European policy with pro-Spanish policies. The anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic rhetoric, which formed the basis of this criticism, was used to promote an aggressive foreign policy and consequently an active opposition to the king. The following pamphlets are discussed in this paper: Considerations T ouching a W arre with Spaine; The M erchandises of Popish P riests; The English Spanish Pilgrim; Further O bservations of the English Spanish Pilgrim; The P ractise of P rinces; The P resent E state of Spayne; and Three S everall T reatises C oncerning the T ruce.     

Josephus' Retelling of Nathan's Oracle (2 Samuel 7)

This paper deals with the way Josephus has retold and rewritten the narrative in 2 Sam 7 in his Jewish Antiquities 7.90-95. Recent studies made on this issue have focused either on the question of Messianism or on the characterization of king David in Josephus' writings. However, our study focuses on Josephus' qualities as a commentator and discusses how Josephus handled the hermeneutical problems he encountered in the story, for example: why did God forbid David to build a temple? What was the nature of God's promise to David that his dynasty will rule forever? These questions are examined through a close reading of the Josephus' retelling of the biblical story in 2 Sam 7. We have considered omissions, additions, and changes in the sequence of actions. Our aim was to find out whether the differences between the biblical text and that of Josephus should be ascribed to a different Vorlage (which may be identical to the LXX), to harmonization or to intentional changes made to clarify difficult verses within the text.     

“And There Renew the Kingship”: The Double Coronation of Saul (1 Samuel 10-11)

This article deals with the two accounts of Saul's coronation that appear in I Sam 10-11. As opposed to the traditional critical approach, I propose a literary perspective, positing that both coronation episodes belong to a single story that is developed by means of concentric parallelism. The concentric structure of the accounts (which indicates a reversal in the conception of monarchy), the strange and unique literary formulations, and the other well-known literary devices such as analogies and leitwort all flesh-out the ideal character of the king of Israel. This is done while establishing Saul's character as the perfect king, who is worthy to lead. The purpose of the story is to teach the proper approach to understanding the status of the king of Israel, and to show that at this stage of the story Saul recognizes his limitations as a flesh-and-blood king who is aware of God's role as the leader and savior of the Nation of Israel.