Why does the god have a cup in his hand?

Abstract

In my analysis of the Ahiram Sarcophagus I focus on the figurative expression in connection with the sitting deity at one side of the sarcophagus. The drinking vessel in the hand of the deity is an expression belonging to the sphere of the cultic. It is very likely that the deity's holding the drinking vessel should be interpreted as a religious epithet. Without necessarily being tautological the expression could mean the deity is divine. Apparently, however, this phrase gets a more profound meaning when the drinking vessel is seen in the cultic context. The more so as the figure with the drinking vessel carries the meaning of a ritual act. One question could be why is a drinking vessel divine? It appears that information about the liquid sacrifice in the Hebrew Bible and its surrounding cultural world, especially the Anatolian, can contribute to answering this question. Recalling a hidden motive, the comparative ritualistic approach makes possible a better‐informed interpretation of the sarcophagus.     

Lying and deception in the Biblical and post‐Biblical Judaic tradition

Abstract

A great variety of cuneiform texts have been found within the precincts of the high priest's building complex in ancient Ugarit. Some of the texts are letters, others are lexical texts and others again are ritual texts. The great epics of aqht and krt are best described as literary texts. Some of the texts, however, do not unambiguously belong to one group only: Some scholars would construe the Baal‐cycle as a ritual text or at least a text somehow connected with the cult performed in the temples; others would describe the Baal‐cycle as pure literature. Similarly the enigmatic text about Shachar and Shalim (abbreviated SS) apparently contains cultic and literary elements. Is this text then a cult‐text or a piece of literature? The aim of the article is to investigate if from the archaeological evidence we can add an argument to the on‐going debate about the Sitz im Leben of the Ugaritic Baal‐cycle: Were the clay tablets in the high priest's building distributed according to their content? The answer seems to be yes. The Baal‐cycle was in fact stored with other literary texts in the high priest's building whereas SS has been kept in the room of the ritual texts. This fact might give us a hint as to how to interpret these two texts.     

Isaiah 1,4–9, Isaiah,and the events of 701 BCE in Judah

Abstract

The title of this paper points to the relationship between the Israelite cult as cultural performance and current trends in modern interpretation of the Psalms. The first part includes a review of the wellknown “spiritualisation” of cultic language which is compared to a new approach that describes this phenomenon as a “transformation” of cultic patterns. The second part intents to demonstrate how such transformations could have worked. The “liturgical” text of Ps 24 may serve as an eloquent example of this. Here, a fragment from the ancient temple cult is quoted in order to demonstrate the close connection between the secrets of the inner temple and everyday life. Ps 24 now appears to be an erudite text used for educational purposes.     

Law and the Ruining of the Land

Abstract

In his monograph God, Justice, and Society (Oxford University Press, 2011)response to his work uses examples from Deuteronomy, Jeremiah and other prophetic texts to explore the relationship between obedience to God’s law and the wellbeing of the natural world. It concludes that given the complexity and diversity of natural law within the Western philosophical tradition, it seems unwise to draw too direct a comparison with the biblical material, which reflects a very different world view. The close study of the texts suggests that, for the biblical authors, divine law was both commanded at Sinai and written into the fabric of the universe.     

Les sermons sur saint Antoine et le bon usage de la prédication comme ‘vertu’

Abstract

One of the main reasons for Saint Anthony of Padua’s holy fame and reputation is his activity as a preacher. This article begins with a review of the hagiographical legends referring to preaching as a virtue or gift of divine grace, and the importance of Iulianus of Speyer’s works in spreading the concept of preaching as a virtue is hightlighted. Then follows a discussion of a series of texts written between about 1250 and 1350, which seeks to shed light on the identification of recta et fructuosa praedicatio (right and fruitful preaching activity) with Anthony’s wisdom (sapientia) or knowledge (scientia). It can be seen that this message was expounded over a relatively broad timespan from the 1280s onwards. There is also evidence of an interdisciplinary problem, which seems to involve not only the preachers belonging to the Order of Friars Minor, but also those who were called to preach to them from outside the Order itself. Three possible reasons for the appearance of preaching on the list of virtues are suggested. It may have originated from the attempt to assimilate contemporary preachers with the model of holiness provided by Anthony or from an effort to create a counterbalance to the vices of the tongue that were supposed to plague the preachers’ audiences. It may also be an indicator of a more general debate on praedicatio as a gift of divine grace in opposition to those who believed it was merely the result of a studied technique.     

Rough Justice: Lars von Trier's Dogville and Manderlay and the Book of Amos

Abstract

In his films Dogville and Manderlay, Lars von Trier offers an account of divine justice which has paradoxically offended humanists but has struck a chord with some Christian theologians. This paper seeks to show that the account of divine justice in the book of Amos and in the Hebrew Bible more generally is illuminated by juxtaposition with von Trier's work. Importantly, however, the two films cited have to be seen as part of a uncompleted trilogy which means that the criticisms directed at von Trier on the basis of the first film alone need to be reassessed in the light of the second. Key issues that emerge are the relationship between individual and communal guilt and the arrogance involved both in judging and not judging others. Justice is not to be equated with law or individual deserts in either Von Trier or Amos but is more closely related to the inevitable restoration of balance in a natural system. Such justice is rough—both approximate and violent—but arrogant attempts to mitigate that roughness almost always end up with even more approximate and violent results.     

Of Gates in the Ground and Castles in the Air: A Case of Biblical Unreal Estate

ABSTRACT

The latter part of Psalm 24 describes the personified gates of Jerusalem as raising themselves up in order to allow the King of Glory to en-ter. This, in addition to the rest of the strong mythical overtones of the psalm, creates an image of architecture coming alive to join in the celebratory entry of the divine ruler.

There are numerous, but no definitive, suggestions as to the identity of who or what is supposed to be entering the gates and under what circum-stances as well as how the raising gates are to be understood. In this essay it is argued that the psalm only supplies half the data and that it forms the optimis-tic complementary ending to the anguished cry of despair of Lam 2,8–9. Ap-plying critical spatial analysis to these two texts, in addition to other support-ing material, will not only show that one is a response to the other, but may also provide a more secure dating for the psalm and its social setting as well as a clearer understanding of the specific metaphor of personified architec-ture.     

Constantine,Helena, Maximus: on the appropriation of Roman history in medieval Wales,c.800–1250

This article explores the ways in which the three fourth-century figures, Constantine the Great (d. 337), St Helena (d. c.330) and Magnus Maximus (d. 388), were represented in texts produced in, or connected with, medieval Wales. The texts concerned may be described as genealogical, hagiographical or literary, and were written in either Latin or Welsh between about 800 and 1250. They include, amongst others, the ninth-century Historia Brittonum, Geoffrey of Monmouth's De gestis Britonum, and the vernacular prose tale Breudwyt Maxen Wledic. It is argued that the appropriation of the fourth-century figures occurred in a more limited number of contexts than has previously been supposed. Moreover, the evidence indicates that writers responsible for composing or redacting texts about these figures were far more likely to turn to earlier written texts for information on their subjects than to any contemporary oral traditions.     

The Emergence of Writing in the Ancient Near East

Abstract

The oldest known writing stems from Babylonia, around 3100 BC, and more than 4000 clay tablets and fragments from that period have been found in Uruk during German excavations. A fresh approach has been made finding that 85% of all texts are economic records, the remainder being the lexical texts; it is postulated that writing came into existence as a means to control the economy. The course of decipherment will be described and 700 out of the 1000 signs of the Archaic texts could be identified, possibly written in the Sumerian language. Finally the contents of the tablets, as far as they are understood, will be summarised.     

The place of drink: Temperance and the public, 1856–1914

Discussions of the place of drink in Britain between 1856 and 1914 were centrally concerned with alcohol as a public problem. Temperance organizations like the United Kingdom Alliance largely abandoned their attempts to reform individuals and instead demanded the prohibition of drink sales. This new concern for the public sphere of politics and public opinion was matched by a new sensitivity to the social contexts of drinking, the role of the drink trade and rituals of conviviality. Temperance documents thus allow us to glimpse two new senses of the public: a wider public sphere, in which the Alliance sought to organize public opinion through lectures, the press and the preparation of moral statistics; and a space of social interaction governed by rational behaviour and ideals of citizenship. It is also possible to construct a contrasting, 'customary', sense of public space based upon drink as a form of gift exchange which symbolized strong bonds of reciprocity. In striving to replace these ties with more abstract and political senses of citizenship and democratic rights, temperance workers played a part in the remaking of understandings of public space as a mirror image of the public sphere.     

SOUSA VITERBO AND THE IDEA OF INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of Sousa Viterbo's contribution to industrial archaeology. This Portuguese historian and archaeologist not only employed and printed both the terms ‘archaeology of industry’ and ‘industrial archaeology’ in the late 19th century, but also left behind a number of writings which secure his place as a true ancestor of the current industrial archaeology. Selected excerpts of three of Viterbo's texts written between 1896 and 1902 are here translated into English for the first time.     

Stamped Signs on Manuscript Maps in the Renaissance

Abstract

The cordiform projection employed by Oronce Fine, Gerard Mercator and Abraham Ortelius may have had a hermetic meaning. The focus in this paper is on Ortelius, for recent studies have suggested connections between Ortelius, Christopher Plantin and a clandestine religious sect in Antwerp, called the Family of Love (Family of Charity), whose emblem was the heart, source of divine illumination and of Free Will. It is argued that Ortelius's contemporaries in the radical religious circles of northern Europe would have perceived the Theatrum orbis terrarum in such a light. As Guillaume Postel's evaluation of Ortelius's work demonstrates, the atlas was considered a talismanic book based on the power of the images.     

A problem in pseudo-philo and its possible solution

The enigma in Psedo-Philo Chapter 19: Istic mel, apex magnus, momenti plenitudo, et ciati guttum, is often emended by the commentators. We take it as it stands. As the surrounding texts reflects, Deut 34 and Pseudo-Philo always shows a deep understanding of the biblical text, we find that the often quoted utterings in Deut: ''a land flowing with milk and honey'' and: ''the place which the Lord your God will choose'' make sense for the first two parts of the enigma. The third part points to the coming great achievements: The death of Moses and the immigration to the Holy Land. Only the fourth part is pointing to the end of time.     

Need and Misery in the Eastern Periphery: Nordic Sámi Media Debate on the Kola Sámi

Abstract

This article investigates Nordic Sámi discourse on the Kola (Russian) Sámi through analysis of texts from Sámi newspapers and journals 1992–2009. Among the findings are that the relationship between Nordic and Kola Sámi is frequently discussed as a donor–recipient pattern similar to that of general Western discourse on “the [global] South” and the 1990s’ “great misery discourse” on Russia. This portrayal of the Kola Sámi is here referred to as “the discourse of need”. However, the study also finds that this most divergent subgroup of the Sámi people is accepted into the border-transcending Sámi “nation” without question – it is never challenged that they are part of a larger “us”. The article also comments on some similarities between the discourse on the Kola Sámi as a “suffering” group, and certain patterns in Nordic Sámi self-representation. In comparison, a selection of non-Sámi media texts displayed less interest in the Kola Sámi; their paying attention to the group was more dependent on its members being perceived as victims of crisis and/or injustice; and they articulated the discourse of need more often. The two decades from which texts were drawn (1990s and 2000s) differed mainly by the latter period showing a general decrease in interest in the group; and by Sámi media being less dominated by the discourse of need, and containing more texts portraying the Kola Sámi as culturally and politically active.     

Albert Wendt and the Problem of History

Poet and fiction writer Albert Wendt has taken on the task of correcting colonialist representations of the Pacific from an insider perspective. This involves him in questions of historical record and modes of recording history. The role of memory becomes central to the artist transposing oral traditions into written forms. Trained as an historian, Wendt progressively blurs the boundaries between imaginative and factual, personal and public re/constructions, aware of the illusions of both nationalistic nostalgia for lost perfection and colonialist 'objective' encyclopaedism. History both liberates and traps; in the poem 'Inside Us the Dead' and novels Pouliuli and Black Rainbow , Wendt looks for a postcolonial dynamic between postmodern deconstruction and representational texts that can be seen in terms of de Certeau's ideas of tactics and strategies.     

Jonah 4,11 and the Problem of Exegetical Anachronism

ABSTRACT

Modern interpretations of Jonah 4,11 see God's reference to the Ninevites' animals as an example of divine solicitude for all created life. This article, rather, looks at the reference in light of ancient religious and po-litcial beliefs. Doing so demonstrates that the Ninevite beasts' function in the story is as sacrficial animals. The offering of their animals shows the Nine-vites submitting to the sovereignty of God, and portrays God in terms of an-cient Near Eastern royal ideology.     

Hazor rulership and ritual manipulation

ABSTRACT

Hazor was unquestionably the largest Bronze Age Canaanite site, standing as an anomaly in the southern Levant in terms of its size, elaborate public architecture, special geopolitical stature and far-reaching international networks. While the site has been well established as an urban center with many temples, the use of each of Hazor’s temples and how they relate to one another remains unclear. In this study, we analyze the rituals and other activities that were conducted within Hazor’s numerous temples. The methodology we employ stresses, fundamentally, the necessity to contextualize objects within entire assemblages – through spatial analysis – to most accurately assess how Hazor’s cultic spaces were actually used. We apply the same methodology to other MB and LB Canaanite temples to establish a generalized ideal-type temple assemblage for Canaanite temples. This study successfully demonstrates that Hazor’s temples substantially diverge from the ideal temple assemblage, indicating cult at Hazor was practiced differently than elsewhere in the region. This includes the atypical distribution of certain cultic vessels (e.g. miniature vessels), the appearance of special vessels in ritual contexts (e.g. cups), and a fundamentally different use of indoor and outdoor spaces when compared to other Canaanite temples. It turns out that Hazor’s elites were major factors controlling the anomalies of cultic practice at the site. Hazor’s rulers impacted cultic architectural forms and locations and played instrumental roles in dictating and manipulating the types of rituals and associated cultic paraphernalia that were allowed to be performed and used throughout the entire settlement landscape.     

Amorite names and old testament onomastics 1

Abstract

Amorite personal names, particularly those attested in texts from the Old Babylonian period, provide most valuable evidence for research in dia‐chronic aspects of Old Testament onomastics. The paper presents a general introduction to research on these names and to their grammatical structure. It further discusses possible Amorite parallels to the divine name Yahweh and lists a large number of names and name elements paralleled in the Hebrew Bible. Most prominent among the Hebrew cognates are names appearing in narratives with reference to the so‐called proto‐history and the Patriarchal period.     

Excerpta Lucianea

The paper addresses the scope, ground and force of the critique of writing in the final part of the Phaedrus. It argues that although the critique directly concerns written texts as such, its primary target is rhetorical speeches intended to persuade audiences in matters of ethical and political concern. The ground for this critique is the fixity and under-determination of the written word, features shared by certain non-written “texts”, such as oral poetry, myths and hearsay. These features make these texts problematic for the purpose of instruction in practical wisdom. However, they can to some extent be compensated for by its author ‘s active presence and support.