Aššur is King! Aššur is King!

Aššur is King! Aššur is King!
Author: Steven Winford Holloway
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 634
Release: 2002
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9789004123281

Through sustained analysis of texts and visual sources, this volume traces the checkered career of Neo-Assyrian religious interaction with subject polities of Western Asia through both punitive measures and calculated diplomatic patronage.

Papyrus Amherst 63

Papyrus Amherst 63
Author: Karel van der Toorn
Publisher: Ugarit Verlag
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018
Genre: Manuscripts, Aramaic
ISBN: 9783868352580

This book offers a transliteration and translation of a text that has long been referred to as a "mystery papyrus." The scribes of Papyrus Amherst 63 used the Demotic script to put down in writing a compilation of Aramaic texts. This unusual combination of script and language necessitates the collaboration of scholars from different disciplines. Since the papyrus is not a merely linguistic puzzle but a challenge too in terms of its religious and historical background, no scholar is likely to singlehandedly solve the enigmas of the text. If it had not been for the help and advice of many colleagues and friends, I would not have been able to present this edition. Let me simply give their names, in alphabetic order, without going into detail about the specific contribution each of them made. My thanks go to Paul-Alain Beaulieu, John J. Collins, Edward M. Cook, Lucinda Dirven, Koen Donker van Heel, Tawny Holm, Olaf Kaper, Aaron J. Koller, Ingo Kottsieper, Verena Lepper, Herbert Niehr, Dennis G. Pardee, Mark S. Smith, Richard C. Steiner, Marten Stol, and Jan Willem Wesselius. The purpose of this list is neither to enhance the credibility of this edition nor to shift the blame for its shortcomings to others. It is most of all testimony to the importance and the privilege of working within a scholarly community where we feel free to share our thoughts without fear of making errors. In the case of Papyrus Amherst 63 it will still take a lot of errors before we reach a perfect understanding of the text and its background. I am confident this book is a small step toward that goal. It is gratefully dedicated to Richard C. Steiner and Jan Willem Wesselius, pioneers in the decipherment and interpretation of Papyrus Amherst 63.

Identity in Persian Egypt

Identity in Persian Egypt
Author: Bob Becking
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2020-08-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 164602074X

In this book, Bob Becking provides a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the origins, lives, and eventual fate of the Yehudites, or Judeans, at Elephantine, framed within the greater history of the rise and fall of the Persian Empire. The Yehudites were among those mercenaries recruited by the Persians to defend the southwestern border of the empire in the fifth century BCE. Becking argues that this group, whom some label as the first “Jews,” lived on the island of Elephantine in relative peace with other ethnic groups under the aegis of the pax persica. Drawing on Aramaic and Demotic texts discovered during excavations on the island and at Syene on the adjacent shore of the Nile, Becking finds evidence of intermarriage, trade cooperation, and even a limited acceptance of one another’s gods between the various ethnic groups at Elephantine. His analysis of the Elephantine Yehudites’ unorthodox form of Yahwism provides valuable insight into the group’s religious beliefs and practices. An important contribution to the study of Yehudite life in the diaspora, this accessibly written and sweeping history enhances our understanding of the varieties of early Jewish life and how these contributed to the construction of Judaism.

Le-maʿan Ziony

Le-maʿan Ziony
Author: Frederick E. Greenspahn
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 333
Release: 2017-03-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1498206921

An international array of twenty-six scholars contributes twenty-one essays to honor Ziony Zevit (American Jewish University), one of the foremost biblical scholars of his generation. The breadth of the honoree is indicated by the breadth of coverage in these twenty-one articles, with seven each in the categories of history and archaeology, Bible, and Hebrew (and Aramaic) language.

Yahweh: Origin of a Desert God

Yahweh: Origin of a Desert God
Author: Robert D. Miller II
Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2021-03-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3647540862

Recognizing the absence of a God named Yahweh outside of ancient Israel, this study addresses the related questions of Yahweh's origins and the biblical claim that there were Yahweh-worshipers other than the Israelite people. Beginning with the Hebrew Bible, with an exhaustive survey of ancient Near Eastern literature and inscriptions discovered by archaeology, and using anthropology to reconstruct religious practices and beliefs of ancient Edom and Midian, this study proposes an answer. Yahweh-worshiping Midianites of the Early Iron Age brought their deity along with metallurgy into ancient Palestine and the Israelite people.

A Transverse Dreamer

A Transverse Dreamer
Author: Bob Becking
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 182
Release: 2023-07-24
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3111209318

The final text of the Book of Micah provokes a series of questions: - Can the Book be read as a coherent composition or is it the result of a complex redaction history? - Was Micah a prophet of doom whose literary heritage was later softened by the inclusion of oracles of salvation? The essays in this book center around these questions. Some of them are of a more general character, while others analyze specific passages. Some articles discuss the Book of Micah by looking at specific themes (prophecy; religious polemics; metaphors). The others are concerned with the proclamation of a peaceful future (Micah 4:1-5); the famous moral incentive in Micah 6:8 and the question of prophetic and divine gender in Micah 7:8-13. They have two features in common: - A thorough reading of the Hebrew text informed by grammar and syntax. - A comparative approach: the Book of Micah is seen as part of the ancient Near Eastern culture. All in all, the author defends the view that the Book of Micah contains three independent literary elements: Micah 1: a prophecy of doom; Micah 2-5 a two-sided futurology, and 6-8 a later appropriation of Micah’s message.

Becoming Diaspora Jews

Becoming Diaspora Jews
Author: Karel van der Toorn
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2019-09-24
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0300243510

Based on a previously unexplored source, this book transforms the way we think about the formation of Jewish identity

The Hebrew Bible and History: Critical Readings

The Hebrew Bible and History: Critical Readings
Author: Lester L. Grabbe
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 593
Release: 2018-12-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567672689

These critical readings explore the history of ancient Israel, from the Late Bronze Age to the Persian period, as it relates to the Bible. Selected by one of the world's leading scholars of biblical history, the texts are drawn from a range of highly respected international scholars, and from a variety of historical and religious perspectives, presenting the key voices of the debate in one convenient volume. Divided into five sections - each featuring an introduction by Lester Grabbe - the volume first covers general methodological principles, before following the chronology of Israel's earliest history; including two sections on specific cases studies (the reforms of Josiah and the wall of Nehemiah). A final chapter summarizes many of the historical principles that emerge in the course of studying Israelite history, and an annotated bibliography points researchers towards further readings and engagements with these key themes.

Visual and Written Culture in Ancient Egypt

Visual and Written Culture in Ancient Egypt
Author: John Baines
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 440
Release: 2007-05-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 0191518395

A generously illustrated selection of John Baines's influential writings on two core areas of ancient Egyptian civilization: the role of writing, which was very different in antiquity from what is familiar in the modern world, and the importance of visual culture. These questions are explored through a number of case studies. The volume assembles articles that were scattered in publications in a variety of disciplines, making available key contributions on core problems of theory, comparison, and analysis in the study of many civilizations and offering important points of departure for further research. Three wholly new essays are included, and the overall approach is an interdisciplinary one, synthesizing insights from archaeology, anthropology, and art history as well as Egyptology.