Search Results (18)

This study analyzes the term ioudaismos in Second Temple literature and proposes differentiation in how this term was used in Palestine and the Diaspora, with the latter being characterized by the following: (1) seize the land; (2) persecute barbarians; (3) retain the temple; (4) liberate Jerusalem; (5) reestablish Torah. In the Diaspora, ioudaismos was modified to refer to: (1) persecuting pagans; (2) concern for the Temple; and (3) observing ancestral customs devoutly. It then analyzes how Paul’s use of the term fits within these usages of other literature of the time and how the term was later used by early Christian authors of the second century in a different manner. Paul understood his role as a messianic emissary as fitting with ioudaismos by modifying the formula slightly to attract the nations to worship Israel’s god and by refocusing the ancestral customs of the Jews upon Jesus, who Paul believed to be the messiah. Full article

The framing of the Hebrew Bible in the Mesopotamian–Babylonian landscape is evident in two of its central themes. First, Abraham, the forefather of the Hebrews, is presented as a native of Ur in south Mesopotamia, whence he left for Harran and then reached the Promised Land. Second is the exile of the Judahite elites to Babylonia, and the later return of some of them to Jerusalem to build their Second Temple. As the Bible was written, rewritten, and compiled by Babylonian exiles, primarily authored after the Fall of Jerusalem, its compilation by Judean exiles reveals a certain legitimization for existence in Exile, namely, the first revelation of YHWH outside of the Promised Land. This article examines the impact of the Babylonian surroundings on the Exiles’ approach to the representation of YHWH. It surveys the role of the Levantine goddess ’Ašerah, while proposing that alongside ’Ašerah, there may have been a male god named ’Ašer who, in pre-exilic times, was probably part of the Yahwistic religion and who was subsequently eliminated or degraded by the Judean exilic compilers of the Bible as it has reached us. Full article

Numerous researchers have linked the description of the New Jerusalem in Rev 21 to Fallen Babylon in Rev 18 in order to establish intertextual opportunities for comparison and contrast. However, the New Jerusalem is seldom linked to the Tower of Babel in Gen 11—essentially, the urban archetype of Babylon in the Old Testament. Exploring these two urban metaphors—from a largely canonical, theological perspective—it appears that the New Jerusalem and the Tower of Babel stand out as two urban expressions of theological contrast. The two city metaphors contrast each other as they relate to themes of builders, unity/diversity, and temple language when describing divine and human activities. Full article

Compositional analysis conducted on pottery and other ceramic items can shed light on their place of production and in certain cases, on technological aspects of the production sequence. The methods used, petrography and chemical analysis, can also be employed on cultic terracotta such as figurines, cult stands, models, or other clay objects. Several studies of such analyses of items from various periods in the Southern Levant have been published, mostly from temple contexts. This paper focuses particularly on two groups of items: clay models from the favissa at Yavneh and pillar figurines and other (mostly horse) figurines from Jerusalem and Tell en-Nasbeh in Iron Age Judah. These two groups are both roughly dated to the time span between the 9th and 7th centuries BCE. While the former group is of objects representing a temple context in Philistia, the latter is likely related to a domestic cult in Judah. The analysis of these objects is also examined against the background of a robust compositional analysis of regular pottery from the sites. The compositional analysis can indicate whether these objects were locally produced or imported from various regions (thus possibly brought by pilgrims), as well as whether they were “mass-produced” in a single workshop. The results can shed light on aspects of religious and cultic conducts in these occasions as well as compare domestic and temple-related cultic behaviors. Full article

The present study looks at how gentilics, usually attested in traditional biblical topoi from the Pentateuch, are re-contextualized in Ezekiel to provide a mental map of the peoples of the known Earth during the Exilic period. The basic constituents of Ezekiel’s mental map of foreign peoples recall some of the configurations known from the Babylonian mental map tradition. One known iteration of the latter is the Babylonian World Map (BM 92687). The document presents several interesting features as to how mental maps are formed in the Babylonian context. Its composition may date back to the late eighth century BCE. It is an iteration of the Babylonian mental map with a unique unmarked epicentre. Furthermore, it was probably impressed on clay on the occasion of a military campaign or itinerant work concerning specific toponyms in southern Babylonia. Finally, it was copied for scribal purposes in the Neo-Babylonian period. The present study proposes that these dynamics of the Babylonian mental map help understand Ezekiel’s mental map of foreign peoples. Aspects of Ezekiel’s mental map owe to an older Hebrew tradition partly known from the Pentateuch, although it is a unique iteration for Ezekiel’s oracles against the nations with historical references to the Exilic period. Jerusalem is the epicentre. Two main rings of foreign peoples encircle Jerusalem. The first circle comprises Judah’s neighbours from the east, south, west, and northwest. The second circle picks up from the northwest going up the coast, then south to Egypt, and finally east and northeast with Gog of Magog. Ezekiel concludes with the Temple Vision confirming Jerusalem’s central position. This case study implies that Ezekiel encountered and independently adapted aspects of the Mesopotamian mental map. Comparisons such as the one attempted here can illustrate the potential of ancient Near Eastern intertextuality and cultural hybridity. Full article

During the first millennium of Christian presence in Ethiopia (from the fourth century), church architecture was first in accordance with, and later partially based on, the basilica plan. Circa the early sixteenth century, a new and unique church plan appeared, circular, concentric, and with a square sanctuary, and became the dominant church plan in the northwestern Ethiopian Highlands. This church plan has been referred to in scholarship as an innovation, and its sources of inspiration have not yet been definitively established. In this article, I will argue that this plan is a culmination of a process with roots in the Late Antique and Medieval Holy Land, by which the concentric prayer house plan came to be associated with the Jerusalem Temple. This process transcended religious boundaries and is expressed in the religious architecture of three monotheistic religious traditions. Full article

Hag/Zech 1–8 and Ezr/Neh have in common that they are often rated as primary sources when it comes to the development of Second Temple Judaism(s). Consequently, it is mostly assumed that the Persian governors of Judah (like the Persian kings) significantly contributed to the (re-)formation of the Jewish community in Jerusalem after the exile: Zerubbabel built the temple, Nehemiah the wall of Jerusalem. As a rule of thumb, literary analysis within these books, if applied at all, is less critical than elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible. However, a literary critical approach gives rise to serious doubts about the historic reliability of these accounts. Based on a literary critical analysis of the relevant texts from Hag/Zech 1–8 and Neh, this article aims to show that it is only in the course of redaction history that the office of governor of Judah is ascribed to both individuals. Thus, the attribution of the office of governor to them reflects theological interests and concerns in the early Second Temple Period rather than the historical reality. As the texts not only attribute aspects of royal leadership to Zerubbabel and Nehemiah as governors of Judah, but also present the holders of a Persian office as custodians of Jewish interests (temple and Torah), it will be argued that the texts contribute to the political and religious reorganization of Judaism and, thus, to the formation of a collective Jewish identity. Full article

There are at least four traumatic events that likely lie behind the Gospel of John: (1) Jesus’ death and inaccessibility, (2) the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, (3) the Johannine community’s excommunication from the synagogue, and (4) the loss of the Beloved Disciple. Evidence of all of these traumas can be found in the Gospel itself and, as extant, the Gospel exhibits a number of strategies for addressing these experiences of suffering. Working from Gaston Bachelard’s observations regarding literature produced in response to suffering, this paper outlines the textual evidence for each of these experiences of suffering, notes the responses to them that the Gospel displays, and seeks briefly to evaluate the responses for the TYPOI (patterns/examples/warnings) they provide. In short, the Fourth Gospel employs psychologically attractive, compensatory responses to experiences of loss. However, it deploys in parallel a toxic cocktail of anti-Jewish polemic, condemnation of “the world”, and self-protective, sectarian insularity. Regarding whether the text’s trauma response can be viewed as exemplary for ethically-minded Christians, Desmond Tutu’s 2009 statement, “there are certain parts [of the Bible] which you have to say no to”, is directly applicable, while the warning the text’s example suggests is significant. Full article

Affinity with the Holy Land, and especially with Jerusalem, is a common theme in the sacred geography of Abrahamic religions, expressed in prayer houses and holy sites. This theme was especially prominent in Solomonic Ethiopia, both among Ethiopian Orthodox Christians and among the Betä Ǝsraʾel (Ethiopian Jews). This article will examine expressions of affinity with Jerusalem and the Holy Land in Betä Ǝsraʾel holy sites and religious architecture, and shed light on the interreligious discourse related to such expressions, as well as other forms of interreligious discourse expressed by these two communities in sacred geography. This will demonstrate that in Solomonic Ethiopia, affinity with the Holy Land was a core element in expressing an Israelite identity. Both the Betä Ǝsraʾel and the Ethiopian Orthodox Christians saw themselves as the biological and spiritual heirs of the biblical Israelites, and this concept played a key role in shaping their sacred geography to allude to biblical sites and events. This will also demonstrate that, building upon a vocabulary with common features, the sacred geography and religious architecture of each community was a means to express its unique identity. As such, it provides insight regarding differences in religious concepts. Full article

This article analyzes representations of the Persian king Darius and his officials in the Books of Haggai, Zechariah 1–8, and Ezra 4–6 in the current Hebrew Bible. These writings, produced in the Persian period or somewhat later, portray these literary characters in various ways in relation to the restoration of the community, city, and temple of YHWH in Jerusalem. In biblical scholarship, the main interest has been to scrutinize the conditions behind the textual representations of Darius, related to dating the selected texts and the temple restoration, as well as Darius’s role as the central supplier of Achaemenid imperial ideology. The current study suggests refocusing by highlighting the historical significance of the literary imaginations of this monarch. What is at stake is not the historical Darius or the officials Zerubbabel, Sheshbazzar, and Tattenai, but rather literary representations of them suiting the needs of those who produced them. In Haggai and Zechariah 1–8, Darius’s role in the temple restoration is downplayed, while in Haggai, Zerubbabel is represented by a blend of Yahwistic and imperial signs and symbols, and in Zechariah 1–8, the imperial connotations are toned down. This is while Zerubbabel is decisive for authorizing both the temple community and the prophet. In Ezra 4–6, Darius is one of many Persian kings engaged in the restoration of the temple and the city of Jerusalem. While Zerubbabel gains support from the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, Sheshbazzar brings the vessels back to Jerusalem and lays the foundations of the temple on King Cyrus’s command. At the same time, Tattenai gets Cyrus’s order confirmed and, apart from that, is asked to stay away from the works of the Yehudites. By analyzing the representations of Darius and other Persian officials through a cultural-historical lens, selection and perspectivization are stressed. The selected writings convey local negotiations of power relations with the empire in terms of keeping a position in the imperial hierarchy while, at the same time, cultivating the identity of their subaltern group through certain symbols, institutions, and practices. Full article

This article argues that the oracles of Oracula Sibyllina 4 interpreted and responded to specific crises facing ancient Mediterranean Jewish and pagan communities. With this in mind, it advances the idea that the text can be read as a Jewish reaction to the fall of the Jerusalem temple in 70 CE, which is a reading that recent scholarship has been hesitant to accept. Rather than read Oracula Sibyllina 4 as a reflection of the author’s pre-existing views, the present article approaches the text as a creative medium through which a new historical consciousness was crafted, one that accommodated the fall of the temple and the events surrounding its destruction. To do so, the article briefly contextualizes the text to demonstrate that crisis-mediation was an expected task of ancient Sibylline literature, then proceeds to interpret the contentious passages that have led scholars to offer alternative readings. Full article

The Parokhet, or sacred curtain, was an important item of cultic paraphernalia in the ancient Near East. It is known from the Sumerian and Akkadian texts, the biblical tradition, the Second Temple in Jerusalem, Greek temples, and synagogues of the Roman and Byzantine eras, and is still in use today. We suggest that such a sacred curtain is depicted on several of the miniature clay objects known as portable shrines. In Egypt, thanks to the dry climate, a miniature curtain of this kind has indeed been preserved in association with a portable shrine. Depictions of shrines on Egyptian sacred barks also include life-size curtains. Full article

Was the Yahweh temple on Mount Gerizim modelled after the temple in Jerusalem? This question is important for our understanding of the sanctuary on Mount Gerizim and the people who worshipped there in the Persian and Hellenistic period; if the Gerizim temple was modelled after the Jerusalem temple, the argument in favour of the Gerizim cult as derived from the cult in Jerusalem is strengthened. On the other hand, if no such connection can be demonstrated convincingly, one must look elsewhere for the answer to the question of Samaritan origins. The present study gives a brief introduction to the relationship between early Judaism and early Samaritanism, or rather Southern and Northern Yahwism, followed by a presentation of Mount Gerizim and the excavations that were carried out there between 1982 and 2006. Finally, I shall turn to the theory that the temple on Mount Gerizim was modelled after the Jerusalem temple, which has been recast by Dr Yitzhak Magen (2008). I conclude that the archaeological remains from the Persian-period sanctuary on Mount Gerizim offer no evidence that this temple was modelled on the temple in Jerusalem. Full article

1 Kings preserves a long and detailed description of the construction of a temple and palace in Jerusalem by King Solomon in the 10th century BCE. Previous generations of scholars accepted this description as an authentic account. Accordingly, much literature on this text and the relevant archeological discoveries has accumulated. Since the 1980s, skeptical approaches to the early part of the Kingdom of Judah, the biblical text, and the archaeological record have been expressed. Some scholars doubt whether any temple at all was constructed in Jerusalem in the 10th century BCE. In the last few years, the picture has been changed by new discoveries from two Judean sites: a building model of the early 10th century BCE from Khirbet Qeiyafa and an actual temple building of the 9th century BCE from Motza. In this article, we present the history of research, some aspects of the biblical text and the contribution of the new discoveries. These enable us to place in context both the biblical text and the building it describes. Full article

Historically, those studying Israelite religion have ignored the existence of women in Iron Age Israel (1200–587 BCE). They have, therefore, accounted neither for the religious beliefs of half of ancient Israel’s population nor for the responsibilities that women assumed for maintaining religious rituals and traditions. Such reconstructions of Israelite religion are seriously flawed. Only in the last four decades have scholars, primarily women, begun to explore women’s essential roles in Israel’s religious culture. This article utilizes evidence from the Hebrew Bible and from archaeological sites throughout Israel. It demonstrates that some women had roles within the Jerusalem Temple. Most women, however, resided in towns and villages throughout the Land. There, they undertook responsibility for clan-based and community-based religious rituals and rites, including pilgrimage, seasonal festivals, rites of military victory, and rites of mourning. They fulfilled, as well, essential roles within the sphere of domestic or household religion. At home, they provided medico-magical healing for all family members, as well as care for women and babies throughout pregnancy, childbirth, and beyond. They, and the men in their communities, worshipped Yahweh, Israel’s primary deity, and the goddess Asherah, as well; for most people, these two divinities were inextricably linked. Full article