The prominence of phallic symbols in high ancient religious systems has never before been understood, much less sanely expounded and vindicated as something transcending gross sensualism. It is not too much to assert that in this work sex is given its truly lofty place and rated at its exalted character for the first time in religious literature. For not only is sex revealed as the truest key-symbol of the supreme significance of human life itself, but it is brilliantly analyzed as to its place and function in the individual human's program of evolution, his sanity, balance, mental health and happiness. If it is possible for one book to lift sex from low and base regard to a veritable pinnacle of purity and nobility in the light of its true character, this book will do it. Partial Contents: Bright Lexicon of Deity; Drama Bears Misshapen Offspring; And God Spake Unto Moses; The God's Distribute Divinity; Lost Data of Anthropology; Two Subterranean Grottoes; In Pluto's Dark Realm; The Two Mothers of the Christ; Immanuel's Lamp; Child is Father of the Man; Language of Lingham and Yoni; Phallicism Transfigured; Love and Hate; Love Looks Beyond Death; Romance in the Trysting-Tent; Phoenix Lives Again; Oil of Gladness; My Cup Runneth Over.

The broad spectrum of the Mari documents provides innumerable opportunities for comparative research into Early Israel, the Bible and Biblical Hebrew. The present volume utilizes these possibilities to obtain a new perspective on Early Israelite times. In 1936, a French archaeological expedition to Mari, the capital of a kingdom on the Middle Euphrates in Syria, began uncovering a vast archive of some 25,000 cuneiform tablets. This huge corpus of Old Babylonian documents, mostly from the Mari palace - a unique royal complex of the eighteenth century BC - is slowly revealing a vivid picture of Mesopotamia at the time when the Israelites were in their earliest formative stage. One most fascinating facet of the archives is the light they shed on the early phases of Israelite socio-history. Indeed, the Mari archives now comprise the prime extra-Biblical source for this period, for they reflect a West Semitic population analogous to the so-called `Patriarchs'. The broad spectrum of the Mari documents, from exotic prophecies to political intrigue, provides innumerable opportunities for comparative research into Early Israel, the Bible, and Biblical Hebrew. The present volume utilizes these possibilities to obtain a new perspective on Early Israelite times.

Per Jonas Nordhagen's work on the frescoes of S. Maria Antiqua in Rome is of fundamental importance to the study of early medieval art in Italy. This volume brings together for the first time Professor Nordhagen's work on medieval Roman mosaics and fresco painting. The book begins with a section on Mosaics and Techniques, covering the mosaic techniques in use during this period in Rome. The subsequent section, on S. Maria Antiqua, includes the author's papers on the fresco decoration of this church, one of the most important monuments of early medieval art in Italy. There follows a selection of papers on iconography, derived from a study of the subjects treated in the mosaic and fresco cycles of this period. Four subsequent articles deal with various themes involved in studying the art of the early medieval period in Rome, and its links with the art of the British Isles. The author has added supplementary notes to correct mistakes in the earlier articles, and to draw attention to subsequent research on the monuments.

Digging Up Jericho: Past Present and Future, arising from a conference exploring the heritage, archaeology and history of the Jericho Oasis, includes contributions by 21 internationally significant scholars. It will appeal to scholars and students in Near Eastern prehistory, Islamic archaeology, public archaeology, the history of archaeology, and cultural heritage management. Jericho has had a profile beyond academia, and the volume will also appeal to anyone interested in the archaeology and heritage of Jericho, biblical archaeology and, more broadly, Israel and Palestine. This is the first volume to offer a holistic perspective on the research and public value of the site of Jericho - an iconic site with a long and impressive history stretching from the Epipalaeolithic to the present day. Once dubbed the 'Oldest City in the World', it has been the focus of intense archaeological activity and media interest in the 150 years since its discovery. From early investigations in the 19th century, through Kathleen Kenyon's work at the site in the 1950s, to the recent Italian-Palestinian Expedition and Khirbat al-Mafjar Archaeological Project, Jericho and its surrounding landscape has always played a key role in our understanding of this fascinating region. Current efforts to get the site placed on the World Heritage List only enhance its appeal. Covering all aspects of work at the site, from past to present and beyond, this volume offers a unique opportunity to re-evaluate and assess the legacy of this important site. In doing so, it helps to increase our understanding of the wider archaeology and history of the Southern Levant.

The most important objects in the Hebrew Bible are a wooden box, styled in English "the ark" or "the ark of the covenant", and two statues of winged creatures, "the cherubim", that surmount it. Raanan Eichler attempts to understand these objects using the full gamut of data and tools available to the modern scholar. The study features an abundance of visual comparative material, much of it in colour, with a particularly close examination of the finds from the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. The author proposes solutions to a number of unsolved puzzles, such as the question of what cherubim looked like, and offers a new explanation of the nature of the ark and the cherubim, rejecting the prevailing scholarly view of them as having constituted an "empty throne" and footstool for the God of Israel. Rather, he argues, they constituted an empty frame, a unique cultic focus that surpassed all known systems in the ancient Near East in the extent of the efforts it represented to prevent an anthropomorphic conception of the deity in a cultic context.

This volume represents a selection of contributions on Mediterranean themes from a wider international interdisciplinary conference on Magical Texts in Ancient Civilizations, organised by the Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilizations at Jagiellonian University in Krakow in Poland between 27-28 June 2013. The meeting welcomed researchers from Hungary, Italy, Poland and Ukraine, covering various disciplines including comparative civilizations, comparative religions, linguistics, archaeology, anthropology, history and philosophy. In the past 'magic' was often misunderstood as irrational behaviour, in contrast to the tradition of philosophical or rational thought mostly based on Greek models. Evidence collected from ancient high cultures, like that of Pharaonic Egypt, includes massive amounts of documents and treatises of all kinds related to what has been labelled 'magic'. Today it cannot be written off as merely a primitive or 'lesser human' phenomenon: the awareness of magic remains to the present day in many societies, at all social levels, and has not been generally replaced by what might be considered as more advanced thinking. The researches in this volume focus heavily on Egypt (in particular Predynastic, Pharaonic, Hellenistic, Roman and Christian evidence), but Near Eastern material was also presented from Pagan (Ugaritic) and Christian (Syriac) times.

The recovery of the history of the ancient Near East through archaeology is one of the major achievements of the modern age. Although the impact of this new knowledge on biblical matters is briefly surveyed, the main concern of this book is with the methods that archaeologists use in going about their work. Lance discusses the principles of excavation and how materials recovered are brought to bear on biblical studies. The book explains in detail the principles of stratigraphy and typology, suggests practical ways for the beginner to find needed information in the confusing array of primary and secondary publications, and takes a brief look at the future of biblical archaeology as a discipline.

The origins and development of the Church in Egypt remain one of the vexed problems of early Christian history. In his Schweich Lectures, delivered in 1977, Dr C. H. Roberts examines the evidence of the Christian papyri discovered in Egypt to see what light they cast on the problems and how far they support statements in our ancient authorities or the theories of modern scholars. Among matters discussed are the influence of Judaism and whether Gnosticism was really as powerful in the first three centuries in Egypt as is sometimes thought; particular attention is paid to the historical significance in these early manuscripts of the nomina sacra, the abbreviations of the divine names.

By employing the same basic methodologies used to establish the currently accepted chronology, it has been possible for a group of young archaeologists, including David Rohl, to create a New Chronology which resolves many of the problems permeating ancient world studies. In particular, one model has been developed which has major implications for Old Testament research. Through the revision of the master chronology of ancient Egypt they have unlocked the key to biblical history - the epic events of the Bible really did happen as recorded in the Books of Genesis, Exodus, Judges, Samuel, Kings and Chronicles - the problem was that we had previously been looking for them in completely the wrong place in time.

Many of the conundrums of the past are explained, and legendary figures such as Joseph, Moses, David and Solomon find their true political setting. Exodus and Conquest will be restored to history and the magic of legend will begin to make its great comeback.

Nelson Glueck was born in 1900 to a struggling immigrant Jewish family in Cincinnati. By 1950, he had excavated remains of the civilization of the ancient Nabataeans in Transjordan, described a biblical copper-mining industry at the shore of the Red Sea, and shown how the Negev could support a large population if proper irrigation techniques were used. A personal friend of David Ben-Gurion, Abba Eban, Golda Meir, Henrietta Szold, and Judah Magnes, among other notables worldwide, this pioneer in the burgeoning field of biblical archaeology was known affectionately in the nascent state of Israel as "Ha-Professor" (the Professor). By 1950, Glueck was also well into his long tenure (1947-1971) as president of Hebrew Union College, the institution that had ordained him as a Reform rabbi in 1923 and supported his further studies toward the doctorate he earned in 1927 at the University of Jena in Germany. As president, Glueck oversaw the merger of HUC with the Jewish Institute of Religion. He expanded the Cincinnati-based institution to include schools in New York, Los Angeles, and Jerusalem. He encouraged the creation of the Schools of Jewish Communal Service and Jewish Education in California. And he founded and nurtured the School of Biblical and Archaeological Studies in Jerusalem, which now bears his name. Jonathan Brown and Laurence Kutler describe and document Nelson Glueck's many achievements and also record some of the fascinating adventures of this extraordinary charismatic man whose life straddled two distinct Jewish worlds.

Since their discovery in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls have become an icon in popular culture that transcends their status as ancient Jewish manuscripts. Everyone has heard of the Scrolls, but amidst the conspiracies, the politics, and the sensational claims, it can be difficult to separate the myths from the reality. In this Very Short introductions, Timothy Lim discusses the cultural significance of the finds, and the religious, political and legal controversies during the seventy years of study since the discovery. He also looks at the contribution the Scrolls have made to our understanding of the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible, and the origins of early Christianity. Exploring the most recent scholarly discussions on the archaeology of Khirbet Qumran, and the study of the biblical texts, the canon, and the history of the Second Temple Period, he considers what the scrolls reveal about sectarianism in early Judaism. Was the archaeological site of Qumran a centre of monastic life, a fortress, a villa, or a pottery factory? Why were some of their biblical texts so different from the ones that we read today? Did they have 'a Bible'? Who were the Essenes and why did they think that humanity is to be divided between 'the sons of light' and those in darkness? And, finally, do the Scrolls reflect the teachings of the earliest followers of Jesus? ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Reise in den Orient (1846) is the German biblical scholar Constantin von Tischendorf's recollection of his journey to Egypt, Israel and Greece at the beginning of the 1840s. The work is a travel diary that vividly describes Tischendorf's meeting with mythological places and impressive men, and a learned account of the Christian history of the area. Volume 1 describes his encounter with Ibrahim Pasha and the humanism of Mehmet Ali. Tischendorf undertakes research in the Library of the Patriarch of Alexandria and visits the pyramids, only to compare them with one of the great German cathedrals. At the Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai, Tischendorf makes an extraordinary and significant discovery - a fourth-century manuscript, one of the main witnesses to the Septuagint. Thereafter he sets off for Jerusalem and en route takes delight in the fascinating and ancient traditions of the Bedouins, and their camels.

Reise in den Orient (1846) is the German biblical scholar Constantin von Tischendorf's recollection of his journey to Egypt, Israel and Greece at the beginning of the 1840s. The work is a travel diary that vividly describes Tischendorf's meeting with mythological places and impressive men, and a learned account of the Christian history of the area. Volume 2 of this work largely focuses on Tischendorf's time in Israel. He writes about Jesus' crucifixion and Golgotha's significance, and gives an historical account of Jerusalem as the centre of all religions. He pays particular attention to the Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem, which leads him to explain the differences between German and English Protestantism. On his return journey, he is enraptured by Smyrna and Constantinople, and enjoys visiting the Athenian Acropolis and the other ruins of the ancient city.

Originally published 1962, this volume is being reissued to make the entire series available to students and scholars of biblical and post-biblical Judaism and early Christianity. A companion volume contains the text found in the original one-volume publication.

The tale of the combat between the Storm-god and the Sea that began circulating in the early second millennium BCE was one of the most well-known ancient Near Eastern myths. Its widespread dissemination in distinct versions across disparate locations and time periods - Syria, Egypt, Anatolia, Ugarit, Mesopotamia, and Israel - calls for analysis of all the textual variants in order to determine its earliest form, geo-cultural origin, and transmission history. In undertaking this task, Noga Ayali-Darshan examines works such as the Astarte Papyrus, the Pisaisa Myth, the Songs of Hedammu and Ullikummi, the Baal Cycle, Enuma elis, and pertinent biblical texts. She interprets these and other related writings philologically according to their provenance and comparatively in the light of parallel texts. The examination of this story appearing in all the ancient Near Eastern cultures also calls for a discussion of the theology, literature, and history of these societies and the way they shaped the local versions of the myth.

The volume presents a collection of papers read during three workshops held in Leipzig (2016), Jerusalem (2017), and Vienna (2018). International scholars from different disciplines and methodological approaches explored gender-specific constructions of foreignness/strangeness in the Old Testament, Egypt, and Mesopotamia from their particular perspectives. They showed that when combined, strangeness/foreignness and gender can take on very different forms. Various processes of the "othering" of women are of importance, which differ from the "othering" of men. The contributions investigate specific questions, individual female figures and individual phenomena as model cases. The basic question was when, where, how and for what purpose the categories of foreignness and gender were connected and activated in literary tradition. The collection is a preliminary and basic work for further study of gender-specific concepts of foreignness/strangeness in the ancient Mediterranean cultures of the first millennium BCE.

This rich and magisterial work traces Palestine's millennia-old heritage, uncovering cultures and societies of astounding depth and complexity that stretch back to the very beginnings of recorded history. Starting with the earliest references in Egyptian and Assyrian texts, Nur Masalha explores how Palestine and its Palestinian identity have evolved over thousands of years, from the Bronze Age to the present day. Drawing on a rich body of sources and the latest archaeological evidence, Masalha shows how Palestine's multicultural past has been distorted and mythologised by Biblical lore and the Israel-Palestinian conflict. In the process, Masalha reveals that the concept of Palestine, contrary to accepted belief, is not a modern invention or one constructed in opposition to Israel, but rooted firmly in ancient past. Palestine represents the authoritative account of the country's history.

Originally published 1961, this volume is being reissued to make the entire series available to students and scholars of biblical and post-biblical Judaism and early Christianity. A companion volume contains the text found in the original one-volume publication.

In this volume, C. L. Crouch and Jeremy M. Hutton offer a data-driven approach to translation practice in the Iron Age. The authors build on and reinforce Crouch's conclusions in her former work about Deuteronomy and the Akkadian treaty tradition, employing Hutton's "Optimal Translation" theory to analyze the Akkadian-Aramaic bilingual inscription from Tell Fekheriyeh. The authors argue that the inscription exhibits an isomorphic style of translation and only the occasional use of dynamic replacement sets. They apply these findings to other proposed instances of Iron Age translation from Akkadian into dialects of Northwest Semitic, including the relationship between Deuteronomy and the Succession Treaty of Esarhaddon and the relationship between the treaty of Assur-nerari V with Mati'ilu and the Sefire treaties. The authors then argue that the lexical and syntactic changes in these cases diverge so significantly from the model established by Tell Fekheriyeh as to exclude the possibility that these treaties constitute translational relationships.

This volume contains seven Aramaic manuscripts of a Jewish pseudepigraphic tradition from the Second Temple period that ascribes to Enoch, the biblical antediluvian patriarch, a series of heavenly revelations and visions. 4Q201, 4Q202, 4Q204, 4Q205, 4Q206, 4Q207, and 4Q212 published here partially overlap with the Book of the Watchers, the Book of Dreams, and Letter of Enoch and constitute the earliest textual witness to these pseudepigrapha. The fragmentary Aramaic text is accompanied by a paleographic description, grammatical and textual notes, reconstructions, and synoptic comparison with versional evidence. The Aramaic, Aramaic-Greek, and Greek-Aramaic concordances are based on the Aramaic text collated anew for the present edition. The book also comprises an edition of two Greek excerpts, together with a Latin and Syriac fragment of 1 Enoch.

In 2002 a burial box of skeletal remains purchased anonymously from the black market was identified as the ossuary of James, the brother of Jesus. Transformed by the media into a religious and historical relic overnight, the artifact made its way to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, where 100,000 people congregated to experience what had been prematurely and hyperbolically billed as the closest tactile connection to Jesus yet unearthed. Within a few months, however, the ossuary was revealed to be a forgery. Resurrecting the Brother of Jesus offers a critical evaluation of the popular and scholarly reception of the James Ossuary as it emerged from the dimness of the antiquities black market to become a Protestant relic in the media's custody. The volume brings together experts in Jewish archaeology, early Christianity, American religious history, and pilgrimage to explore the theory and practice couched in the debate about the object's authenticity. Contributors explore the ways in which the varying popular and scholarly responses to the ossuary phenomenon inform the presumption of religious meaning; how religious categories are created, vetted, and used for various purposes; and whether the history of pious frauds in America can help to illuminate this international episode. Resurrecting the Brother of Jesus also contributes to discussions about the construction of religious studies as an academic discipline and the role of scholars as public interpreters of discoveries with religious significance. Contributors: Thomas S. Bremer, Rhodes College Ryan Byrne, Menifee, California Byron R. McCane, Wofford College Bernadette McNary-Zak, Rhodes College Milton Moreland, Rhodes College Jonathan L. Reed, University of La Verne

In this work, Karel van der Toorn explores the social setting, the intellectual milieu, and the historical context of the beliefs and practices reflected in the Hebrew Bible. While fully recognizing the unique character of early Israelite religion, the author challenges the notion of its incomparability. Beliefs are anchored in culture. Rituals have societal significance. God has a history. By shifting the focus to the context, the essays gathered here yield a deeper understanding of Israelite religion and the origins of the Bible.

This volume contains a collection of prayers, hymns, psalms, and liturgies from Cave 4 at Qumran. Among them, 4Q Shirot Olat HaShabbat ("Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice") was preserved also in a copy from Cave 11. The other compositions include 4QNon-Canonical Psalms, 4Q Berakhot ("Blessings"), 4QApocryphal Psalm, and 4QPrayer for King Jonathan. This collection of texts greatly enhances our understanding of intertestamental poetry, adding a rich continuation to the biblical tradition of praise and worship of God in poetry. Among other things, these compositions reveal more fully the Qumran community's understanding of the link between heavenly and earthly worship and the interaction of men and angels in the praise and service of God.

This volume inaugurates the publication of the series of biblical Dead Sea Scrolls written in the Jewish (or square') script that were discovered in Cave 4 at Qumran. It contains twenty-six manuscripts of the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. These Hebrew texts antedate by a millenium what had previously been considered the earliest surviving biblical manuscripts in the original language. They document a pluriformity acceptable in the ancient biblical textual tradition that formed the basis for the Samaritan Pentateuch and helps to illumine the historical and theological relationship between the Jews and the Samaritans. Superior textual variants from these manuscripts have been adopted in recent revised translations of the Bible. This book is intended for biblical scholars, scholars of ancient Judaism and Christianity.

Food and feasting are key themes in the Hebrew Bible and the culture it represents. The contributors to this handbook draw on a multitude of disciplines to offer an overview of food in the Hebrew Bible and ancient Israel. Archaeological materials from biblical lands, along with the recent interest in ethnographic data, a new focus in anthropology, and emerging technologies provide valuable information about ancient foodways. The contributors examine not only the textual materials of the Hebrew Bible and related epigraphic works, but also engage in a wider archaeological, environmental, and historical understanding of ancient Israel as it pertains to food. Divided into five parts, this handbook examines and considers environmental and socio-economic issues such as climate and trade, the production of raw materials, and the technology of harvesting and food processing. The cultural role of food and meals in festivals, holidays, and biblical regulations is also discussed, as is the way food and drink are treated in biblical texts, in related epigraphic materials, and in iconography.