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Prayer in the Ancient World is the resource on prayer in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean. With over 350 entries it showcases a robust selection of the range of different types of prayers attested from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia, the Levant, early Judaism and Christianity, Greece, Rome, Arabia, and Iran, enhanced by critical commentary.
The Prayer in the Ancient World will also be available online.
Preview of the 'Prayer in the Ancient World’, 2022
The Prayer in the Ancient World will also be available online.
Preview of the 'Prayer in the Ancient World’, 2022
Prayer in the Ancient World (PAW) is an innovative resource on prayer in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean. The over 350 entries in PAW showcase a robust selection of the range of different types of prayers attested from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia, the Levant, early Judaism and Christianity, Greece, Rome, Arabia, and Iran, enhanced by critical commentary.
The project illustrates the variety of ways human beings have sought to communicate with or influence beings with extraordinary superhuman power for millennia. By including diverse examples such as vows and oaths, blessings, curses, incantations, graffiti, iconography, and more, PAW casts a wide net. In so doing, PAW privileges no particular tradition or conception of how to interact with the divine; for example, the project refuses to perpetuate a value distinction between “prayer,” “magic,” and “cursing.”
Detailed overviews introduce each area and address key issues such as language and terminology, geographical distribution, materiality, orality, phenomenology of prayer, prayer and magic, blessings and curses, and ritual settings and ritual actors. In order to be as comprehensive as practically possible, the volume includes a representative prayer of every attested type from each tradition.
Individual entries include a wealth of information. Each begins with a list of essential details, including the source, region, date, occasion, type and function, performers, and materiality of the prayer. Next, after a concise summary and a brief synopsis of the main textual witnesses, a formal description calls attention to the exemplar’s literary and stylistic features, rhetorical structure, important motifs, and terminology. The occasions when the prayer was used and its function are analyzed, followed by a discussion of how this exemplar fits within the range of variation of this type of prayer practice, both synchronically and diachronically. Important features of the prayer relevant for cross-cultural comparison are foregrounded in the subsequent section. Following an up-to-date translation, a concise yet detailed commentary provides explanations necessary for understanding the prayer and its function. Finally, each entry concludes with a bibliography of essential primary and secondary resources for further study.
The project illustrates the variety of ways human beings have sought to communicate with or influence beings with extraordinary superhuman power for millennia. By including diverse examples such as vows and oaths, blessings, curses, incantations, graffiti, iconography, and more, PAW casts a wide net. In so doing, PAW privileges no particular tradition or conception of how to interact with the divine; for example, the project refuses to perpetuate a value distinction between “prayer,” “magic,” and “cursing.”
Detailed overviews introduce each area and address key issues such as language and terminology, geographical distribution, materiality, orality, phenomenology of prayer, prayer and magic, blessings and curses, and ritual settings and ritual actors. In order to be as comprehensive as practically possible, the volume includes a representative prayer of every attested type from each tradition.
Individual entries include a wealth of information. Each begins with a list of essential details, including the source, region, date, occasion, type and function, performers, and materiality of the prayer. Next, after a concise summary and a brief synopsis of the main textual witnesses, a formal description calls attention to the exemplar’s literary and stylistic features, rhetorical structure, important motifs, and terminology. The occasions when the prayer was used and its function are analyzed, followed by a discussion of how this exemplar fits within the range of variation of this type of prayer practice, both synchronically and diachronically. Important features of the prayer relevant for cross-cultural comparison are foregrounded in the subsequent section. Following an up-to-date translation, a concise yet detailed commentary provides explanations necessary for understanding the prayer and its function. Finally, each entry concludes with a bibliography of essential primary and secondary resources for further study.
Prayer in the Ancient World (PAW) is an innovative resource on prayer in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean. The over 350 entries in PAW showcase a robust selection of the range of different types of prayers attested from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia, the Levant, early Judaism and Christianity, Greece, Rome, Arabia, and Iran, enhanced by critical commentary.
The project illustrates the variety of ways human beings have sought to communicate with or influence beings with extraordinary superhuman power for millennia. By including diverse examples such as vows and oaths, blessings, curses, incantations, graffiti, iconography, and more, PAW casts a wide net. In so doing, PAW privileges no particular tradition or conception of how to interact with the divine; for example, the project refuses to perpetuate a value distinction between “prayer,” “magic,” and “cursing.”
Detailed overviews introduce each area and address key issues such as language and terminology, geographical distribution, materiality, orality, phenomenology of prayer, prayer and magic, blessings and curses, and ritual settings and ritual actors. In order to be as comprehensive as practically possible, the volume includes a representative prayer of every attested type from each tradition.
Individual entries include a wealth of information. Each begins with a list of essential details, including the source, region, date, occasion, type and function, performers, and materiality of the prayer. Next, after a concise summary and a brief synopsis of the main textual witnesses, a formal description calls attention to the exemplar’s literary and stylistic features, rhetorical structure, important motifs, and terminology. The occasions when the prayer was used and its function are analyzed, followed by a discussion of how this exemplar fits within the range of variation of this type of prayer practice, both synchronically and diachronically. Important features of the prayer relevant for cross-cultural comparison are foregrounded in the subsequent section. Following an up-to-date translation, a concise yet detailed commentary provides explanations necessary for understanding the prayer and its function. Finally, each entry concludes with a bibliography of essential primary and secondary resources for further study.
The project illustrates the variety of ways human beings have sought to communicate with or influence beings with extraordinary superhuman power for millennia. By including diverse examples such as vows and oaths, blessings, curses, incantations, graffiti, iconography, and more, PAW casts a wide net. In so doing, PAW privileges no particular tradition or conception of how to interact with the divine; for example, the project refuses to perpetuate a value distinction between “prayer,” “magic,” and “cursing.”
Detailed overviews introduce each area and address key issues such as language and terminology, geographical distribution, materiality, orality, phenomenology of prayer, prayer and magic, blessings and curses, and ritual settings and ritual actors. In order to be as comprehensive as practically possible, the volume includes a representative prayer of every attested type from each tradition.
Individual entries include a wealth of information. Each begins with a list of essential details, including the source, region, date, occasion, type and function, performers, and materiality of the prayer. Next, after a concise summary and a brief synopsis of the main textual witnesses, a formal description calls attention to the exemplar’s literary and stylistic features, rhetorical structure, important motifs, and terminology. The occasions when the prayer was used and its function are analyzed, followed by a discussion of how this exemplar fits within the range of variation of this type of prayer practice, both synchronically and diachronically. Important features of the prayer relevant for cross-cultural comparison are foregrounded in the subsequent section. Following an up-to-date translation, a concise yet detailed commentary provides explanations necessary for understanding the prayer and its function. Finally, each entry concludes with a bibliography of essential primary and secondary resources for further study.
Women, Sex, and Public Discourse
The Song of Songs is the only book of the Bible to privilege the voice of a woman, and its poetry of love and eroticism also bears witness to violence. How do the contemporary #MeToo movement and other movements of protest and accountability renew questions about women, gender, sex, and the problematic of the public at the heart of this ancient poetry? This edited volume prominently features women scholars and seeks to reinvigorate feminist scholarship on the Song by exploring diverse contexts of reading, from Akkadian love lyrics, to Hildegard of Bingen, to Marc Chagall.
Women, Sex, and Public Discourse
The Song of Songs is the only book of the Bible to privilege the voice of a woman, and its poetry of love and eroticism also bears witness to violence. How do the contemporary #MeToo movement and other movements of protest and accountability renew questions about women, gender, sex, and the problematic of the public at the heart of this ancient poetry? This edited volume prominently features women scholars and seeks to reinvigorate feminist scholarship on the Song by exploring diverse contexts of reading, from Akkadian love lyrics, to Hildegard of Bingen, to Marc Chagall.
Zur Rezeption thukydideischer Motive im Bellum Judaicum
Josephus war ein Historiker mit jüdischer Identität und einem hellenistisch geprägten Bewusstein. Er schuf sein Werk auf klassischer Grundlage und bewegte sich damit bewusst zwischen Judentum und Hellenismus. Er versuchte, durch das jüdisch-hellenistische Labyrinth seinen eigenen Weg zu finden. Inwieweit hat Josephus seine eigene ethnische Identität als Jude respektiert? Inwieweit verdient ein Protegé des Kaisers die Kennzeichnung als kritischer Historiker? Der lange Schatten von Thukydides fällt schwer auf sein Werk, deshalb lassen sich viele stilistische und motivische Parallelen entdecken. Die Rezeption des Thukydides durch Josephus stellt eine wichtige Quelle für die Geschichte der Verbreitung des thukydideischen Werks im ersten Jahrhundert n. Chr. dar.
Josephus was an historian with a Jewish identity and a Hellenistic consciousness. He created his work on a classical basis and thus consciously moved between Judaism and Hellenism. He tried to find his own way through the Jewish-Hellenistic labyrinth. To what extent did Josephus respect his own ethnic identity as a Jew? To what extent does a protégé of the emperor deserve to be labelled a critical historian? The long shadow of Thucydides falls heavily on his work, therefore many stylistic and thematic parallels can be discovered. The reception of Thucydides by Josephus constitutes an important source for the history of the dissemination of Thucydidean work in the first century AD.
Josephus was an historian with a Jewish identity and a Hellenistic consciousness. He created his work on a classical basis and thus consciously moved between Judaism and Hellenism. He tried to find his own way through the Jewish-Hellenistic labyrinth. To what extent did Josephus respect his own ethnic identity as a Jew? To what extent does a protégé of the emperor deserve to be labelled a critical historian? The long shadow of Thucydides falls heavily on his work, therefore many stylistic and thematic parallels can be discovered. The reception of Thucydides by Josephus constitutes an important source for the history of the dissemination of Thucydidean work in the first century AD.
Zur Rezeption thukydideischer Motive im Bellum Judaicum
Josephus war ein Historiker mit jüdischer Identität und einem hellenistisch geprägten Bewusstein. Er schuf sein Werk auf klassischer Grundlage und bewegte sich damit bewusst zwischen Judentum und Hellenismus. Er versuchte, durch das jüdisch-hellenistische Labyrinth seinen eigenen Weg zu finden. Inwieweit hat Josephus seine eigene ethnische Identität als Jude respektiert? Inwieweit verdient ein Protegé des Kaisers die Kennzeichnung als kritischer Historiker? Der lange Schatten von Thukydides fällt schwer auf sein Werk, deshalb lassen sich viele stilistische und motivische Parallelen entdecken. Die Rezeption des Thukydides durch Josephus stellt eine wichtige Quelle für die Geschichte der Verbreitung des thukydideischen Werks im ersten Jahrhundert n. Chr. dar.
Josephus was an historian with a Jewish identity and a Hellenistic consciousness. He created his work on a classical basis and thus consciously moved between Judaism and Hellenism. He tried to find his own way through the Jewish-Hellenistic labyrinth. To what extent did Josephus respect his own ethnic identity as a Jew? To what extent does a protégé of the emperor deserve to be labelled a critical historian? The long shadow of Thucydides falls heavily on his work, therefore many stylistic and thematic parallels can be discovered. The reception of Thucydides by Josephus constitutes an important source for the history of the dissemination of Thucydidean work in the first century AD.
Josephus was an historian with a Jewish identity and a Hellenistic consciousness. He created his work on a classical basis and thus consciously moved between Judaism and Hellenism. He tried to find his own way through the Jewish-Hellenistic labyrinth. To what extent did Josephus respect his own ethnic identity as a Jew? To what extent does a protégé of the emperor deserve to be labelled a critical historian? The long shadow of Thucydides falls heavily on his work, therefore many stylistic and thematic parallels can be discovered. The reception of Thucydides by Josephus constitutes an important source for the history of the dissemination of Thucydidean work in the first century AD.
A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation with an Introduction
Cyril ibn Laqlaq’s Book of Confession offers the critical edition and translation of a treatise that is published here for the first time. Cyril, the 75th Coptic Patriarch, was a controversial figure who was judged for simony by his own bishops in an official synod. Despite his failure to promote auricular confession during his lifetime, the widespread distribution of his treatise had a significant impact on the practice's adoption. The Book of Confession is well attested in the manuscript tradition. The vast inventory of manuscripts attests to its popularity among diverse Christian denominations throughout the Middle East. Undoubtedly, it has been a highly influential text in the formation of spiritual life and penitential theology in the Middle Ages.
A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation with an Introduction
Cyril ibn Laqlaq’s Book of Confession offers the critical edition and translation of a treatise that is published here for the first time. Cyril, the 75th Coptic Patriarch, was a controversial figure who was judged for simony by his own bishops in an official synod. Despite his failure to promote auricular confession during his lifetime, the widespread distribution of his treatise had a significant impact on the practice's adoption. The Book of Confession is well attested in the manuscript tradition. The vast inventory of manuscripts attests to its popularity among diverse Christian denominations throughout the Middle East. Undoubtedly, it has been a highly influential text in the formation of spiritual life and penitential theology in the Middle Ages.
This book explores the way that the Torah was appreciated and interpreted as a text and symbol in Christian and Jewish sources from the Second Temple period through the Middle Ages. It tracks the development and complex interactions of three images of Torah— “God-like,” “Angelic,” and “Messianic”— which are found in late-antique Jewish and Christian materials as well as in medieval kabbalistic and Jewish philosophic sources. It provides a unique template for tracing the development of theological ideas related to the images of Torah and offers a sophisticated and innovative analysis of the relationship between mystical experience, theology, and phenomenology.