Book Specifications
col. 415-700 pp.
softcover
2020 | BiOr Volume 77 5/6 ISSN: 0006-1913
by N. Veldhuis
by K.J.H. Vriezen
This review article considers Rubina Raja’s 2017 edited volume Contextualizing the Sacred in the Hellenistic and Roman Near East. Religious Identities in Local, Regional, and Imperial Settings. The volume aims to highlight different approaches to religion and religious identity in the Near East, with each contributor drawing upon different disciplinary methodologies to contextualise religious developments at several of the region’s localities. The volume is therefore part of the current shift towards local approaches to religion in the Hellenistic and Roman Near East. This review article will set this volume within its wider scholarly context and offer an introductory synthesis of key areas of research within this field, including gods and myths; religious architecture and sacred space; and groups of worshippers.
LB 1002, an Old Babylonian text housed at the Böhl Collection, Leiden, is comprised of an Akkadian magical procedure and a non-Akkadian – most probably Elamite – incantation. The text was studied for many years by K.R. Veenhof, who kindly has ceded his publication rights to me. The following edition leans much on Veenhof’s edition which was passed to me by M. Stol. The latter’s critical remarks have further improved some of my readings. I am indebted to both Veenhof and Stol. In an appendage to this study, I offer hand-copies of LB 1001, LB 2001, LB 1003 and LB 1004, a group of Akkadian and Elamite incantations from the Böhl Collection, which have been known for a long time, but never presented in hand-copy.
Der Garten der Hebräischen Bibel ist kein selten betretenes Gebiet. Bereits Variationen in den ersten Übersetzungen zeigen ein Deutungspotenzial an, das eine immense Wirkungsgeschichte mit sich trägt. Die wissenschaftliche Beschäftigung ist sogar so traditionsreich, dass der Altorientalist Dietrich in der ersten Fußnote eines Aufsatzes bemerkt, er könne sie „als Nachbarfächler“ nicht überblicken. Überblickt man die forschungsgeschichtlichen Fixpunkte, zeigen sich eine gewisse Tendenz: Oft liegt der Fokus bei Analysen des Gartenmotivs auf Gen 2-3.2. Dies führt dazu, dass die Gesamtbetrachtung der biblischen Gärten häufig in Relation zur Paradieserzählung konstruiert wird: Entweder, es gibt handelt sich um einen realen (Königs-)Garten, oder er wird von Paradiesvorstellungen überblendet. Die Zuteilung ist häufig abhängig von der Möglichkeit, realienkundliche Gegebenheiten mit dem biblischen Text in Einklang zu bringen oder nicht. Der vorliegende Aufsatz unternimmt den Versuch einer breiteren Betrachtung des biblischen Gartenmotivs und widmet sich den Garten-Belegen in Genesis 2-3, Ezechiel und dem Hohelied.
Awareness of the past may be a characteristic human trait and was certainly a prominent feature in many of the world’s ancient cultures with long and well-documented traditions, some of which reach into modern times: Egypt, the Near East, China, the biblical and Graeco-Roman worlds. Those cultures have not received sufficient attention in recent discussions of the concept of historical consciousness, while they could contribute much to its formulation and redirect it from its extreme focus on the modern era.
Faraonisch Egypte, Grieks-Romeins Egypte, Assyriologie, Hettitologie, Semitisch, Hebreeuws, Aramees, Oude Testament, Vroege Jodendom, Mandeïsme en Manicheïsme, Archeologie, Iranica, Islam, Varia
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