Divination, Politics, and Ancient Near Eastern Empires

Divination, Politics, and Ancient Near Eastern Empires

Author: Alan Lenzi

Publisher: Society of Biblical Literature

Published: 2014-06-02

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781589839960

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Advance your understanding of divination’s role in supporting or undermining imperial aspirations in the ancient Near East This collection examines the ways that divinatory texts in the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East undermined and upheld the empires in which the texts were composed, edited, and read. Nine essays and an introduction engage biblical scholarship on the Prophets, Assyriology, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the critical study of Ancient Empires. Features: Interdisciplinary approaches include propaganda studies Essays examine how biblical and other ancient Near Eastern texts were shaped by political and theological empires Index of ancient sources


Magic and Divination in Ancient Palestine and Syria

Magic and Divination in Ancient Palestine and Syria

Author: Ann Jeffers

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2023-08-14

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 9004667806

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Beginning with Deut. 18:9ff and its condemnation of magicians and diviners, this book explores the window that this text gives us into magic and divination in Ancient Palestine and Syria. Investigating the wealth of language combined with the archaeological and historical evidence, it seeks to place the influence of these factors in the emerging Israelite religion. An integral part of Ancient Near Eastern cosmology and culture, magic and divination are never completely eradicated despite the ideological warfare led by the Old Testament writers. The first part examines the function of various magicians and diviners. This is followed by a chapter on dreams and visions. The third chapter looks at the techniques and devices used by the oracular practitioners. Other subjects covered include magic in warfare, in the treatment of diseases, and blessing and cursing.


Etruscology

Etruscology

Author: Alessandro Naso

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2017-09-25

Total Pages: 2173

ISBN-13: 1614519102

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This handbook has two purposes: it is intended (1) as a handbook of Etruscology or Etruscan Studies, offering a state-of-the-art and comprehensive overview of the history of the discipline and its development, and (2) it serves as an authoritative reference work representing the current state of knowledge on Etruscan civilization. The organization of the volume reflects this dual purpose. The first part of the volume is dedicated to methodology and leading themes in current research, organized thematically, whereas the second part offers a diachronic account of Etruscan history, culture, religion, art & archaeology, and social and political relations and structures, as well as a systematic treatment of the topography of the Etruscan civilization and sphere of influence. 


Magic and Divination in the Ancient World

Magic and Divination in the Ancient World

Author: Leda Ciraolo

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2021-10-01

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 9004497366

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This collection of essays focuses on divination across the Ancient World from early Mesopotamia to late antiquity. The authors deal with the forms, theory and poetics of this important and still poorly understood ancient phenomenon.


Prophetic Divination

Prophetic Divination

Author: Martti Nissinen

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2019-10-08

Total Pages: 804

ISBN-13: 3110467763

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Prophecy was a wide-spread phenomenon in the ancient world - not only in ancient Israel but in the whole Eastern Mediterranean cultural sphere. This is demonstrated by documents from the ancient Near East, that have been the object of Martti Nissinen’s research for more than twenty years. Nissinen's studies have had a formative influence on the study of the prophetic phenomenon. The present volume presents a selection of thirty-one essays, bringing together essential aspects of prophetic divination in the ancient Near East. The first section of the volume discusses prophecy from theoretical perspectives. The second sections contains studies on prophecy in texts from Mari and Assyria and other cuneiform sources. The third section discusses biblical prophecy in its ancient Near Eastern context, while the fourth section focuses on prophets and prophecy in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. Even prophecy in the Dead Sea Scrolls is discussed in the fifth section. The articles are essential reading for anyone studying ancient prophetic phenomenon.


Divination and Interpretation of Signs in the Ancient World

Divination and Interpretation of Signs in the Ancient World

Author: Amar Annus

Publisher: Oriental Inst Publications Sales

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 351

ISBN-13: 9781885923684

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The concept of sign, a portent observed in the physical world, which indicates future events, is found in all ancient cultures, but was first developed in ancient Mesopotamian texts. This branch of Babylonian scientific knowledge extensively influenced other parts of the world, and similar texts written in Aramaic, Sanscrit, Sogdian, and other languages. The seminar will investigate how much do we know about the Babylonian theory and hermeneutics of omens, and the scope of their possible influences on other cultures and regions.


Ancient Divination and Experience

Ancient Divination and Experience

Author: Lindsay Gayle Driediger-Murphy

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 309

ISBN-13: 0198844549

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This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. This volume sets out to re-examine what ancient people - primarily those in ancient Greek and Roman communities, but also Mesopotamian and Chinese cultures - thought they were doing through divination, and what this can tell us about the religions and cultures in which divination was practised. The chapters, authored by a range of established experts and upcoming early-career scholars, engage with four shared questions: What kinds of gods do ancient forms of divination presuppose? What beliefs, anxieties, and hopes did divination seek to address? What were the limits of human 'control' of divination? What kinds of human-divine relationships did divination create/sustain? The volume as a whole seeks to move beyond functionalist approaches to divination in order to identify and elucidate previously understudied aspects of ancient divinatory experience and practice. Special attention is paid to the experiences of non-elites, the perception of divine presence, the ways in which divinatory techniques could surprise their users by yielding unexpected or unwanted results, the difficulties of interpretation with which divinatory experts were thought to contend, and the possibility that divination could not just ease, but also exacerbate, anxiety in practitioners and consultants.


Neo-Assyrian and Greek Divination in War

Neo-Assyrian and Greek Divination in War

Author: Krzysztof Ulanowski

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-10-20

Total Pages: 588

ISBN-13: 9004429395

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Neo-Assyrian and Greek Divination in War is about practices which enabled humans contact the divine. These relations, especially in difficult times of military conflict, could be crucial in deciding the fate of individuals, cities, dynasties or even empires.


Prophets and Prophecy in the Ancient Near East

Prophets and Prophecy in the Ancient Near East

Author: Martti Nissinen

Publisher: SBL Press

Published: 2019-07-09

Total Pages: 373

ISBN-13: 0884143414

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A new, expanded edition of a classic reference tool This volume of more than 170 documents of prophecy from the ancient Near East brings together a representative sample of written documents from Mesopotamia, the Levant, and Egypt dating to the second and first millennia BCE. Nissinen's collection provides nonspecialist readers clear translations, transliterations, and discussions of oracles reports and collections, quotations of prophetic messages in letters and literature, and texts that reference persons with prophetic titles. This second edition includes thirty-four new texts. Features: Modern, idiomatic, and readable English translations Thirty-four new translations Contributions of West Semitic, Egyptian, and Luwian sources from C. L. Seow, Robert K. Ritner, and H. Craig Melchert