Divination, the use of special talents and techniques to gain divine knowledge, was practiced in many different forms in ancient Israel and throughout the ancient world. The Hebrew Bible reveals a variety of traditions of women associated with divination. This sensitive and incisive book by respected scholar Esther J. Hamori examines the wide scope of women’s divinatory activities as portrayed in the Hebrew texts, offering readers a new appreciation of the surprising breadth of women’s “arts of knowledge” in biblical times. Unlike earlier approaches to the subject that have viewed prophecy separately from other forms of divination, Hamori’s study encompasses the full range of divinatory practices and the personages who performed them, from the female prophets and the medium of En-dor to the matriarch who interprets a birth omen and the “wise women” of Tekoa and Abel and more. In doing so, the author brings into clearer focus the complex, rich, and diverse world of ancient Israelite divination.
In the texts of Genesis 18 and 32, God appears to a patriarch in person and is referred to by the narrator as a man, both times by the Hebrew word īsh. In both texts, God as īsh is described in graphically human terms. This type of divine appearance is identified here as the "īsh theophany". The phenomenon of God appearing in concrete human form is first distinguished from several other types of anthropomorphism, such as divine appearance in dreams. The īsh theophany is viewed in relation to appearances of angels and other divine beings in the Bible, and in relation to anthropomorphic appearances of deities in Near Eastern literature. The īsh theophany has implications for our understanding of Israelite concepts of divine-human contact and communication, and for the relationship to Ugaritic literature in particular. The book also includes discussion of philosophical approaches to anthropomorphism. The development of philosophical opposition to anthropomorphism can be traced from Greek philosophy and early Jewish and Christian writings through Avicenna, Averroes, Maimonides and Aquinas, and into the work of later philosophers such as Hume and Kant. However, the work of others can be applied fruitfully to the problem of divine anthropomorphism, such as Wittgenstein's language games.
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.
Because gender is an essential component of societies of all times and places, it is no surprise that every prophetic expression in the ancient social world was a gendered one. In this volume scholars of the biblical literature and of the ancient Mediterranean consider a wide array of prophetic phenomena. In addition to prophetic texts of the Hebrew Bible, the essays also look at prophecy in ancient Mesopotamia and early Christianity. Using the most current theoretical categories, the volume demonstrates how essential a broad definition of gender is for understanding its connection to both the delivery and the content of ancient prophecy. Attention to gender dynamics will continue to reveal the fluidity of prophetic gender performance and to open up the ancient contexts of prophetic texts. The contributors are Roland Boer, Corrine Carvalho, Lester L. Grabbe, Anselm C. Hagedorn, Esther J. Hamori, Dale Launderville, Antti Marjanen, Martti Nissinen, Jonathan Stökl, Hanna Tervanotko, and Ilona Zsolnay.
Spirit possession is more commonly associated with late Second Temple Jewish literature and the New Testament than it is with the Hebrew Bible. In Unfamiliar Selves in the Hebrew Bible, however, Reed Carlson argues that possession is also depicted in this earlier literature, though rarely according to the typical western paradigm. This new approach utilizes theoretical models developed by cultural anthropologists and ethnographers of contemporary possession-practicing communities in the global south and its diasporas. Carlson demonstrates how possession in the Bible is a corporate and cultivated practice that can function as social commentary and as a means to model the moral self. The author treats a variety of spirit phenomena in the Hebrew Bible, including spirit language in the Psalms and Job, spirit empowerment in Judges and Samuel, and communal possession in the prophets. Carlson also surveys apotropaic texts and spirit myths in early Jewish literature—including the Dead Sea Scrolls. In this volume, two recent scholarly trends in biblical studies converge: investigations into notions of evil and of the self. The result is a synthesizing project, useful to biblical scholars and those of early Judaism and Christianity alike.
Dr. Shelley Kaehr explores the Biblical divination tool Urim and Thummim from the Book of Exodus, explores their origins, and suggests materials the reader can use to create the oracle themselves.PRAISE FOR DIVINATION OF GOD“Life is so mysterious and full of confusing choices that we need reliable tools for making good decisions. Common sense is a crucial starting point, but since ancient times there have been wisdom traditions that taught how to supplement logic with the guidance of divination. This is no mere superstition – divination tools such as the Urim and Thummim are a powerful way to connect to the human unconscious and the infinite Spirit that stand ready to direct our voyage through life. Shelley Kaehr's exhaustive research into the Old Testament references to the Urim and Thummim makes this method accessible to modern men and women. She places this ancient tool in the contexts of many other oracle traditions and shows its value for today's seekers.” Mark Thurston, Ph.D., author of Willing to Change: The Journey of Personal Transformation“In our quest to find and do the will of God, the Bible has many treasures that serve as important keys and guideposts. In Divination of God, Dr. Shelley Kaehr sheds powerful and helpful light upon Biblical approaches to discernment, makes them accessible and understandable and shows how they relate to other methods that have occurred in the course of history. It is a fascinating and worthwhile read.” Father Paul Keenan, author of Elisha's Jars and If You Want to Change Your Mind, You Have to Open Your Heart“Divination of God is a fascinating work and should be a real eye-opener to any Fundamentalist Christians who take a look – and I hope they will. Dr. Shelley Kaehr has gathered together such an interesting amalgam of materials. I think she has quite a winner with this book.” Mary K. Greer, author of Tarot for Your Self and Women of the Golden Dawn
An examination of the language of divination in the Hebrew Bible, particularly in 1 Samuel 28:3-25-the oft-called “Witch of Endor” passage. Kiboko contends that much of the vocabulary of divination in this passage and beyond has been mistranslated in authorized English and other translations used in Africa and in scholarly writings. Kiboko argues that the woman of Endor is not a witch. The woman of Endor is, rather, a diviner, much like other ancient Near Eastern and modern African diviners. She resists an inner-biblical conquest theology and a monologic authoritarian view of divination to assist King Saul by various means, including invoking the spirit of a departed person, Samuel. Kiboko carries out a Hebrew word-study shaped by the theories of Mikhail M. Bakhtin regarding the utterance, heteroglossia, and dialogism in order to understand the designative, connotative, emotive, and associative meanings of the many divinatory terms in the Hebrew Bible. She then examines 1 Samuel 28 and a number of prior translations thereof, using the ideological framework of African-feminist-postcolonial biblical interpreters and translation theories to uncover the hidden ideology or transcript of these translations. Finally, using African contextual/cultural hermeneutics and cross-cultural translation theory, Kiboko offers new English, French, and Kisanga translations of this passage that are both faithful to the original text and more appropriate to an inculturated-liberation African Christian hermeneutic, theology, and praxis.
Multifaceted insights into female life in prophetic contexts Both prophets and prophetesses shared God’s divine will with the people of Israel, yet the voices of these women were often forgotten due to later prohibitions against women teaching in public. This latest volume of the Bible and Women series focuses on the intersection of gender and prophecy in the Former Prophets (Joshua to 2 Kings) as well as in the Latter Prophets of the Hebrew Bible. Essays examine how women appear in the iconography of the ancient world, the historical background of the phenomenon of prophecy, political and religious resistance by women in the biblical text, and gender symbolism and constructions in prophetic material as well as the metaphorical discourse of God. Contributors Michaela Bauks, Athalya Brenner-Idan, Ora Brison, L. Juliana Claassens, Marta García Fernández, Irmtraud Fischer, Maria Häusl, Rainer Kessler, Nancy C. Lee, Hanne Løland Levinson, Christl M. Maier, Ilse Müllner, Martti Nissinen, Ombretta Pettigiani, Ruth Poser, Benedetta Rossi, Silvia Schroer, and Omer Sergi draw insight into the texts from a range of innovative gender-oriented approaches.
Journal for the Evangelical Study of the Old Testament (JESOT) is a peer-reviewed journal devoted to the academic and evangelical study of the Old Testament. The journal seeks to fill a need in academia by providing a venue for high-level scholarship on the Old Testament from an evangelical standpoint. The journal is not affiliated with any particular academic institution, and with an international editorial board, open access format, and multi-language submissions, JESOT cultivates and promotes Old Testament scholarship in the evangelical global community. The journal differs from many evangelical journals in that it seeks to publish current academic research in the areas of ancient Near Eastern backgrounds, Dead Sea Scrolls, Rabbinics, Linguistics, Septuagint, Research Methodology, Literary Analysis, Exegesis, Text Criticism, and Theology as they pertain only to the Old Testament. JESOT also includes up-to-date book reviews on various academic studies of the Old Testament. EDITORIAL STAFF Stephen J. Andrews, executive editor (Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) Russell L. Meek, editor (Ohio Theological Institute) Andrew King, book reviews editor (Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) Ron Haydon, assistant editor (Wheaton College) EDITORIAL BOARD T. Desmond Alexander (Union Theological College, Queens University, Ireland) George Athas (Moore Theological College, Australia) Ellis R. Brotzman (Emeritus, Tyndale Theological Seminary, The Netherlands) Helene Dallaire (Denver Seminary, USA) Kyle Greenwood (Denver Seminary, USA) John F. Evans (Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology, Kenya) John F. Hobbins (University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh, USA) Kenneth A. Mathews (Beeson Divinty School, Samford University, USA) William R. Osborne (College of the Ozarks, USA) Sung Jin Park (Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, USA) Max Rogland (Rose Hill Presbyterian Church, USA) Daniel C. Timmer (Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, USA) Matthew Y. Emerson (Oklahoma Baptist University, USA) Christopher J. Fresch (Bible College of South Australia, Australia) Colin Toffelmire (Ambrose University, Canada) Ryan Hanley (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, USA) Michele E. Knight (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, USA)
This book lifts up women of the Hebrew Bible who, working with the Divine, play amazing roles in the stories of Israel--prophet, judge, worship leader, warrior, scholar, scribe. They helped people celebrate the Divine's triumph over oppression. They spoke boldly to those in power. They went into battle to secure their people's safety. They gave wise judgments in important legal matters. They authenticated sacred texts and inspired a reform to help Israel return to the way of Torah. In roles that were not tied to their wombs or fertility, these women made Israel's story possible and helped it to continue to future generations.
