Ancient Place Names in the Holy Land

Ancient Place Names in the Holy Land

Author: Yoel Elitsur

Publisher: Eisenbrauns

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 474

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

That many ancient toponyms in the Holy Land have survived for thousands of years, right up to modern times, is a remarkable and unique phenomenon, unparalleled in neighboring countries, such as Egypt, Mesopotamia, or Asia Minor. Preserved toponymy provides a basis for research in the historical geography of the country and is also of major importance for studies in the history of Hebrew and Aramaic, being a kind of ancient "recording" of an archaic linguistic inventory. In addition, it has many implications for a wide variety of other scholarly fields, such as Bible studies, Rabbinics, Qumran and Samaritan studies, early Christianity, Arabic and Islam. This reserve of preserved place-names is therefore frequently consulted and used by scholars for their purposes. Surprisingly, however, despite the importance of this subject, there have been very few attempts to "put things in order," and for many years there have been no rules that would help to understand the changes that occur in toponyms. Accordingly, the prevailing situation in the field of historical geography is one of near-anarchy; lacking hard and fast rules, scholars could find support for their identification of an ancient toponym in any somewhat similar Arabic name. In order to break this vicious circle of conjectures founded on dubious linguistic assumptions, producing "preservation laws" themselves provide an alleged basis for historical identification, and so on, Elitzur has tried, first and foremost, to lay down objective criteria for the selection of positive identifications. On this basis, he has built up a corpus of 177 toponyms representing positive or almost-positive identifications, upon which this study is based. Sixty of these toponyms are then reviewed in depth, tracing their documentation in all languages, throughout recorded history; in the process, the author has tried to locate and analyze whatever changes occurred and when. The linguistic conclusions from the material follow, arranged according to the standard layout of grammar books. Innovative conclusions and ideas in the context of historical geography emerged in the course of the study are listed alphabetically in the last part of the volume.


Adomnan and the Holy Places

Adomnan and the Holy Places

Author: Thomas O'Loughlin

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2007-11-01

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 0567160742

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Adomnan, ninth abbot of Iona, wrote his book, On Holy Places (De Locis Sanctis), in the closing years of the seventh century. It is a detailed account of the sites mentioned in the Christian scriptures, the overall topography, and the shrines that are in Palestine and Egypt at that time. It is neatly broken into three parts: Jerusalem, the surrounding areas, and then a few other places. The whole has a contemporary and lively feel; and the reader is then not surprised when Adomnan says he got his information from a 'Gallic bishop name Arculf'. Things then get interesting for the more one probes, the book the amount of information that could have been obtained from Arculf keeps diminishing, while the amount that can be shown to be a reworking of written sources increases. We then see that Adomnan's book is an attempt to compile a biblical studies manual according to the demands of Augustine (354-430) - one of which was that there had to be an empirical witness. Thus, Adomnan wrote the work and employed Arculf as a literary device. However, he produced the desired manual which remained in use until the Reformation. As a manual we can use it to study the nature of scriptural studies in the Latin world of the time, and perceptions of space, relics, pilgrimage, and Islam. While a study of how the work was used by others, transmitted, reworked (for example by the Venerable Bede) brings unique light onto the theological world of the Carolingians.


The Cities That Built the Bible

The Cities That Built the Bible

Author: Robert R. Cargill

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2016-03-15

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 0062366750

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

For many, the names Bethlehem, Babylon, and Jerusalem are known as the setting for epic stories from the Bible featuring rustic mangers, soaring towers, and wooden crosses. What often gets missed is that these cities are far more than just the setting for the Bible and its characters—they were instrumental to the creation of the Bible as we know it today. Robert Cargill, Assistant Professor of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Iowa, is an archeologist, Bible scholar, and host of numerous television documentaries, such as the History Channel series Bible Secrets Revealed. Taking us behind-the-scenes of the Bible, Cargill blends archaeology, biblical history, and personal journey as he explores these cities and their role in the creation of the Bible. He reveals surprising facts such as what the Bible says about the birth of Jesus and how Mary’s Virgin Birth caused problems for the early church. We’ll also see how the God of the Old Testament was influenced by other deities, that there were numerous non-biblical books written about Moses, Jacob, and Jesus in antiquity, and how far more books were left out of the Bible than were let in during the messy, political canonization process. The Cities That Built the Bible is a magnificent tour through fourteen cities: the Phoenicia cities of Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos, Ugarit, Nineveh, Babylon, Megiddo, Athens, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Qumran, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Rome. Along the way, Cargill includes photos of artifacts, dig sites, ruins, and relics, taking readers on a far-reaching journey from the Grotto of the Nativity to the battlegrounds of Megiddo, from the towering Acropolis of Athens to the caves in Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. An exciting adventure through time, The Cities That Built the Bible is a fresh, fascinating exploration that sheds new light on the Bible.


Biblical Holy Places

Biblical Holy Places

Author: Rivka Gonen

Publisher: Paulist Press

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 9780809139743

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Provides Bible scholars, seekers who journey far and wide or armchair travelers with a complete and authoritative guide to places named in the Old and New Testaments, places that stood in silent witness to the most significant events as well as to the most important and intriguing personalities of Biblical times. Each of the two hundred entries contains an appropriate quotation from the Bible, an explanatory note and a comprehensive description of the site.


Pictorial Library of Bible Lands

Pictorial Library of Bible Lands

Author: Todd Bolen

Publisher: Kregel Academic & Professional

Published: 2004-03-04

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9780825424144

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The most complete collection of high resolution Bible Land images available! Perfect for worship, class study, or personal Bible study. Presented in standard graphic file formats for easy access. Classroom and non-profit permissions included. Site licensing available.


Zondervan Atlas of the Bible

Zondervan Atlas of the Bible

Author: Carl G. Rasmussen

Publisher: Zondervan

Published: 2014-09-30

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 0310521262

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Explore the lands of the Bible and the history of scripture with unprecedented clarity. This major revision of the Gold Medallion Award-winning Zondervan NIV Atlas of the Bible is a visual feast that will help you experience the geography and history of Scripture with unprecedented clarity. The first section of the Atlas introduces the "playing board" of biblical history. The next section, arranged historically, begins with Eden and traces the historical progression of the Old and New Testaments. It concludes with chapters on the history of Jerusalem, the disciplines of historical geography, and the most complete and accurate listing and discussion of place-names found in any atlas. Unique features include: Stunning multidimensional and three-dimensional maps Over 100 new relevant-to-topic images Revised engaging text Innovative chronological charts and graphics A complete geographical dictionary and index available for in-depth studies The Zondervan Atlas of the Bible is destined to become a favorite guide to biblical geography for students of the Bible. This accessible and complete resource will assist you as you enter into the world of the Bible as never before.


The Transformation of Biblical Proper Names

The Transformation of Biblical Proper Names

Author: Joze Krasovec

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2010-03-08

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 0567452247

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In the transmission we encounter various transformations of biblical proper names. The basic phonetic relationship between Semitic languages on the one hand and non-Semitic languages, like Greek and Latin, on the other hand, is so complex that it was hardly possible to establish a unified tradition in writing biblical proper names within the Greek and Latin cultures. Since the Greek and Latin alphabets are inadequate for transliteration of Semitic languages, authors of Greek and Latin Bibles were utter grammatical and cultural innovators. In Greek and Latin Bibles we note an almost embarrassing number of phonetic variants of proper names. A survey of ancient Greek and Latin Bible translations allows one to trace the boundary between the phonetic transliterations that are justified within Semitic, Greek, and Latin linguistic rules, and those forms that transgress linguistic rules. The forms of biblical proper names are much more stable and consistent in the Hebrew Bible than in Greek, Latin and other ancient Bible translations. The inexhaustible wealth of variant pronunciations of the same proper names in Greek and Latin translations indicate that Greek and Latin translators and copyists were in general not fluent in Hebrew and did therefore not have sufficient support in a living Hebrew phonetic context. This state affects personal names of rare use to a far greater extent than the geographical names, whose forms are expressed in the oral tradition by a larger circle of the population.