Priests and Priesthood in the Near East

From March 19-21, 2018, the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University hosted the “Priests and Priesthood in the Near East: Social, Intellectual and Economic Aspects” conference. The papers from March 19 are available on TAU’s YouTube channel:

• Dominique Charpin (Collège de France), Opening Address: Recent Discoveries from Ur / Tell Muqayyar, Priests of Ur in the Old Babylonian Period: A Reappraisal in the Light of the Discoveries at Ur / Tell Muqayyar in 2017
• Walther Sallaberger (LMU, Munich), Keynote Session I: Origins of Near Eastern Priesthood, Close to the Ruler and to the Gods: The Cultic Duties of the Cupbearer and the Role of Priestesses and Priests in Early Dynastic Mesopotamia
• Piotr Steinkeller (Harvard University), Babylonian Priesthood during the Third Millennium BCE: Between Sacred
  and Profane
• Louise Quillien (EPHE, Paris), Identity Through Appearance: Babylonian Priestly Clothing
• Aren Maeir (Bar Ilan University), “The priests, the Levites, and all the tribe of Levi, shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel” (Deut 18:1): Is There Archaeological Evidence of Priests and Priesthood in Iron Age Israel and Judah?
• Yonatan Adler (Ariel University), “Is there a Priest in the House?”: Identifying Jewish Priests (Kohanim) in the Archaeology of Roman Judaea/Palaestina
• Julietta Steinhauer (University College London), Near Eastern Priests: A Graeco-Roman perspective

 

 

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Jonathan Ben-Dov: Reinterpreting Nebuchadnezzar’s monuments via the Watcher/Fallen Angel Tradition

Professor Jonathan Ben-Dov (George and Florence Wise Chair of Judaism in the Ancient World, University of Haifa) “explores the reinterpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s monuments from Lebanon as a representation of the myth of the Watchers” in a paper delivered at Boston College on November 20, 2013, “Iconography and Myth: From Nebuchadnezzar to the Fallen Angels”.

Representing gods and men in the ancient Near East and in the Bible

The Collège de France hosts the videos of papers delivered at the 2015 Seminar in Thomas Römer’s series The Hebrew Bible and Its Contexts, May 5-6, 2015:

Representing gods and men in the ancient Near East and in the Bible (Représenter dieux et hommes dans le Proche-Orient ancien et dans la Bible)

The videos are available for download in *.mov format.

La question des images est un élément central pour l’intelligence des religions anciennes et modernes. Les religions monothéistes se basent toutes sur le Décalogue qui interdit la fabrication des images. Mais comment comprendre cet interdit : s’agit-il d’un refus de toutes sortes d’images ou « seulement » de la représentation du divin ? Et quelle est la raison d’être d’un tel interdit ? Pourquoi considère-t-on illégitime de représenter des dieux et des hommes, ce qui fut pratique courante dans le Proche-Orient ancien ? Le colloque s’efforcera d’apporter des éclaircissements sur plusieurs questions : Quelle est la fonction des représentations du divin mais aussi des hommes ? Quelles sont les différentes manières de représenter des dieux  et quelle est la fonction de ces représentations ? Les représentations permettent-elles de mieux comprendre les cultes officiels et les cultes privés ? Quel est le rôle des images dans le culte royal ? Le roi est-il l’image des dieux ? Y a-t-il des religions aniconiques ? Pour quelles raisons décide-t-on d’interdire des images ? Y a-t-il des précurseurs au commandement biblique dans le Proche-Orient ou ailleurs ?

The question of images is a central element in the understanding of ancient and modern religions. The monotheistic religions are all based on the Decalogue, which prohibits the making of images. But how should we understand this prohibition: is it a rejection of all kinds of images or “only” of the representation of the divine? And what is the purpose of such a prohibition? Why it is considered improper to represent gods and men, which was common practice in the ancient Near East? The symposium will seek to clarify several questions: What is the function of the representations of the divine and also of men? What are the different ways of representing the gods and what is the function of these representations? Do the representations provide insight into official and private worship? What is the role of images in the royal cult? Is the king the image of the gods? Are there any aniconic religions? For what reasons does one decide to prohibit images? Are there any precursors to the biblical commandment in the ancient Near East or elsewhere?

Mardi 5 mai 2015

9 h 30 Introduction to the Symposium (Ouverture du colloque): Thomas Römer

• 9 h 45 Stefan Maul (Université de Heidelberg), Images of Gods and Representation of the Divine in the Ancient Near East: a Warning not to Confuse the God with its Representation
• 10h15 Lionel Marti (CNRS, UMR 7192), The Question of Representing the Divine in the Assyrian World
• 10h45 Nele Ziegler (CNRS, UMR 7192), Making Divine Statues – and Then What?

Pause

Présidence : Thomas Römer

• 11h30 Pierre-Yves Brandt (Université de Lausanne), Representations of Gods in Children’s Drawings
• 12h00 Christoph Uehlinger (Université de Zürich), Sociable Gods, or how to Represent a Pantheon?
• 12h30 David Hamidovic (Université de Lausanne), Reviewing an Ancient Controversy: the Worship of the Donkey or Donkey’s Head in the Jerusalem Temple

13h00 Discussion

Déjeuner

Présidence : Michaël Guichard

• 14h30 Fabian Pfitzmann (Collège de France, UMR 7192), The “Master of the Ostriches”: a Specificity of the Representation of Yhwh in the South?
• 15h00 Martin Leuenberger (Université de Tübingen), “Here are your Gods, Israel, who Brought you up out of the Land of Egypt” (1 Kings 12.28). Representations of Yhwh in Official Worship in the Kingdom of Israel
• 15h30 Jean-Daniel Macchi (Université de Genève, UMR 7192), “Now my Eye has Seen You”: Job and the Representation of the Divine

Pause

Présidence : Christophe Nihan

• 16h15 Youri Volokhine (Université de Genève), Monotheism / Aniconism / Iconoclasm: Discussions around the “One God” of Akhenaton
• 16h45 Jacqueline Chabbi (Professeur honoraire des universités), The Koran in its Time: a Pragmatic Figure of the Divine
• 17h15 François Déroche (Collège de France, UMR 7192), Anthropomorphism and Aniconism

17h45 Discussion

Mercredi 6 mai 2015

Présidence : Nele Ziegler

• 9h30 Dominique Charpin (Collège de France, UMR 7192), Divine Symbols in the Paleo-Babylonian Archives
• 10h00 Michaël Guichard (EPHE IV^e section, UMR 7192), Statues in Mari, According to the Texts
• 10h30 Jean-Marie Durand (Collège de France, UMR 7192), The Baetyli

Pause

Présidence : Dominique Charpin

• 11h15 Herbert Niehr (Université de Tübingen), The Divinised King and his Image in Ugaritic Worship
• 11h45 Christophe Nihan (Université de Lausanne, UMR 7192), Yhwh Ṣěbā’ôt and the Powers of War
• 12h15 Sylvie Honigman (Université de Tel Aviv), Founding Figures in the Traditions of Ezra and the Books of the Maccabees

12h45 Discussion

Déjeuner

Présidence : Jean-Marie Durand

• 14h30 Shirly Ben-Dor Evian (Universités de Tel Aviv et de Lausanne), Representations of the “People of the Sea” in the Iconography of the Ancient Near East
• 15h00 Pierre Keith (Université de Strasbourg), Images for Worship and the Representation of Supernature in the Book of Daniel

Pause

• 15h45 Tallay Ornan (Université de Jérusalem) et Benjamin Sass (Université de Tel Aviv), Eyes, Triangles and Horned Animals: a Divine Journey across the Near East and the Mediterranean, 5000-550 BCE
• 16h15 Thomas Römer (Collège de France, UMR 7192), Why is it Necessary to Forbid Divine Images?

16h45 Discussion et clôture du colloque

Jacob L. Wright on Aronofsky’s Noah and Flood Traditions

In the latest episode of Emory Looks at Hollywood series, Jacob L. Wright, Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Emory’s Candler School of Theology, discusses the various Flood traditions which lie behind and within, and which were inspired by the biblical Flood story, including one of the most recent developments in the unfolding tradition, Darren Aronofsky’s film Noah (2014).

Wright also has a short article on the same subject in Sacred Matters, “Noah: An Unrighteous Man”.

See also:

Cathleen Falsani, interview with Darren Aronofsky, “The ‘Terror’ of Noah: How Darren Aronofsky Interprets the Bible”, The Atlantic, March 26, 2014

Annette Yoshiko Reed, “Who Gets to Decide if Noah is Biblical?” Religion Despatches, April 1, 2014

h/t: Jim West

John Rogerson on Law and Justice in the Old Testament

Emeritus Professor John Rogerson presents the 2012 Beauchief Abbey Lent lectures at Beauchief Abbey, Sheffield: “Law & Justice in the Old Testament”. The five lectures are available as YouTube videos (the second lecture recorded in audio only).

Handouts for the five lectures may be downloaded here.

The laws of a society reflect to some extent its values and ideals. The laws in the Old Testament also do this, but there is an additional, prophetic factor, which means that Old Testament laws do not just have a regulative purpose, but also a transforming purpose. Thus, to study Old Testament laws means to study the prophetic impulse that sought to shape a society that reflected the divine image.

First Lecture:
‘What is the point of studying these things today?’

Lecture 2:
‘How should we approach the law “codes” in the Old Testament?’

Lecture 3:
‘The Covenant “Code”, Exodus 21.1-23.19’

Lecture 4:
‘The Deuteronomic “Code”, Deuteronomy 12.1-26.19‘

Final Lecture:
‘The Holiness Laws, Leviticus 19-26’

The Human Condition: The Ancient Near East and the Hebrew Bible – Thomas Römer’s 2013 Seminars at the Collège de France

Videos of Thomas Römer’s 2013 seminars at the Collège de France, entitled The Human Condition: The Ancient Near East and the Hebrew Bible, are available at the Collège’s website, or for download at the links provided below (800mb+). The seminars have been overdubbed by an English translator.

Thomas Römer is Professor of Old Testament at the University of Lausanne (UNIL) and the Collège de France, and author of many works, including Israels Väter (1990) on the Patriarchal traditions in the Pentateuch.

In these seminars, Römer discusses the question of the human condition, drawing on ancient Near Eastern texts such as the Epic of Gilgamesh and, especially, on biblical texts.

07 FEBRUARY 2013, 2:00 pm
Introduction: The Gilgamesh Epic Read as a Reflection on the Human Condition

14 FEBRUARY 2013, 2:00 pm
Man “Image of God” or “Sinner From The Very Beginning”?

21 FEBRUARY 2013, 2:00 pm
Divine Violence, Human Violence

28 FEBRUARY 2013, 2:00 pm
Diversity of Cultures and Languages

21 MARCH 2013, 2:00 pm
Friendship, Love, Sexuality 1/2

28 MARCH 2013, 2:00 pm
Friendship, Love, Sexuality 2/2

04 APRIL 2013, 2:00 pm
Man in the Face of Death

11 APRIL 2013, 2:00 pm
Individual Death and the End of the World – Is Man Able to Imagine an Absolute End?

InscriptiFact: Ancient Near Eastern Inscriptions

InscriptiFact provides free online access to high-quality images of Ancient Near Eastern inscriptions, care of the West Semitic Research Project, “an academic project affiliated with the University of Southern California School of Religion and directed by Dr. Bruce Zuckerman”.

The site includes “Dead Sea Scrolls; cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia and Canaan; papyri from Egypt; inscriptions on stone from Jordan, Lebanon and Cyprus; Hebrew, Aramaic, Ammonite and Edomite inscriptions on a variety of hard media (e.g., clay sherds, copper, semi-precious stones, jar handles); and Egyptian scarabs”, and Ugaritic tablets.

In order to use the site, users must download the viewer software and send an application for a username and password by facsimile to Marilyn Lundberg on (001) (310) 541-2361.