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Books by anna angelini
Anna Angelini and Peter Altmann address pivotal issues on the biblical dietary prohibitions and t... more Anna Angelini and Peter Altmann address pivotal issues on the biblical dietary prohibitions and their significance as practices and texts through philological, zooarchaeological, iconographic, and comparative ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman lenses. They explore theoretical frameworks adopted in modern interpretation, possible origins in relation to ancient Israelite religion and society, and location in relation to Priestly terminology and Deuteronomic tradition. The authors expand the arc of investigation to the Second Temple reception of the prohibitions in both the Dead Sea Scrolls and Greco-Roman discourses from the first centuries CE. With their foundational studies, they provide an approach to the dietary prohibitions, opening the way for reconstructing their path of development into their present-day contexts.
Table of contents:
Preface
1. The Dietary Laws of Lev 11 and Deut 14: Introducing Their Ancient and Scholarly Contexts (Peter Altmann and Anna Angelini)
1. A Methodological View of the History of Scholarship
2. Human-Animal Relationships in Ancient Israel
3. The Hebrew Bible Context of Food and Drink Restrictions
4. Biblical Treatments of Meat Prohibitions
5. Questions for this Volume
6. Widening Horizons
2. Framing the Questions: Some Theoretical Frameworks for the Biblical Dietary Prohibitions (Peter Altmann)
1. Anthropological Terminology
2. Psychological Explanations
3. Materialist Explanations
4. Douglas and Other Structuralist Approaches to »Dirt« as Structural Anomaly
5. Synthesis
3. Traditions and Texts: The »Origins« of the Dietary Prohibitions of Lev 11 and Deut 14 (Peter Altmann)
1. Composition-Critical Concerns
2. Continuum: From »Sanctuary Ritual« to »Mundane Custom«
3. Mundane Customary Origins?
4. Sanctuary Ritual Origins?
5. The Influence of Household or Local Religion?
6. Ritual Practice and Ritual Text
7. Conclusions and a Possible Reconstruction
4. A Deeper Look at Deut 14:4-20 in the Context of Deuteronomy (Peter Altmann)
1. The Language of Deut 14:1-2, 3, 21 and 4-20
2. Abomination and Impurity in Deut 14 and Elsewhere in Deuteronomy
3. Mourning Rituals in 14:1-2 and their Link to vv. 3, 4-20
4. »You Are Children, Belonging to Yhwh Your God«
5. A Holy People and Treasured Nation: Deut 7:6; 14:2, 21; 26:18
6. The Relationship between Deut 14 and 26:12-15, 16-19
7. The Stipulations of Deut 14:21 in the context of Deut 14
8. Eating in Deut 14:1-21 in the Context of Deuteronomy 13 and 14:22-27
9. Summary
5. The Terms שׁקץ Šeqeṣ and טמא Ṭame' in Lev 11:2-23 and Deut 14:2-20: Overlapping or Separate Categories? (Peter Altmann)
1. The Usage of שׁקץ and טמא in the Rest of the Hebrew Bible and Their Relevance for Lev 11/Deut 14
2. The Usage of טמא
3. The Terms in Deut 14 and Lev 11
4. Conclusion
6. Aquatic Creatures in the Dietary Laws: What the Biblical and Ancient Eastern Contexts Contribute to Understanding Their Categorization (Peter Altmann)
1. Water Creatures from Iconography and Texts of Surrounding Regions
2. Water Creatures in Levantine Zooarchaeology and Evidence of Consumption in Biblical Texts
3. Sea Creatures in the Bible
4. Discussion of the Texts of Lev 11:9-12 and Deut 14:9-10
5. Reasons for the Prohibition?
6. Conclusions
7. A Table for Fortune: Abominable Food and Forbidden Cults in Isaiah 65-66 (Anna Angelini)
1. Introduction: Dietary Laws outside the Pentateuch and Isa 65-66
2. The References to Food in the Structure of Isa 65-66
3. Abominable Cults between Imagery and Practice
4. The Pig: A Marker for Impurity
5. The Greek Text: Sacrificing to Demons
6. Summary and Conclusions
8. Dietary Laws in the Second Temple Period: The Evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls (Anna Angelini)
1. Introduction: Food in Dead Sea Scrolls and Biblical Law
2. Methodological Remarks
3. Main Tendencies in the Dead Sea Scroll Materials Related to Food Laws
4. Animals and the Purity of the Temple
5. Summary and Conclusions: Food Laws between Discourse and Practice
9. Looking from the Outside: The Greco-Roman Discourse on the Jewish Food Prohibitions in the First and Second Centuries CE (Anna Angelini)
1. Introduction: The Origins of the Greek and Roman Traditions about Food Prohibitions
2. The Greek and Latin Witnesses on Jewish Food Prohibitions in the First Century CE
3. The Polemic Use of Jewish Dietary Prohibitions in Juvenal and Tacitus
4. Plutarch and The Philosophical Tradition
5. Conclusions
Appendix: Plutarch's Moralia, Table Talk IV, Question 5 (669 e-671c)
10. »Thinking« and »Performing« Dietary Prohibitions: Why Should One Keep Them? One Meaning or Many? (Peter Altmann)
1. Introduction
2. (Envisioned) Practice and Significance and the Myth of the Singular Explanation
3. Knowing How and When vs. Knowing Why
The Bible is one of the books that has aroused the most interest throughout history to the presen... more The Bible is one of the books that has aroused the most interest throughout history to the present day. However, there is one topic that has mostly been neglected and which today constitutes one of the most emblematic elements of the visual culture in which we live immersed: the language of colour. Colour is present in the biblical text from its beginning to its end, but it has hardly been studied, and we appear to have forgotten that the detailed study of the colour terms in the Bible is essential to understanding the use and symbolism that the language of colour has acquired in the literature that has forged European culture and art.
The objective of the present study is to provide the modern reader with the meaning of colour terms of the lexical families related to the green tonality in order to determine whether they denote only color and, if so, what is the coloration expressed, or whether, together with the chromatic denotation, another reality inseparable from colour underlies/along with the chromatic denotation, there is another underlying reality that is inseparable from colour. We will study the symbolism that/which underpins some of these colour terms, and which European culture has inherited.
This lexicographical study requires a methodology that allows us to approach colour not in accordance with our modern and abstract concept of colour, but with the concept of the ancient civilations. This is why the concept of colour that emerges from each of the versions of the Bible is studied and compared with that found in theoretical reflection in both Greek and Latin. Colour thus emerges as a concrete reality, visible on the surface of objects, reflecting in many cases, not an intrinsic quality, but their state. This concept has a reflection in the biblical languages, since the terms of colour always describe an entity (in this sense one can say that they are embodied) and include within them a wide chromatic spectrum, that is, they are mostly polysemic. Structuralism through the componential analysis, although providing interesting contributions, had at the same time serious shortcomings when it came to the study of colour. These were addressed through the theoretical framework provided by cognitive linguistics and some of its tools such as: cognitive domains, metonymy and metaphor. Our study, then, is one of the first to apply some of the contributions of cognitive linguistics to lexicography in general, and particularly with reference to the Hebrew, Greek and Latin versions of the Bible.
A further novel contribution of this research is that the meaning is expressed through a definition and not through a list of possible colour terms as happens in dictionaries or in studies referring to colour in antiquity. The definition allows us to delve deeper and discover new nuances that enrich the understanding of colour in the three great civilizations involved in our study: Israel, Greece and Rome.
https://brill.com/view/title/60741, 2021
This book offers a thorough analysis of demons in the Hebrew Bible and Septuagint in the wider co... more This book offers a thorough analysis of demons in the Hebrew Bible and Septuagint in the wider context of the ancient Near East and the Greek world. Taking a fresh and innovative angle of enquiry, Anna Angelini investigates continuities and changes in the representation of divine powers in Hellenistic Judaism, thereby revealing the role of the Greek translation of the Bible in shaping ancient demonology, angelology, and pneumatology. Combining philological and semantic analyses with a historical approach and anthropological insights, the author both develops a new method for analyzing religious categories within biblical traditions and sheds new light on the importance of the Septuagint for the history of ancient Judaism.
Le livre propose une analyse approfondie des démons dans la Bible Hébraïque et la Septante, à la lumière du Proche Orient Ancien et du contexte grec. Par un nouvel angle d’approche, Anna Angelini met en lumière dynamiques de continuité et de changement dans les représentations des puissances divines à l’époque hellénistique, en soulignant l’importance de la traduction grecque de la Bible pour la compréhension de la démonologie, de l’angélologie et de la pneumatologie antiques. En intégrant l’analyse philologique et sémantique avec une approche historique et des méthodes anthropologiques, l’autrice développe une nouvelle méthodologie pour analyser des catégories religieuses à l’intérieur des traditions bibliques et affirme la valeur de la Septante pour l’histoire du judaïsme antique.
edited volumes by anna angelini
Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 11/3, 2022
This volume presents contributions from »The Larger Context of the Biblical Food Prohibitions: Co... more This volume presents contributions from »The Larger Context of the Biblical Food Prohibitions: Comparative and Interdisciplinary Approaches« conference held in Lausanne in June, 2017. The biblical food prohibitions constitute an excellent object for comparative and interdisciplinary approaches given their materiality, their nature as comparative objects between cultures, and their nature as an anthropological object. This volume articulates these three aspects within an integrated and dynamic perspective, bringing together contributions from Levantine archaeology, ancient Near Eastern studies, and anthropological and textual perspectives to form a new, multi-disciplinary foundation for interpretation.
AfO 46 (1), 2019
Les animaux font l’objet d’un lexique hautement spécialisé dans les cultures de l’antiquité, dont... more Les animaux font l’objet d’un lexique hautement spécialisé dans les cultures de l’antiquité, dont la reconstruction soulève généralement des difficultés importantes. Ces difficultés tiennent à la nature des sources (notamment dans le cas des cultures qui ne nous ont pas transmis de savoir encyclopédique sur les animaux), mais également au fait que ces lexiques renvoient à des taxonomies en partie différentes de la classification zoologique moderne (de dérivation linéenne).
Cette collection se propose de reprendre ces questions dans une perspective comparatiste, à partir d’études de cas dans les différentes cultures de l’antiquité (spécifiquement, l’Egypte, la Mésopotamie, le Levant, ainsi que la Grèce et Rome). Du point de vue méthodologique, l’analyse suit un axe double, à la fois paradigmatique et syntagmatique : elle discute aussi bien les problèmes que soulève l’identification du référent zoologique d’un terme ou d’un ensemble de termes (axe paradigmatique), que la possibilité de comprendre les structures et les logiques taxonomiques dans lesquelles ce terme ou cet ensemble de termes s’inscrit (axe syntagmatique). Au final, l’objectif du volume est d’éclairer et de mieux comprendre la construction des savoirs indigènes sur les animaux dans l’antiquité, mais aussi les limites de nos reconstructions de ces savoirs.
Table des matières:
A. Angelini, C. Nihan, Introduction: Comparing Animal Lexica in Ancient Cultures
A. Guasparri, Polysemy revisited:Metaphor and Descriptiveness in Folk Animal Naming
F. G. Grassi, Uccellacci e uccellini: La liste des oiseaux de Deir ʿAlla et le lexique des animaux en araméen ancien
V. Chalendar, Classement et lexique animalier dans les sources cunéiformes
M. Vanderbeusch, Thinking and writing "Donkey" in Ancient Egypt
Papers by anna angelini
C. Bonnet et al. (eds.), What’s in a Divine Name? Religious Systems and Human Agency in the Ancient Mediterranean, 2024
One of the major changes with regard to the transition of ancient Israelite religion into Early J... more One of the major changes with regard to the transition of ancient Israelite religion into Early Judaism is the transformation of Yhwh from being the patron god of Israel, enthroned in Jerusalem, to being a universal (and invisible) deity residing in heaven. The first part of this paper surveys how the study of divine onomastic attrib-utes has been approached by Septuagint scholarship, highlighting how this corpus crucially attests to a reconfiguration of Yhwh’s power and status, but also pointingout some methodological shortcomings which emerged in past research. The second part of the paper seeks to provide a new framework for the study of divine onomastic attributes in the Septuagint. Paying attention to the relationship between divine name and embodiment, it correlates the deterritorialisation process of Yhwh, as attested by the onomastic attributes, with broader issues concerning the conditions, forms and limits of experiencing the divine presence in cultic contexts.
Revue de Théologie et de Philosophie, 2022
The first part of this article offers selected comments on the articles found in the present vol... more The first part of this article offers selected comments on the articles found in the
present volume. It then discusses key issues in regard to the epistemological paradigms
used in the study of the relationship between animals and ancient religions and seeks
to identify some perspectives for further research on this topic.
HeBAI 11/3, 2022
Focusing on the translation of Shadday as a test case, this paper advances a methodology to appr... more Focusing on the translation of Shadday as a test case, this paper advances a methodology to approach the study of divine names and epithets in ancient Jewish traditions. Unlike other divine epithets, the renderings of Shadday in Greek are divergent and inconsistent, although some patterns can be detected. The fact that the epithet was probably received as a divine attribute by translators with a blurred knowledge of its etymological meaning made room for multiple strategies of translation, each of which highlights a different aspect of the power of the deity. The comparison with the available Greek epigraphical evidence and the large distribution of the epithet throughout the biblical books allows us to identify a tension between the tendency to standardize the renderings (attested, for example, in the Pentateuch), and the certain degree of variety (witnessed in books such as Psalms and Job), which requires an explanation. More generally, the treatment of the title »Shadday« seems to call for new models for understanding the relationship between divine names and divine attributes both in the Hebrew Bible and in the Septuagint.
In G. Lenzo, C. Nihan, M. Pellet (eds), Les cultes aux rois et aux héros à l'époque hellénistique: continuités et changements, Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, 2022
In this essay I examine some of the evidence for the cult of Heracles in the Hellenistic period. ... more In this essay I examine some of the evidence for the cult of Heracles in the Hellenistic period. The spread of the cult of Heracles throughout the Mediterranean makes it an ideal case for studying cultic changes in Hellenistic times and can be explained, among other factors, by Heracles « malleability » and by his status as both hero and god. I first examine (1) the role of Heracles in royal and Hellenistic cult. The genealogical dimension – claiming Heracles as a royal ancestor- is but one aspect of a multifaced strategy which plays upon the twofold nature of Heracles as a god and as a hero, these two aspects being perceived as complementary rather than mutually exclusive. Then I analyze some examples documenting the (2) “translations” of the god into local deities across the Mediterranean. I focus on his association with Melqart in Tyre, Carthage and Gades; (3) on the development of his cult as a sea-god and (4) on selected evidence for the cult of Heracles in ANE (Hatra and Palmyra). These examples allow highlighting the internal differences regarding the balance between Greek and Phoenician/Punic or Greek and “Near eastern” components. They show that the developments of the cults to Heracles in the Hellenistic Mediterranean does not simply reflect the imposition of Greek elements on non-Greek cultures: hence it cannot be simply described as “assimilation” or “syncretism”, but involves more complex negotiations of religious, cultural and even esthetic nature.
SBL Central, Mar 12, 2020
This paper (1) analyzes the motif of the fish swallowing Jonah in light of similar episodes attes... more This paper (1) analyzes the motif of the fish swallowing Jonah in light of similar episodes attested in Hellenistic Greek epics and other Hellenistic literary traditions and myths. In light of this evidence, it proposes a possible context in which the biblical story emerged. In addition, the paper (2) also analyzes how this motif developed in early Jewish and early Christian traditions, showing how both traditions shape this motif to fit familiar patterns of sea epics. From a larger perspective, this study both allows us (3) to rethink the attitudes towards seafaring that were traditionally attributed to Judeans in Hellenistic times, while also (4) offering new suggestions as to how we might reposition the epic genre in the Hebrew Bible.
The Text of Leviticus, 2020
Cette contribution concerne la représentation du savoir des Sirènes dans les bestiaires de l’Anti... more Cette contribution concerne la représentation du savoir des Sirènes dans les bestiaires de l’Antiquité tardive à partir de l’ancienne version grecque du Physiologos. Alors que, dans la plupart des encyclopédies tardo-antiques et des bestiaires médiévaux, l’aspect diabolique de la sexualité féminine est mis en évidence, dans le récit de la collection la plus ancienne du Physiologos grec les Sirènes sont interprétées comme figures de l’hypocrisie et du discours hérétique. Elles deviennent donc un véhicule de la transmission du savoir faux et séduisant par excellence, le savoir du diable, qui conduit à l’idolâtrie. Dans le cadre de l’interprétation chrétienne, où l’histoire naturelle des animaux se déroule toujours à partir de la signification spirituelle qu’ils revêtent, cette mauvaise qualité est directement mise en relation avec leur nature hybride. De ce point de vue, l’hybridité des Sirènes, loin de poser un problème du côté du vraisemblable, est lue comme le reflet physique d’une duplicité hypocrite de l’âme et, par conséquent, du discours.The paper aims to analyse representations of the Sirens’ knowledge in Late Antiquity’s bestiaries, with a specific focus on the Greek version of the Physiologos. Whereas the diabolical aspect of female sexuality is prevailing in most of late antique and medieval bestiary, in the Greek collection of Physiologos Sirens are understood as figures personifying hypocrisy and heretical discourse. By definition, they stand out as vehicles transmitting false and seductive knowledge, the knowledge of the devil, which leads to idolatry. According to the Christian interpretation, where the natural history of animals always develops from their spiritual meaning, this negative understanding is directly related to their hybrid nature. Accordingly, far from questioning the scientific credibility, the hybridism of the Sirens is analysed as a reflection of the physical duplicity of the soul, and therefore of the speech
Sociétés plurielles, 2020
L’imaginaire du démoniaque dans la Septante, 2021
Semitica et Classica, 2017
Anna Angelini and Peter Altmann address pivotal issues on the biblical dietary prohibitions and t... more Anna Angelini and Peter Altmann address pivotal issues on the biblical dietary prohibitions and their significance as practices and texts through philological, zooarchaeological, iconographic, and comparative ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman lenses. They explore theoretical frameworks adopted in modern interpretation, possible origins in relation to ancient Israelite religion and society, and location in relation to Priestly terminology and Deuteronomic tradition. The authors expand the arc of investigation to the Second Temple reception of the prohibitions in both the Dead Sea Scrolls and Greco-Roman discourses from the first centuries CE. With their foundational studies, they provide an approach to the dietary prohibitions, opening the way for reconstructing their path of development into their present-day contexts.
Table of contents:
Preface
1. The Dietary Laws of Lev 11 and Deut 14: Introducing Their Ancient and Scholarly Contexts (Peter Altmann and Anna Angelini)
1. A Methodological View of the History of Scholarship
2. Human-Animal Relationships in Ancient Israel
3. The Hebrew Bible Context of Food and Drink Restrictions
4. Biblical Treatments of Meat Prohibitions
5. Questions for this Volume
6. Widening Horizons
2. Framing the Questions: Some Theoretical Frameworks for the Biblical Dietary Prohibitions (Peter Altmann)
1. Anthropological Terminology
2. Psychological Explanations
3. Materialist Explanations
4. Douglas and Other Structuralist Approaches to »Dirt« as Structural Anomaly
5. Synthesis
3. Traditions and Texts: The »Origins« of the Dietary Prohibitions of Lev 11 and Deut 14 (Peter Altmann)
1. Composition-Critical Concerns
2. Continuum: From »Sanctuary Ritual« to »Mundane Custom«
3. Mundane Customary Origins?
4. Sanctuary Ritual Origins?
5. The Influence of Household or Local Religion?
6. Ritual Practice and Ritual Text
7. Conclusions and a Possible Reconstruction
4. A Deeper Look at Deut 14:4-20 in the Context of Deuteronomy (Peter Altmann)
1. The Language of Deut 14:1-2, 3, 21 and 4-20
2. Abomination and Impurity in Deut 14 and Elsewhere in Deuteronomy
3. Mourning Rituals in 14:1-2 and their Link to vv. 3, 4-20
4. »You Are Children, Belonging to Yhwh Your God«
5. A Holy People and Treasured Nation: Deut 7:6; 14:2, 21; 26:18
6. The Relationship between Deut 14 and 26:12-15, 16-19
7. The Stipulations of Deut 14:21 in the context of Deut 14
8. Eating in Deut 14:1-21 in the Context of Deuteronomy 13 and 14:22-27
9. Summary
5. The Terms שׁקץ Šeqeṣ and טמא Ṭame' in Lev 11:2-23 and Deut 14:2-20: Overlapping or Separate Categories? (Peter Altmann)
1. The Usage of שׁקץ and טמא in the Rest of the Hebrew Bible and Their Relevance for Lev 11/Deut 14
2. The Usage of טמא
3. The Terms in Deut 14 and Lev 11
4. Conclusion
6. Aquatic Creatures in the Dietary Laws: What the Biblical and Ancient Eastern Contexts Contribute to Understanding Their Categorization (Peter Altmann)
1. Water Creatures from Iconography and Texts of Surrounding Regions
2. Water Creatures in Levantine Zooarchaeology and Evidence of Consumption in Biblical Texts
3. Sea Creatures in the Bible
4. Discussion of the Texts of Lev 11:9-12 and Deut 14:9-10
5. Reasons for the Prohibition?
6. Conclusions
7. A Table for Fortune: Abominable Food and Forbidden Cults in Isaiah 65-66 (Anna Angelini)
1. Introduction: Dietary Laws outside the Pentateuch and Isa 65-66
2. The References to Food in the Structure of Isa 65-66
3. Abominable Cults between Imagery and Practice
4. The Pig: A Marker for Impurity
5. The Greek Text: Sacrificing to Demons
6. Summary and Conclusions
8. Dietary Laws in the Second Temple Period: The Evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls (Anna Angelini)
1. Introduction: Food in Dead Sea Scrolls and Biblical Law
2. Methodological Remarks
3. Main Tendencies in the Dead Sea Scroll Materials Related to Food Laws
4. Animals and the Purity of the Temple
5. Summary and Conclusions: Food Laws between Discourse and Practice
9. Looking from the Outside: The Greco-Roman Discourse on the Jewish Food Prohibitions in the First and Second Centuries CE (Anna Angelini)
1. Introduction: The Origins of the Greek and Roman Traditions about Food Prohibitions
2. The Greek and Latin Witnesses on Jewish Food Prohibitions in the First Century CE
3. The Polemic Use of Jewish Dietary Prohibitions in Juvenal and Tacitus
4. Plutarch and The Philosophical Tradition
5. Conclusions
Appendix: Plutarch's Moralia, Table Talk IV, Question 5 (669 e-671c)
10. »Thinking« and »Performing« Dietary Prohibitions: Why Should One Keep Them? One Meaning or Many? (Peter Altmann)
1. Introduction
2. (Envisioned) Practice and Significance and the Myth of the Singular Explanation
3. Knowing How and When vs. Knowing Why
The Bible is one of the books that has aroused the most interest throughout history to the presen... more The Bible is one of the books that has aroused the most interest throughout history to the present day. However, there is one topic that has mostly been neglected and which today constitutes one of the most emblematic elements of the visual culture in which we live immersed: the language of colour. Colour is present in the biblical text from its beginning to its end, but it has hardly been studied, and we appear to have forgotten that the detailed study of the colour terms in the Bible is essential to understanding the use and symbolism that the language of colour has acquired in the literature that has forged European culture and art.
The objective of the present study is to provide the modern reader with the meaning of colour terms of the lexical families related to the green tonality in order to determine whether they denote only color and, if so, what is the coloration expressed, or whether, together with the chromatic denotation, another reality inseparable from colour underlies/along with the chromatic denotation, there is another underlying reality that is inseparable from colour. We will study the symbolism that/which underpins some of these colour terms, and which European culture has inherited.
This lexicographical study requires a methodology that allows us to approach colour not in accordance with our modern and abstract concept of colour, but with the concept of the ancient civilations. This is why the concept of colour that emerges from each of the versions of the Bible is studied and compared with that found in theoretical reflection in both Greek and Latin. Colour thus emerges as a concrete reality, visible on the surface of objects, reflecting in many cases, not an intrinsic quality, but their state. This concept has a reflection in the biblical languages, since the terms of colour always describe an entity (in this sense one can say that they are embodied) and include within them a wide chromatic spectrum, that is, they are mostly polysemic. Structuralism through the componential analysis, although providing interesting contributions, had at the same time serious shortcomings when it came to the study of colour. These were addressed through the theoretical framework provided by cognitive linguistics and some of its tools such as: cognitive domains, metonymy and metaphor. Our study, then, is one of the first to apply some of the contributions of cognitive linguistics to lexicography in general, and particularly with reference to the Hebrew, Greek and Latin versions of the Bible.
A further novel contribution of this research is that the meaning is expressed through a definition and not through a list of possible colour terms as happens in dictionaries or in studies referring to colour in antiquity. The definition allows us to delve deeper and discover new nuances that enrich the understanding of colour in the three great civilizations involved in our study: Israel, Greece and Rome.
https://brill.com/view/title/60741, 2021
This book offers a thorough analysis of demons in the Hebrew Bible and Septuagint in the wider co... more This book offers a thorough analysis of demons in the Hebrew Bible and Septuagint in the wider context of the ancient Near East and the Greek world. Taking a fresh and innovative angle of enquiry, Anna Angelini investigates continuities and changes in the representation of divine powers in Hellenistic Judaism, thereby revealing the role of the Greek translation of the Bible in shaping ancient demonology, angelology, and pneumatology. Combining philological and semantic analyses with a historical approach and anthropological insights, the author both develops a new method for analyzing religious categories within biblical traditions and sheds new light on the importance of the Septuagint for the history of ancient Judaism.
Le livre propose une analyse approfondie des démons dans la Bible Hébraïque et la Septante, à la lumière du Proche Orient Ancien et du contexte grec. Par un nouvel angle d’approche, Anna Angelini met en lumière dynamiques de continuité et de changement dans les représentations des puissances divines à l’époque hellénistique, en soulignant l’importance de la traduction grecque de la Bible pour la compréhension de la démonologie, de l’angélologie et de la pneumatologie antiques. En intégrant l’analyse philologique et sémantique avec une approche historique et des méthodes anthropologiques, l’autrice développe une nouvelle méthodologie pour analyser des catégories religieuses à l’intérieur des traditions bibliques et affirme la valeur de la Septante pour l’histoire du judaïsme antique.
Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 11/3, 2022
This volume presents contributions from »The Larger Context of the Biblical Food Prohibitions: Co... more This volume presents contributions from »The Larger Context of the Biblical Food Prohibitions: Comparative and Interdisciplinary Approaches« conference held in Lausanne in June, 2017. The biblical food prohibitions constitute an excellent object for comparative and interdisciplinary approaches given their materiality, their nature as comparative objects between cultures, and their nature as an anthropological object. This volume articulates these three aspects within an integrated and dynamic perspective, bringing together contributions from Levantine archaeology, ancient Near Eastern studies, and anthropological and textual perspectives to form a new, multi-disciplinary foundation for interpretation.
AfO 46 (1), 2019
Les animaux font l’objet d’un lexique hautement spécialisé dans les cultures de l’antiquité, dont... more Les animaux font l’objet d’un lexique hautement spécialisé dans les cultures de l’antiquité, dont la reconstruction soulève généralement des difficultés importantes. Ces difficultés tiennent à la nature des sources (notamment dans le cas des cultures qui ne nous ont pas transmis de savoir encyclopédique sur les animaux), mais également au fait que ces lexiques renvoient à des taxonomies en partie différentes de la classification zoologique moderne (de dérivation linéenne).
Cette collection se propose de reprendre ces questions dans une perspective comparatiste, à partir d’études de cas dans les différentes cultures de l’antiquité (spécifiquement, l’Egypte, la Mésopotamie, le Levant, ainsi que la Grèce et Rome). Du point de vue méthodologique, l’analyse suit un axe double, à la fois paradigmatique et syntagmatique : elle discute aussi bien les problèmes que soulève l’identification du référent zoologique d’un terme ou d’un ensemble de termes (axe paradigmatique), que la possibilité de comprendre les structures et les logiques taxonomiques dans lesquelles ce terme ou cet ensemble de termes s’inscrit (axe syntagmatique). Au final, l’objectif du volume est d’éclairer et de mieux comprendre la construction des savoirs indigènes sur les animaux dans l’antiquité, mais aussi les limites de nos reconstructions de ces savoirs.
Table des matières:
A. Angelini, C. Nihan, Introduction: Comparing Animal Lexica in Ancient Cultures
A. Guasparri, Polysemy revisited:Metaphor and Descriptiveness in Folk Animal Naming
F. G. Grassi, Uccellacci e uccellini: La liste des oiseaux de Deir ʿAlla et le lexique des animaux en araméen ancien
V. Chalendar, Classement et lexique animalier dans les sources cunéiformes
M. Vanderbeusch, Thinking and writing "Donkey" in Ancient Egypt
C. Bonnet et al. (eds.), What’s in a Divine Name? Religious Systems and Human Agency in the Ancient Mediterranean, 2024
One of the major changes with regard to the transition of ancient Israelite religion into Early J... more One of the major changes with regard to the transition of ancient Israelite religion into Early Judaism is the transformation of Yhwh from being the patron god of Israel, enthroned in Jerusalem, to being a universal (and invisible) deity residing in heaven. The first part of this paper surveys how the study of divine onomastic attrib-utes has been approached by Septuagint scholarship, highlighting how this corpus crucially attests to a reconfiguration of Yhwh’s power and status, but also pointingout some methodological shortcomings which emerged in past research. The second part of the paper seeks to provide a new framework for the study of divine onomastic attributes in the Septuagint. Paying attention to the relationship between divine name and embodiment, it correlates the deterritorialisation process of Yhwh, as attested by the onomastic attributes, with broader issues concerning the conditions, forms and limits of experiencing the divine presence in cultic contexts.
Revue de Théologie et de Philosophie, 2022
The first part of this article offers selected comments on the articles found in the present vol... more The first part of this article offers selected comments on the articles found in the
present volume. It then discusses key issues in regard to the epistemological paradigms
used in the study of the relationship between animals and ancient religions and seeks
to identify some perspectives for further research on this topic.
HeBAI 11/3, 2022
Focusing on the translation of Shadday as a test case, this paper advances a methodology to appr... more Focusing on the translation of Shadday as a test case, this paper advances a methodology to approach the study of divine names and epithets in ancient Jewish traditions. Unlike other divine epithets, the renderings of Shadday in Greek are divergent and inconsistent, although some patterns can be detected. The fact that the epithet was probably received as a divine attribute by translators with a blurred knowledge of its etymological meaning made room for multiple strategies of translation, each of which highlights a different aspect of the power of the deity. The comparison with the available Greek epigraphical evidence and the large distribution of the epithet throughout the biblical books allows us to identify a tension between the tendency to standardize the renderings (attested, for example, in the Pentateuch), and the certain degree of variety (witnessed in books such as Psalms and Job), which requires an explanation. More generally, the treatment of the title »Shadday« seems to call for new models for understanding the relationship between divine names and divine attributes both in the Hebrew Bible and in the Septuagint.
In G. Lenzo, C. Nihan, M. Pellet (eds), Les cultes aux rois et aux héros à l'époque hellénistique: continuités et changements, Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, 2022
In this essay I examine some of the evidence for the cult of Heracles in the Hellenistic period. ... more In this essay I examine some of the evidence for the cult of Heracles in the Hellenistic period. The spread of the cult of Heracles throughout the Mediterranean makes it an ideal case for studying cultic changes in Hellenistic times and can be explained, among other factors, by Heracles « malleability » and by his status as both hero and god. I first examine (1) the role of Heracles in royal and Hellenistic cult. The genealogical dimension – claiming Heracles as a royal ancestor- is but one aspect of a multifaced strategy which plays upon the twofold nature of Heracles as a god and as a hero, these two aspects being perceived as complementary rather than mutually exclusive. Then I analyze some examples documenting the (2) “translations” of the god into local deities across the Mediterranean. I focus on his association with Melqart in Tyre, Carthage and Gades; (3) on the development of his cult as a sea-god and (4) on selected evidence for the cult of Heracles in ANE (Hatra and Palmyra). These examples allow highlighting the internal differences regarding the balance between Greek and Phoenician/Punic or Greek and “Near eastern” components. They show that the developments of the cults to Heracles in the Hellenistic Mediterranean does not simply reflect the imposition of Greek elements on non-Greek cultures: hence it cannot be simply described as “assimilation” or “syncretism”, but involves more complex negotiations of religious, cultural and even esthetic nature.
SBL Central, Mar 12, 2020
This paper (1) analyzes the motif of the fish swallowing Jonah in light of similar episodes attes... more This paper (1) analyzes the motif of the fish swallowing Jonah in light of similar episodes attested in Hellenistic Greek epics and other Hellenistic literary traditions and myths. In light of this evidence, it proposes a possible context in which the biblical story emerged. In addition, the paper (2) also analyzes how this motif developed in early Jewish and early Christian traditions, showing how both traditions shape this motif to fit familiar patterns of sea epics. From a larger perspective, this study both allows us (3) to rethink the attitudes towards seafaring that were traditionally attributed to Judeans in Hellenistic times, while also (4) offering new suggestions as to how we might reposition the epic genre in the Hebrew Bible.
The Text of Leviticus, 2020
Cette contribution concerne la représentation du savoir des Sirènes dans les bestiaires de l’Anti... more Cette contribution concerne la représentation du savoir des Sirènes dans les bestiaires de l’Antiquité tardive à partir de l’ancienne version grecque du Physiologos. Alors que, dans la plupart des encyclopédies tardo-antiques et des bestiaires médiévaux, l’aspect diabolique de la sexualité féminine est mis en évidence, dans le récit de la collection la plus ancienne du Physiologos grec les Sirènes sont interprétées comme figures de l’hypocrisie et du discours hérétique. Elles deviennent donc un véhicule de la transmission du savoir faux et séduisant par excellence, le savoir du diable, qui conduit à l’idolâtrie. Dans le cadre de l’interprétation chrétienne, où l’histoire naturelle des animaux se déroule toujours à partir de la signification spirituelle qu’ils revêtent, cette mauvaise qualité est directement mise en relation avec leur nature hybride. De ce point de vue, l’hybridité des Sirènes, loin de poser un problème du côté du vraisemblable, est lue comme le reflet physique d’une duplicité hypocrite de l’âme et, par conséquent, du discours.The paper aims to analyse representations of the Sirens’ knowledge in Late Antiquity’s bestiaries, with a specific focus on the Greek version of the Physiologos. Whereas the diabolical aspect of female sexuality is prevailing in most of late antique and medieval bestiary, in the Greek collection of Physiologos Sirens are understood as figures personifying hypocrisy and heretical discourse. By definition, they stand out as vehicles transmitting false and seductive knowledge, the knowledge of the devil, which leads to idolatry. According to the Christian interpretation, where the natural history of animals always develops from their spiritual meaning, this negative understanding is directly related to their hybrid nature. Accordingly, far from questioning the scientific credibility, the hybridism of the Sirens is analysed as a reflection of the physical duplicity of the soul, and therefore of the speech
Sociétés plurielles, 2020
L’imaginaire du démoniaque dans la Septante, 2021
Semitica et Classica, 2017
Altorientalische Forschungen, 2019
Semitica et Classica, 2015
In this contribution I will focus on bestiaries as privileged subject-matter to analyze semantic ... more In this contribution I will focus on bestiaries as privileged subject-matter to analyze semantic variations deriving from the translations of the Bible as a space of cultural encounter. Through specific examples-such as formicaleon, deer-goat, behemoth, sirens and so on-the semiotic value of monstrous creatures in the Hebrew Bible, in the Greek Septuaginta and eventually in Jerome’s Vulgata, will be investigated. I will explain the reasons why processes of cultural interaction become more evident in the case of monstrous or “aporetic” animals (i.e. animals that cannot be included in ordinary taxonomies). Finally, with reference to Christian commentaries ad loca, I will show the cultural proceedings underpinning the translation and the interpretation of the biblical bestiary.
Proverbi, sentenze e massime di saggezza in Grecia e a Roma, a c. di E. Lelli, Il Pensiero Occidentale, Milano, Bompiani, pp. 203-305, 1536-1543, 2021
La formation des canons bibliques, Lyon, Olivétan, p. 79-96, 2021
Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel (HeBAI) 9/ 4, pp. 435-447 (13) , 2020
In the Letter of Aristea, the dietary laws are presented as a paradigm for the entire Torah. Howe... more In the Letter of Aristea, the dietary laws are presented as a paradigm for the entire Torah. However, the summary of the dietary laws provided by the author of the Letter for the most does not quote literally the biblical texts, but shows a considerable degree of interpretation of these laws. This paper examines the relationship between biblical traditions and Greek cultural referents in the presentation of the dietary and sacrificial laws of the Letter, against the background of other texts of Second Temple period which show a reception of these laws (e. g. Philo, Josephus, Qumran texts). It argues that, while the representation of the dietary laws in the Letter attests to a considerable authority of this section of the Torah from a symbolic point of view, they offer still little evidence as for the practice and the contents of a dietary halacha.
With Christophe Nihan, “Unclean Birds in the Hebrew and Greek Versions of Leviticus and Deuteronomy,” in I. Himbaza (ed.), Le Texte du Lévitique- The Text of Leviticus, OBO, Peeters, 2020, p. 39–67, 2020
Journal of Social History of Medicine and Health 3/2, 7-23, 2018
This paper provides a first and provisional attempt to map the relationships between grammatical,... more This paper provides a first and provisional attempt to map the relationships between grammatical, natural and cultural gender assigned to zoonyms in NorthWest Semitic languages, with a particular focus on Biblical Hebrew. The way in which zoonyms can or cannot be differentiated according to the gender within a given linguistic context necessarily impacts the cultural constructions of animals in each society. Moreover, it has often consequences for the understanding of animal metaphors as well as of the relationships between animals and humans. Despite a growing interest in animals both in the field of ancient linguistics and Biblical Studies, the gender construction of animals remains an underexplored topic. This is different to what happens in other fields of modern linguistics, which explored the relationship between linguistic, natural and social construction of gender focusing on animal names and animal metaphors (Nilsen, Zemkova). Moreover, some recent studies in other fields of antiquity have shown the relevance of this topic to understand animal taxonomy. For example, the work of Cristiana Franco (2008; 2003=2014) devoted to the animal imagery in discursive practices of ancient Greece have demonstrated how gender emerges as a strong and overarching classificatory principle, which stands above the classification of species and somehow directs them. As a result, some species are perceived or characterized as specifically masculine (e.g. the wolf, the lion) and others as specifically feminine (e.g. the dog, the fox, the weasel). Moreover, she showed how in ancient Greece the animal imagery is based on a gender dichotomy, and the consequent cultural construction of animals impacts the animal nomenclature, in that some zoonyms of common gender seem to be perceived generically as feminine also when they denote animals of both sexes. These remarks show the interest of including animal lexicography when addressing the broader issue of the cultural construction of animals from a gender perspective. Moreover, the problem of detecting gender in animal nomenclature and correlating the grammatical with the natural gender in Semitic points to the debated issue concerning the origins and the function of the feminine form, which is the most widespread isoglosse of the Hamito-Semitic languages. Overall, the question of the relationship between feminine zoonyms and female animals (and the related cultural constructions) is an excellent example of how linguistic and cultural aspects cannot be dissociated in the study of animals; at the same time, it is an indicator of relevant methodological problems related to the role of gender in languages and cultures.
Communication dans le cadre de la journée d'études "La Lexicographie comparée des animaux dans l'... more Communication dans le cadre de la journée d'études "La Lexicographie comparée des animaux dans l'Antiquité - Réflexions méthodologiques et cas d'études", organisée par A. Angelini et Ch. Nihan, Université de Lausanne.
Eikasmos. Quaderni Bolognesi di Filologia Classica, XXI (2010), pp. 589-590.
This conference situates the evidence of the Hebrew Bible within the legal traditions from the br... more This conference situates the evidence of the Hebrew Bible within the legal traditions from the broader ancient Mediterranean / ancient Near Eastern cultures by taking a comparative approach to the issue of divine lawgiving understood in a broad sense. Covering the time frame of the First Millennium BCE (until the Hellenistic period), the inquiry not only addresses formal acts of divine legislation in differ-ent religious contexts but also investigates the many possible ways in which divine agents are represented as a source of authority, serve as guarantors for the law, enact justice or enforce norms.
journée d'études de l'Institut Romand des Sciences Bibliques, Université de Lausanne, 11 avril 2018
Programme hybridisme hybrids entre divinité et marginalité dans le monde antique une approche com... more Programme hybridisme hybrids entre divinité et marginalité dans le monde antique une approche comparée / hybrids between divinity and marginality in antiquity a comparative approach
Lausanne, 4 October 2018 (room 511, Unithèque)
Journée d'études, 5 octobre 2017, Université de Lausanne, Amphipole 338
La Septante au croisement des cultures de l’antiquité. Perspectives comparées sur la traduction g... more La Septante au croisement des cultures de l’antiquité.
Perspectives comparées sur la traduction grecque de la Bible hébraïque
Journée d'études de l'IRSB
Programme
9h30 Frédéric Amsler, Université de Lausanne
Ouverture du colloque
9h35 Christophe Nihan, Université de Lausanne
La Septante au croisement des cultures de l’antiquité : remarques introductives
10h Tessa Rajak, University of Oxford
Hellenistic Judaism as a Translation Culture
11-11h30 Pause
11h30 Olivier Munnich, Université de Paris-Sorbonne/UMR 8167
Les études sur la Bible grecque au miroir de la culture classique et de la tradition rabbinique
12h30 Repas
14h Benjamin Wright, Lehigh College
The Letter of Aristeas, the Septuagint and Cultural Intersections
15h Anna Angelini, Université de Lausanne
Démons, animaux, maladies et autres agents divins dans la LXX : une approche
d’anthropologie de la traduction
The biblical dietary laws represent a key element for the self-definition of Jews (and Samaritans... more The biblical dietary laws represent a key element for the self-definition of Jews (and Samaritans) in Antiquity. The double mention of these laws in the Pentateuch (Lev 11 and Deut 14) confirms their special status and constitutes a unique case of repeated laws within the biblical legal material. Scholarship focuses primarily on three issues: the literary relationship between Lev 11 and Deut 14 (for a recent overview, see Nihan 2011), the extent to which these laws exemplify a coherent system in regard to the nature of the animals prohibited (Meshel 2008), and the prohibition of pig as an identity marker (Hübner 1989). The relevant study of Houston (1993) has highlighted the importance of paying attention to the archaeological context in order to understanding the forming of these laws, their relationship with daily practices, and their authoritative status. Unfortunately, scholarship has not pursued this line of inquiry in the wake of Houston’s study, which has come to represent a desiderata in current scholarship.
Recent archaeological finds point to the need for a complete reexamination of this issue. For instance, fish bones discovered in Iron Age II strata in Jerusalem, Ramat Rahel, and other sites in Judah include fish defined as unclean according to the Pentateuchal legislation (see D. N. Fulton et al 2015) Furthermore, recent archaeological analysis demonstrates that the pig taboo in biblical laws reflects the world of both late monarchic and postexilic Judah, but does not reflect daily life in the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the Iron Age IIB (Sapir-Hen 2013). Findings of this sort illustrate archaeology’s importance for situating the origins, formation, growth, implementation, and reception of the purity laws of the Pentateuch in general, and especially the food laws of Lev 11 and Deut 14. In particular, the material evidence suggests a significantly more nuanced picture than has often been assumed concerning the relationship between biblical laws and dietary habits, necessitating a reassessment of the overall issue.
Moreover, neither Houston nor any other study has attempted to compare systematically the appearances and uses of animals in the texts and iconography of the surrounding cultures to provide a broader cultural context for the biblical material. The necessity of an investigation involving comparative aspects to gain a closer insight on the social and cultural context in which food laws developed arises in light of recent comprehensive works focusing on the representations of animals in the ancient Near East, (Collins 2002) and on the roles of purity in shaping religious traditions in the same region (Frevel and Nihan 2013).
In light of these concerns, this conference aims to illuminate the place of “food prohibitions” in the biblical texts in their cultural-historical and archaeological context. This notion will be explored, on the one hand, in relation to the archaeological context of
the Levant; on the other hand, through the comparison of food prohibitions in relation to the views of animals in cultic practices and daily customs in other ancient Mediterranean societies. More specifically, the following issues will be considered:
(1) Investigation, through comparison between the literary and archaeological data, of the relationship between the theoretical food prohibitions in the biblical texts and their practice in the timeframe ranging from the mid-Iron Age II to the Late Hellenistic Period (8th-2nd century BCE). This line of discussion aims at demonstrating the great complexity of the relationship between daily customs and religious prescriptions;
(2) Evaluation of how, and to what extent, the notion itself of “food prohibition” can apply to the various contexts in the ancient Mediterranean and to question the pertinence of the notion of taboo for the different forms of dietary restrictions in antiquity;
(3) Analysis of the way the biblical food laws fit within the larger context of animal usage in the Ancient Near East. This avenue seeks to identify various views of animals within larger corpora of ritual, religious, and cultic prescriptions and their possible relationships with dietary laws and practices.
In investigating these issues, this conference will create an international context for discussion, which will involve scholars of various disciplines interested in interdisciplinary dialogue. We are convinced that this dialogue will offer relevant points of interest for archaeologists, Bible specialists, and historians of religions. On the one side, this perspective on the study of biblical food prohibitions will serve archaeologists by challenging preconceived notions concerning the religious purity in ancient Israel’s religion that are often retrojected (consciously and unconsciously) from ancient Judaism. On the other side, as a case of extreme and systematic codification of food restrictions, biblical texts offer a unique viewpoint for the historians of religions to study the functioning of food prohibitions in antiquity compared to surrounding cultures, and to analyze the relationship between theory and practice of food laws.
The organizers aim to maintain the balance between young and established scholars as well as further gender inclusivity. The following list of participants promises a broad array of expertise brought together by the singular focus on investigating how their topic provides texture to the development, reception, and conceptual meaning(s) of the biblical dietary laws.