The Rephaim: Sons of the Gods (original) (raw)
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Leviticus: A Commentary on Leueitikon in Codex Vaticanus
Septuagint Commentary Series. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2019
In Leviticus, Awabdy offers the first commentary on the Greek version of Leviticus according to Codex Vaticanus (4th century CE), which binds the Old and New Testaments into a single volume as Christian scripture. Distinct from other LXX Leviticus commentaries that employ a critical edition and focus on translation technique, Greco-Roman context and reception, this study interprets a single Greek manuscript on its own terms in solidarity with its early Byzantine users unversed in Hebrew. With a formal-equivalence English translation of a new, uncorrected edition, Awabdy illuminates Leueitikon in B as an aesthetic composition that not only exhibits inherited Hebraic syntax and Koine lexical forms, but its own structure and theology, paragraph (outdented) divisions, syntax and pragmatics, intertextuality, solecisms and textual variants. For an interview about this Leviticus LXX volume by William A. Ross on his blog, Septuaginta & C.: https://williamaross.com/2020/08/10/new-sept-volume-on-leviticus-an-interview-with-mark-awabdy/
Medicine in Ancient Assur: A Microhistorical Study of the Neo-Assyrian Healer Kiṣir-Aššur
Medicine in Ancient Assur: A Microhistorical Study of the Neo-Assyrian Healer Kiṣir-Aššur, 2020
Can be downloaded for free with Open Access due to the generous support of the Edubba Foundation, the Elisabeth Munksgaard Foundation and the Augustinus Foundation: https://brill.com/view/title/54488 In Medicine in Ancient Assur Troels Pank Arbøll offers a microhistorical study of a single exorcist named Kiṣir-Aššur who practiced medical and magical healing in the ancient city of Assur (modern northern Iraq) in the 7th century BCE. The book provides the first detailed analysis of a healer’s education and practice in ancient Mesopotamia based on at least 73 texts assigned to specific stages of his career. By drawing on a microhistorical framework, the study aims at signicantly improving our understanding of the functional aspects of texts in their specialist environment. Furthermore, the work situates Kiṣir-Aššur as one of the earliest healers in world history for whom we have such details pertaining to his career originating from his own time.
Death in the Iron Age II and in First Isaiah
Mohr Siebeck (Forschungen zum Alten Testament 79), 2011
Death is one of the major themes of ‘First Isaiah,’ although it has not generally been recognized as such. Images of death are repeatedly used by the prophet and his earliest tradents. The book begins by concisely summarizing what is known about death in the Ancient Near East during the Iron Age II, covering beliefs and practices in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Syria-Palestine, and Judah/Israel. Incorporating both textual and archeological data, Christopher B. Hays surveys and analyzes existing scholarly literature on these topics from multiple fields. Focusing on the text’s meaning for its producers and its initial audiences, he describes the ways in which the ‘rhetoric of death’ functioned in its historical context and offers fresh interpretations of more than a dozen passages in Isa 5–38. He shows how they employ the imagery of death that was part of their cultural contexts, and also identifies ways in which they break new creative ground. This holistic approach to questions that have attracted much scholarly attention in recent decades produces new insights not only for the interpretation of specific biblical passages, but also for the formation of the book of Isaiah and for the history of ancient Near Eastern religions.
Material Presentations and Cultural Drug Translations of Contemporary Tibetan Precious Pills
This chapter explores how the pharmaceuticalization of Sowa Rigpa has affected the material representations of Tibetan precious pills (rin chen ril bu). With the example of a translated leaflet of the precious pill “Jikmé’s Old Turquoise-70” (’jigs med g.yu rnying bdun cu), made in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), I analyze how the current trend towards an expanding pharmaceuticalization of precious pills reflects in their material representation and specific instructions offered in bi- or tri-lingual leaflets. I show that in the PRC Sowa Rigpa’s specific terminology and disease etiologies are largely sidelined while catering to a Chinese-speaking patient and consumer clientele, whereas in India we find elements from Buddhism and Tibetan identity integrated in the presentation and packaging of precious pills. Each serves the commodification of precious pills, but in different ways. I also highlight how the commodification and over-the-counter sales of precious pills, found largely in the PRC but also at certain clinics in India, might easily lead to their misuse. Gerke, Barbara. 2019. "Material Presentations and Cultural Drug Translations of Contemporary Tibetan Precious Pills." In Knowledge and Context in the Tibetan Medical Tradition. PIATS 2016: Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the Fourteenth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Bergen, 2016, edited by William McGrath, 337-367. Leiden: Brill.
2021
[publisher's description] In Naval Warfare and Maritime Conflict in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Mediterranean, Jeffrey P. Emanuel examines the evidence for maritime violence in the Mediterranean region during both the Late Bronze Age and the tumultuous transition to the Early Iron Age in the years surrounding the turn of the 12th century BCE. There has traditionally been little differentiation between the methods of armed conflict engaged in during the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages, on both the coasts and the open seas, while polities have been alternately characterized as legitimate martial actors and as state sponsors of piracy. By utilizing material, documentary, and iconographic evidence and delineating between the many forms of armed conflict, Emanuel provides an up-to-date assessment not only of the nature and frequency of warfare, raiding, piracy, and other forms of maritime conflict in the Late Bronze Age and Late Bronze-Early Iron Age transition, but also of the extent to which modern views about this activity remain the product of inference and speculation.
The Western Karaim Torah. A Critical Edition of a Manuscript from 1720. (Vol. 1-2).
2021
This volume contains a critical edition and an English translation of the oldest translation of the Pentateuch into Western Karaim copied in 1720 by Simcha ben Chananel (died 1723). The manuscript was compared with several other Karaim translations of the Torah as well as against the standard text of the Hebrew Bible. To gain a better understanding of its historical, philological, and linguistic background, the author provides an outline of the history of Western Karaim translations of the Hebrew Bible and a description of the manuscript’s language. The entire work is available at https://brill.com/view/title/57179.
Mujeres imperiales, mujeres reales reúne diversas contribuciones que estudian, desde una perspectiva pluridisciplinar (con enfoques que van de lo literario a lo antropológico, pasando por lo histórico-arqueológico), la evolución del poder femenino y su expresión pública desde la tardoantigüedad hasta el período bizantino tardío. Los trabajos aquí reunidos consideran tanto la evidencia literaria como la material (pintura y escultura, numismática, epigrafía monumental). Por su carácter interdisciplinar, esta obra permite observar desde diversos ángulos las estrategias que facultaron a estas mujeres para ejercer el poder. Con su liderazgo en las cortes imperiales y reales, las mujeres que transitan por estas páginas consiguieron trascender el papel de meras madres de emperadores y reyes para convertirse en auténticas protagonistas de la política contemporánea.
Lives of the Prophets: The Illustrations to Hafiz-i Abru’s “Assembly of Chronicles”
Brill, 2018
In Lives of the Prophets: The Illustrations to Hafiz-i Abru’s “Assembly of Chronicles” Mohamad Reza Ghiasian analyses two extant copies of the Majmaʿ al-tawarikh produced for the Timurid ruler Shahrukh (r. 1405–1447). The first manuscript is kept in Topkapı Palace and the second is widely dispersed. Codicological analysis of these manuscripts not only allows a better understanding of Hafiz-i Abru’s contributions to rewriting earlier history, but has served to identify the existence of a previously unrecognised copy of the Jamiʿ al-tawarikh produced at Rashid al-Din’s scriptorium. Through a meticulous close reading of both text and image, Mohamad Reza Ghiasian convincingly proves that numerous paintings of the dispersed manuscript were painted over the text before its dispersal in the early twentieth century.