Gods and Humans in the Ancient Near East

Gods and Humans in the Ancient Near East PDF

Author: Tyson L. Putthoff

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2020-11-05

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 1108490549

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Gods have always lived among humans. But long ago, they also lived inside us, sharing their nature with mere mortals.

Animals and their Relation to Gods, Humans and Things in the Ancient World

Animals and their Relation to Gods, Humans and Things in the Ancient World PDF

Author: Raija Mattila

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2019-03-11

Total Pages: 487

ISBN-13: 3658243880

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

While Human-Animal Studies is a rapidly growing field in modern history, studies on this topic that focus on the Ancient World are few. The present volume aims at closing this gap. It investigates the relation between humans, animals, gods, and things with a special focus on the structure of these categories. An improved understanding of the ancient categories themselves is a precondition for any investigation into the relation between them. The focus of the volume lies on the Ancient Near East, but it also provides studies on Ancient Greece, Asia Minor, Mesoamerica, the Far East, and Arabia.

Kingship and the Gods

Kingship and the Gods PDF

Author: Henri Frankfort

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1978-07-15

Total Pages: 512

ISBN-13: 0226260119

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This classic study clearly establishes a fundamental difference in viewpoint between the peoples of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. By examining the forms of kingship which evolved in the two countries, Frankfort discovered that beneath resemblances fostered by similar cultural growth and geographical location lay differences based partly upon the natural conditions under which each society developed. The river flood which annually renewed life in the Nile Valley gave Egyptians a cheerful confidence in the permanence of established things and faith in life after death. Their Mesopotamian contemporaries, however, viewed anxiously the harsh, hostile workings of nature. Frank's superb work, first published in 1948 and now supplemented with a preface by Samuel Noah Kramer, demonstrates how the Egyptian and Mesopotamian attitudes toward nature related to their concept of kingship. In both countries the people regarded the king as their mediator with the gods, but in Mesopotamia the king was only the foremost citizen, while in Egypt the ruler was a divine descendant of the gods and the earthly representative of the God Horus.

Gods in the Desert

Gods in the Desert PDF

Author: Glenn S. Holland

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Published: 2009-07-16

Total Pages: 341

ISBN-13: 0742599795

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Gods in the Desert explores the fascinating religious cultures of the ancient Near East. From the mysterious pyramids, tombs, and temples of Egypt to the powerful heroes, gods, and legends of Mesopotamia, Glenn Holland guides readers through the early religions that are the root of many of today's major faiths. Holland compares the religions of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Syria-Palestine, including Israel and Judah, from the Neolithic era through the conquest of Alexander the Great. He provides a historical survey of each region, then discusses the gods, the rulers, the afterlife, and the worship rituals. This accessible overview makes clear how these religions converged and diverged, and are intimately connected to many of the religions we recognize today, sometimes in surprising ways.

Religions of the Ancient Near East

Religions of the Ancient Near East PDF

Author: Daniel C. Snell

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2010-11-22

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 1139495054

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This 2011 book is a history of religious life in the Ancient Near East from the beginnings of agriculture to Alexander the Great's invasion in the 300s BCE. Daniel C. Snell traces key developments in the history, daily life and religious beliefs of the people of Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Israel and Iran. His research investigates the influence of those ideas on the West, with particular emphasis on how religious ideas from this historical and cultural milieu still influence the way modern cultures and religions view the world. Designed to be accessible to students and readers with no prior knowledge of the period, the book uses fictional vignettes to add interest to its material, which is based on careful study of archaeological remains and preserved texts. The book will provide a thoughtful summary of the Ancient Near East and includes a comprehensive bibliography to guide readers in further study of related topics.

"When Gods Were Men"

Author: Esther J. Hamori

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2008-08-27

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 3110206714

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

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.

Gods in Dwellings

Gods in Dwellings PDF

Author: Michael B. Hundley

Publisher: Society of Biblical Lit

Published: 2013-11-10

Total Pages: 453

ISBN-13: 1589839196

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In this book devoted exclusively to temples and perceptions of the divine presences that inhabit them, Michael B. Hundley focuses on the official religions of the ancient Near East and explores the interface between the human and the divine within temple environs. Hundley identifies common ancient Near Eastern temple systems and examines issues that include what temple structures communicate, how temples were understood to function, temple ideology, the installation of divine presence in a temple, the connection between presence and physical representation, and human service to the deity. Drawing on architectural and spatial theory, ritual theory, theories of language, art history, archaeology, sociocultural anthropology, and comparative studies, Hundley offers a single interpretive lens through which to view temple worship. Features: A close examination of temples in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Hittite Anatolia, and Syria-Palestine An interdisciplinary treatment of architecture, language, ritual, and art A dual focus on how a deity's divine presence connects to space and art and how human service to the deity maintains the deity's active presence

The Storm-God in the Ancient Near East

The Storm-God in the Ancient Near East PDF

Author: Alberto R. W. Green

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2003-06-23

Total Pages: 383

ISBN-13: 1575065371

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In this comprehensive study of a common deity found in the ancient Near East as well as many other cultures, Green brings together evidence from the worlds of myth, iconography, and literature in an attempt to arrive at a new synthesis regarding the place of the Storm-god. He finds that the Storm-god was the force primarily responsible for three major areas of human concern: (1) religious power because he was the ever-dominant environmental force upon which peoples depended for their very lives; (2) centralized political power; and (3) continuously evolving sociocultural processes, which typically were projected through the Storm-god’s attendants. Green traces these motifs through the Mesopotamian, Anatolian, Syrian, and Levantine regions; with regard to the latter, he argues that Yahweh of the Bible can be identified as a storm-god, though certain unique characteristics came to be associated with him: he was the Creator of all that is created and the self-existing god who needs no other.