General

Abstract

General Christopher T. Begg, Bradley C. Gregory, Alan J. Moss, CFC, Frederick E. Greenspahn, William J. Urbrock, Thomas Hieke, and Jaime A. Banister 1296. Nissim Amzallag, "The Serpent as a Symbol of Primeval Yahwism," Sem 58 (2016) 207-36. Beyond its pejorative connotations, the serpent in the Bible is portrayed as the guardian of the sacred domain and its various extensions: the sanctuary, the sources of water, the riches beneath the earth, and the land of Israel. Moreover, the reference to Moses' staff as caduceus alludes to the serpent's involvement in the exercise of divine power. Rather than reflecting a Canaanite influence on Yahwism, the common link of Yhwh and the serpent to the metallurgy traditionally practiced in the south of Canaan is indicative of the essential connection between them. In this regard, then, there is a link between a primordial, Canaanite form of Yahwism and its Israelite extension. Against this background, the removal of the bronze serpent (Nehustan) from the Jerusalem Temple (2 Kgs 18:4) reflects a reform, initiated by King Hezekiah, of Yahwism in its primordial form which led to the rejection of one of its most essential symbols. [Translated from published abstract—C.T.B.] 1297. Idan Breier, "'Who Is This Dog?' The Negative Image of Canines in the Lands of the Bible," ANES 54 (2017) 47-62. This article addresses the special relationship between humans and dogs in the lands of the Bible. While the canine has indeed been "man's best friend" since time immemorial, the dog's negative features also became the source of stock images symbolizing a person of inferior status. This state of affairs is reflected in Sumerian proverbs from the 3rd millennium b.c.e., Mesopotamian mythology, the El-Amarna letters, and biblical literature. Associated as they were with perverted sexual activity, dogs were kept away from temples. Both "dead" and "alive," they came to represent the miserable, pathetic person. [Adapted from author's conclusion, p. 55—C.T.B.] 1298. [Genesis 22; Judges 11, etc.] Evangeli G. Dafni, "Isaak, die Tochter Jephthas und Iphigenie, Menschenopfer im Alten Testament und im Alten Griechenland: Kulturkritische Beobachtungen unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Septuaginta," Septuagint, Sages, and Scripture, 1-30 [see #2008]. The narratives of Abraham's offering of Isaac in Genesis 22, the sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter in Judges 11, and Euripides' tragedy Iphigenie in Aulis reflect an abiding concern with human sacrifice in times of extreme emergency in both ancient Israel and Greece. These three stories show similarities of narrative structure, motifs, and even language, which suggests that during the time of the Hebrew Bible's formation and translation in the LXX there was a mutual interaction between Hebrew and Greek culture that was more extensive than evidenced in the texts which have survived.—B.C.G. 1299. Vittoria Dall'Arellina, "Power of Symbol or Symbols of Power? The 'Long Sword' in the Near East and the Aegean in the Second Millennium BC," ANES 54 (2017) 143-82. A new type of weapon, which would become one of the symbols of an emerging military aristocracy, appears in the cultural landscape of the Near East and the Eastern [End Page 437] Mediterranean of the 2nd millennium b.c. The item in question is the so-called long sword, an object with strong symbolic value that would accompany a warrior even after death; in fact, it is often found as part of the funerary equipment in sumptuous elite tombs from the Southern Caucasus to Greece. Basing herself on a corpus of about 200 swords, originating from the Southern Caucasus, Anatolia, the Levant, and Aegean, the descriptions of which have previously been dispersed in a large number of publications, D'A. presents here various considerations regarding the origins, development, and diffusion of the weapon in question. Furthermore, a study of the context of discovery of the items, as well as the iconographic and—where available—the written sources concerning them allows her to advance some new hypotheses about the symbolic values of the "long sword" and the aristocratic values which it embodied. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 1300. Yitzhaq F...