Mosaic Traditions Research Articles

Sinop Balatlar Excavation Pebble Mosaic Pavement

During the 2022 Sinop Balatlar Excavation, a pebble stone mosaic floor was unearthed. The design of the mosaic, which adorns the andron room of a private residence, is U-shaped and the east-west kline sections are planned without decoration. The pebble floor placed horizontally and vertically on a pink nucleus is called the “hedgehog” model. Surrounded by ranke, wave and palmette motifs, a small part of the mosaic, which we think shows a flying Eros and his wingtips on it, has been preserved in the southwestern corner of the main panel. It is very important with the placement technique of the stones on it and the pattern repertoire created with white pebbles on a black ground. Compared to contemporary examples, the pebble mosaic dated to the end of the 5th century BC includes the Gordion and Olynthos mosaics, where the mosaic tradition in Asia Minor dates back, it occupies an important place in the ancient mosaic chronology as it indicates its existence in the 5th century BC.

“The Rabbis Sought to Withdraw the Book of Ezekiel”: The Rabbinic Re-Authorization of the Book of Ezekiel

Abstract Several Babylonian talmudic sources call for the withdrawal of the book of Ezekiel from circulation. This article examines the development of this tradition and demonstrates how later rabbis integrated early texts in its creation and also used exegetical means to address the contradictions between Ezekiel’s stipulations and pentateuchal law. Another area of concern was Ezekiel’s prophetic status: some rabbinic texts granted Ezekiel the power of a lawgiver; others framed him as transmitting Mosaic traditions; and still others lowered Ezekiel’s prophetic status.

The Abbasid Mosaic Tradition and the Great Mosque of Damascus

Abstract Glass wall mosaic is a major feature of early Islamic architecture, surviving above all in the Umayyad monuments of the Dome of the Rock and the Great Mosque of Damascus. These grand mosaics inspired periodic revivals from the eleventh century onwards. The centuries between the Umayyad commissions and the first of the documented revivals, however, have been seen as a period of decline for the craft; the Abbasid dynasty that defeated the Umayyads in 750 has not traditionally been associated with the medium. This article reexamines the question, looking at textual and material evidence for Abbasid mosaic production. It argues that, in fact, there was a continuous mosaic tradition well into the ninth century, under the patronage of both caliphs and lower-ranking officials. The first part of the article considers written evidence for mosaics in Mecca and Medina. The second part looks in detail at a surviving example that, it will be argued, dates to the Abbasid period, on the Bayt al-Mal (Treasury) of the Great Mosque of Damascus. The concluding section discusses factors behind the general decline in mosaic production in the tenth century and the possibility of pockets of continuity.

Grundgeschichte und Chronik

The Chronicler used two types of sources in writing history: In general, the chronistic narration is based on the „Deuteronomistic history“ as it is called today. Nonetheless, the Pentateuch in its priestly components is another key to its concept.
 In his historical outline, the Chronicler is aware of differences of time: There is, first of all, the epoch of Moses and of the Mosaic institutions given to a wandering Israel. A new age, second, started with David gathering a scattered people toward the new center in Jerusalem.
 These epochs are characterized by both continuity in the worship of Yhwh and discontinuity of theperformance of that worship. The ark, the mobile sanctuary in the tent of the desert, was now to find its definite place and house, to be built and inhabited by Yhwh, prepared by David and finally realized by Solomon.
 According to the Chronicler, God’s word had been present in both epochs, but in different forms. Originally, it was given orally to Moses. Yet, the history of Israel as described by Chronicles refers to written documents (kakkātûb). In light of their attribution in Chronicles we should not call them „priestly“ – as it has been customary since the 19th century (de Wette, Wellhausen) –but more adequately „Mosaic“ tradition.
 For the Chronicler, such Mosaic tradition was applied and performed by David’s Israel. Of prime importance is the new position of Levi, Moses’ own tribe. According to the P-sources in the Pentateuch, the Levites had to do physical labour for the holy tent. But, in the era of the temple, they gained a new responsibility by interpreting, instructing and applying Tora in its broadest sense. The Priests's duties for their part are presupposed rather than itemized. Since the time of the Exodus – which is deliberately not a topic in Chronicles – they have remained the same.
 Decisive for the Chronicler is the new presence of Moses’ revelation in the ongoing history of Israel and its kings, accompanied and guided by Moses’ tribe, the Levites.

Conceptul de mesianism la poporul evreu

In the history of religions, the Jewish people stands out since its genesis, through an authentic form of monotheism, which later gives birth to the idea of messianism, which is specific only to the Jewish culture and spirituality throughout its existence. The socio-political context is one that inevitably announces the idea of messiahship as a form of restoration of the faith and being of the Jewish people. However, the desire and expectations of the Jewish political and religious leaders did not coincide with the reality of Christ the Savior’s messiahship. Their expectations were related to the charismatic-military messianic leader and less to this universalist form of the messianic message, through which peace will triumph over war and racial hatred. The Christian messianism takes on new doctrinal and imagistic values, an introspection of the human being, which through an exercise of faith and deeds, can energize an entire society. This Christian messianism focuses on the fundamental phenomenon of the relationship between man and God, namely love, which largely escapes the Jewish tradition related to messianism. The love for God and for fellow human beings is sequential without playing a fundamental role in the concept of the Mosaic tradition, which focuses on a code of laws between God and man, laws that go to a certain level but cannot have the fundamental impact of restoration of the human being through love. Without the dynamism of messianism in the Mosaic religion, we would have a kind of conceptual and usual stagnation, which would lead the people to a kind of stereotype. Messianism gives the strength and originality of this religion which is unique and unmistakable in the history of mankind. In fact, messianism embraces the vision of a people who, struck by all the winds of history, remembers that only a return to Yahweh can truly save them in this world.

Cube Designs in Roman Baetica Mosaics

The cube and the prism are frequent components of geometrical compositions featured in Roman mosaics. They can be found as free elements belonging to the secondary decoration of many pavements, or as part of friezes or mosaic panels, sometimes mixed with other geometrical figures to shape various compositions and sometimes used as exclusive motifs and single theme, forming unitary and/or modular panels. This paper will focus on the latter.In our catalogue of Geometrical Designs, these modular compositions with three-dimensional cubes or “tumbl- ing blocks” and with elongated cubes or prisms define models E3 and E3A respectively. Even though these are present in a significant number of pavements in the Roman Baetica, we cannot assume their widespread use since they are so far absent from sit es with a well-established mosaic tradition, such as Italica, Hispalis or Carmo. In contrast, Astigi and Corduba are the cities where more pavements with these designs have been found.In this paper we will also analyse the process of development of both models, and how these compositions, dominant and solid by their own characteristics despite the sense of movement they transmit, can produce diverse effects and create different optical perceptions by simply changing the point of view from which they are observed or with a slight colour change. This last aspect is essential to allow the design its main feature, which relates to a three-dimensional effect.

Michel de Certeau et le Moïse et le monothéisme de Freud : une réflexion historiographique aux conséquences théologiques

In 1975, Michel de Certeau published L'écriture de l'histoire, a work whose fourth and final part attempts to re-evaluate historiography via the prism of an analysis of Freudian writing, especially as it appeared in Moses and Monotheism. If this work of Freud is known for its unusual reflection on the emergence of the Mosaic tradition, the Jesuit author finds in it a more serious theory of Scripture, as well as a more general theory of writing which enriched an original conception of history as 'science-fiction'.

Law and Grace: The Seamless Faith of Ethiopian Orthodoxy

The Ethiopian Church, established in 330, is the second earliest “national” church created on the model of Emperor Constantine’s conversion of the Roman Empire. Today Christianity comes in numerous variants. But Ethiopia’s church alone privileges Mosaic tradition as the bedrock of its theology. The rational for this is “The Glory of Kings,” a book inspired by 1Kings10: 1–13. It tells how a Queen of Sheba (Ethiopia) visited King Solomon in Jerusalem, and that their son brought the Ark of the Covenant to her capital. The Ethiopian Church identifies this site as the Church of Mary of Zion in Aksum. To this day it maintains that the Ark (in Ethiopian, the tabot) remains there in an adjacent chapel. Most important of its Mosaic traditions is that a church is not a church without a copy of the tabot on its altar. But historical explanations of when and how these traditions, and even the “Book of Kings,” came into being are beset by controversy owing to the dearth of contemporary sources.

Minor Prophets

Minor Prophets John W. Wright, Christopher T. Begg, and Lesley R. DiFrancisco 526. [Twelve Prophets] Anselm C. Hagedorn, "Die Perser im Zwölfprophetenbuch," ZAW 127 (2015) 587-606. Scholars generally accept that the prophetic books were reworked, reread, or even written during the Persian Period; specific historical reminiscences to the Persians, however, are scarce. Texts like Hab 1:5-11; Zech 1:7-17; and Mal 1:8 do, however, conscientiously [End Page 140] (and uncritically) employ allusions to Persian institutions and thereby help to spread official imperial ideology. [Adapted from published abstract—J.W.W.] 527. [Hos 3:1-5] Kristin Weingart, "Eine zweite Chance für Israel? Gericht und Hoffnung in Hos 3,1-5," Bib 97 (2016) 342-59. In Hosea 3, we find a reflection on the situation of the Northern Israelites after the destruction of Samaria. The text, except for some slight additions, was originally composed shortly after 720 b.c.e. by Northerners and is part of an early composition of Hosea-materials. The fall of the Northern Kingdom was, according to the text, caused by the crimes denounced by Hosea and effected by the divine judgment he had announced. The course of events therefore confirms Hosea's prediction. Israel's punishment is interpreted as an educational process meant to make Israel return to Yhwh. Hence, there is hope for restoration and a better future after judgment. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 528. [Hos 10:13b-14b] Oded Tammuz, "Hosea 10,13b-14b: A Warning about a Rebellion," BN 170 (2016) 35-49. Hos 10:13b-14b reads: "… because thou didst trust in thy way (some versions of the LXX have chariots), in the multitude of thy mighty men; Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people, and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled, as Shalman spoiled Betharbel." This text raises certain questions: Who was Shalman? What (and where) was Betharbel? Why was Shalman's plundering of Beth-arbel singled out as an example? More importantly: what is the overall meaning of the text? T. argues that "Shalman" is to be identified with Shalmaneser III, and that Betharbel is the temple of Ishtar of Arbaʾil in the city of Arbaʾil (modern Arbīl). There are several possible interpretations of the text: (1) Shalmaneser III plundered the temple of Ishtar, and (2) Shalmaneser III is the object of the sentence and the temple in his own city was plundered by someone else. Historically, both interpretations are possible: the first because (a) Shalmaneser III's military campaigns produced only little income in his later years and (b) he visited Arbaʾil in those years; the second is also credible given that one of the sons of Shalmaneser III rebelled against his father and took possession of the city of Arbaʾil. Both interpretations lead to the same conclusion: the text predicts that the Israelite army will rebel against the king of Israel and will plunder his fortresses. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 529. [Hosea 12] Felipe Fruto L. L. Ramirez, s.j., "Are the Allusions to Jacob and Moses in Hosea 12 Late Insertions?" Landas 29 (2015) 119-43. The sole evidence we have that certain stories about Jacob and Moses already existed in the 2nd half of the 8th cent. b.c.e. is the allusions to these in Hosea 12. Various attempts to invalidate this evidence on the basis of the chapter's poetic structure, vocabulary, grammar, typology of ideas, etc. have proved unsatisfactory. On the contrary, the use of the binomial Israel/Jacob in 8th cent. prophetic writings as well as the gentilics "Isaac" and "Joseph" in Amos presumes the existence of patriarchal stories that served to explain the connection of these names with the northern kingdom. Moreover, Hosea's allusion to an incident not mentioned in Genesis may reflect an early period before the fixing of patriarchal traditions in late Judean history. Hosea's allusions to both patriarchal and Mosaic traditions may then provide significant evidence that the epic legend of Israel's salvation history as narrated in Genesis–Exodus was already beginning to take shape during...

Una discusión humanista inaplazable: la persona frente a la ley. Reflexiones bíblico-teológicas de razón hinkelammertiana

El artículo profundiza bíblico-teológicamente la interpretación hinkelammertiana de algunos paradigmas bíblicos que abordan la relación de la persona con la ley (tradición abrahámica, mosaica pre-exílica y mosaica post-exílica), con el objeto de reivindicar la centralidad de la persona como el lugar verdadera y auténticamente humano desde el cual discernir todo tipo de ley y hacerla reflexiva frente a la vida humana.

Rabbinical Chancery in Romania - An Alternative to the State Organized Courts in Solving Family Matters?

On August 27, 2008, by Government Decree no. 999, the Romanian Government recognized the Statute of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania-The Mosaic Cult. According to Article 41 of the statute, the Rabbinical Chancery is a body of the Federation entrusted with the fulfillment of the religious needs of the members of the Federation, observing “the rules of the Mosaic law, halaha [i.e. halakhah] and the Mosaic tradition”. Article 41 enumerating the competences of the Rabbinical Chancery, provides under letter h that the Chancery has jurisdiction over “the religious disputes inside Communities”. But in Judaism, because Torah is the blueprint of the entire universe, every aspect of human life is a religious one. As a proof of this fact we can invoke the extraordinarily rich content of the Talmud (the Mishnah with its six orders and Gemarah, 517 chapters in total). The third order of the Talmud deals mainly with laws concerning marriage, the relationship between spouses and divorce. So, disputes concerning marriages concluded between members of the Federation (whether from the same Community or not) are religious disputes, that should be solved by the Rabbinical Chancery. My paper discusses the legal status in Romania of decisions and writs (especially the kind of writs named get) delivered or drawn up by the Rabbinical Chancery in solving the matrimonial disputes of the members of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania - The Mosaic Cult. On the one hand, these documents could be recognized as having binding effect on the Romanian authorities on the grounds of Articles 7, 8, 9 and 26 of Law no.489 of 2006 on the Freedom of Religion and the General Status of Denominations. On the other hand, there is no hard evidence that Romanian Government intended to allow religious courts to rule in litigation concerning such sensible areas as Family Law or Civil Law. On the contrary, Article 5 of Law no.489 of 2006 emphasizes that all religious cults have to observe the Constitution and the others Romanian laws. Or neither Article 124 and 126 of the Constitution nor Articles 3 or 38 of the Romanian Family Code recognize the jurisdiction of a religious authority in concluding or dissolving a matrimonial liaison. Moreover, only the Mosaic Cult and the Catholic Church have in their statutes provisions that enables a religious body to have jurisdiction over laity (while the statutes of the Orthodox Church or the Muslim cult don’t contain such provisions). Article 9 of Law no.489 of 2006 provides for the equality of all religious cults before the Romanian authorities. Or Article 41 of Statute of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania - The Mosaic Cult infringes upon this equality, allowing Jews of Romanian nationality to solve their matrimonial causes before a religious court with the observance of other rules than those provided for by the Romanian Family Law. The status of the Rabbinical Chancery as a court of justice with jurisdiction in family matters is not sound enough according to the present Romanian Law. Romanian authorities have to confirm it or to explicitly reject it (by demanding the modification of Article 41 of the Statute of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania - The Mosaic Cult).

The Tasks of the Translators: The Rabbis, the Septuagint, and the Cultural Politics of Translation

This article traces the development of rabbinic legends surrounding the creation of the Septuagint. It places these texts in the context of their Hellenistic antecedents and Christian parallels. I argue that the different rabbinic versions of the Septuagint legend reflect the rabbis' concerns and anxieties not only about the Septuagint, but also about their own self-defined position as transmitters of the Mosaic tradition in a world in which they are challenged both by a hegemonic Greco-Roman culture and numerous other groups claiming to be the true inheritors of the prophets.

Reinscribing Moses: Heine, Kafka, Freud, and Schoenberg in a European Wilderness (review)

Book Reviews 125 achievements but, on the other, led to Jews' leaving their faith in one way or another. The irony was that to antisemites in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries it made little difference whether Jews attended synagogue or not. Gay is concerned less with questions of continuity and discontinuity than with presenting a mosaic illustrating the vicissitudes of German Jews. They suffered persecution, yet they also enjoyed both material and cultural success. The benefit of this portrait is that it provides readers a long-term look at an amazingly vibrant community. While it does not come to any striking conclusions, the book is immensely valuable as both a collection of sources and an informational resource. A more extensive bibliography would be helpful, but this handsomely published tome is a must for all students of either German or Jewish history. Glenn R. Sharfman Hiram College Reinscribing Moses: Heine, Kafka, Freud, and Schoenberg in a European Wilderness, byBlumaGoldstein. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992. 218 pp. $32.50. Since the publication of Sol Uptzin's seminal study Germany's Stepchildren 50 years ago, numerous books and articles have attempted to elucidate the tragic duality of Jewish writers and thinkers in Germanspeaking countries. To the growing number of such studies Bluma Goldstein, a professor of German literature at the University of California in Berkeley, has now contributed a cogently argued and stimulating work of mature scholarship that is likely to be of wide appeal, for it offers new insights into the identity problems of German and Austrian Jews in the period of emancipation. Goldstein's four subjects were all marginal Jews (and in two cases converts to Christianity) who regarded themselves as Europeans but experienced so much non-acceptance and hostility that they felt impelled to "inscribe the founder ofthe nation ofIsrael into the documents of their German culture," to integrate a Jewish tradition of 6000 years into the 2000-year-old Christian tradition, thus affirming a dual conception of history and exemplifYing both a continued commitment to the dominant culture and a rueful return to Judaism. In accordance with their different personalities and aspirations these four men concerned themselves with Moses, Moses figures, or the Mosaic tradition as cultural metaphors 126 SHOFAR Winter 1994 Vol. 12, No.2 relatively late in their careers. To Heinrich Heine, Moses was a great socialist who welded an inchoate mass into a great nation; Kafka viewed himself as a desert wanderer still short of liberation and redemption but on the road to a purer existence; Freud saw himself as a prophet leading people out of bondage through the science of psychoanalysis; and Arnold Schoenberg shared with Moses the difficulty of delivering a great and ennobling spiritual message. Skillfully moving back and forth between texts and contexts, Goldstein presents a typology of tensions and dichotomies: Moses as the quintessential diaspora Jew and Moses as the creator of the nation Israel; Moses as the liberator and universal lawgiver and Moses the unassimilable Jew; Moses as a remarkable coalescence of individual fulfillment and accomplishment and Moses the solitary and isolated figure. Heine invoked Moses in his Ludwig Borne: A Memorial (1839-40) and his Confessions (1854). His earlier view of Moses as a constraining figure and enemy of the revolution gave way to a vision of "Moshe Rabenu" as a great libertarian emancipator and social reformer (which is how Heine viewed himself). As he was wasting away in his "mattress grave," Heine, having abandoned Hellenism and sensuality, increasingly turned to the Hebrew Bible. Franz Kafka referred to Moses mostly in his post-1920 diaries and his conversations with Gustav Janouch. He was less concerned with the biblical figure than with a living cultural influence and touchstone for humane conduct. Kafka sometimes seemed to regard himself as fated to live in a wilderness, but the idea of the lawgiver provided a connection between the past and the present as well as an affirmation of Jewish life and peoplehood in the diaspora. In "From Rome to Egypt: Freud's Mosaic Transformations" Goldstein discusses Freud's early preoccupation with Rome (which he abhorred) and Hannibal (whom he admired). Freud first viewed Michelangelo's statue of Moses in 1901, and his...

The understanding of the prophets in Deuteronomy

Abstract This study concludes that the Book of Deuteronomy holds a rather negative view of prophecy. Deut 13 is more concerned with the problem of prophetic counseling of idolatry than It is with prophecy as such. Deut 18,9–14; 18,15–19, and 18,20–22 represent three disparate segments of texts which deal with quite different themes without any logically necessary sequence. These texts, consequently, do not constitute any prophetic law similar to what we may find with regard to other “official” figures (judges, kings, priests). Deut 18,15–19 does not legitimize a prophetic movement which traces its office back to Moses, and according to which prophets will appear within the mosaic traditions at regular intervals. Rather the “prophet like Moses” is Joshua, the successor of Moses. The article stresses the importance of Moses as the great prophet in Deuteronomy and the view that the contents of Deuteronomy represent the revelation of the final will of God to the prophet Moses.

The Decorated Pavements of Morgantina I: The Mosaics

The mosaics from the central Sicilian Hellenistic town of Morgantina are best known for the mosaic of Ganymede, which has long been seen as one of the earliest examples of tessellated mosaic. The Ganymede mosaic is not unique at the site, however; there are more than a dozen other Morgantinian mosaics of similar and later date. Since all of the mosaics were found in domestic contexts, they speak for the wealth of the Morgantinoi, and the richness of domestic decoration at the site. The other third-century mosaics from Morgantina have affinities in style and technique with the Ganymede mosaic. They have stylistic affinities to mosaics of pebble technique, but also show tendencies, such as attempts at three-dimensional representation, which are more fully developed in tessellated mosaics. The mosaics of true tessellated technique from the site belong in the already recognized mosaic tradition in the Hellenistic world in general and the island of Sicily in particular.

The Geological Ideas of J. J. Berzelius

The development of geology during the first half of the nineteenth century is now considered to be more complicated than was once thought. The positivistic picture of two conflicting schools, one of them allegedly modern and progressive, the other supposedly conservative and scriptural, is too simplistic and misleading. First, the influence of the Bible has been exaggerated. It is true that in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Flood had been given an important role as a geological agent, but in the early nineteenth century there were hardly any professional geologists who defended this view. At least, it is not correct to associate either neptunism, catastrophism, or diluvialism with the Mosaic tradition. Secondly, the use of such terms as ‘catastrophism’ and ‘diluvialism’ has been unfortunate in so far as they have led to biblical associations; these terms must be given a more precise meaning. Thirdly, in the evaluation of the geology of the period, not enough weight has been given to the historical context. From our knowledge of modern geology alone it is not possible to judge what was loose speculation or empirical science at that time. Lyell's contributions to geology, as well as those of his opponents, should be considered and examined in more detail.

REVIEWS

Journal Article REVIEWS Get access The Mosaic Tradition, by F. V. WINNETT. Pp. xii + 220. Toronto: University Press; London: Geoffrey Cumberlege, 1949. 28s. net. H. H. ROWLEY H. H. ROWLEY Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Journal of Theological Studies, Volume I, Issue 2, October 1950, Pages 193-b–195, https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/I.2.193-b Published: 01 October 1950

Research Items

THE ORIGIN of THE MAKAI.—In the Journal of the East Africa and Uganda Natural History Society. No. 28, Mr. .C. L. Bolton criticises the theories on the origin of the Masai and other non-Bantu races of Konya and Uganda which were advanced by Mr. C. C. Luck in tho Journal for August 1926. Mr. Luck suggested that the Masai were the descendants of the half tribe of Manasseh from the west of Jordan and the Nandi of Moab, and lhat there were many proofs of tho influence of the ancient civilisation of Egypt-Mesopotamia in Central Africa. Mr. Bolton maintains, however, that Sir Charles Eliot's arguments against the Semitic origin of the Nilotic languages have never been met, while physically the Masai and Nandi exhibit none of the signs of a Semitic cross. The cultural evidence collected by Mr. Luck points to Egyptian influence. In addition, spitting for luck and on meeting a person, is characteristic of the Mediterranean peoples, and dislike of swine, bewitching by means of anything from the body, aversion from the use of proper names for fear of witchcraft, the sun worship of the Nandi and the possible derivation of L'Oibon from the word for snake and wizard also point to Egypt. The Mosaic traditions noted by Merker may have originated in Egypt before the Jews left the country and hence reached central Africa, or they may have been introduced by Mohammedans or even by Jews trading up the Nile. As an alternative theory of origin, it is suggested that the Somali and Galla are tho lineal descendants of the Macrobians of TTorodotus, ami as independent but unambitious people may have inhabited their present country possibly for thousands of years. The Masai and Nandi may be of Bantu stock crossed with a race from Egypt, possible the Automoli of Herodotus, perhaps themselves a mixed race who drove the Bantu peoples out and took their women. These Bantu still exist as the Wakamba, Kikuyu, and Kitosh. The Bahima appear to be Hamitic negroes with a dash of Aryan blood which may be due to a Persian infiltration of adventurers at tho time of the conquest of Egypt by Cambysos.