Entre dieux et hommes : anges, démons et autres figures intermédiaires
Actes du colloque organisé par le Collège de France, Paris, les 19 et 20 mai 2014
Edited by Thomas Römer Edited by Bertrand Dufour Edited by Fabian Pfitzmann Edited by Christoph Uehlinger
Hardback (Published)
(October 2017)
ISBN: 9783525544112
6.34 x 9.25 inches
Price: $138.00
In stock
It has long been an important issue for many religions, both ancient and modern, to imagine and question the differences between humans and deities as well as their means to communicate between each other. Ancient Near Eastern texts and iconography conceive this relationship in more than binary terms (i.e., human vs. divine): they presume the existence of various intermediate and often liminal entities, whom scholars have usually classified in terms of “angels”, “demons”, “heroes” etc. According to ancient belief, such beings (some anonymous, others named such as Pazuzu, Azazel, Gabriel, Metatron, or Satan…) could take over roles that were considered as unfitting for the gods themselves; they could act as messengers and intermediaries, or in contrast even rival the gods. The dead (or at least the prominent among the deceased, such as kings or prophets) could be considered as intermediates in their own right, since they were thought to have special knowledge of a sphere that the living could only imagine imperfectly. To keep such entities at a distance or to satisfy them and gain their sympathy could at times prove no less challenging than to serve the gods. On the other hand, imagining those entities helped ancient societies and individuals, and particularly the literary elites among them, to manage and structure the contingencies of the world they lived in. The present volume offers the proceedings of an international symposium, organized by the chair of Milieux Bibliques and held at the College de France on 19-20 May 2014, dealing with intermediate beings as imagined in ancient Near Eastern societies and reflected in their textual and visual records. The aim was to get a better sense of how such entities were conceived, what roles they were attributed and what functions they fulfilled in culture and society, religion and literature, ritual and belief. The contributions scrutinize cuneiform and other ancient Near Eastern texts, as well as biblical literature, in order to understand ancient Mesopotamian, Levantine and Israelite conceptions of human-divine hybrids and intermediaries; other papers address ancient Egyptian, Jewish, Manichaean, Christian, Zoroastrian, and Islamic sources and beliefs. In all their variety, and in the variety of the numinous figures (collectives or individuals, anonymous or named) that are analyzed, these studies provide vivid insights into how the ancients experienced and modeled the reality they lived in when mobilizing human-divine intermediates for their own concerns.
Dr. theol. Thomas Römer is Professeur for Hebrew Bible at the Department of Theology and for Religious Studies at the University of Lausanne.
- Edited by Thomas Römer
- Edited by Bertrand Dufour
- Edited by Fabian Pfitzmann
- Edited by Christoph Uehlinger
Other Titles in this Series
Anfänge der ägyptischen Kunst
Eine problemgeschichtliche Einführung in ägyptologische Bild-Anthropologie
Le peuple aux trois noms
Une histoire de l'ancien Israël à travers le prisme de ses ethnonymes
Volume 298
Représenter dieux et hommes dans le Proche-Orient ancien et dans la Bible
Actes du colloque organisé par le Collège de France, Paris, les 5 et 6 mai 2015
Volume 287
Formen für ägyptische Fayencen aus Qantir Band II
Katalog der Sammlung des Franciscan Biblical Museum, Jerusalem und zweier Privatsammlungen
What Is Stronger than a Lion?
Leonine Image and Metaphor in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East
Goddesses in Context
On Divine Powers, Roles, Relationships and Gender in Mesopotamian Textual and Visual Sources
The Awakening of Osiris and the Transit of the Solar Barques
Royal Apotheosis in a Most Concise Book of the Underworld and Sky
L’Ecrit et l’Esprit
Etudes d’Histoire du texte et de théologie biblique en hommage à Adrian Schenker
Eine königliche Weisheitslehre?
Exegetische Analyse von Sprüche 28-29 und Vergleich mit den ägyptischen Lehren Merikaras und Amenemhats
Göttliche Körper – Göttliche Gefühle
Was leisten anthropomorphe und anthropopathische Götterkonzepte im Alten Orient und Alten Testament?
Architecture, Iconography, and Text
New Studies on the Northwest Palace Reliefs of Ashurnasirpal II
Volume 301
Comment devient-on prophète?
Actes du colloque organisé par le Collège de France, Paris, les 4-5 avril 2011
Wortschöpfung
Die Memphitische Theologie und die Siegesstele des Pije - zwei Zeugen kultureller Repräsentation in der 25. Dynastie
Volume 243
From Most Ancient Sources
The Nature and Text-Critical Use of the Greek Old Testament Text of the Complutensian Polyglot Bible
When Gods Speak to Men
Divine Speech according to Textual Sources in the Ancient Mediterranean Basin
Volume 289
Les fluides corporels en Égypte et au Proche-Orient anciens
Actes du colloque organisé à l'Université Paul-Valéry, Montpellier, 5-7 septembre 2019
Volume 309
Similar Books
Apocrypha, Magic, Liturgy
The Multiple Identities of Coptic Prayers in Late Antique and Early Islamic Egypt
Athanasius of Alexandria, Epistula ad episcopos Aegypti et Libyae
Old Slavonic Version and English Translation
Volume 261
Boğazköy Tablets in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations (Bo 9032–Bo 9097)
Anadolu Medeniyetleri Müzesinde Bulunan Boğazköy Tabletleri (Bo 9032–Bo 9097)
Volume 4
Connecting the Dots: Counting, Writing, and the Beginnings of Civilization
The Secret Lives of Clay Tokens: A Memoir
Contesting Labeled Identities
The Sociology of Gentilics in Biblical and Northwest Semitic Literature
Curating the Prehistoric Past
Studies on West Asian Archaeology and Beyond in Honour of Yoshihiro Nishiaki
Cyril of Alexandria’s Christological Exegesis
Explorations of Partitive Exegesis in the Dialogues on the Trinity
Volume 70
Epiphanies of the Divine in the Septuagint and the New Testament
Fifth International Symposium of the Corpus Judaeo-Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti (CJHNT), 14-17 May 2015, Nottingham
Exploring Gender Dynamics across the Ancient Near East
Collected Essays of Gender and Methodology in the Ancient Near East (GeMANE) 4 and 5
Volume 7
Extracanonical Traditions and the Holy Land
Texts, Rituals, and Material Culture in Late Antique Palestine
From Joseph to Jesus
The Joseph Narrative as a Compositional Template from Old Greek Esther to the Gospel of Luke
Volume 125
Ḫattušaš utnē išḫameški
Hittite and Other Ancient Near Eastern Studies Presented to Piotr Taracha on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday
