The Materiality of Power
Explorations in the Social History of Ancient Israelite Magic
by Brian B. Schmidt
Brian B. Schmidt presents five case studies in which architectural spaces, artifacts, epigraphs, images and biblical manuscripts corroborate the existence of a robust daimonic realm in late pre-exilic Israel, along with an embryonic pandemonium. The material and epigraphic data from Kuntillet Ajrud, Ketef Hinnom, and Khirbet el-Qom, along with the manuscript evidence from Deut 32 and 1 Sam 28, indicate that pandemonium members wreaked havoc on the living and the dead. The same data also preserve a countervailing realm of apotropaism over which YHWH and Asherah, portrayed as the quintessential protective deities Bes and Beset, governed. In addition to Asherah’s role in this realm as YHWH’s mediatrix, various other material media including amulets, inscribed blessings, decorated jars served to convey apotropaism’s empowerment to humanity.
Brian B. Schmidt presents five case studies in which architectural spaces, artifacts, epigraphs, images and biblical manuscripts corroborate the existence of a robust daimonic realm in late pre-exilic Israel, along with an embryonic pandemonium. The material and epigraphic data from Kuntillet Ajrud, Ketef Hinnom, and Khirbet el-Qom, along with the manuscript evidence from Deut 32 and 1 Sam 28, indicate that pandemonium members wreaked havoc on the living and the dead. The same data also preserve a countervailing realm of apotropaism over which YHWH and Asherah, portrayed as the quintessential protective deities Bes and Beset, governed. In addition to Asherah’s role in this realm as YHWH’s mediatrix, various other material media including amulets, inscribed blessings, decorated jars served to convey apotropaism’s empowerment to humanity.
- By (author) Brian B Schmidt
Other Titles in this Series
Der leidende Gottesknecht
Jesaja 53 und seine Wirkungsgeschichte mit einer Bibliographie zu Jesaja 53
Erzahldiskurs und Redepragmatik im Alten Testament
Unterwegs zu einer performativen Theologie der Bibel
Volume 46
The Origins of P
Literary Profiles and Strata of the Priestly Texts in Genesis 1 - Exodus 40
Volume 164
The Building of the First Temple
A Study in Redactional, Text-Critical and Historical Perspective
Volume 103
Studien zu Opfer und Kult im Alten Testament
Mit einer Bibliographie 1969-1991 zum Opfer in der Bibel
Trugende Prophetenworte
Zum Umgang mit falscher und unerfullter Prophetie im Alten Testament im Kontext altorientalischer und antiker Divination
Volume 165
Gottes himmlische Wohnstatt
Transformationen im Verhaltnis von Gott und Himmel in tempeltheologischen Entwurfen des Alten Testaments in der Exilszeit
Volume 119
The Post-Priestly Pentateuch
New Perspectives on its Redactional Development and Theological Profiles
Volume 101
Die JHWH-Religion und die Vorstellung göttlicher Gesetzgebung
Überschneidungen zwischen der Rechtsentwicklung und der Sphäre der Religion in der Geschichte des antiken Israel und Juda
Similar Books
‘For You I Study, For You I Work, For You I Live, For You I Am Ready To Even Give My Life’
Essays in Honour of Francis (Frank) J Moloney, SDB
Ars Prophetica
Theology in the Poetry of Twentieth-Century Hebrew Poets Avraham Halfi, Shin Shalom, Amir Gilboa, and T. Carmi
As Messianism Turns to Heresy
The Regenstein Chair Lectures On Lurianic Kabbalah and Shabbatai Tzevi at Hebrew Union College - Cincinnati
Athanasius of Alexandria, Epistula ad episcopos Aegypti et Libyae
Old Slavonic Version and English Translation
Volume 261
Cyril of Alexandria’s Christological Exegesis
Explorations of Partitive Exegesis in the Dialogues on the Trinity
Volume 70
Drunk the Potion, No Whit Charmed
The Doctrine of Pure and Perfect Souls from Iamblichus to Damascius
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
Extracanonical Traditions and the Holy Land
Texts, Rituals, and Material Culture in Late Antique Palestine
Fear, Fear of God, God-Fearers
Philological and Historical Perspectives on the World of Ancient Judaism and Christianity
