The Materiality of Power

Explorations in the Social History of Ancient Israelite Magic

by Brian B. Schmidt

Book cover: The Materiality of Power

Extent: 258 pages

Publisher: Mohr Siebeck

Subjects: Biblical Studies, Religious Studies

Series: Forschungen zum Alten Testament

Series volume number: 105

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(May 2016)

ISBN: 9783161533020

Price: $143.00

In stock

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