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.
- By (author) Brian B Schmidt
Other Titles in this Series
Prophetie und Konigtum
Eine narratologisch-historische Methodologie entwickelt an den Konigsbuchern
Volume 60
Jephtas Tochter
Traditions-, religions- und rezeptionsgeschichtliche Studien zu Richter 11,29-40
Volume 71
Book-Seams in the Hexateuch I
The Literary Transitions Between the Books of Genesis/Exodus and Joshua/Judges
Volume 120
History and the Hebrew Bible
Studies in Ancient Israelite and Ancient Near Eastern Historiography
Volume 61
Gott in Zion
Geschichte der Zionstheologien im alten Israel mit Schwerpunkten auf den Psalmen und dem Jesajabuch
Volume 181
Economics in Persian-Period Biblical Texts
Their Interactions with Economic Developments in the Persian Period and Earlier Biblical Traditions
Hiob – Vom Gottesfurchtigen zum Reprasentanten Israels
Studien zur Buchwerdung des Hiobbuches und zu seinen Quellen
Volume 70
Weisung fur Israel
Studien zu religiosem Lehren und Lernen im Deuteronomium und in seinem Umfeld
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