A vocabulary of desire : the Song of Songs in the early synagogue /
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In A Vocabulary of Desire , Laura Lieber offers a nuanced, multifaceted and highly original study of how the Song of Songs was understood and deployed by Jewish liturgical poets in Late Antiquity (ca. 4th-7th centuries CE). Through her examination of poems which embellish and even rewrite the Song of Songs, Lieber brings the creative spirit-liturgical, intellectual, and exegetical-of these poems vividly to the fore. All who are interested in the early interpretation of the Song of Songs, the ancient synagogue, early Jewish and Christian hymnography, and Judaism in Late Antiquity will find this volume both enriching and accessible. The volume consists of two interrelated halves. In the first section, four introductory essays establish the broad cultural context in which these poems emerged; in the second, each chapter consists of an analytical essay structured around a single, complete poetic cycle, presented in new Hebrew editions with annotated original English translations. \'The Hebrew text edition is accompanied by a lucid and poetic English translation with annotations and a commentary. In this excellent, scholarly text edition, the commentary is focused and to the point...This reviewer highly recommends this monograph to scholars interested in the early synagogue and its liturgy, late antique and medieval Hebrew poetry, rabbinic Judaism, and early Christianity. The book invites further comparative work in these areas.\' Rivka B. Ulmer, H-Judaic, H-Net Reviews. May, 2015.
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"This volume examines six piyyutim ... 1. An anonymous qedushta shel sheva for Passover (ca. fifth century) ; 2. A shivata for Passover by Yannai (sixth century) ; 3. A qerova for Passover by Yannai ; 4. A shivata for the Prayer for Dew by Eleazar birabbi Qallir (late sixth-early seventh century) ; 5. A qedushta for the first Sabbath following a wedding by Eleazar birabbi Qallir ; 6. A yotzer for Passover by Eleazar birabbi Qallir"--ECIP introduction. :
1 online resource (pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004278592 :
1571-5000 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
A Corpus of Syriac incantation bowls : Syriac magical texts from Late-Antique Mesopotamia /
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The Aramaic incantation bowls from Sasanian Mesopotamia are the most important source we have for studying the everyday beliefs of the Jewish, Christian, Mandaean, Manichaean, Zoroastrian and Pagan communities on the eve of the Islamic conquests. In A Corpus of Syriac Incantation Bowls , Marco Moriggi presents new editions of forty-nine Syriac incantation bowls that were originally published between 1853 and 2012, with accompanying introductions, translations, philological notes, photographs and glossaries. Furthermore, there is a detailed analysis of the Estrangela and Manichaean scripts as used on the bowls, together with newly drawn script charts. In gathering, organising and updating most of the published Syriac bowls, this book provides a valuable resource for further research into both their language and content. \'This volume is a significant contribution to the study of the Syriac incantation bowls, and it should be of great interest to scholars of 'magic' in Late Antiquity as well as to those working in Syriac language, literature, and history, since the Syriac incantation bowls are a fascinating-yet often neglected-component of the broader Syriac heritage.\' - Aaron M. Butts , The Catholic University of America - Washington D.C., JNES (October 2015) . \'Moriggi's new book will no doubt become an essential reference work for all interested in Syriac magical texts from late-antiquity. It is also an important contribution not only to our knowledge of the language of the Syriac incantation bowls, but to the whole field of Babylonian Aramaic (JBA and Mandaic).\' - Ohad Abudraham , Ben-Gurion University of the Negev - Beer Sheva, Israel, Orientalia (2015) . \'The volume certainly makes an enormous contribution to furthering studies on Syriac incantation texts, and more generally on incantation bowls. For any scholar who has an interest in incantation bowls, this work is a 'mustʼ\' - Erica C. D. Hunter , SOAS University of London, Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 113.1 (2018) .
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1 online resource (pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004272798 :
2211-016X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The craft of a good scribe. History, narrative and meaning in the 'First tale of Setne Khaemwas' /
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In The Craft of a Good Scribe , Steve Vinson offers a comprehensive study of the Demotic Egyptian First Tale of Setne Khaemwas (Third Century BCE), the first to appear since 1900. \'First Setne\' is the most important extant Demotic literary text, and among the most important fictional compositions from any period of ancient Egypt. The tale, which is by turns lurid, tragic and ultimately comic, deals with Setne's theft of a magic book written by the god Thoth himself, and subsequently Setne's punishment through a hallucinatory encounter with the ghostly femme fatale Tabubue. Vinson provides a new textual edition and commentary, and explores the tale's cultural background, its modern reception, and approaches to its interpretation as a work of literature.
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1 online resource (xiv, 356 pages) :
9789004353107 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Following the Man of Yamhad : settlement and territory at Old Babylonian Alalah /
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Legal texts recording the purchase or exchange of entire settlements are among the most important cuneiform tablets discovered at Old Babylonian/Middle Bronze Age (Level VII) Alalah. Following the Man of Yamhad is the first book-length study of these legal texts and the socio-economic practice that they document. The author explores the nature of the alienated settlements, the rights enjoyed by their owners, the underlying system of land tenure, and the larger political context in which the transactions occurred. The study is supported by extensive collations and up-to-date editions of relevant legal and administrative texts. Its conclusions will be of interest to anyone working on the history, society, and economy of the Bronze Age Near East.
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1 online resource (xv, 447 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 401-421) and indexes. :
9789004292895 :
1566-2055 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Coptic life of Aaron : critical edition, translation and commentary /
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"The Life of Aaron is one of the most interesting and sophisticated hagiographical works surviving in Coptic. The work contains descriptions of the lives of ascetic monks, in particular Apa Aaron, on the southern Egyptian frontier in the fourth and early fifth centuries, and was probably written in the sixth century. Even though the first edition of this work was already published by E.A. Wallis Budge in 1915, a critical edition remained outstanding. In this book Jitse H.F. Dijkstra and Jacques van der Vliet present not only a critical text, for the most part based on the only completely preserved, tenth-century manuscript, but also a new translation and an exhaustive commentary addressing philological, literary and historical aspects of the text".
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1 online resource. :
9789004413016
Ethnography from the mission field : the Hoffmann Collection of Cultural Knowledge /
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In Ethnography from the Mission Field: The Hoffmann Collection of Cultural Knowledge Joubert and others offer a translated and annotated edition of the 24 ethnographic articles by missionary Carl Hoffmann and his local interlocutors published between the years 1913 and 1958. The edition is introduced by a historic contextualisation using a cultural historical approach to analyse the contexts in which Hoffmann's ethnographic texts were produced. Making use of historical material and Hoffmann's own words from personal diaries and letters, the authors convincingly draw the attention to the discursive context in which the texts annotated in this book had been compiled. In a concluding chapter the book traces the captivating developments of the orthography of Northern Sotho through Hoffmann's texts over almost half a century. Brill has made the documentary film "A Journey into the Life of a Mission-Ethnographer" which is interlinked with this book available online via its online channels. To access it please click here . The digital database of the "Hoffmann Collection of Cultural Knowledge" (HC-CK) can be accessed by clicking here . It is an amalgamation of digital scans, images and video footage relating to missionary Carl Hoffmann's work and life on various mission stations, made available by the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin.
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Translation from German to English by Klaudia Ringelmann.
"The texts that were documented by Hoffmann and which are the focus of our research in this publication, were written in the Semamabolo (Mamabolo) dialect, which is close to the standardised form [of Northern Sotho]. To make these texts more accessible they have been rendered in the current official orthography in accordance with the Northern Sotho Terminology and Orthography rules No. 4 (Department of Education and Training 1988)."--Chapter 29. :
1 online resource (xxi, 1145 pages) : illustrations (some color), maps. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 1121-1127) and indexes. :
9789004297722 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
In the path of the moon : Babylonian celestial divination and its legacy /
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Celestial divination, in the form of omens from lunar, planetary, astral, and meteorological phenomena, was central to Mesopotamian cuneiform scholarship and science from the late second millennium BCE into the Hellenistic period. Beyond the boundaries of ancient Mesopotamia, the ideas, texts, and traditions of Babylonian celestial divination are traceable in Hellenistic sciences and philosophies. This collection of essays investigates features of Babylonian celestial divination with special focus on those aspects that influenced later Greco-Roman astronomy, astrology, and theories of signs. A multi-faceted collection of philological, historical, and philosophical investigations, In the Path of the Moon offers Assyriologists, Classicists, and historians of ancient science a wide-ranging series of studies unified around the theme of Babylonian celestial divination's legacy. \'The collected essays in this volume, successive steps in an ordered path, constitute an invaluable contribution to a better understanding of Babylonian divination.\' Lorenzo Verderame, \'Sapienza\' Università di Roma \'The reader interested in the multifaceted presentation of the problems related to the explanation of Babylonian celestial divination and well equipped with the knowledge of Akkadian will certainly be rewarded by the study of Rochberg's latest publication.\' Henryk Drawnel, SDB
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004189614 :
1566-7952 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Targum Song of songs and late Jewish literary Aramaic : language, lexicon, text, and translation /
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In Targum Song of Songs and Late Jewish Literary Aramaic , Andrew W. Litke offers the first language analysis of Targum Song of Songs. The Targum utilizes grammatical and lexical features from different Aramaic dialects, as is the case with other Late Jewish Literary Aramaic (LJLA) texts. The study is laid out as a descriptive grammar and glossary, and in the analysis, each grammatical feature and lexical item is compared with the pre-modern Aramaic dialects and other exemplars of LJLA. By clearly laying out the linguistic character of this Targum in this manner, Litke is able to provide added clarity to our understanding of LJLA more broadly. Litke also provides a new transcription and translation of the Paris Héb. 110 manuscript.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004393752
Audias fabulas veteres : Anatolian studies in honor of Jana Součková-Siegelová /
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The publication Audias fabulas veteres. Anatolian Studies in Honor of Jana Součková-Siegelová contains 31 contributions on current research topics in the fields of Ancient Anatolian and Near Eastern Languages, History, Religion, and Literature. The topics cover not only the main languages of this geographical area, such as Hittite, Luwian, Hattian, Hurrian, Akkadian, and Sumerian but also comparative linguistics and the latest methods of digitalising cuneiform texts, as well as religion, mythology and divinities, rituals, proverbs and analysis of geographical and historical documentation. Finally, it offers new analyses of some of the most remarkable texts and text passages of the ancient Anatolian literary tradition.
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1 online resource (xl, 518 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004312616 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Haggadah of the Kaifeng Jews of China /
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This comprehensive, textual treatment of the Kaifeng Passover Rite is a significant contribution to the ongoing discussion of the community's origins in particular and to comparative Jewish liturgy in general. The book includes a facsimile of one manuscript and a sample of the other, the full text of the Hebrew/Aramaic and Judeo-Persian Haggadah in Hebrew characters, as well as an English translation. Following a review of the community's history, sources for study, and related scholarly work conducted to date, the languages used in the Haggadah and their backgrounds are discussed in detail. Analysis of the order of the service allows for comparison of the Kaifeng Jewish community's recitation of the Passover liturgy, performance of ritual, and consumption of ceremonial food to other communities in the Jewish Diaspora. The various parts and chapters of the book, including its extensive and meticulous annotations and bibliographical references, provide much fresh and useful material for scholars and readers interested in pre-modern Jewish, Judeo-Persian and Chinese literary traditions and cultures. David Yeroushalmi, Tel Aviv University, 2015
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Includes full text of the Hebrew/Aramaic and Judeo-Persian Haggadah in Hebrew characters, with English translation and commentary. :
1 online resource (viii, 216 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004208100 :
1571-5000 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Weather omens of Enūma Anu Enlil : thunderstorms, wind and rain (tablets 44-49) /
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The Assyro-Babylonian omen series Enūma Anu Enlil , written on seventy cuneiform tablets, bears witness to the early understanding of the mutual interactions of heaven and earth on both the physical and the religious levels. To facilitate accessibility, technical and linguistic commentaries as well as an excerpt series were compiled by the scholars of old. This ancient knowledge, which was still largely characterized by mythological concepts, was never completely abandoned, not even when the 'calculating' astronomy became prevalent in the first millennium B.C. The series deals in four parts with the moon, the sun, weather phenomena, and fixed stars and planets. This book offers an edition of the texts of the second half of the weather section with the accompanying material.
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1 online resource (x, 286 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004225992 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Das Ritual der Aštu (CTH 490) : Rekonstruktion und Tradition eines hurritisch-hethitischen Rituals aus Boğazköy/Ḫattuša /
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The Ritual of Aštu, a text found at the Hittite Capital of Hattuša, shows strong influence from southern Anatolia and describes a Hurrian-Hittite ritual against witchcraft and sorcery. The following study provides detailed philological treatment of the 13th-century fragments found at Hattuša, from which the ritual is known, including transcription, translation, and commentary of all manuscripts, as well as special emphasis on the Hurrian passages of the ritual. Reconstruction of the more fragmentary sections is undertaken through comparison to other rituals. The study concludes with an analysis of Anatolian, Luwian, and Kizzuwatnaian influences evident in the ritual, and affords, in sum, valuable additions to the study of the nature of Hittite archives, and the development of ritual texts. "I firmly believe that works like this are essential to creating the dialogue that is necessary for the progress of our understanding of Hurrian. Görke's treatment of the various texts and her discussions of many aspects of the ritual will prove very useful to scholars working on Hurro-Hittite religion." Dennis R.M. Campbell, San Francisco State University
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004181182 :
1566-2055 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.