Without a 'Soundtrack': Syntax, War Violence, and the Unheard in Judges 11:19-24, with A. Aioanei, in: A. Fry, R. Hunziker-Rodewald, A. Aioanei (ed.), Unheard Voices: Cultural Anthropological Approaches to Physical Suffering (Hebrew Bible, LXX, Quran, and Theology), AOAT 479 (35 p., in press)
Unheard Voices: Cultural Anthropological Approaches to Physical Suffering (Hebrew Bible, LXX, Quran, and Theology), ed. Fry, Hunziker-Rodewald, Aioanei, AOAT 479, 2026
With 6 tables + 4 diagrams. -
In the Hebrew Bible, the Land is presented as God-given, alloca... more With 6 tables + 4 diagrams. -
In the Hebrew Bible, the Land is presented as God-given, allocated by Yhwh to his people (Gen 17:8; Lev 20:24, etc.). The dogma of land inheritance (Gorringe 2024; Cordoni 2024) prompts inquiries into the fate of the Land’s previous inhabitants. A crucial verb used in this context is the West Semitic YRŠ/YRṮ/YRT < WRṮ with its basic meaning “to inherit” and derived senses, such as in Canaanite (Moabite, Hebrew) and Aramaic to take possession of a territory by conquest. In Hebrew ירשׁ, the spectrum of implied violence ranges from ‘low’ to ‘very high’, from appropriation, expropriation, and expulsion to extermination. The translation and therefore interpretation of these semantic nuances, associated with divinely executed or sanctioned violence towards the former landowners of the concerned territory, depends on the syntactic analysis – and on the applied ideology –, as evident in both ancient and contemporary translations. Acknowledging the direct correlation between meaning and contextual use of a lemma is widely embraced. That's why understanding the syntax at sentence as well as at text level is crucial, and this independently of modern hypotheses of authorship and redaction(s). For instance, meticulous consideration of the syntactical progression developed in Judges 11:19-23 is significant to understand the semantic aspects and the derived interpretation of ירשׁ hi. in 11:24. Neglecting text syntax and cohesion poses the peril of potentially concealing convictions that, at the very least, require our attention.
Key words: Conquest narrative, civilian population, violence, vocabulary, syntax, translation.
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Papers by Regine R . Hunziker-Rodewald
Key words: Cultural Heritage, Ancient Stone Masonry, Dadanitic Script, Pre-Islamic Arabian Language, Image Enhancement, Sacred Landscape.
Departing from reductive frameworks—Rashidi despotism on the one hand, condescending imperialism on the other—the study highlights concrete forms of knowledge co-production centered on Hâʾil.
It shows that these interactions (1876–1884) were mutually beneficial and constitute a significant precedent for contemporary transregional exchanges.
The results offer (1) a novel comparative framework; (2) a reassessment of Hâʾil’s political role; and (3) a narrative yet nonetheless methodological contribution on the cross-reading of three textual and iconographic traditions.
The methodology converts the epigraphically secure Samʾalian corpus into a semantic network or small knowledge graph in which annotated tokens, entities, and conceptual domains are linked through grammatical, ritual, legal, and spatial relations. This graph-based model then serves both to re-derive grammatical patterns and to compare Samʾalian with Luwian at the level of nodes, frames, and sub-graphs, allowing influence to be assessed as structural and conceptual overlap rather than as isolated borrowing.
Supervisor: Prof. Shabo Talay, FU Berlin
Ce thème résonne également à travers diverses interprétations artistiques : Wrestling with the Angel de Rembrandt (1659) représente la rencontre divine comme un miroir de la connexion humaine ; Jacob luttant avec l’ange de Gustave Doré (1855) exalte la force née de l’épreuve ; et La vision après le sermon de Paul Gauguin (1888) transforme l'épisode biblique en une exploration universelle de la lutte spirituelle. Ce dernier exemple d’une réception artistique du texte de Genèse 32 sera brièvement présente dans cet article.
Bibliography : Colin et alii 2024 (§15, 26) https://journals.openedition.org/baefe/11208
§ 26: "La pièce la plus importante est une jarre « torpédo » importée (AS-23-1450-1 ; catalogue G 65 ; pâte IMP torpédo 1, fine et dense, rouge pâle à cœur gris clair, contenant de nombreuses inclusions minérales de petite taille ; voir supra, chap. 3.4.1.), exceptionnelle en raison de l’inscription phénicienne qui y est peinte à l’encre noire."
The photogrammetric survey AS-2023-OBJ-4D-1 has been conducted to document the artifacts and contexts uncovered by the French Archaeological Mission in Asasif (Luxor, Egypt) and to prepare the publication.
Photographic survey Louise Guillon, photogrammetric modelling Fr. Colin, Univ. de Strasbourg, CNRS, UMR 7044 Archimède. Identification of the Amphora type Sylvie Marchand, IFAO. Identification of the Inscription Régine Hunziker-Rodewald, Univ. de Strasbourg.
Partners of the project: Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, IFAO, Univ. de Strasbourg, CNRS.
License:
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
This volume seeks to restore the multivocality of physical suffering as preserved in the Hebrew Bible, the Qurʾān, and Ancient Near Eastern sources – for example, the imagined sighs, groans, and cries at the plot’s margins. By engaging varied anthropological methods and drawing on diverse corpora, we aim to contribute to an integrative, critical reading of scriptural texts and to surface a fuller range of voices (Pedersen & Cliggett 2021), reducing bias, blind spots, and ideological narrowness.
Keywords: cultural anthropology, emotion studies, embodied experience, multivocality, balance of power
In the Hebrew Bible, the Land is presented as God-given, allocated by Yhwh to his people (Gen 17:8; Lev 20:24, etc.). The dogma of land inheritance (Gorringe 2024; Cordoni 2024) prompts inquiries into the fate of the Land’s previous inhabitants. A crucial verb used in this context is the West Semitic YRŠ/YRṮ/YRT < WRṮ with its basic meaning “to inherit” and derived senses, such as in Canaanite (Moabite, Hebrew) and Aramaic to take possession of a territory by conquest. In Hebrew ירשׁ, the spectrum of implied violence ranges from ‘low’ to ‘very high’, from appropriation, expropriation, and expulsion to extermination. The translation and therefore interpretation of these semantic nuances, associated with divinely executed or sanctioned violence towards the former landowners of the concerned territory, depends on the syntactic analysis – and on the applied ideology –, as evident in both ancient and contemporary translations. Acknowledging the direct correlation between meaning and contextual use of a lemma is widely embraced. That's why understanding the syntax at sentence as well as at text level is crucial, and this independently of modern hypotheses of authorship and redaction(s). For instance, meticulous consideration of the syntactical progression developed in Judges 11:19-23 is significant to understand the semantic aspects and the derived interpretation of ירשׁ hi. in 11:24. Neglecting text syntax and cohesion poses the peril of potentially concealing convictions that, at the very least, require our attention.
Key words: Conquest narrative, civilian population, violence, vocabulary, syntax, translation.