Books by anna angelini
Anna Angelini and Peter Altmann address pivotal issues on the biblical dietary prohibitions and t... more Anna Angelini and Peter Altmann address pivotal issues on the biblical dietary prohibitions and their significance as practices and texts through philological, zooarchaeological, iconographic, and comparative ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman lenses. They explore theoretical frameworks adopted in modern interpretation, possible origins in relation to ancient Israelite religion and society, and location in relation to Priestly terminology and Deuteronomic tradition. The authors expand the arc of investigation to the Second Temple reception of the prohibitions in both the Dead Sea Scrolls and Greco-Roman discourses from the first centuries CE. With their foundational studies, they provide an approach to the dietary prohibitions, opening the way for reconstructing their path of development into their present-day contexts.
Table of contents:
Preface
1. The Dietary Laws of Lev 11 and Deut 14: Introducing Their Ancient and Scholarly Contexts (Peter Altmann and Anna Angelini)
1. A Methodological View of the History of Scholarship
2. Human-Animal Relationships in Ancient Israel
3. The Hebrew Bible Context of Food and Drink Restrictions
4. Biblical Treatments of Meat Prohibitions
5. Questions for this Volume
6. Widening Horizons
2. Framing the Questions: Some Theoretical Frameworks for the Biblical Dietary Prohibitions (Peter Altmann)
1. Anthropological Terminology
2. Psychological Explanations
3. Materialist Explanations
4. Douglas and Other Structuralist Approaches to »Dirt« as Structural Anomaly
5. Synthesis
3. Traditions and Texts: The »Origins« of the Dietary Prohibitions of Lev 11 and Deut 14 (Peter Altmann)
1. Composition-Critical Concerns
2. Continuum: From »Sanctuary Ritual« to »Mundane Custom«
3. Mundane Customary Origins?
4. Sanctuary Ritual Origins?
5. The Influence of Household or Local Religion?
6. Ritual Practice and Ritual Text
7. Conclusions and a Possible Reconstruction
4. A Deeper Look at Deut 14:4-20 in the Context of Deuteronomy (Peter Altmann)
1. The Language of Deut 14:1-2, 3, 21 and 4-20
2. Abomination and Impurity in Deut 14 and Elsewhere in Deuteronomy
3. Mourning Rituals in 14:1-2 and their Link to vv. 3, 4-20
4. »You Are Children, Belonging to Yhwh Your God«
5. A Holy People and Treasured Nation: Deut 7:6; 14:2, 21; 26:18
6. The Relationship between Deut 14 and 26:12-15, 16-19
7. The Stipulations of Deut 14:21 in the context of Deut 14
8. Eating in Deut 14:1-21 in the Context of Deuteronomy 13 and 14:22-27
9. Summary
5. The Terms שׁקץ Šeqeṣ and טמא Ṭame' in Lev 11:2-23 and Deut 14:2-20: Overlapping or Separate Categories? (Peter Altmann)
1. The Usage of שׁקץ and טמא in the Rest of the Hebrew Bible and Their Relevance for Lev 11/Deut 14
2. The Usage of טמא
3. The Terms in Deut 14 and Lev 11
4. Conclusion
6. Aquatic Creatures in the Dietary Laws: What the Biblical and Ancient Eastern Contexts Contribute to Understanding Their Categorization (Peter Altmann)
1. Water Creatures from Iconography and Texts of Surrounding Regions
2. Water Creatures in Levantine Zooarchaeology and Evidence of Consumption in Biblical Texts
3. Sea Creatures in the Bible
4. Discussion of the Texts of Lev 11:9-12 and Deut 14:9-10
5. Reasons for the Prohibition?
6. Conclusions
7. A Table for Fortune: Abominable Food and Forbidden Cults in Isaiah 65-66 (Anna Angelini)
1. Introduction: Dietary Laws outside the Pentateuch and Isa 65-66
2. The References to Food in the Structure of Isa 65-66
3. Abominable Cults between Imagery and Practice
4. The Pig: A Marker for Impurity
5. The Greek Text: Sacrificing to Demons
6. Summary and Conclusions
8. Dietary Laws in the Second Temple Period: The Evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls (Anna Angelini)
1. Introduction: Food in Dead Sea Scrolls and Biblical Law
2. Methodological Remarks
3. Main Tendencies in the Dead Sea Scroll Materials Related to Food Laws
4. Animals and the Purity of the Temple
5. Summary and Conclusions: Food Laws between Discourse and Practice
9. Looking from the Outside: The Greco-Roman Discourse on the Jewish Food Prohibitions in the First and Second Centuries CE (Anna Angelini)
1. Introduction: The Origins of the Greek and Roman Traditions about Food Prohibitions
2. The Greek and Latin Witnesses on Jewish Food Prohibitions in the First Century CE
3. The Polemic Use of Jewish Dietary Prohibitions in Juvenal and Tacitus
4. Plutarch and The Philosophical Tradition
5. Conclusions
Appendix: Plutarch's Moralia, Table Talk IV, Question 5 (669 e-671c)
10. »Thinking« and »Performing« Dietary Prohibitions: Why Should One Keep Them? One Meaning or Many? (Peter Altmann)
1. Introduction
2. (Envisioned) Practice and Significance and the Myth of the Singular Explanation
3. Knowing How and When vs. Knowing Why
The Bible is one of the books that has aroused the most interest throughout history to the presen... more The Bible is one of the books that has aroused the most interest throughout history to the present day. However, there is one topic that has mostly been neglected and which today constitutes one of the most emblematic elements of the visual culture in which we live immersed: the language of colour. Colour is present in the biblical text from its beginning to its end, but it has hardly been studied, and we appear to have forgotten that the detailed study of the colour terms in the Bible is essential to understanding the use and symbolism that the language of colour has acquired in the literature that has forged European culture and art.
The objective of the present study is to provide the modern reader with the meaning of colour terms of the lexical families related to the green tonality in order to determine whether they denote only color and, if so, what is the coloration expressed, or whether, together with the chromatic denotation, another reality inseparable from colour underlies/along with the chromatic denotation, there is another underlying reality that is inseparable from colour. We will study the symbolism that/which underpins some of these colour terms, and which European culture has inherited.
This lexicographical study requires a methodology that allows us to approach colour not in accordance with our modern and abstract concept of colour, but with the concept of the ancient civilations. This is why the concept of colour that emerges from each of the versions of the Bible is studied and compared with that found in theoretical reflection in both Greek and Latin. Colour thus emerges as a concrete reality, visible on the surface of objects, reflecting in many cases, not an intrinsic quality, but their state. This concept has a reflection in the biblical languages, since the terms of colour always describe an entity (in this sense one can say that they are embodied) and include within them a wide chromatic spectrum, that is, they are mostly polysemic. Structuralism through the componential analysis, although providing interesting contributions, had at the same time serious shortcomings when it came to the study of colour. These were addressed through the theoretical framework provided by cognitive linguistics and some of its tools such as: cognitive domains, metonymy and metaphor. Our study, then, is one of the first to apply some of the contributions of cognitive linguistics to lexicography in general, and particularly with reference to the Hebrew, Greek and Latin versions of the Bible.
A further novel contribution of this research is that the meaning is expressed through a definition and not through a list of possible colour terms as happens in dictionaries or in studies referring to colour in antiquity. The definition allows us to delve deeper and discover new nuances that enrich the understanding of colour in the three great civilizations involved in our study: Israel, Greece and Rome.
https://brill.com/view/title/60741, 2021
This book offers a thorough analysis of demons in the Hebrew Bible and Septuagint in the wider co... more This book offers a thorough analysis of demons in the Hebrew Bible and Septuagint in the wider context of the ancient Near East and the Greek world. Taking a fresh and innovative angle of enquiry, Anna Angelini investigates continuities and changes in the representation of divine powers in Hellenistic Judaism, thereby revealing the role of the Greek translation of the Bible in shaping ancient demonology, angelology, and pneumatology. Combining philological and semantic analyses with a historical approach and anthropological insights, the author both develops a new method for analyzing religious categories within biblical traditions and sheds new light on the importance of the Septuagint for the history of ancient Judaism.
Le livre propose une analyse approfondie des démons dans la Bible Hébraïque et la Septante, à la lumière du Proche Orient Ancien et du contexte grec. Par un nouvel angle d’approche, Anna Angelini met en lumière dynamiques de continuité et de changement dans les représentations des puissances divines à l’époque hellénistique, en soulignant l’importance de la traduction grecque de la Bible pour la compréhension de la démonologie, de l’angélologie et de la pneumatologie antiques. En intégrant l’analyse philologique et sémantique avec une approche historique et des méthodes anthropologiques, l’autrice développe une nouvelle méthodologie pour analyser des catégories religieuses à l’intérieur des traditions bibliques et affirme la valeur de la Septante pour l’histoire du judaïsme antique.
La familiarità, legata in ultima analisi all'appartenenza culturale, non può essere un criterio d... more La familiarità, legata in ultima analisi all'appartenenza culturale, non può essere un criterio di rilevanza. Tutto il mondo è paese non vuol dire che tutto è uguale: vuol dire che tutti siamo spaesati rispetto a qualcosa e a qualcuno.
edited volumes by anna angelini
Semitica et Classica 2017, 2024
Biblical law, royal decrees and jurisdiction: linguistic and historical perspectives (Anna Angeli... more Biblical law, royal decrees and jurisdiction: linguistic and historical perspectives (Anna Angelini & Romina Vergari). The Torah of the king: negotiating royal and priestly authority in Deuteronomy 17:14-20 (Rodrigo de Sousa) The reception of God’s Torah in the Pentateuch: a preliminary study of how later sections of Numbers understood divine law (Peter Altmann) Judging measurement fraud: a comparative look at Masoretic, Septuagint, ancient Near Eastern, and ancient Greek texts (Matthias Hopf) LXX Exodus 22:4: between the Covenant code and Ptolemaic laws (Camilla Recalcati) From the “divine kiss” to the royal decree of the Lagids: πρόσταγμα, a case of vocabulary transfer in the Greek Bible (Cécile Dogniez) The Law in dialogue with the Graeco-Roman world: women’s behaviour in Philo of Alexandria’s On the special laws (Francesca Pezza)
Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 11/3, 2022
This volume presents contributions from »The Larger Context of the Biblical Food Prohibitions: Co... more This volume presents contributions from »The Larger Context of the Biblical Food Prohibitions: Comparative and Interdisciplinary Approaches« conference held in Lausanne in June, 2017. The biblical food prohibitions constitute an excellent object for comparative and interdisciplinary approaches given their materiality, their nature as comparative objects between cultures, and their nature as an anthropological object. This volume articulates these three aspects within an integrated and dynamic perspective, bringing together contributions from Levantine archaeology, ancient Near Eastern studies, and anthropological and textual perspectives to form a new, multi-disciplinary foundation for interpretation.
Comparing Animal Lexica in Ancient Cultures / Proceedings of the Conference “La lexicographie comparée des animaux dans l’antiquité. Réflexions méthodologiques et cas d’études” held at the University of Lausanne on Octobre 5, 2017
AfO 46 (1), 2019
Les animaux font l’objet d’un lexique hautement spécialisé dans les cultures de l’antiquité, dont... more Les animaux font l’objet d’un lexique hautement spécialisé dans les cultures de l’antiquité, dont la reconstruction soulève généralement des difficultés importantes. Ces difficultés tiennent à la nature des sources (notamment dans le cas des cultures qui ne nous ont pas transmis de savoir encyclopédique sur les animaux), mais également au fait que ces lexiques renvoient à des taxonomies en partie différentes de la classification zoologique moderne (de dérivation linéenne).
Cette collection se propose de reprendre ces questions dans une perspective comparatiste, à partir d’études de cas dans les différentes cultures de l’antiquité (spécifiquement, l’Egypte, la Mésopotamie, le Levant, ainsi que la Grèce et Rome). Du point de vue méthodologique, l’analyse suit un axe double, à la fois paradigmatique et syntagmatique : elle discute aussi bien les problèmes que soulève l’identification du référent zoologique d’un terme ou d’un ensemble de termes (axe paradigmatique), que la possibilité de comprendre les structures et les logiques taxonomiques dans lesquelles ce terme ou cet ensemble de termes s’inscrit (axe syntagmatique). Au final, l’objectif du volume est d’éclairer et de mieux comprendre la construction des savoirs indigènes sur les animaux dans l’antiquité, mais aussi les limites de nos reconstructions de ces savoirs.
Table des matières:
A. Angelini, C. Nihan, Introduction: Comparing Animal Lexica in Ancient Cultures
A. Guasparri, Polysemy revisited:Metaphor and Descriptiveness in Folk Animal Naming
F. G. Grassi, Uccellacci e uccellini: La liste des oiseaux de Deir ʿAlla et le lexique des animaux en araméen ancien
V. Chalendar, Classement et lexique animalier dans les sources cunéiformes
M. Vanderbeusch, Thinking and writing "Donkey" in Ancient Egypt
Papers by anna angelini
Representing Yhwh as the master of the stars in the context of ancient Near Eastern astral cults: Job, Amos, and beyond
Semitica et Classica, 2025
This article examines the representation of Yhwh as master of the stars in the books of Amos (4:1... more This article examines the representation of Yhwh as master of the stars in the books of Amos (4:13; 5:8; 9:5-6) and Job (chapters 9 and 38). These passages propose a unique divine configuration in which Yhwh is presented not only as the creator of the constellations but also as the holder of ordered cosmic knowledge, breaking with the prophetic tradition that devalued astronomy and astral cults. The analysis places these texts in the broader context of the astralization of deities in the Levant and the emergence, during the Persian period, of a theology in which divine power is expressed through the organization of the heavens. The article also highlights the cultic, sapiential, and epistemic implications of this figure of Yhwh, particularly through the confrontation between human knowledge and divine knowledge in Job 38, and in comparison with Aramaic mantic traditions. Finally, this study highlights the consequences of this representation in terms of the transformations of Israelite monotheism during the Second Temple Period, paying attention to the semantic shifts in divine attributes, especially in the epithet Sabaoth, now associated with universal sovereignty rather than with a strictly military function.
Astral cults – Job – Amos – Enoch – wisdom – divination - Sabaoth – heavenly host
Cette contribution examine la représentation de Yhwh en tant que maître des étoiles à partir des livres d’Amos (4:13 ; 5:8 ; 9:5-6) et de Job (chapitres 9 et 38). Ces passages proposent une configuration divine singulière dans laquelle Yhwh est présenté non seulement comme créateur des constellations mais aussi comme celui qui possède la connaissance des lois célestes, en rupture avec la tradition prophétique qui dévalorisait l’astronomie et les cultes astraux. L’analyse replace ces textes dans le cadre plus large de l’astralisation des divinités au Levant et réfléchis à la signification de l’émergence, à l’époque perse, d’une théologie dans laquelle le pouvoir divin s’exprime à travers l’organisation céleste. L’article met également en lumière les implications cultuelles et épistémiques de cette figuration du dieu Yhwh, notamment à travers la confrontation entre savoir humain et connaissance divine dans Job 38, en comparaison avec les traditions de sagesse et la mantique araméenne. Enfin, l’étude analyse les conséquences de cette représentation sur le plan des transformations du monothéisme israélite à l’époque du Second Temple et des glissements sémantiques des attributs divins, en particulier autour de l’épithète Sabaoth, désormais associée à la souveraineté universelle plutôt qu’à une fonction strictement militaire.
Cultes astraux – Job – Amos – Hénoch – sagesse – divination - Sabaoth – armées célestes
The Language of Colour in the Bible
Piccole curiosità delle religioni antiche, ed. Ginevra Benedetti e Francesca Prescendi, Firenze University Press, https://books.fupress.com/catalogue/piccole-curiosit-delle-religioni-antiche-un-approccio-antropologico/16103, 2025
This essay explores the various attitudes which Greek and Latin authors assumed toward the Jewish... more This essay explores the various attitudes which Greek and Latin authors assumed toward the Jewish food prohibitions, in the Greek and especially Roman context between the 2nd century BCE and the 2nd century CE. Such attitudes vary from simple curiosity, to mockery, to strong critique, without excluding some fascination toward what was perceived as one of the most representative features of the Jewish religion. The analysis examines the primary historical, social, and cultural contexts in which a discourse on Jewish food prohibitions emerged in classical literature and the responses to such discourse offered by Jewish-Hellenistic authors. The interpretation goes beyond the traditional political or identitarian readings of these passages. It highlights the potential of discourses regarding animals (and animal consumption) to foster intellectual and intercultural engagement in ancient religions and philosophies.
Biblical Law, Royal Decrees and Jurisdiction: Linguistic and Historical Perspectives
Semitica et Classica 17, 2024
This introductory essay sets the research topics addressed in this volume, namely the study of th... more This introductory essay sets the research topics addressed in this volume, namely the study of the processes of adaptation and rewriting of law in the Hebrew Bible, in the Septuagint and in the broader context of the legal traditions of the ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman milieu. It highlights, moreover, the potential that a contrastive analysis of different corpora (especially the Septuagint and Judeo-Hellenistic literature), provides to this line of research, considering that in this period not only the Jews had to deal with foreign powers and different legal systems, both in Judea and in the diaspora, but also that the question of the type of authority exercised by Jewish law became increasingly central and salient in the discourse of its interpreters. Finally, it examines the specific contribution of each article to the set research questions.
S. Lazaris, S. Aragon (ed), Identification des espèces animales de l'antiquité à nos jours, Valenciennes, Presses Universitaires de Valenciennes , 2025
The nomenclature of large predators is quite rich in ancient Hebrew, especially with regard to th... more The nomenclature of large predators is quite rich in ancient Hebrew, especially with regard to the names for “lion” (’aryēh; lāby’; šaḥal; layiš; kǝpîr; gûr). In Hebrew poetry, where references to large predators are mostly concentrated, the lion is often mentioned together with the leopard (nāmer) or with the bear (dōb / dôb). Such a vocabulary allows the reconstruction of the behavioural patterns associated with these animals, of their relationship with specific environments and, to a certain extent, of a relative taxonomy. Translations of these names in the ancient versions show a variety of tendencies. Although ancient renderings are quite consistent, the lexicon employed nonetheless reveals a certain degree of interpretation. While some interpretations can be justified by textual difficulties, they might also reflect different zoological patterns or a variation in landscape. This paper reconstructs the history of identifying a number of “biblical” predators in antiquity. It analyzes the lexicon of feline carnivores in the Hebrew Bible and its ancient translations, with a focus on the renderings in the Septuagint, which will be examined against the background of Greco-Roman zoology. Readings from the Peshitta, the Targum and the Vulgate are also included to enlarge the comparative perspective.
Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, 2024
This article analyses the semantics of εἴδωλον, εἰκών, and ὁμοίωμα in the LXX in light of Greek l... more This article analyses the semantics of εἴδωλον, εἰκών, and ὁμοίωμα in the LXX in light of Greek literary and documentary evidence. By addressing the issue of the relationship between the vocabulary of images and the vocabulary of idols, (1) it deconstructs some oppositions inherited from early Christian interpretations of biblical passages (especially regarding Genesis 1). Moreover (2) it shows the interest of including evidence from the LXX in a broader discussion on the role of visual representation in antiquity.
C. Bonnet et al. (eds.), What’s in a Divine Name? Religious Systems and Human Agency in the Ancient Mediterranean, 2024
One of the major changes with regard to the transition of ancient Israelite religion into Early J... more One of the major changes with regard to the transition of ancient Israelite religion into Early Judaism is the transformation of Yhwh from being the patron god of Israel, enthroned in Jerusalem, to being a universal (and invisible) deity residing in heaven. The first part of this paper surveys how the study of divine onomastic attrib-utes has been approached by Septuagint scholarship, highlighting how this corpus crucially attests to a reconfiguration of Yhwh’s power and status, but also pointingout some methodological shortcomings which emerged in past research. The second part of the paper seeks to provide a new framework for the study of divine onomastic attributes in the Septuagint. Paying attention to the relationship between divine name and embodiment, it correlates the deterritorialisation process of Yhwh, as attested by the onomastic attributes, with broader issues concerning the conditions, forms and limits of experiencing the divine presence in cultic contexts.
Revue de Théologie et de Philosophie, 2022
The first part of this article offers selected comments on the articles found in the
present vol... more The first part of this article offers selected comments on the articles found in the
present volume. It then discusses key issues in regard to the epistemological paradigms
used in the study of the relationship between animals and ancient religions and seeks
to identify some perspectives for further research on this topic.
Divine Names from the Hebrew Bible to the Septuagint: Methodological Remarks and a Case Study
HeBAI 11/3, 2022
Focusing on the translation of Shadday as a test case, this paper advances a methodology to appr... more Focusing on the translation of Shadday as a test case, this paper advances a methodology to approach the study of divine names and epithets in ancient Jewish traditions. Unlike other divine epithets, the renderings of Shadday in Greek are divergent and inconsistent, although some patterns can be detected. The fact that the epithet was probably received as a divine attribute by translators with a blurred knowledge of its etymological meaning made room for multiple strategies of translation, each of which highlights a different aspect of the power of the deity. The comparison with the available Greek epigraphical evidence and the large distribution of the epithet throughout the biblical books allows us to identify a tension between the tendency to standardize the renderings (attested, for example, in the Pentateuch), and the certain degree of variety (witnessed in books such as Psalms and Job), which requires an explanation. More generally, the treatment of the title »Shadday« seems to call for new models for understanding the relationship between divine names and divine attributes both in the Hebrew Bible and in the Septuagint.
In G. Lenzo, C. Nihan, M. Pellet (eds), Les cultes aux rois et aux héros à l'époque hellénistique: continuités et changements, Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, 2022
In this essay I examine some of the evidence for the cult of Heracles in the Hellenistic period. ... more In this essay I examine some of the evidence for the cult of Heracles in the Hellenistic period. The spread of the cult of Heracles throughout the Mediterranean makes it an ideal case for studying cultic changes in Hellenistic times and can be explained, among other factors, by Heracles « malleability » and by his status as both hero and god. I first examine (1) the role of Heracles in royal and Hellenistic cult. The genealogical dimension – claiming Heracles as a royal ancestor- is but one aspect of a multifaced strategy which plays upon the twofold nature of Heracles as a god and as a hero, these two aspects being perceived as complementary rather than mutually exclusive. Then I analyze some examples documenting the (2) “translations” of the god into local deities across the Mediterranean. I focus on his association with Melqart in Tyre, Carthage and Gades; (3) on the development of his cult as a sea-god and (4) on selected evidence for the cult of Heracles in ANE (Hatra and Palmyra). These examples allow highlighting the internal differences regarding the balance between Greek and Phoenician/Punic or Greek and “Near eastern” components. They show that the developments of the cults to Heracles in the Hellenistic Mediterranean does not simply reflect the imposition of Greek elements on non-Greek cultures: hence it cannot be simply described as “assimilation” or “syncretism”, but involves more complex negotiations of religious, cultural and even esthetic nature.
Review of: The SBL commentary on the Septuagint: an introduction, Septuagint and Cognate Studies. Dirk Büchner (ed.). Atlanta: SBL Press, 2017
SBL Central, Mar 12, 2020
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Books by anna angelini
Table of contents:
Preface
1. The Dietary Laws of Lev 11 and Deut 14: Introducing Their Ancient and Scholarly Contexts (Peter Altmann and Anna Angelini)
1. A Methodological View of the History of Scholarship
2. Human-Animal Relationships in Ancient Israel
3. The Hebrew Bible Context of Food and Drink Restrictions
4. Biblical Treatments of Meat Prohibitions
5. Questions for this Volume
6. Widening Horizons
2. Framing the Questions: Some Theoretical Frameworks for the Biblical Dietary Prohibitions (Peter Altmann)
1. Anthropological Terminology
2. Psychological Explanations
3. Materialist Explanations
4. Douglas and Other Structuralist Approaches to »Dirt« as Structural Anomaly
5. Synthesis
3. Traditions and Texts: The »Origins« of the Dietary Prohibitions of Lev 11 and Deut 14 (Peter Altmann)
1. Composition-Critical Concerns
2. Continuum: From »Sanctuary Ritual« to »Mundane Custom«
3. Mundane Customary Origins?
4. Sanctuary Ritual Origins?
5. The Influence of Household or Local Religion?
6. Ritual Practice and Ritual Text
7. Conclusions and a Possible Reconstruction
4. A Deeper Look at Deut 14:4-20 in the Context of Deuteronomy (Peter Altmann)
1. The Language of Deut 14:1-2, 3, 21 and 4-20
2. Abomination and Impurity in Deut 14 and Elsewhere in Deuteronomy
3. Mourning Rituals in 14:1-2 and their Link to vv. 3, 4-20
4. »You Are Children, Belonging to Yhwh Your God«
5. A Holy People and Treasured Nation: Deut 7:6; 14:2, 21; 26:18
6. The Relationship between Deut 14 and 26:12-15, 16-19
7. The Stipulations of Deut 14:21 in the context of Deut 14
8. Eating in Deut 14:1-21 in the Context of Deuteronomy 13 and 14:22-27
9. Summary
5. The Terms שׁקץ Šeqeṣ and טמא Ṭame' in Lev 11:2-23 and Deut 14:2-20: Overlapping or Separate Categories? (Peter Altmann)
1. The Usage of שׁקץ and טמא in the Rest of the Hebrew Bible and Their Relevance for Lev 11/Deut 14
2. The Usage of טמא
3. The Terms in Deut 14 and Lev 11
4. Conclusion
6. Aquatic Creatures in the Dietary Laws: What the Biblical and Ancient Eastern Contexts Contribute to Understanding Their Categorization (Peter Altmann)
1. Water Creatures from Iconography and Texts of Surrounding Regions
2. Water Creatures in Levantine Zooarchaeology and Evidence of Consumption in Biblical Texts
3. Sea Creatures in the Bible
4. Discussion of the Texts of Lev 11:9-12 and Deut 14:9-10
5. Reasons for the Prohibition?
6. Conclusions
7. A Table for Fortune: Abominable Food and Forbidden Cults in Isaiah 65-66 (Anna Angelini)
1. Introduction: Dietary Laws outside the Pentateuch and Isa 65-66
2. The References to Food in the Structure of Isa 65-66
3. Abominable Cults between Imagery and Practice
4. The Pig: A Marker for Impurity
5. The Greek Text: Sacrificing to Demons
6. Summary and Conclusions
8. Dietary Laws in the Second Temple Period: The Evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls (Anna Angelini)
1. Introduction: Food in Dead Sea Scrolls and Biblical Law
2. Methodological Remarks
3. Main Tendencies in the Dead Sea Scroll Materials Related to Food Laws
4. Animals and the Purity of the Temple
5. Summary and Conclusions: Food Laws between Discourse and Practice
9. Looking from the Outside: The Greco-Roman Discourse on the Jewish Food Prohibitions in the First and Second Centuries CE (Anna Angelini)
1. Introduction: The Origins of the Greek and Roman Traditions about Food Prohibitions
2. The Greek and Latin Witnesses on Jewish Food Prohibitions in the First Century CE
3. The Polemic Use of Jewish Dietary Prohibitions in Juvenal and Tacitus
4. Plutarch and The Philosophical Tradition
5. Conclusions
Appendix: Plutarch's Moralia, Table Talk IV, Question 5 (669 e-671c)
10. »Thinking« and »Performing« Dietary Prohibitions: Why Should One Keep Them? One Meaning or Many? (Peter Altmann)
1. Introduction
2. (Envisioned) Practice and Significance and the Myth of the Singular Explanation
3. Knowing How and When vs. Knowing Why
The objective of the present study is to provide the modern reader with the meaning of colour terms of the lexical families related to the green tonality in order to determine whether they denote only color and, if so, what is the coloration expressed, or whether, together with the chromatic denotation, another reality inseparable from colour underlies/along with the chromatic denotation, there is another underlying reality that is inseparable from colour. We will study the symbolism that/which underpins some of these colour terms, and which European culture has inherited.
This lexicographical study requires a methodology that allows us to approach colour not in accordance with our modern and abstract concept of colour, but with the concept of the ancient civilations. This is why the concept of colour that emerges from each of the versions of the Bible is studied and compared with that found in theoretical reflection in both Greek and Latin. Colour thus emerges as a concrete reality, visible on the surface of objects, reflecting in many cases, not an intrinsic quality, but their state. This concept has a reflection in the biblical languages, since the terms of colour always describe an entity (in this sense one can say that they are embodied) and include within them a wide chromatic spectrum, that is, they are mostly polysemic. Structuralism through the componential analysis, although providing interesting contributions, had at the same time serious shortcomings when it came to the study of colour. These were addressed through the theoretical framework provided by cognitive linguistics and some of its tools such as: cognitive domains, metonymy and metaphor. Our study, then, is one of the first to apply some of the contributions of cognitive linguistics to lexicography in general, and particularly with reference to the Hebrew, Greek and Latin versions of the Bible.
A further novel contribution of this research is that the meaning is expressed through a definition and not through a list of possible colour terms as happens in dictionaries or in studies referring to colour in antiquity. The definition allows us to delve deeper and discover new nuances that enrich the understanding of colour in the three great civilizations involved in our study: Israel, Greece and Rome.
Le livre propose une analyse approfondie des démons dans la Bible Hébraïque et la Septante, à la lumière du Proche Orient Ancien et du contexte grec. Par un nouvel angle d’approche, Anna Angelini met en lumière dynamiques de continuité et de changement dans les représentations des puissances divines à l’époque hellénistique, en soulignant l’importance de la traduction grecque de la Bible pour la compréhension de la démonologie, de l’angélologie et de la pneumatologie antiques. En intégrant l’analyse philologique et sémantique avec une approche historique et des méthodes anthropologiques, l’autrice développe une nouvelle méthodologie pour analyser des catégories religieuses à l’intérieur des traditions bibliques et affirme la valeur de la Septante pour l’histoire du judaïsme antique.
edited volumes by anna angelini
Cette collection se propose de reprendre ces questions dans une perspective comparatiste, à partir d’études de cas dans les différentes cultures de l’antiquité (spécifiquement, l’Egypte, la Mésopotamie, le Levant, ainsi que la Grèce et Rome). Du point de vue méthodologique, l’analyse suit un axe double, à la fois paradigmatique et syntagmatique : elle discute aussi bien les problèmes que soulève l’identification du référent zoologique d’un terme ou d’un ensemble de termes (axe paradigmatique), que la possibilité de comprendre les structures et les logiques taxonomiques dans lesquelles ce terme ou cet ensemble de termes s’inscrit (axe syntagmatique). Au final, l’objectif du volume est d’éclairer et de mieux comprendre la construction des savoirs indigènes sur les animaux dans l’antiquité, mais aussi les limites de nos reconstructions de ces savoirs.
Table des matières:
A. Angelini, C. Nihan, Introduction: Comparing Animal Lexica in Ancient Cultures
A. Guasparri, Polysemy revisited:Metaphor and Descriptiveness in Folk Animal Naming
F. G. Grassi, Uccellacci e uccellini: La liste des oiseaux de Deir ʿAlla et le lexique des animaux en araméen ancien
V. Chalendar, Classement et lexique animalier dans les sources cunéiformes
M. Vanderbeusch, Thinking and writing "Donkey" in Ancient Egypt
Papers by anna angelini
Astral cults – Job – Amos – Enoch – wisdom – divination - Sabaoth – heavenly host
Cette contribution examine la représentation de Yhwh en tant que maître des étoiles à partir des livres d’Amos (4:13 ; 5:8 ; 9:5-6) et de Job (chapitres 9 et 38). Ces passages proposent une configuration divine singulière dans laquelle Yhwh est présenté non seulement comme créateur des constellations mais aussi comme celui qui possède la connaissance des lois célestes, en rupture avec la tradition prophétique qui dévalorisait l’astronomie et les cultes astraux. L’analyse replace ces textes dans le cadre plus large de l’astralisation des divinités au Levant et réfléchis à la signification de l’émergence, à l’époque perse, d’une théologie dans laquelle le pouvoir divin s’exprime à travers l’organisation céleste. L’article met également en lumière les implications cultuelles et épistémiques de cette figuration du dieu Yhwh, notamment à travers la confrontation entre savoir humain et connaissance divine dans Job 38, en comparaison avec les traditions de sagesse et la mantique araméenne. Enfin, l’étude analyse les conséquences de cette représentation sur le plan des transformations du monothéisme israélite à l’époque du Second Temple et des glissements sémantiques des attributs divins, en particulier autour de l’épithète Sabaoth, désormais associée à la souveraineté universelle plutôt qu’à une fonction strictement militaire.
Cultes astraux – Job – Amos – Hénoch – sagesse – divination - Sabaoth – armées célestes
present volume. It then discusses key issues in regard to the epistemological paradigms
used in the study of the relationship between animals and ancient religions and seeks
to identify some perspectives for further research on this topic.