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Book Cover
E-book
Author Albertz, Rainer, 1943-

Title Family and household religion in ancient Israel and the Levant / Rainer Albertz and Rüdiger Schmitt
Published Winona Lake, Ind. : Eisenbrauns, 2012

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Description 1 online resource (xxi, 696 pages) : illustrations
Contents Contents -- List of Figures -- Preface -- Abbreviations General -- Reference Works -- Chapter 1 Introduction -- 1.1.�History of research -- 1.2.�Interdisciplinary approach and temporal limitations of the subject -- 1.3.�The structure of the present book -- Chapter 2 Methodological Reflections -- 2.1.�Problems of modern and biblical terminology -- 2.2.�The problem of living space in domestic buildings -- 2.3.�Overcoming the discrepancy between the archaeological evidence and the biblical ideal
2.4.�Relations between different types of family households and to additional kin2.5.�Conclusions for reconstructing the Israelite family and household religion -- 2.6.�Religious-historical concepts regarding family religion -- 2.7.�Family and household religion within the religion of Israel -- Chapter 3 Elements of Domestic Cult in Ancient Israel -- 3.1.�Methodology -- 3.2.�Diagnostic objects and cult patterns -- 3.3.�Domestic cultic assemblages in Iron Age Judah and Israel -- 3.4.�Patterns of domestic cult activities in Iron Age Israel and Judah
3.5.�Comparative data from sites outside Israel and JudahChapter 4 Typology of Iron Age Cult Places -- 4.1.�Domestic cult: The house as space for ritual activities (Type IA) -- 4.2.�Domestic shrines (Type IB) -- 4.3.�Patterns of cult places outside the domestic realm -- 4.4.�Conclusions -- Chapter 5 Personal Names and Family Religion -- 5.1.�Introductory questions -- 5.2.�Religious beliefs expressed in Hebrew personal names -- 5.3.�Family beliefs related to the conduct of everyday life -- 5.4.�The deities venerated in family religion
5.5.�Iconographic evidence for iconic stamp seals serving personal piety and family religion (R. Schmitt)Chapter 6 Rites of Family and Household Religion -- 6.1.�Introduction -- 6.2.�Rites and rituals associated with the cycle of human life -- 6.3.�Rites, rituals, and observances set by the calendar -- 6.4.�Occasional rituals -- 6.5.�Taboos and other observances -- 6.6.�Family rites and rituals and their significance for the symbolic system of the family -- Chapter 7 Care for the Dead in the Context of the Household and Family -- 7.1.�Introduction
7.2.�Status of the dead7.3.�Mourning the dead -- 7.4.�Burying the dead -- 7.5.�Feeding the dead and other forms of post-mortem care for the dead -- 7.6.�Commemorating the dead -- 7.7.�Interrogating the dead -- 7.8.�Summary and conclusions: The functions of mortuary rites in the context of family and household religion -- Chapter 8 Summary -- 8.1.�Research history -- 8.2.�Methodology -- 8.3.�Archaeological evidence for domestic religious practices -- 8.4.�Typology of cult places outside the domestic realm
Summary It details family religious beliefs as expressed in the almost 3,000 individual Hebrew personal names that have so far been recorded in epigraphic and biblical material. The Hebrew onomasticon is further compared with 1,400 Ammonite, Moabite, Aramean, and Phoenician names. These data encompass the vast majority of known Hebrew personal names and a substantial sample of the names from surrounding cultures. In this impressive compilation of evidence, the authors describe the variety of rites performed by families at home, at a neighborhood shrine, or at work. Burial rituals and the ritual care for the dead are examined. A comprehensive bibliography, extensive appendixes, and several helpful indexes round out the masterful textual material to form a one-volume compendium that no scholar of ancient Israelite religion and archaeology can afford not to own
Archaeologists have worked to illuminate many aspects of this family religion as enacted by and related to the nuclear family unit and have found evidence that domestic cults were more important in Israel than has previously been understood. One might even conceive of every family as having actively partaken in ritual activities within its domestic environment.Family and Household Religion in Ancient Israel and the Levant analyzes the appropriateness of the combined term family and household religion and identifies the types of family that existed in ancient Israel on the basis of both literary and archaeological evidence. Comparative evidence from Iron Age Philistia, Transjordan, Syria, and Phoenicia is presented. This monumental book presents a typology of cult places that extends from domestic cults to local sanctuaries and state temples.
During the past several decades, family and household religion has become a topic of Old Testament scholarship in its own right, fed by what were initially three distinct approaches: the religious-historical approach, the gender-oriented approach, and the archaeological approach. The first pursues answers to questions of the commonality and difference between varieties of family religion and describes the household and family religions of Mesopotamia, Syria/Ugarit, Israel, Philistia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Gender-oriented approaches also contribute uniquely important insights to family and household religion. Pioneers of this sort of investigation show that, although women in ancient Israelite societies were very restricted in their participation in the official cult, there were familial rituals performed in domestic environments in which women played prominent roles, especially as related to fertility, childbirth, and food preparation.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and indexes
Notes Print version record
SUBJECT Bible. Old Testament -- Antiquities
Bible. Old Testament fast
Subject Jewish families -- Conduct of life -- History -- To 70 A.D
Jews -- Social life and customs -- To 70 A.D.
Families -- Biblical teaching.
Families -- Religious aspects -- Judaism -- To 70 A.D
Families -- Palestine -- History -- To 70 A.D
RELIGION -- Judaism -- History.
Antiquities
Families
Families -- Biblical teaching
Families -- Religious aspects -- Judaism
Jewish families -- Conduct of life
Jews -- Social life and customs
Manners and customs
SUBJECT Palestine -- Social life and customs -- To 70 A.D. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85097184
Subject Middle East -- Palestine
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
Author Schmitt, Rüdiger
ISBN 9781575066684
1575066688