MICHAŁ BIENIADA

EGIPSKIE PANOWANIE W KANAANIE PÓŹNEGO OKRESU EPOKI BRĄZU – PRZYKŁAD EKONOMICZNEJ EKSPLOATACJI I POLITYCZNEGO UZALEŻNIENIA. PRÓBA SYNTEZY

 

EGYPTIAN RULES IN CANAAN OF THE LATE BRONZE AGE - AN EXAMPLE OF ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION AND POLITICAL DEPENDENCE. AN ATTEMPT OF SYNTHESIS

 

Late Bronze Age in Canaan was a period of strong political and economic dominance of Egypt. Long term economic exploitation of the land of Canaan and Egyptian policy effected in appearance and maintenance of pathological socio-economic and demographic phenomena. With the end of Egyptian rule in Canaan the system which functioned mainly thanks to its inference collapsed. The huge part of Canaan’s population which hitherto lived on a fringe of civilization as refugees and outlaws faced a new reality and new possibilities. They were the foundation of a new demographic movement which gave birth to the new ethnic identities of the Iron Age.

 

KRZYSZTOF SONEK OP

TRADYCYJNA HERMENUTYKA A WSPÓŁCZESNA KRYTYKA BIBLIJNA W ŚWIETLE RDZ 12,3

 

TRADITIONAL HERMENEUTICS AND MODERN BIBLICAL CRITICISM: A CASE STUDY OF GEN 12:3

 

Narrative theology, as exemplified in the works of Hans W. Frei, is a promising interpretive approach which helps to construct post-modern theology based on biblical narratives. It seems, however, that Frei’s approach raises serious objections to historical criticism. Do we have to enjoy the benefits of narrative theology at the expense of historical-critical approaches to biblical texts? Are there any points in common between both of them? This article offers tentative answers to the above two questions in the context of Gen 12:3. It shows that the concept of plain sense may provide an opportunity for a rapprochement between traditional and historical hermeneutics.

 

SŁAWOMIR POLOCZEK

WALKA JAHWE Z MORZEM I POTWORAMI W BIBLII HEBRAJSKIEJ. GENEZA MOTYWU

 

YAHWEH’S COMBAT WITH THE SEA AND THE MONSTERS. QUESTION OF ORIGINS

 

The article touches upon the question of the origins of the myth of Divine Combat with Sea (or Sea Monster) and its cosmological associacions. It discusses the interpretations and chronology of the ancient texts from the Middle East, Egypt, India and Greece to solve the problem of chronological priority of "Chaoskampf" motive in Indo-European or Semitic traditions. The earliest example of this myth may be found in the Mari text form the reign of Zimri-Lim. There is probably no reason to connect the image of Monsterous Sea with Proto-Indo-Europen Tradition. Another question is Sitz im Leben of the myth. Most plausible, in the light of geographical studies, is Levantine Coast of Mediterannean Sea. In could determied the origins of the Divine Combat Myth in Amorite Syria.

 

STEFAN NOWICKI
„ŠUL-UTUL, BÓG KRÓLA, NIÓSŁ LŚNIĄCY KOSZ SŁUŻĄCY DO PRACY” RELIGIA KRÓLEWSKA A RELIGIA RODZINNA W STAROŻYTNEJ MEZOPOTAMII

 

ROYAL RELIGION AND FAMILY RELIGION IN ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA

 

The aim of this article is mainly a comparison of “royal” and “family” religions in the ancient Near East. General question is the veraciousness of known textual sources, originating from urban environment. The image of a “nomad” is clear and extremely negative – an uncivilized savage, unaware of the proper religion and divine cult. Description of citizenship is completely different – citizens are noble, full of fear of gods, skilled in baking bread and brewing beer, namely – civilized. On the other hand, having plenty of proofs of close, long-lasting and quite friendly urban-nomad co-existence (chiefly in the area of trade) we are inclined to doubt in the truthfulness of cuneiform sources.

Focusing on a patron-deity as a crucial factor in such a comparison, one can notice, that this kind of god was not specific only for nomadic but also for royal as well as family beliefs. Moreover, we must acknowledge, that all known ancient Near Eastern urban societies were to all appearance – at some stage of their development – also nomadic. If such, they also should have exercised the worship of various patron deities. This opinion can be supported by studying known royal inscriptions, both Sargonic and pre-Sargonic, where the presence of various “personal” deities could be discerned. Such observation can be hardly considered established, nevertheless it creates some possibilities. Can clan god and personal religion be recognized the forefathers of polytheistic as well as monotheistic faiths, both having the same roots, but different ways and environments of development? Further study is needed for definite response (if any possible), but in my opinion the obtainment of the affirmative one is very probable.

 

JAKUB SLAWIK
STARY TESTAMENT ŚWIADECTWEM PATRIARCHALNEJ KULTURY?

 

IS THE OLD TESTAMENT A WITTNESS OF PATRIARCHAL CULTURE?

 

The paper suggests an answer to the question, how far texts the Hebrew Bible reflect patriarchal order of the society, in which the authors and readers lived. An examination of exemplary laws, which deal with the relation among men and women (Ex 22:15-16 and Dtn 22:28-29; see also Ex 20:14), and some Old Testament’s Narratives (Gen 2–3; 12,11–20; 38 etc.), which criticize the social order the patriarchal society, shows, that there is a need to distinguish types of the texts. The law texts reflect the patriarchal order of the society, while the literature in a strict meaning goes beyond a social reality. Additionally the paper deals shortly with masculine and feminine imaginations of God in the Old Testament and warns against a confusion of a tenor and a vehicle of metaphors. The Hebrew Bible does not spread the patriarchal order of the society, on the contrary it is critical of the patriarchal society.

 

MARCIN MAJEWSKI
WYROCZNIA EFODU ORAZ URIM I TUMMIM W BIBLII HEBRAJSKIEJ

 

EPHOD AND URIM AND TUMMIM ORACLE IN THE HEBREW BIBLE

 

The article discusses functioning of the oracle in ancient Israel using biblical data and informations beyond the Bible. It concentrates on two legal objects serving as oracle: ephod and urim and tummim.

 

MARIUSZ BURDAJEWICZ
OSADNICTWO W KHIRBET QUMRAN W OKRESIE ŻELAZA II

 

THE QUMRAN SETTLEMENT DURING THE IRON AGE II

 

The archaeology and history of Qumran has a long history in a heated academic discourse regarding first and foremost the Late Hellenistic – Early Roman period of the settlement, a part of which would correspond with the Essene habitation. The goal of this article is to present an overview of the available historical sources and archaeological finds concerning the somewhat neglected period of the site’s history, namely the Iron Age. The following points are discussed: the possible identification of the site in the biblical accounts, the character of the settlement and its chronology. While there is still no consensus as to the original, ancient name of the settlement, the excavator’s interpretation of the site as a military fort of the kingdom of Judah, has been questioned in recent years and some new hypothesis have been put forward. As for the chronology of the settlement, the proposal of R. de Vaux of its dating to the Iron Age II seems to be valid in general outline. The recent comparative analysis of the pottery sherds shows their very close typological affinities with the pottery assemblages coming from other, well datable strata of the sites in Judah, and from Jerusalem in particular. The close examination by the present author of the unpublished diagnostic pottery sherds from Qumran has also made possible to narrow down the date of the founding of the settlement to around the middle of the seventh century BC at the latest, and its end to not later than the Babylonian conquest of Judah and Jerusalem in 586 BC.

 

KRZYSZTOF J. BARANOWSKI
DWIE NOWE INSKRYPCJE FENICKIE Z IBIZY

 

TWO PHOENICIAN INSCRIPTIONS FROM IBIZA

 

The 2003 archaeological campaign in Puig des Molins - a Punic necropolis in Ibiza - yielded two inscriptions, both of which were published recently in a volume of studies dedicated to M. H. Fantar. The first inscription (7 th cent. B.C.E.) is a bone door-plaque inscribed with dedication to Eshmun-Melqart, a seldom attested Phoenician “double deity.” Among the text’s distinctive features is the donor’s genealogy which goes back six generations and contains rare and archaic names. The second inscription (3 rd cent. B.C.E.), engraved on the pedestal of a missing statue, is also dedicatory. The people of tg'lbn - an as yet unidentified locale - offered the statue to the Tyrian deity Melqart in the fulfillment of a vow. The two
inscriptions attest to the mosaic-like complexity of the origins of the Phoenician population of Ibiza. The first inscription contains Cypriote elements (the relative pronoun with prosthetic aleph, an a dedication to a deity attested mainly in Cyprus) while the second preserves the memory to Tyre by invoking its principal patron-deity.

 

ŁUKASZ NIESIOŁOWSKI-SPANÒ
POCHODZENIE BIBLIJNEGO HIOBA – W ZWIĄZKU Z ARTYKUŁEM KS. ANTONIEGO TRONINY

 

THE ORIGINS OF THE BIBLICAL FIGURE OF JOB, IN REGARDS OF RECENT ARTICLE BY ANTONI TRONINA

 

In the recent article rev. professor Antoni Tronina (SBO 3 [2011]) suggested a possible link between the name of the biblical figure of Job and one name attested in the Amarna archive. In the article some methodological obstacles for such identifi cation were pointed out. Furthermore, an alternative hypothesis regarding the origin of the name of Job was presented. The conviction that there are Eastern (Babylonian) origins from the sapiential traditions attested in the book of Job is well rooted in biblical scholarship; less obvious are the origins of the very name of biblical figure of Job. Every analysis rests on the importance of the most distinguishable feature of the Job story; the constant calamity of the hero, starting with the loss of his children. The same literary theme is to be found in the Greek myth about Niobe – the mother losing her children. This literary motif in both traditions is underlined by the closeness of the names of the two figures: Job – [N]iobe. These features make similarities in the two stories and their protagonists no accident. As the Niobe-myth is attested already in Homer, the origins of the story of Job within Greek tradition is advocated by the author. If the biblical fi gure of Job is to be seen as the reinterpretation of the Niobe myth the question of the date of this cultural transfer must be posed. Despite the now common 

recent scholarly habit of dating many biblical traditions to the Hellenistic period, the author advocates the Persian Period, as the possible date for this literary borrowing. He advances the idea that the literati of the Persian Period, using Aramaic as their language of literary expression, might have helped in transferring the motif or narrative character of such a suffering figure as Niobe/Job from Greek culture to the East.

 

SŁAWOMIR JĘDRASZEK
WOJOWNICZE BÓSTWO BES

 

THE WARRIOR DEITY BES

 

Among the community of deities generally worshipped in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt, Bes played a not insignificant role, equally as regards the rich variety of his iconography, and likewise in his symbolic meaning, rooted deeply in apotropaic meaning, understood in its widest sense. The unusually diverse iconography of this deity referring to his military aspects constitute a mechanism enabling an unusually broad range of contemporary interpretations, not only aimed at the attributes of the deity themselves, but enabling conclusions to be drawn regarding historical changes which took place in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt. The article is not only concerned with the iconographic genesis of the deity, but also
presents his military confi guration as one of the key elements in his iconographic development, indicating the diverse traditions present in his iconography of a military character.

 

EDWARD LIPIŃSKI
FILOZOF, IMMA SZALOM I GAMALIEL

 

THE PHILOSOPHER, IMMA SHALOM, AND GAMALIEL

 

The Treatise Shabbat 116a-b of the Baylonian Talmud contains a colourful story about a Christian Gentile, called Philosopher, about Imma Shalom and her brother Gamaliel II. The topic concerns the right of daughters to get a part of the heritage and seems to refer to the Sermon on the Mount or to its part, albeit in a shape older than the text introduced in the Gospel of Matthew 5-7. Contrary to a tendentious interpretation of the passage, the story does not aim at ridiculing the New Testament, but it shows the somewhat hesitant attitude of Gentile Christians towards the Torah at the end of the first century A.D. and the amusing reaction of their Jewish neighbours.

 

KATARZYNA MAKSYMIUK
„APOSTOŁ” ARABÓW – AHUDEMMEH. KILKA UWAG NA TEMAT SPORÓW DOKTRYNALNYCH I WIARYGODNOŚCI PRZEKAZÓW ŹRÓDŁOWYCH

 

AHUDEMMEH – “APOSTLE” OF ARABIANS. SOME REMARKS ON DOCTRINAL DISPUTES VERSUS RELIABILITY OF RECORDS

 

Ahudemmeh was a Miaphysite bishop (559) involved in missionary activity among Arab tribes in north Mesopotamia. He suffered martyr’s death approx. 575 during reign of Khosrau I Anushirvan (531-579). The present paper is an analysis of information about Ahudemmeh included in source records and coming from antagonistic (Miaphysite and Theodorian) religious milieu in the context of Christians situation in Iran in VI. Reorganisation of Theodorian church was launched in 554 and the bishop Ahudemmeh of Nineveh participated in a synod. Five years later he left the church and became a Miaphysite bishop. In conflict with Theodorians from Nisibis, Ahudemmeh gained the support of Persian king and as a result he built two monasteries in Beth ‘Arbaye. The most exhaustive source text mentioning Ahudemmeh is his biography which takes no notice of the bishop’s Theodorian past. The biography focuses on Ahudemmeh’s apostolic activity crowned by his martyr’s death and this fact enforced Khosrau’s presentation in unfavourable light. Lack of independent source records relating to baptism of king’s son and his escape to Byzantium entails rejection of authenticity of records saying about this event.

 

PIOTR MUCHOWSKI
ESSEŃCZYCY A KARAIMI: PROBLEM GENEZY KARAIZMU W WYPOWIEDZIACH KARAIMÓW POLSKICH

 

THE ESSENES AND KARAITES: THE PROBLEM OF THE GENESIS OF KARAITE JUDAISM IN THE PRONOUNCEMENTS OF POLISH KARAITES

 

The article presents an obscure page of history devoted to the discussion of this issue in the Karaite literature from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Those pronouncements can be found in works by Mordecai ben Nisan (Dod Mordekhai and Levush Malkhut), Solomon ben Aaron Troki (Sefer Apiryon) and Simha Lucki (Orah Zaddikim). The main focus of the article is on the text by Mordecai ben Nisan from Kukizov, which was written at the end of the 17 th century as a reply to a letter of professor Jacob Trigland from Leiden. The aforementioned letter was an expression of the Protestant interest in Karaites, which was due to the analogy between the Karaite separation from the Rabbanites and the Protestant from Catholics. The main theses advanced by Polish Karaites, as well as the premises which constituted their basis, were presented in this article. According to those theses, the Karaite community descended from the Jewish community of Judea of the 2 nd century B.C.E. Those statements of Polish Karaites are particularly significant in the context of ideological and religious changes which took place in eastern Europe in the 20th century and the so-called process of dejudaization.