Religion

Van Rompay discusses Jacob of Sarug’s understanding of sin by interweaving a conversation with 4th-century Ephrem’s influence and Jacob's late 5th-century contemporary thinker, Narsai. Critical to this discussion is their assumption of Adam’s created capacities.

This paper contemplates the various means by which the Ancient Greeks preserved information about their musical history, highlighting oral/aural tradition and the transition to literacy when inscriptions could capture information in roughly datable contexts. Music history sources and motives are also examined.

Hickmann describes a 17th century work by Guaman Poma chronicling the first period of the Conquista. Details from this book are comparable to archaeological finds of musical instruments that have since disappeared. The author provides illustrations of ancient Andean instruments.

This paper contains an overview of Pre-Columbian music research between 1880 and 1920. Figures and the interdisciplinary direction of the research movement are discussed in detail. Many of these early studies remain ignored, which is a concern for music historiography.

Proceedings from the British Archaeological Association contain music studies from 150 years ago. Lawson raises a historiographical concern for these early discussions, as many of the authors are forgotten.

The pioneers who contributed towards the formative period of Scandinavian musicology (ca. 1915–1940) were highly interested in ancient music. Kolltveit describes approaches by pioneers Hammerich, Panum, Andersson, Norlind, Leden and Tveitt in their cultural, political, and academic contexts.

Lund describes the development of Scandinavian music history from 1797 with the first discovery of lurs in Denmark to the modern discipline as it is established in research during the 19th and 20th centuries. Systematic orientation came in the 1970s.

Three interpretative trends address the vision at the ratification of the Sinai covenant in Exod. 24:10. Traditions relate whether God or a throne was seen, as well as the consequences for this vision for the leaders and history of the Israelites.

This paper examines the construction of masculinity among male members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) and its underlying historical factors.

This paper examines the “muscular Christianity” phenomenon in Mel Gibson’s 2004 film The Passion of the Christ and Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 short play, “Today is Friday.”

This paper explores the Israeli Haredi community’s social construction of the male body.

In this set of homilies Ephrem (306-373) invites the reader into a world of symbolic interpretation filled with imagination brimming beneath the surface of word-plays, alliteration, and typological comparisons. These hymns thrust the reader into the middle of a context in which Christians and Jews maintain competing practices of a Passover service to the extent that Ephrem feels the need to distinguish between the symbol and the reality. These homilies are presented in their Syriac original alongside an annotated English translation.

Athas challenges the past assumptions by Book of Daniel scholars, especially with regard to the symbolism in Chapter 9. This exegesis provides a theory for chronological interpretation that includes dates for calculating the seventy weeks mentioned in Daniel's vision.

This paper explores the common misconception that vernacular translations of the Bible were not available prior to Luther. In fact, Luther may have relied on these to accomplish his own work toward what became a more preferable translation.

Christian analyzes priestly social dynamics in-depth as they develop through tribal history and specialization of tasks. He focuses on middle-tier Levites as their skills and specialized knowledge place them in upper classes but their work relegates them as intermediaries.

This article presents the ascription of physical disability as a strategy to communicate disapproval of icons in various passages of the Hebrew Bible. Idols are characterized as unable to interact with worshipers and unable to function independently.

Melilah is an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal concerned with Jewish law, history, literature, religion, culture and thought in the ancient, medieval and modern eras. Contributors (2009) include Cynthia Crewe (abstract only), Dvir Abramovich, Phillip Mendes, and Elliot Cohen.

This book examines the Old Testament language about Israel’s relationship with God in the light of Assyrian royal propaganda. Unpacking this language’s meaning in both Assyrian and biblical contexts, it shows Israel borrowed language from Assyrian vassal treaties to describe its covenant with God, and this book reveals what “covenant” meant, and that it is not “covenant” at all, but “grace.” The broader theological implications of this discovery are explored in dialogue with contemporary theologians. The book takes seriously the study of text in its ancient context in order to highlight the theological content and its modern relevance.

The Journal for Late Antique Religion and Culture (JLARC) is a peer-reviewed free-access online journal edited by members of the Cardiff Centre for Late Antique Religion and Culture (CLARC) and published by Cardiff University (http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/clarc).

The Journal for Late Antique Religion and Culture (JLARC) is a peer-reviewed free-access online journal edited by members of the Cardiff Centre for Late Antique Religion and Culture (CLARC) and published by Cardiff University (http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/clarc).

The Journal for Late Antique Religion and Culture (JLARC) is a peer-reviewed free-access online journal edited by members of the Cardiff Centre for Late Antique Religion and Culture (CLARC) and published by Cardiff University (http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/clarc).

This eclectic collection contains 16 articles on a variety of topics within Qumran Studies from a conference held in memory of the late Professor Alan Crown. Essays cover the impact of the Qumran discoveries on the study of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament to the study of the scrolls themselves and the community organizations presupposed in them, focusing as well on topics as diverse as sexuality, scribal practice and the attitude to the Temple in the scrolls.

The Sentences of the Syriac Menander appears in two Syriac manuscripts in the British Library, a full version in one codex, and a far shorter version, only a small fraction thereof, in another. This book presents a commentary on the text in its complete version focusing on parallels from both Jewish tradition and the Greco-Roman world, showing that the text is not, as it claims, the work of the Greek author Menander, but rather a work of Jewish Wisdom Literature composed in Syriac, possibly in the ancient city of Edessa itself, and preserved within Christian monastic circles.

The early Christians were not of one mind when it came to war, violence and military service. There was a bewildering variety of opinion as to how they understood their place in the world. It seems however that generally they did not stand apart from society. On the contrary, they were happy to integrate and conform and they often accepted war and service in the army as activities which did not raise specific ethical problems.

The narrative of Noah’s flood in Genesis draws perennial interest from scholars and the general public. Too often, however, historical and exegetical studies of the text, the story’s reception, and discussion of theological appropriation remain aloof from each other, if not at odds. This volume takes the influential nature of the flood story as an ideal opportunity to bring some of these methods into dialogue.