bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Moses and a Prophet Like Moses in Deuteronomy
Authors: Cook Stephen L.
Published: January 2021

This chapter critically examines the literary figure of Moses in Deuteronomy, particularly the book’s directive that Mosaic prophecy have an ongoing place in Israel (18:15–22). It begins by examining Moses as Deuteronomy’s distinctive persona, YHWH’s covenant mediator able to present a veritable divine voice to the reader. It then turns to Deuteronomy’s vision of leadership in an ideal Israel, including official prophetic leadership. Deuteronomy promises a Mosaic prophet for each new generation, a prophet who will stand among YHWH’s heavenly confidants and directly hear YWHW’s will for communication to Israel. It surveys the employment of the Mosaic paradigm in the Tetrateuch (Gen, Exod, Lev, Num), in the Former Prophets (Josh, Judg, 1-2 Sam, 1-2 Kgs) or Deuteronomistic History (Deut, Josh, Judg, 1-2 Sam, 1-2 Kgs), and in the Latter Prophets (Isa, Jer, Ezek, Hos, Joel, Amos, Obad, Jonah, Mic, Nah, Hab, Zeph, Hag, Zech, and Mal). Biblical figures of special interest include Deborah, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, Hosea, Huldah, Jeremiah, and Malachi. Taken together, the evidence examined shows that the core elements of Mosaic prophecy predate Deuteronomy and are amply attested in the pre-exilic prophets, mostly in those prophets oriented on the Sinai covenant.
Priests, Levites, and Levitical Priests in Deuteronomy
Authors: MacDonald Nathan
Published: January 2021

The presentation of the priests, Levites, and levitical priests in Deuteronomy is one of the most intractable problems in a complex and much discussed biblical book. This chapter reviews some of the most important scholarship on the issue and demonstrates why attempts to solve the problem by appeal to texts elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible is problematic and highly speculative. However, attempts to resolve the problems through synchronic readings of Deuteronomy or by assimilating Deuteronomy’s portrayal to the priestly literature overlook important textual details. The most satisfactory solutions recognize the complex development of the book of Deuteronomy and the limits of our knowledge about the early history of the Levites.
The C-Group People in Lower Nubia
Authors: Hafsaas Henriette
Published: January 2021

This article reviews the research on the C-Group people—inhabitants of Lower Nubia between 2500 and 1500 bce. The C-Group people were cattle pastoralists of multiple origins that formed their ethnic identity after contact with Egyptians. Interethnic relations between the Egyptians and the C-Group people are examined in a diachronic perspective that sorts out periods of both peaceful exchange and violent conflict. The article also emphasizes the impact that C-Group men working as mercenaries in Egypt had on political development in Lower Nubia when they returned. The C-Group people’s neighbors in the south was the Kerma people. They established a kingdom called Kush around 2000 bce, and their relations with the Egyptians affected the C-Group people. In the last phase of their history, the C-Group people were trapped between Egypt and Kush—two states rivalling for supremacy on the Nile. The C-Group people’s solution was an alliance with Egypt and acculturation to become Egyptians.
The Cities of Kerma and Pnubs-Dokki Gel
Authors: Bonnet Charles
Published: January 2021

The two cities of Kerma and Dokki Gel represent the center of an independent Nubian kingdom that stood up to Egyptian hegemony over a long period of time. Archaeological research carried out in Kerma has enabled us to trace the main development phases of the capital and to identify its main institutions, often influenced by Egypt. On the other hand, the city of Dokki Gel is different in nature, and its unusual architecture, displaying oval or circular monuments, leads us to consider an external input from neighboring countries, probably from the south, like Punt or ancient powers of Darfur. One can thus suggest that the armies of neighboring kingdoms took part in the defense of the territory in the form of coalitions mentioned in some sources contemporary with the conquest of Kerma by the pharaoh’s armies. The establishment of a menenu (fortress) by Thutmose I at Dokki Gel marks a breach that lasted three centuries, and the start of the Egyptianization of the city of Pnubs.
From Hunters to Herders
Authors: Jesse Friederike
Published: January 2021

The Nubian past cannot be fully understood without knowledge of occupation in the Libyan Desert west of the Nile. Hunter-gatherers occupied Nubia’s western hinterland during the Pleistocene and Early Holocene. Pottery and different pastoral adaptations featuring cattle, sheep, and goats appeared during the Middle Holocene. Cattle-centered behavior is evident: cattle largely dominates the economic and social life. Changing networks of contact and interaction are apparent over time. Depopulation of the region due to increasing aridity started earlier in the north, the southern Western Desert of Egypt, than in the south Libyan Desert of today’s Sudan where conditions for human settlement remained favorable in some areas up to the 1st millennium bce.
Human Adaptation to Environmental Change in the Northern Dongola Reach
Authors: Welsby Derek A.
Published: January 2021

Survey on the east bank of the Nile by the Sudan Archaeological Research Society between 1993 and 1996 was able to chart in detail changes in human settlement patterns. These reflect the political situation and developments in the agro-economy, but most importantly, fundamental changes in the hydrology of the Nile and in the local climate. In the Kerma periods the braided Nile channel was able to support a large population probably aided by greater local rainfall. With the demise of the eastern Nile channels and increasing aridity this population density became unsustainable and by the early 1st millennium bce the region, apart from the bank of the main Nile channel, was largely abandoned.
The Amun Cult and Its Development in Nubia
Authors: Gabolde Luc
Published: January 2021

This chapter examines the origins of the god Amun, of his name, his ram-headed form, and their connections to Nubia, which seem to have been overestimated. Amun appears to be the major deity worshipped in Nubia after the Egyptian conquest of the New Kingdom. Considered to be a national and universal god, he became the protector of Kushite kingship, spread through the religious conversion of the Kushite elite to Egyptian religious beliefs. Amun is a solarized deity figured as a man (occasionally ithyphallic) with a two-feather headdress primarily as the god of Karnak, and as a ram-headed deity as that of Jebel Barkal. He may also appear as a bull, a goose, and more questionably as a crocodile or a cobra. His main sacred cities were Napata, Pnubs, Kawa, Sanam, and Tara. He is occasionally accompanied by Mut, Khonsu, Satis, and Anukis.
Past, Present, Future
Authors: Näser Claudia
Published: January 2021

The objects and research fields of the archaeology of Nubia—the topics we pursue, the sources we consult, and the approaches we use in making sense of them—are historically and socially contingent constructs. Present-day knowledge about the Nubian past and the frame within which archaeological practice in the Middle Nile valley operates derive from a history of archaeological interest and work that spans almost two hundred years. They resonate with manifold influences, among which the colonial and imperial aspirations of the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries are the strongest. Other dominant themes that permeate the archaeology of Nubia—indeed the construction of the entity “Nubia” as it is used today, also in the present publication—include Egyptocentrism, the divorce from a wider African archaeology, the concept and the practices of archaeological salvage, and the idea of universal heritage. After looking into these aspects, the chapter also deals with the transposition of the archaeology of the Middle Nile valley into the postcolonial present and the potentials and challenges it faces today.
Prolegomena to the Study of Meroitic Art
Authors: Yellin Janice W.
Published: January 2021

The history of Kush is a complex one in which the polities of Egypt, Kerma, Napata, and Meroe shaped the culture and historical trajectory of the Middle Nile Valley. During the Meroitic Period appropriations and adaptations of art from pharaonic and Greco-Roman Egypt and to a lesser extent from the Mediterranean world obscure its art’s fundamental qualities. Because Meroitic artists enjoyed a degree of autonomy, different visual styles and standards of quality coexisted without following particular paths of stylistic development. Michel Baud aptly described Meroitic art as multivalent in nature. Examples of art and architecture have typically been studied and published as individual artifacts without systematically contextualizing them within broader study of Meroitic aesthetics, exploring the nature of Meroe’s appropriations of Egyptian and classical styles and iconography, creating a history of their stylistic development, or considering how the circumstances of their manufacture impacted their appearance. This entry offers a preliminary examination of these as prolegomena to the development of a history of Meroitic art.
History of Archaeological Work in the Middle Nile Region
Authors: Mohamed Ahmed Salah
Published: January 2021

Sudan was known to the outside world through the writings of Classical authors. Archaeological explorations in Sudan started in the 18th century with the beginning of European colonial policy. A great deal of archaeological research in Sudan has been of salvage character. This was linked to the construction and heightening of dams at Aswan in Egypt as well as similar projects on the main Nile and its tributaries inside the Sudanese territory. Individual foreign and national missions and important funding from many states/institutions have greatly contributed to the understanding of the country’s history.
The Eastern Desert in the 1st Millennium bce and 1st Millennium ce
Authors: Manzo Andrea
Published: January 2021

This chapter looks at the role played by the Eastern Desert and its inhabitants in the historical processes that affected northeastern Africa in the 1st millennium bce–1st millennium ce. The environmental setting and the factors limiting the present knowledge of the history of the region are outlined. The relevance of the Eastern Desert for the Nile valley regions and, in general, for the ancient world is stressed. The written sources on the region are discussed as well as the available archaeological data. Special emphasis is put on the relations between the inhabitants of the Eastern Desert and those of the Nile valley and on the role they played in the development of states, both in the Nile valley and on the Ethiopian plateau.
Language Use and Literacy in Late Antique and Medieval Nubia
Authors: Łajtar Adam , Ochała Grzegorz
Published: January 2021

This chapter is an overview of the current knowledge about the linguistic situation in the Middle Nile valley in Late Antiquity and Middle Ages. Throughout this long period as many as five languages were employed in this region as a means of written communication: Meroitic, Greek, Sahidic Coptic, Old Nubian, and Arabic. In the first part of the paper, we discuss the use of all these languages from chronological, both diachronic and synchronic, as well as functional perspectives. Such an approach is crucial for the proper understanding of their social significance, which we attempt to analyze in the second part. A special attention is devoted to the interaction between the languages, with a focus on such phenomena as code-switching and linguistic borrowing.
The Archaeology of Medieval Nubian Kingdoms
Authors: Obłuski Artur
Published: January 2021

The following chapter approaches the archaeology of medieval Nubia from a regional perspective. First, it presents the nomenclature used for chronology, then the history of archaeological research in Nubia determined by construction of dams on the Nile. The focus of the paper are the settlement systems of two medieval Nubian kingdoms: Nobadia and Makuria. Alwa is treated lightly due to the limited data. They are discussed in a static (settlement hierarchy) and dynamic perspective (integration of settlement systems in time). Church architecture as an indicator of regionalism is also debated. Some topics integrally associated with archaeology of Nubia like historical sources (Ruffini, this volume), languages (Łajtar and Ochała, this volume), capitals of the states (Żurawski, this volume), art and pottery (Zielińska, this volume) are generally absent here but are tackled by other authors in the same volume.
Islam in the Funj and Ottoman Periods in Sudan
Authors: Soghayroun Intisar
Published: January 2021

Sudan with its vast territory, varied geographical zones, and diverse populations presents a unique pattern of Islam in Africa. It is clear, from both literary and archaeological evidence, that Islam as a religion first appeared in this country during the invasions of the 1st century of the Muslim era (7th century ce) in a generally peaceful process that gradually culminated with the rise of the Funj Kingdom in the center and the Tunjur and then the Keira Sultanates in the west. This chapter discusses this process within the Middle Nile valley which was interrupted by the occupation of the northern part of the Funj domain in 1584 ce by Ottoman troops. The nature of Islam in the Sudan reflects a duality that prevailed throughout the Dar al-Islam: the orthodox and the ecstatic. Sufism and Islam are today synonyms for the Sudanese population as a term and as a historical process, which is clearly reflected in its material culture.
Cattle Cultures in Ancient Nubia
Authors: Dubosson Jérôme
Published: January 2021

This chapter presents an overview of archaeological findings testifying to the ritual and cultural role of cattle in Nubian pre- and protohistoric societies. On the one hand, these consist of animal remains found in various cemeteries along the Nile, such as cattle skulls or horns, which were placed inside graves or next to them on the surface. On the other hand, these consist of painted and engraved figures of cattle in Nubian rock art, discovered mainly from the First to Fourth Cataracts and showing animals with deliberately shaped horns, marked or decorated hides as well as pendants hanging from the neck. The temporal and spatial distribution of these findings suggest a millennial continuity of practices and possibly common ideas in connection with cattle among Nubian cultures. Anthropological data from contemporary East African pastoral societies, which share similarities in funerary rituals and in attitude towards cattle with these past cultures are presented, in order to widen the interpretative horizon.
Bioarchaeology of Nubia
Authors: Buzon Michele R.
Published: January 2021

Bioarchaeology is the excavation and analysis of human remains from archaeological sites. Through numerous campaigns related to the building of dams and other projects, thousands of skeletal remains have been excavated from ancient Nubian sites. Paleopathological and morphological analyses of these collections have provided significant information about the lifeways of past inhabitants, including health, disease, activity patterns, traumatic injuries, diet, and biological relationships. From early case studies of pathological curiosities and racial typology to contextualized biocultural analyses of changes in health and population composition, Nubian bioarchaeology has adapted and expanded together with methodological and theoretical advancements in bioarchaeology more broadly. The integration of bioarchaeology within the larger archaeological research project from planning through analyses encourages more contextualized interpretations that combine skeletal evidence with settlement, environmental, and mortuary data to create a picture of life and death in the ancient Nubian past.
The Napatan Neo-Kushite State 2
Authors: Williams Bruce Beyer
Published: January 2021

After Aspelta’s reign (ca. 600–580 bce), for almost two centuries, the Nubian situation was relatively stable. The northern states, first Saite, then Persian, offered little temptation for revanchist moves from Kush, nor did either have an interest in expanding southward. Near the end of the 5th century bce, there is a revival of records by Amannote-erike which continued for more than a century. While these record events in the life of a state under pressure, they reveal much about its geopolitical situation, as well as its social and economic life. They also offer insight into the organization of life in adjacent parts of Northeast Africa, and the scale of activity. Long stretches of Nile Valley between Aswan and the confluence of the Niles have dispersed opportunities for occupation and enclaves in the cataracts were a vulnerability that played a major role in developments of the last century or so of the Napatan Period.
From Foraging to Food Producing
Authors: Usai Donatella
Published: January 2021

The Nile valley has been the cradle to groups of foragers practicing hunting, gathering and fishing, and technologically advanced pottery production. This social, economic, and cultural system developed during the early and part of the middle Holocene periods and was gradually supplanted by socially more complex communities with a mixed food-producing subsistence system. Differences from northern and southern part of valley can now be emphasized and they describe a dynamic world whose making has been boosted by local and external agents.
The Pre-Kerma Culture and the Beginning of the Kerma Kingdom
Authors: Honegger Matthieu
Published: January 2021

The Pre-Kerma is an Upper Nubian culture that developed between 3500 and 2500 bce. It preceded the Kerma civilization and was in part contemporaneous with the A-Group from Lower Nubia. It consisted of an agro-pastoral population that maintained contacts with Lower Nubia and produced pottery somewhat similar to that of the A-Group. It is best known from settlements dated between 3000 and 2600 bce, in particular those from Kerma and Sai Island. The settlement sites have yielded a large number of cereal storage pits, which imply that agriculture was practiced on a larger scale than during the preceding periods. At Kerma, an extensive agglomeration of more than fifty huts, animal pens, and an imposing system of fortifications suggests the social complexity of the urban Kerma civilization. The Pre-Kerma culture maintained contacts with the A-Group, while being much less involved in exchanges with the earliest Egyptian dynasties. Its existence bears witness to a certain social dynamism in Upper Nubia that helped give rise to the Kerma kingdom.
Wisdom in the New Testament
Authors: Kovalishyn Mariam Kamell
Published: January 2021

Wisdom, in the New Testament, has made several shifts. As a genre, it has gained clear apocalyptic overtones, unsurprising when Wisdom herself was always located with God and served to reveal God to his people. But more importantly, the New Testament teaches us that wisdom is to be found in the crucified Christ, and that he is the ultimate arbiter of the wisdom of God. He reveals the ways of God to us in his humility and his submission to God, and he teaches his followers what it means to obey and worship God “in Spirit and in truth.” How believers respond to the mystery of Christ crucified and his demands on their lives reveals their growth in wisdom.
Wisdom in the Qur’an and the Islamic Tradition
Authors: Yazicioglu U. Isra
Published: January 2021

Wisdom is a crucial qur’anic concept that has been discussed in richly variegated ways in the Islamic tradition, including in qur’anic exegesis, Islamic theology and philosophy, Islamic law, and Islamic spirituality. This article offers a general overview of the role of wisdom in the Qur’an and an interpretive presentation of its meaning, with a specific focus on a number of significant Muslim scholars and sages in classical and contemporary eras, such as al-Ghazali, Rumi, Ibn al-’Arabi, and Said Nursi. The article is organized around three questions to the qur’anic text and Muslim sources: How is wisdom a special gift from God? Why is it so precious? Why does it require a certain existential choice? The Qur’an considers wisdom as a gift from God that is linked closely with revelation. Ultimately, in the qur’anic tradition, wisdom is about understanding how the reality points to transcendent beauty, life after death, and living accordingly, in gratitude, with balance and justice.
Wisdom in Jewish Theology
Authors: Schofer Jonathan
Published: January 2021

Two major strands articulating wisdom in Jewish theology appeared in the Middle Ages: the philosophical and the mystical. The greatest philosophical account of wisdom appears right at the end of The Guide for the Perplexed, by Maimonides. Maimonides offers an analytic treatment of verses from the book of Proverbs and uses of wisdom elsewhere in the Jewish Bible to set out wisdom as a distinct and valued human virtue. The greatest mystical treatment of wisdom appears in The Zohar, a tremendous Kabbalistic exposition of the Pentateuch. In The Zohar, wisdom is one of ten points of divine emanation called sefirot. Human attainment of wisdom requires ascetic and disciplined study of traditional Jewish sources, which brings intimate connection with divine emanation. In the eighteenth through twentieth centuries, new developments in Jewish thought brought renewed significance for wisdom in the writings of Hasidic Jewish leaders, Martin Buber, and Emmanuel Levinas.
Personified Wisdom and Feminist Theologies
Authors: Yoder Christine Roy
Published: January 2021

Feminist theologians have been instrumental in recovering and reclaiming the many biblical and extrabiblical traditions about personified Wisdom (e.g., Proverbs 1–9, Sirach 24, Wisdom of Solomon 6–9) and the significance of her story for Jewish and Christian communities. This essay explores how the traditions about Wisdom have been particularly generative in Christian feminist theological discourse with regard to four matters: (1) possible sources for the initial personification of Wisdom in Proverbs 1–9; (2) Wisdom’s preeminent relationship with God and roles in the creation of the cosmos; (3) Wisdom’s relationship with humankind and the natural world; and (4) implications of personified Wisdom for understanding the nature and scope of knowledge.
The Pervasiveness of Wisdom in (Con)texts
Authors: Ahn John
Published: January 2021

Wisdom as a distinctive category has been challenged. This piece further challenges and opens up the geographical, ideological, and contextual contexts of sapiential texts found in various cultures with written scribal traditions. The Hebrew Bible’s Wisdom texts are primarily studied and situated in the ancient Near East and Egypt. Here, these texts are directedly placed in dialogue with authors and texts of the ancient Far East. For example: Proverbs and the Analects, Job and Buddhism, and Ecclesiastes and Chinese Philosophy (Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu). As Wisdom authors and texts hardly reference divinely sanctioned prophets or revelatory laws, the content and message with emphasis on humanity, propriety, consciousness, and jen (virtue, steadfastness, justice, affection, and righteousness) offer a fresh new breath of distinctiveness, which was pervasive in the Greco-Persian context.
Advice
Authors: Vayntrub Jacqueline
Published: January 2021

Challenging long-held assumptions about the identification and characterization of Wisdom Literature, this chapter examines: (1) how the scholarly category of biblical Wisdom Literature entails a developmental model of literary development in which the book of Proverbs functions as a paradigmatic text; (2) the circular reasoning involved in evaluating texts according to vocabulary and genre; and (3) other literary strategies shared by these texts, including notions of knowledge, its transmission, and survival across generational lines. Beyond a developmental model, a broad category of knowledge production and literary craft facilitates comparisons between texts like Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job, Ben Sira, and others. These texts build and comment on the ancient Near Eastern literary and social institution of father-to-son instruction. The advice given in these instructions, and their framing themselves, reflect on the transmission of life-preserving and life-enriching knowledge across generational lines that enables the father to transcend his own individual death and persist in the success of his descendants.
The Social Setting of Wisdom Literature
Authors: Sneed Mark
Published: January 2021

The question of the social setting of the biblical Wisdom Literature is an interesting one in that this type of literature seeks to exclude its social background as much as possible. Wisdom Literature, by its very nature, ostensibly portrays itself as universal in its appeal. The social setting of the biblical Wisdom Literature is introduced in this chapter, in order to provide insight into how a range of social facets impinge on their interpretation. Attention focuses on the Israelite scribal context for this literature and the location of its authors/original audience in the retainer social class. Other social variables treated are power, age, gender, and status of both the intended audience and its authors.
Literary Genres of Old Testament Wisdom
Authors: Witte Markus
Published: January 2021

This essay briefly traces the history of research into Wisdom genres (Gattungen) in the Old Testament. It outlines the following as essential linguistic, semantic, and pragmatic criteria of a Wisdom genre: (1) a horizontal form of communication that contains a dialogical element, even in monologues or didactic poems; (2) terminology that is directed at knowledge; and (3) a pedagogical focus. Two major genres can be distinguished in the literary history of Israelite-Jewish Wisdom: the instructional book and the commentary. In the Old Testament, only the instructional book is found. Its sub-genres include instruction, to which belong also treatise and testament as well as diatribe and protreptic, the didactic poem, with its special variants of the Wisdom psalm and the meditation, didactic dialogue, which can develop into dispute, and the didactic story. The smallest common linguistic unit of the poetically composed Wisdom texts is the saying. Intra-textual commentaries are offered by the “Praise of the Fathers” in the book of Ben Sira (Sir 44–49) and the “midrash on Exodus” in the Wisdom of Solomon (Wis 11–19). Extra-textual commentaries are performed by Jewish-Hellenistic exegetes, by Philo, and the pesharim from Qumran.
Theology of Wisdom
Authors: Longman Tremper
Published: January 2021

This chapter explores the theology of wisdom in the Old Testament with a focus on the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job as well as a consideration of deuterocanonical (Sirach and Wisdom of Solomon) and New Testament wisdom. This study concludes that the theological message of wisdom centers on the concept of the fear of the Lord. Proverbs also demonstrates the pervasive theological dimension of wisdom through the picture of Woman Wisdom, who ultimately represents not only Yahweh’s wisdom, but Yahweh himself. To be wise entails a relationship with Yahweh. The New Testament associates Jesus with Woman Wisdom, thus implying wisdom can be achieved only through relationship with Jesus. This study of the theological dimension of wisdom challenges the contention of some scholars that wisdom is more practical and humanistic and distant from other theological traditions in the Old Testament.
Prophecy and Wisdom Literature
Authors: Boda Mark J.
Published: January 2021

After tracing key contributions to the study of the interrelationship between prophecy and Wisdom Literature, this article showcases points of connection between these two literary traditions, focusing on the presentation of revelation and then theophany and theodicy. Adopting an intertextual approach rather than the traditional form-critical approach provides more flexibility for reading each of these literary traditions, encouraging interpreters to see greater interdependence in the literary world of the Hebrew Bible as well as to avoid caricatures of these literary traditions when siloed apart from one another. This intertextual investigation highlights the creational and international quality of prophetic literature along with the revelatory nature of Wisdom Literature as wisdom from above.
Apocalyptic and Wisdom Literature
Authors: Reynolds Bennie H.
Published: January 2021

“Apocalyptic Literature” and “Wisdom Literature” are broad designations that represent widely recognized categories of inquiry in the fields of ancient Judaism, early Christianity, and beyond. The relationship between the two has been a prominent topic of study over the last five decades. Beyond their familiar connotations, one finds a complicated and contested relationship in recent scholarship on ancient Jewish and Christian literature. This article attempts to disambiguate both the terms and the recent history of research in order to highlight some of the most important progress made and some of the most promising avenues for future research.
Epistemology
Authors: Schellenberg Annette
Published: January 2021

This article discusses how cognitive issues are related to the ancient Israelites’ idea of wisdom. Focusing on the aspects of experience and reasoning, tradition, skepticism, and revelation, it traces general assumptions found throughout all sapiential texts as well as historical developments and controversies among contemporaries. More concretely, it argues that for much of biblical history sapiential epistemology is characterized by a high esteem of experience and reasoning and the belief that all human beings share the same cognitive abilities (and limitations, respectively). In later times, however, these two characteristics lose their importance and are given up, respectively—not through the idea of revelation in general, which was implicitly present from the very beginning, but through the idea of special revelation only to an elect group.
Proverbs
Authors: Balentine Samuel E.
Published: January 2021

Wisdom can be taught and learned, as the instructions in Proverbs 1–9 make clear, and when utilized as strategies for dealing with typical and recurring situations in life, such as those suggested in Proverbs 10–31, they ensure both moral integrity and material prosperity. The motivation for obedience to proverbial truth is the transcendent authority of God, who is the source and substance of the knowledge towards which wisdom aspires. The most important lesson to be learned is itself therefore reducible to a single certainty that informs all of the wisdom sayings in Proverbs: “The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord; the knowledge of the holy one is understanding” (Prov 9:10; cf. 1:7). This essay addresses five major interpretive issues in Proverbs: (1) composition history, (2) literary forms, (3) socio-political context, (4) moral reasoning and ethical conduct, and (5) thematic coherence.
Theology
Authors: Van Leeuwen Raymond C.
Published: January 2021

Although wisdom is usually seen as separate from Covenant Theology, a full-orbed, canonical account of wisdom will lead us to consider wisdom and covenant as linked by their common root in creation. Biblical Israel conceived of wisdom as a divine or human capacity rooted and revealed in creation, and implicitly inseparable from covenant as its theological presupposition. This chapter discusses the nature of wisdom as a concept, the presuppositions and conditions associated with it, and what it does. It situates wisdom and covenant in the created order as all three realities converge in the fear of the Lord.
Introduction
Authors: Polinsky Maria
Published: January 2021

This chapter presents the basics of the geography of the Caucasus, discusses the main language families spoken there, with a special emphasis on the indigenous languages of the area, and addresses a number of parallels observed across these languages in phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexical semantics. It then presents the structure of the volume and discusses the main glossing conventions used throughout the Handbook.
Chechen and Ingush
Authors: Komen Erwin R. , Molochieva Zarina , Nichols Johanna
Published: January 2021

This chapter is a grammar sketch of Chechen and Ingush, which form the Vainakh subbranch of the Nakh branch of the Nakh-Daghestanian family. The emphasis is on Chechen, since a reference grammar of Ingush exists. Attention is given to points of typological and theoretical interest. Chechen and Ingush distinguish themselves from the Daghestanian languages by having a much richer set of vowel phonemes, containing short and long diphthongs. Accompanied by extensive examples from existing texts, the chapter offers insight into features such as stress and tone, pharyngealization, verb classes, verb template, meanings of TAM categories, evidentiality, valence changing, the addressee dative construction, word order, clause chaining, clefting and the VIP demonstrative. A number of issues that need further research are outlined in the chapter, such as tone, intonation and schwa-zero alternations. Differences between Chechen and Ingush are identified, especially where they involve the semantics and pragmatics of morphological forms or syntactic constructions.
Correlatives in Languages of the Caucasus
Authors: Demirok Ömer , Öztürk Balkız
Published: January 2021

This chapter gives an overview of the landscape of correlatives in the languages of the Caucasus, identifying a bifurcation in the typology of correlatives. We show that one group of languages (e.g., Georgian) has correlatives that share certain properties with other relativization strategies available to these languages, such as the use of relative pronouns distinct from interrogative pronouns, while another group of languages (e.g., Lezgian) has correlatives that feature interrogative pronouns. Regarding the latter group of languages, we propose that interrogative pronouns in their correlatives are not syncretic forms that function as relative pronouns but have the same semantic import that they have in wh-questions. We develop an analysis of interrogative-based correlatives that is built on the semantics of wh-questions (cf. Rawlins, 2013), arguing that interrogative-based correlatives can be a subtype of universal concessive constructions also known as unconditionals. Empirically comparing our compositional analysis for interrogative-based correlatives to the analysis of Srivastav (1991) for relativization-based correlatives, we argue that a cross-linguistic typology of correlatives is well grounded.
Ellipsis in Languages of the Caucasus
Authors: Erschler David
Published: January 2021

This chapter deals with ellipsis, a phenomenon whereby some expected material goes missing in an utterance. The chapter overviews types of ellipsis frequently addressed in the literature: ellipsis in the noun phrase; argument omission; VP ellipsis; modal complement ellipsis; ellipsis in complex predicates; gapping, pseudogapping, and right node raising; ellipsis in comparative constructions, stripping; and ellipsis involving negation, sluicing and its generalizations, and fragment answers. It proceeds to review the occurrence of, and peculiarities exhibited by, these ellipsis varieties in a sample of the languages of the Caucasus. A number of ellipsis varieties that have not been earlier discussed in the literature but are present in some languages of the Caucasus are addressed as well. The data show that the languages of the Caucasus do not show a uniform typological profile as far as ellipsis is concerned. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of the relevance of the presented data for theories of ellipsis.
Binding and Indexicality in the Caucasus
Authors: Ganenkov Dmitry , Bogomolova Natalia
Published: January 2021

This chapter introduces the inventory of anaphoric expressions attested in languages of the Caucasus and discusses their basic properties. It shows that Nakh-Dagestanian, Kartvelian, and Northwest Caucasian differ in the division of labor between nominal expressions and verbal inflection in reflexive constructions. It demonstrates that exempt uses of anaphors are found in Nakh-Dagestanian, but not in Kartvelian or Northwest Caucasian, and that different types of reflexive pronouns in Nakh-Dagestanian have distinct restrictions on locality, while Kartvelian anaphors are strictly local. The chapter also describes the well-known pattern of ‘reverse binding’ in Nakh-Dagestanian, where the reflexive or reciprocal appears in the subject position above the antecedent. It is shown that some instances of reverse binding can be explained by factoring in the distinction between syntactic binding and coreference. Georgian reflexives are also known to be grammatical in the subject position, with non-trivial implications for the semantic interpretation. Personal pronouns in Nakh-Dagestanian and, possibly, other Caucasian languages can undergo indexical shift in finite embedded reports.
Megrelian
Authors: Rostovtsev-Popiel Alexander
Published: January 2021

This chapter addresses Megrelian, a Kartvelian (South Caucasian) language spoken by Megrelians, a subethnic group compactly residing in one of the western provinces of Georgia, Samegrelo. A language of informal communication, Megrelian has been subject to linguistic research both in Georgia and beyond for more than two hundred years. Backed by the existing literature on the language, most of which has been published in Georgian, this sketch provides an account of essential features of Megrelian phonology, grammar, and lexicon, including such typologically renowned properties of Megrelian as the elaborate system of preverbs and innovative and extremely specific case-marking alignment that not only features ergative stimuli of affective verbs, but can also license this case to adverbs as well. Furthermore, new insights are proposed for such domains of linguistic structure as the language’s case system, grades of comparison, expression of spatial deixis by pronominal expressions, verbal aspect, and evidentiality; some of these statements are based on the data from the author’s long-term fieldwork and are now being introduced to linguistic discourse.
Advocacy and Research
Authors: Dresser Rebecca
Published: January 2021

In recent decades, patient advocates have joined scientists in lobbying for research funds from government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and for-profit entities. Advocates also seek to influence decisions about access to unproven interventions, most notably in right-to-try and expanded-access debates. Advocates weigh in on the design and conduct of individual studies, too. Advocates can help make research more responsive to the needs and desires of patients, but they can also contribute to harm in the form of unjust resource allocation, as well as burdens and disappointments for research participants and patients. Ethical analysis of advocacy activities points to guidelines that can maximize the benefits and minimize the harms produced by research advocacy.
Nepos’ Life of Atticus, Nicolaus’ Life of Caesar, and the Genre of Political Biography in the Age of Augustus
Authors: Stem Rex
Published: January 2021

This chapter assesses the genre of political biography in the age of Augustus, comparing Cornelius Nepos’ Life of Atticus to the next political biography extant in the tradition, the Life of Caesar (Augustus) by Nicolaus of Damascus. These biographies are not often compared, despite their chronological proximity, and the comparison yields significant points of thematic overlap as well as meaningful points of contrast. Ultimately, one cannot define political biography in the Augustan period very specifically, nor can one measure Nepos’ originality very decisively. That is not to say that the generic distinction between political biography and political history in the age of Augustus did not exist or could not be felt, for Nepos’ Atticus shows well enough how the craft of biography is distinct from the craft of history. However, it is to admit that one cannot delineate how that craft was transmitted from Nepos and Nicolaus to Suetonius and Plutarch, from the earliest to the greatest extant writers of ancient political biography.
Ancient Biographies of Statesmen
Authors: Klooster Jacqueline
Published: January 2021

This chapter discusses ancient biographies of statesmen. What is the nature of ancient political biography? It is the description of the life and deeds of a significant political player of the recent or far past, individually told or in a series, with the intent of edifying the readers. This means that such a work often has an encomiastic, or at any rate evaluative cast, and may even employ certain acknowledged untruths in order to bring out the characteristic significance of a given politician. This too is the aim with which intimate details or gossip are told: so as to convey a clear image of what kind of man Solon, Demosthenes, Augustus, or Nero was, and how this influenced his career and his deeds.
Philosophers and Their Neoplatonic Lives
Authors: Miles Graeme
Published: January 2021

This chapter addresses biographies of philosophers, which, alongside those of political figures and poets, constitute one of the dominant forms of the genre in Antiquity. By the nature of their subjects, philosophical biographies almost invariably contain some doxographic element, explaining the opinions and arguments of the thinker in question. They are also frequently integrated into broader contexts, either into biographical series or into other philosophical contexts. Beyond these common traits, biographies of philosophers exhibit as much variety as other forms of ancient biography: in their structural choices; in their approach to characterizing, and to varying degrees idealizing their subjects; in their narrating voices; and indeed in their ostensible purposes. Something of the variety of these responses to the challenges of representing the philosophic life in biographical form will emerge in the chapter’s discussion, which focuses on the class of philosophical biography best represented among the surviving texts: Neoplatonic biography.
Holy Men
Authors: Praet Danny
Published: January 2021

This chapter assesses the special relationship between the ancient genre of biography and the religious phenomenon of holy men. Spiritual biographies are performative texts: there are many examples of characters who were established as holy men by the texts written about them. Some of these were totally invented by the authors, others lived in such a distant past or the information was so scarce or the intention of the authors were of such a nature that nothing can be accepted as historically reliable. These texts were written to serve a purpose: examples for moral mimesis, establishment of spiritual or philosophical authority, or the promotion of a cult with all its implications of power and wealth. There is no formal unity: spiritual biographies exist in prose and in verse, in narrative and in dialogue-form, as letters and speeches, they can be very short and very long, and contain many or few miracles.
Martyrs and Life-Writing in Late Antiquity
Authors: De Temmerman Koen , Praet Danny
Published: January 2021

This chapter explores martyr accounts. Scholars traditionally divide these texts into two types: narrative representations of the suffering and death of martyrs (the so-called passiones) on the one hand, and dramatic representations of the trial preceding this (the so-called acta or praxeis), on the other. The exact semantic range of both labels is debated, but in any case the distinction does not capture the textual reality in its full complexity: even the predominantly narrative texts often contain an interrogation scene, whereas most so-called acta always have a narrative frame, however minimal it may be. In addition, there is no formal unity across the board. This chapter first addresses some of the intellectual premisses that in traditional scholarship on martyr acts were for a long time conducive of historical questions, much to the detriment of the study of these texts as narratives in their own right. The chapter then observes that many martyr acts recount not only the deaths of their protagonists but also cover (parts of) their preceding lives, and it explores how these texts adopt and adapt narrative and rhetorical protocols from traditional life-writing to shape the lives of their protagonists. Finally, attention is paid briefly to the thematic cluster of erotic love, desire, marriage, and the preservation of chastity that drives many such narrative elaborations. It is concluded that whereas research on these texts has long been driven by historical interests, they are also treasure-troves for scholars interested in narrative in general and life-writing in particular.
Arabic Biography
Authors: Doufikar-Aerts Faustina
Published: January 2021

This chapter examines the Arabic biographical tradition. The genre of biographical writing is a celebrated, multifaceted, and widely practised field of Arabic literature. Basic forms of biographical compilation can be shown from the first century of Islam (seventh century), initially orally transmitted and later in writing. The Arabic biographical tradition was mainly developed from within Islam, to which it owes its noticeable character. It probably originated from the earnest aspiration of generations following the initial period to preserve knowledge about the central figures of that era. For that reason, biographical transmission, initially, was a highly religion-orientated discipline. Nevertheless, or perhaps even due to this stimulus, there developed a huge field of different biographical genres and specialized life-writing.
Coptic Life Stories
Authors: Papaconstantinou Arietta
Published: January 2021

This chapter highlights Coptic life-writing; identifying its various strands and forms can open new avenues for the analysis of Coptic literature. On the whole, the rise of the biographic that has been noted more generally for Late Antiquity is greatly felt in Coptic texts, perhaps even more strongly than in other languages as a proportion of the overall production. In many ways, the impulses of classical biography can be found in Coptic texts: they are used to define morality, provide examples, obtain adherence, persuade, justify, or legitimize. From the self-denying exemplum to the incredible superhero whose adventures inspired a mix of entertainment, suspense, and fear, the range of admirable individuals was broad. What brings all of those life stories together is their general lack of individuality in the characterization. The stress of these stories is on the authority embedded in a number of exemplary individuals, and the true source of that authority comes from conformity to a model and a set of received criteria. Accordingly, the genre is not at all introspective, despite the meta-discourse on introspection that pervades the ascetic biographies.