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[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Bible – III. Judaism – IV. Islam –V. Philosophy of Religion – VI. Dogmatics – VII. Practical Theology I. Religious Studies Anthropomorphism denotes the conception of God or gods in human form. It derives from the personification of spiritual events (animatism), the idea of attributing a soul to stones, trees or places (Animism) or the idea of a power indwelling objects or persons (dyna-mism). In r…

[German Version] I. Old Testament Sanctification, the “setting apart” of spaces, times, objects, and persons to make them sacred (cf. Lat. sacer) is represented in the Old Testament by the verb קדשׁ/ qdš piel and niphal, its antonyms חלל/ ḥll I piel and חל/ ḥl, and the antithesis “clean–unclean” טהר–טמא/ ṭhr–ṭmʾ (with reference to holiness: Lev 11:43ff.; 16:19; cf. Deut 14:3ff.; purity and impuraty). Since YHWH represents holiness per se (Isa 5:16, etc.), sanctification means translating the object in question into the immediate divine realm (cf. the regulati…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Greco-Roman Antiquity – III. Old Testament – IV. China – V. India – VI. Missiology I. Religious Studies All ancestors that are worshiped are dead, but not all dead people are ancestors, and not every mortuary ritual represents an ancestor cult. For an ancestor cult, there must be a consciousness of a familial and genealogical connection with the ancestors over one or more generations, …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament – III. New Testament – IV. Church History – V. Ethics – VI. Judaism – VII. Indian Religions I. Religious Studies 1. Greece and Rome. The term “asceticism,” the Western meaning of which was shaped by Christianity, derives from Gk ἄσκησις/ áskēsis, a noun denoting activity; ἄσκεῖν/ askeîn originally meant “to craft/to decorate.” In the 5th century bce, the primary meaning became “to train/to exercise.” The exercise was mostly physical (gymnastics, …

[German Version] I. History of Religions – II. Old Testament – III. Christianity – IV. Ethics – V. Judaism – VI. Islam I. History of Religions “Fasting” is a universally attested cultural technique to produce an expansion of mental and social control, power, or awareness (Asceticism) by restricting the intake of food. Many different types of and reasons for fasting can be found in the history of religions, and they are combined in various ways. Several studies have been produced with regard to individual religions …

[German Version] I. Ancient Near East and Old Testament – II. Judaism – III. New Testament – IV. Dogmatics I. Ancient Near East and Old Testament The English expression glory of God derives from the Greek translation (δόξα κυρίου or τοῦ ϑεοῦ / dóxa kyriou or toú theoú) of the Hebrew phrase כְּבוֹד יהוה /kĕbôd YHWH. In ordinary usage, Heb. כָּבוֹד/ kābôd denotes a person's “weight” or “weightiness,” which is displayed outwardly to mark to his or her social status (Gen 31:1; 45:13). As a fundamental aesthetic concept, the glory of God can be understood …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament – III. Judaism – IV. New Testament – V. Practical Theology I. Religious Studies As an element of burial rites and the cult of the dead (Dead, Cult of the), mourning customs serve not only the survivors but also the departed. Ritual support of the dead or protection against them is usually one of the functions of a mourning period, which often concludes with a change in the status of the departed (e.g. admission to the realm of the dead at the end of a jour…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament – III. Classical Antiquity I. Religious Studies Nearly all societies view death as a transition from one mode of existence to another. To enable the departed or his or her soul to complete this transformational process successfully, the survivors must perform certain rituals, referred to collectively as the cult of the …

see Divination [German version] Libanos see Weihrauch see Incense Podella, Thomas (Lübeck)

[German version] Properly Mene-tekel-ufarsin, a cryptic Aramaic inscription in the literary context of Dan 5:25-28 (within an Aramaic apocalypse in Dan 2-7), written by a supernatural hand on the wall of the palace during a banquet given by Belsazar, the heir to the Babylonian throne. The elements of this writing have been interpreted as cuneiform signs for weights (Neo-Babylonian manû‘mina’, šiqlu‘shekel’; mišlu/ zūzu‘half’/‘to share’), or as Aramaic terms in cuneiform script, in the order mina, shekel, half-shekel. Daniel interpreted the writing as a play on the words manû ‘to c…

[German version] (Aramaic maʿbartā, ‘ford, passage’; Greek Μαβάρθα/ Mabártha; Latin Mamortha). Name of a place or landscape in Palestine between Ebal and Garizim, near Neapolis (Talmud: jTaan 4,68c,74-d,1; Jos. BI 4,449; Plin. HN 5,69). Podella, Thomas (Lübeck)

I. Religious studies [German version] A. General Sacrifice is one of the central concepts in describing ritual religion in ancient and modern cultures. In European Modernity, the term sacrifice (directly or indirectly influenced by Christian theology of the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ to redeem mankind) also has an intimation towards individual self-giving ('sacrifice of self'). The range of nuances in the modern meaning stretches to include discourses that have lost their religious motif and hav…

[German version] (Λίβανος/ Líbanos, Lat. Libanus). Mountain range in northern Syria between the Mediterranean coast and the Antilibanos in the interior. The name (Hebrew lebānôn, Ugaritic Lbnm, Akkadian Labnāna, Arabic Lubnān) derives from the Semitic root * lbn ‘white’, i.e. the ‘white mountain’. The tale of L.' descent from a giant in Philo of Byblus (Euseb. Praep. evang. I,10,9) is mythological. The earliest information is found in OT and Assyrian sources. The Lebanon extends for about 160 km almost parallel to the coast. Its highest elevation with 3126 m is Ǧeb…

[German version] (Hebrew môāb; Egyptian mb; Akkadian ma--a-ba, ma-a-ba, mu-a-ba; LXX Μωαβ/ Mōab; Jos. Ant. Iud. 1,205 Μώαβος/ Mṓabos; Ios. passim Μωαβῖται/ Mōabîtai). Term for a land, state and people to the east of the Dead Sea between Ammon [2] in the north and Edom in the south. The earliest evidence is found in Egyptian texts of Ramses II, in a relief with inscription at the Temple of  Luxor, and then primarily in the OT, in inscriptions of the Moabite king Meša (KAI 181) and in Neo-Assyrian sources. The etymology of the name is doubtful. Settlement has been proved as early as t…

(Λύκος; Lýkos). Mythology and religion: L. [1-9], historical persons: L. [10-13], rivers: L. [14-19]. [German version] [1] Son of Poseidon and the Pleiad Celaeno Son of Poseidon and the Pleiad Celaeno [1] (Ps.-Eratosth. Katasterismoi 23), only Apollod. 3,111 mentions his translation to the Islands of the Blessed, possibly to differentiate him from L. [6], with whom he is connected by Hyg. Fab. 31, 76 and 157 in spite of the descent from Poseidon. Scherf, Johannes (Tübingen) [German version] [2] Son of Prometheus and Celaeno Son of Prometheus and Celaeno [1], on whose tomb in th…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Dead Sea (textual finds) (Hebrew mêdebā, Moabitic mhdb, Arab. Mādebā, Greek Μήδαβα; Mḗdaba,‘ gently flowing water’). Settlement in the East Jordanian hill country on the King's Highway, 33 km south of Amman. Evidence of settlement dates back to the Middle Bronze Age II. From the early Iron Age only graves have been found. In the 9th cent. BC, M. was in the possession of the Israelites, but was then conquered and expanded by the Moabite king Meša ( Moab) (…

[German version] Phoenician deity; originally * mlk qrt (‘king of the city’), title of the city god of Tyrus. The oldest documentary evidence is found on the Bar-Hadad inscription (KAI 201) dated around 800 BC from Brēdsh (Buraiǧ), a village north of Aleppo. In the treaties of Asarhaddon [5. 27, IV 14] and Aššur-nēraris V. [5. 13, VI 22], written in cuneiform in the 7th cent BC, his name is recorded for the first time in connection with Tyre as d Mi-il-qar-tu. The name presupposes ancient concepts of a religious, god-worshipping kingdom. M. combined the features of a mythica…

[German version] I. Preliminary remark Originally sung poetry, often accompanied by dance, metric literature was obviously subject to other formative conditions than poetry intended from the outset for spoken presentation or for reading. Texts of such kinds still show traces of their earlier sound form ( Music). Accordingly the form ranged from simple ‘melodic lines of sound’, as can be presumed for the ancient Orient and Israel ( parallelismus membrorum, strophic poetry, sometimes with rhythmic accent order, congruence of form and language s…

[German version] [1] Mountain massif Mountain massif (maximum height 2,814 m) south of the Antilebanon; Hebrew Ḥærmôn (from ḥrm ‘ban, taboo’), Greek Ἀερμών; Aermṓn, Latin Hermon, modern Ǧabal aš-Šaiḫ, ‘mountain of the white-haired man’ / Ǧabal aṯ-Ṯalǧ, ‘snow mountain’. Dt 3:9 equates H. with Phoenician Śiriōn and Amorite Śenīr, hence H. would be found as Šryn in Ugaritic, Šarijana in Hittite and Saniru in Assyrian. Biblical tradition considers H. to be the northern border of the land conquered by Moses and Joshua east of the Jordan (Jos 11:17; Dt 3:8). F…

(Λαοδίκεια; Laodíkeia). [German version] [1] Port-town in north-west Syria, modern Latakia This item can be found on the following maps: Syria | Theatre | | Coloniae | Commerce | Hellenistic states | Limes | Pompeius | Education / Culture (Λ. ἐπὶ τῇ θαλάσσῃ; L. epì têi thalássēi). Port in north-west Syria (now Latakia or al-Lāḏiqīya), not far from the Bronze Age Ugarit (Ra's Šamra). Founded by Seleucus I around 300 BC together with its sister towns of Antioch, Apamea and Seleucea (the so-called North Syrian Tetrapolis) and equipped with an…