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[German Version] Closely related to the commandment to worship and confess one God only (Monotheism and polytheism) as well as rejection of the veneration of images, the prohibition of images has left its mark on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam – each in a different way – to this day. The biblical prohibition of images is neither a general ban on all art, nor is it a blanket prohibition of particular phenomena of the visible world. It does not reject mental images of God or figurative language bu…

[German Version] is situated approx. 9 miles northeast of Ashkelon, 2.5 miles from the Mediterranean with a separate harbor on the coast. Its Canaanite name ʾaṭdādu, “trade fair,” suggests its importance as a commercial center. The site has been settled since the Middle Bronze; in the Late Bronze it traded with Ugarit and Enkomi. Sub-Mycenaean (“Philistine”) pottery appears at the t…

[German Version] (Ascalon) is a port city about 20 km north-northeast of Gaza; since the 2nd millennium bce its area has encompassed over 60 hectares, according to text witnesses spanning four millennia. Settled since the 4th millennium bce, it is cited first in the execration texts of the 19th and 18th century bce as “* 'i/ asqaluna” (“trading place” or similar). From the Middle Bronze Age fortifications and cult relics (bonze statuette of a young steer), among other things, have been found. In…

[English Version] I. ReligionsgeschichtlichBeschwörungen gegen Schlangenbiß und Techniken, Sch. zu bändigen, gehören zum Repertoire vieler Rel. Oft wiederholter, kontrollierter Schlangenbiß kann für das Gift unempfindlich machen und erlaubt dessen Nutzung als Arznei. Sch. werden ambivalent beurteilt, je nachdem, ob sie als Feinde (äg. Apophis, indisch Vṛṭṛa, heth. Illuyanka, westsem. Leviathan, bab. Tiamat) oder als Begleiter und Beschützer (äg. Mehen, indisch Śeṣa) mächtiger Gottheiten, Heroe…

[English Version] I. Archäologisch S. sind im AO seit dem präkeramischen Neolithikum (um 7000 v.Chr.) bezeugt, zuerst als einfache, runde oder ovale Platten oder als Tierfigur gestaltete Stempel, ab dem späten 4.Jt. (Susa, Uruk) auch walzenförmig als sog. Roll- oder Zylindersiegel (Guter Hirte: I., s. dort Abb.). Letztere hielten sich bis zur Zeitenwende, sind aber auch in Ägypten und im östlichen Mittelmeerraum belegt. In Kulturen mit Papyrus oder Leder als gebräuchlichsten Schriftträgern bevorzug…

[German Version] I. Pre-Hellenistic Period – II. Antiquity I. Pre-Hellenistic Period Gaza was considered the most important city in southwestern Palestine, with a large, fertile trading area on the highway from Egypt to Syria, the destination point of the Frankincense Road from Arabia to the ¶ Mediterranean. It has been almost continuously inhabited since the second half of the 2nd century bce. The history of Gaza began, according to the evidence of its name (Canaanite ‘azzat, Heb. ‘azzāh, “strengthened, fortified”), toward the end of the Middle Bronze Age with the est…

[German Version] I. History of Religions – II. Archaeology I. History of Religions Lat. amuletum (etymologically “giver of power”; Gk φυλακτήριον/ phylaktḗrion) is a term borrowed by religious studies from Patristic usage (e.g. Severus of Antioch, PO 29, 1, 79) to denote objects that people attach to their bodies, clothing, or dwellings to maintain harmony between themselves and the …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies Charms against snakebite and techniques for taming snakes are part of the repertoire of many religions. Frequently repeated, controlled snakebites can make a person immune to the venom and allow it to be used as a drug. The assessment of snakes and serpents varies, depending on whether they appear as enemies (Egyp. Apophis, Indian Vṛṭṛa, Hitt. Illuganka, West Sem. Leviathan, Bab. Tiamat) or as companions and guardians (Egyp. Mehen, Indian Śeṣa) of mighty deities, heroes, or kings. In mythological contexts, hostile ophidian monsters…

[German Version] I. Archaeology – II. Church History and Canon Law I. Archaeology Sealed balls or lumps of clay with a diameter of 1–3 cm were pressed onto strings or knots to keep documents safe and authenticate them (1 Kgs 21:8; Jer 32:10–14; Neh 10:1; Dan 12:4), and to seal vessels, bags (Job 14:17), doors (Deut 32:34; Song 4:12; Dan 14:11,17; cf. 6:18), etc. The use of bulls seems to have begun in Egypt c. 2000 …

[German Version] I. History of Religions – II. History of Art I. History of Religions The word “dragon” (from Gk δράκων/ drákōn, “staring one”?) denotes especially snakes and (mostly gigantic) snake-like composite beings with a numinous aura, but also other composite beings (e.g. the Mesopotamian “lion dragon”: RLA VII, 97–99). Dragons have only positive connotations in East Asia, where they appear as kind heavenly beings, providers of rain and light, and guarantors of fertility. Dragons are also known positively in West Asia, especially in the early Sumerian period, as em…

[German Version] I. Archaeology Seals are attested in the ancient Near East since the pre-pottery Neolithic (c. 7000 bce), initially in the form of simple round or oval disks or theriomorphic stamps. Beginning in the late 4th millennium (Susa, Uruk), we also find cylinder seals (Good Shepherd: I, fig.). The latter were in use until the end of the first millennium bce…

[English Version] I. Religionsgeschichtlich Sch., seit der Mittleren Altsteinzeit (75 000 v. Chr.) bezeugt, ist Teil des primär visuellen Zeicheninventars des Menschen, um Gruppenzugehörigkeit, soziale Rollen (wie Gender, Amt, Status oder Funktion) und Identität auszudrücken, auch Hoffnungen, Wünsche und Verpflichtung zu kommunizieren. Je nachdem, ob Sch. offen oder verborgen getragen wird, steht mehr die positive Wirkung auf die Person selber, die intime Identität oder die Signalfunktion im Vorder…

[German Version] I. History of Religions – II. Archaeology – III. Bible I. History of Religions Jewelry, attested since the Middle Paleolithic (75,000 bce), is part of the primarily visual repertoire of signs expressing group membership, social roles (such as gender, office, status or function) and identity, and used for communicating hopes, wishes, obligations and the like. Depending on whether jewelry is worn openly or concealed, the positive effect on the person her- or himself, intimate identity or its…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Archaeology I. Religious Studies…

[English Version] I. Zum Begriff N. ist die Wiss. vom hist. Geld- und Münzwesen. Namensgebend ist die Münze (griech. n̆ο´μισμα, lat.…

[German Version] I. From the Beginnings to the Hellenistic Period – II. Roman Antiquity, Late Antiquity, Byzantium – III. Western Middle Ages to the Gothic – IV. Baroque to the Modern Era I. From the Beginnings to the Hellenistic Period Ivory carving is attested in Egypt from the 5th millennium bce, whence it reached the Levant by the end of the Chalcolithic. Tusks from African and Asian elephants served as the raw materials, in addition to tusks from hippopotamuses who lived in herds in Nubia, Egypt and Palestine (rarely, tusks of wild pig…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Archaeology – III. Iconography and the Bible – IV. Christian Iconography – V. Jewish Iconography – VI. Islamic Iconography – VII. Buddhist Iconography – VIII. Hindu Iconography I. Religious Studies Iconogra…

[German Version] I. Definition …

[German Version] I. Terminology – II. Ancient Near East and Old Testament – III. Greco-Roman World – IV. Religions of India – V. Buddhism – VI. Chinese Religions – VII. Japan I.…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies Veneration of gods in the form of man-made images (I) is part of the development of human ideas about God. The nature of such images varies widely, from natural objects with little or no human work involved (rocks, posts, trees) to professionally produced works of “art.” For the structure of the idea of God reflected in images, the crucial question is whether they “merely” facilitate epiphany rituals or whether the gods regularly manifest themselves in the images through ritual guarantee, i.e. are made present through them. The answer to this question may also suggest the difference between a figurine and a cultic image. A figurine facilitates worship of the gods, whereas an image is an immediate object of ritual veneration. The notion that a deity is fundamentally present in an image “necessitates” a regular image cult. Invocation, prayer, and sacrifice are not limited exclusively to the image; especially if it is housed in a permanent structure (temple), however, the image provides for them a fixed structure that determines how people conceive the deity. Anthropomorphic and theriomorphic images in particular encourage a mode of veneration reflecting a basic schema of social interaction. Differentiation (sex, size, apparel) and location give rise to cultic forms that are regularly associated with other complexes of the rituals in question. Images are provided with food, washed, clothed, made up – in short, venerated in the manner in which a ruler would usually be honored. As the conception of cultic images as objects of communicative actions would suggest, the actions and reactions of living persons are imputed to them. Images are reported to nod, speak, laugh, weep, sweat, and bleed…

[English Version] I. Religionswissenschaftlich Eine religionswiss. relevante Verwendung des griech. Wortes συ´μβολοn̆/sýmbolon findet sich schon früh in der eur. Religionsgesch., z.B. bei Dion von Prusa (1./2.Jh. n.Chr.) in seiner Rede über die Zeus-Statue des Pheidias in Olympia (Oratio 12,59). Der griech. Symbolbegriff verweist in diesem Zusammenhang auf die Problematik der Götterbilder, die darin besteht, daß das, was eigentlich der menschlichen Anschauung entzogen ist, dem Menschen anschaulich vergegenwärtigt werden soll. In der Religionswiss., v.a. in der Religionsphänomenologie, spielte der Symbolbegriff eine große Rolle. Vorausgesetzt wurde die aus der christl.-abendländischen Tradition vorgegebene Unterscheidung zw. Gott und Welt sowie die Möglichkeit einer Einwohnung des Göttlichen in der Welt und/oder die Annahme einer abbildhaften Beziehung zw. Welt und Gott. Auf dieser Grundlage wurde versucht, die symbolische Bedeutung rel. Objekte oder die symbolische Deutung weltl. Phänomene zu erforschen. Das »eigentlichste Symbol« (S.) ist, G. van der Leeuw zufolge, »der Altar, der Thron oder Tisch Gottes, weil hier in der Tat das Heilige ›statthaft‹ wird, sich gleichsam niederläßt« (511f.). M. Eliade beschäftigte sich bes. mit der Symbolik des Weltenbaums und ordnete auch das christl. Kreuz in diesen Zusammenhang ein (Bilder, 178; Anmerkungen, 133). Letztlich haben, Eliade zufolge, alle rel. Fakten symbolischen Charakter, insofern sie auf eine metaempirische Wirklichkeit zielen (Anmerkungen, 119). Die Symbolforschung rückt damit ins Zentrum der Religionswiss. und dient schließlich dazu, dem modernen Menschen die Tiefe der rel. Weltbetrachtung, die verloren zu gehen droht, wieder neu zu erschließen. Es geht Eliade dabei bes. um die Fähigkeit der S., »paradoxe Situationen auszudrücken bzw. bestimmte, anders schlechterdings unausdrückbare Strukturen der letzten Wirklichkeit« (Anmerkungen, 126; vgl. Berner, Erforschung, 27). – In der neueren Religionswiss. ergab sich mit der Abwendung von der Religionsphänomenologie auch eine Umdeutung des Symbolbegriffes und eine Umwertung der Symbolforschung, indem Rel. als ein kulturelles System betrachtet wird. Bes. einflußreich war der Ansatz von Geertz, der Rel. als Symbolsysteme beschreibt (90f.). Der Symbolbegriff wird d…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies Use of the Greek word σύμβολον/ sýmbolon in a sense relevant to religious studies is attested quite early in the history of European religions; Dio of Prusa (1st/2nd cent. ce), for example, used it in his speech on Phidias’s statue of Zeus in Olympia ( Oratio 12.59). In this context, the Greek term reflects the problem posed by images of the gods: what is intrinsically inaccessible to human vision (Vision/Intuition) is somehow to be represented visually. In religious studies, especially in the phenomenology of religion, the concept of symbols has played an important role. It presupposes the distinction betwe…