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1. General 1.1. Words and Concept The English words “sacrifice” and “offering” come from Lat. sacrificium and offero. Ger. Opfer goes back to Lat. operari, “be active.” The terms suggest an active relation to the reality concerned in the different religions. The various ways in which the relation is described may thus affect the concept. Even though a distinction might arise between real and symbolic sacrifice, sacrifice is always at the heart of religion and widely influences human conduct in other spheres as well. In religious history we may un…

1. OT and Judaism 1.1. Atonement is a central concept in biblical theology. Along with the traditional misunderstanding of appeasing an angry deity, the penal definition of making good an offense and the viewing of the cultus as a human work have impeded a more relevant approach. In the OT, atonement breaks the nexus of sin and its evil consequences by “channeling ¶ the baneful influence of the evil into an animal that died vicariously for the man (or for the cultic object). Expiation was thus not a penalty, but a saving event” (G. …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament – III. Early Judaism – IV. New Testament – V. Dogmatics I. Religious Studies 1. The judgment discussed here is not in response to a specific transgression or lapse on the part of an individual; it is a judgment upon his or her entire life, taking place only after death and determining the fate of the ¶ deceased in the next world. Because this notion implies the idea of a just recompense, it has the quality and function of a theodicy that seeks…

[German Version] I. Archaeology and Religious Studies The wild predecessors of cultured vines ( Vitis vinifera vinifera) are found especially in the north-eastern Mediterranean region and in the area of the Black Sea. The earliest evidence of collecting grapes, presumably from wild stocks, is 9,000 years old (Çayönü, Tell Aswad and Jericho). The earliest indications of vine cultivation come from the end of the 4th millennium …

[German Version] I. History of Religions – II. Biblical – III. Philosophy of Religion – IV. Dogmatics – V. Ethics – VI. Science…

[German Version] I. Old Testament and Judaism – II. Christianity – III. Islam I. Old Testament and Judaism 1. Only in three passages does the Old Testament speak of humankind's being made in the image of God (collective use of הָ]אָדָם]/[ hā] ʾādām in Gen 1; cf. Gen 1:27: male and female): in the relationship between God and human beings in Gen 1:26f. and 9:6, and in the relationship between human beings in Gen 5:1, 3 (all P). Substantially the same idea is conveyed in Ps 8:6–9*; for later treatment of the theme, Sir 17:3–7 and Wis 2:23f. are significant. Throughout most of Christian history, being made in the image of God was generally treated as referring to the physical form, spiritual nature, or responsiveness of human beings; since Irenaeus of Lyon, the concept was interpreted by the …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. History of Religions – III. Philosophy of Religion – IV. Art History I. Religious Studies …

[German Version] I. Natural Sciences and Psychology – II. Religious Studies – III. Philosophy – IV. Old Testament – V. New Testament – VI. Church History – VII. Dogmatics and Ethics – VIII. Judaism – IX. Islam I. Natural Sciences and Psychology 1. Evolution From the perspective of the natural sciences, the theory of evolution offers the most comprehensive framework for understanding human beings. It views the human species as a late product of a biogenetic process that began with the origin of life (VI) on earth some 3.8 billion years ago. Humans are members of the order Primates. Between five and seven million years ago, the hominid clade diverged from the line of apes, with which we still share 98.4% of our DNA. While fossils of the fir…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. History of Religions – III. Old Testament – IV. New Testament – V. Philosophy of Religion – VI. Dogmatics – VII. Judaism ¶ I. Religious Studies Concepts of the hereafter do not, of themselves, necessarily contain statements concerning eternal life. On the contrary, concepts of the hereafter develop with dynamics of their own and thus variability. …

[German Version] As part of the ritual for the great Day of Atonement, (Lev 16, cf. 23:26ff.; Num 29:7 ff.), the high priest Aaron lays his hands (Laying-on of hands) on a he-goat, the so-called scapegoat (Vulgate caper emissarius, Fr. bouc émissaire, Ger. Sündenbock), putting the sins of the Israelites on its head and then employing someone designated to take it to “an isolated place” or “the wilderness” (Lev 16:8, 10, 21f.), where rabbinic tradition says that it meets its death ( m. Yoma). Various interpretations have been proposed for the name Azazel (עֲזָאזֵל; Lev 16:8, 10, 26) that appears in this context – a combination of the Semitic elements ‘zz, “be strong,” and ’l, “god” (Janowski/Wilhelm, 128), a combination of the Egyptian elements ʿ ḏɜ, “guilty,” and ḏr/l, “keep away” (“the expelled culprit”: Görg), or a figure related to t…

[German Version] I. Old Testament – II. Art History I. Old Testament Cain and Abel, the children of the first human couple Adam and Eve, are the protagonists of one of the characteristic fraternal narratives of the book of Genesis (cf. Jacob and Esau). Their names are semantically associated with the pre- or non-priestly Paradise narrative of Gen 3*: While the meaning “transitoriness” may be discerned in the name Abel (…

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[German Version] (May 11, 1913, Frankfurt am Main– Feb 18, 1997, Tübingen) received his doctorate under Alexander Scharff from Munich in 1936, habilitated in 1942, was assistant to the Protestant theology faculty at Tübingen beginning in 1950, named extraordinary professor in 1960, Professor of Egyptology in 1964, and emeritus since 1978. Brunner was the founding father of Egyptology at Tübingen and made important contributions to the study of Egyptian language ( …

[German Version] I. Terminology and Scope The book of Psalms is a unique collection of 150 poetic texts compiled to make a work sui generis. Its Hebrew title תְּהִלִּים(סֵפֶר) /( sēper) tĕhillîm, “(Book of) Praises,” is already found at Qumran (earliest instance: 4QMa [= 4Q491] 174, 1st cent. bce). As in the New Testament occurrences from about a century later (Luke 20:42; Acts 1:20: βίβλος ψαλμῶν/ bíblos psalmṓ n), it appears to be used primarily in the technical sense of a scroll conta…

[German Version] (Dec 17, 1918, Essen – Nov 14, 2000, Essen). After earning his doctorate in Heidelberg (1944) and his Habilitation in Bonn (1948; associate professor of Old Testament there from 1951), Kraus accepted an appointment as professor of OT in Hamburg in 1954, and was professor of Reformed theology in Göttingen from 1968 onward. The son of an Essen pastor, he grew up in Wuppertal. He was instrumental in establishing the Protestant theological faculty in Hamburg and became the successor of O. Weber in the university chair in Göttingen in 1968. Together with M. Noth and H.W. Wolff, Kraus was one of the fathers of th…

[German Version] I. Concept and Terminology – II. Religio-historical Aspects – III. Theological Significance I. Concept and Terminology References to Yahweh's “kingdom” or “kingship,” using the abstract nouns מַלְכוּת/ malkût (1 Chron 17:14; 28:5; Pss 103:19; 145:11–13; Dan 3:33; 4:31 [Eng. 4:34]; etc.), מְלוּכָה/ mĕlûkāh (Obad 21; Ps 22:29*),מַמְלָכָה/ mamlākāh (1 Chron 29:11), and מֶמְשָׁלָה/ memšālāh (Pss 103:22; 114:2; 145:13), appear only in late texts of the Old Testament. Even if the notion is earlier (see II below), the disparity between th…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament – III. New Testament I. Religious Studies Light and darkness, day and night, the rising and setting of the life-giving sun determine the vital rhythm of nature and human beings; they find expression in feelings, in language and thought, in symbols and myths. Light is on the side of the gods, the sphere of the divine, the spirit. As a religious symbol, light represents life, salvation, and bliss. Darkness is ambiguous: it can ¶ signify death, perdition, and woe, but it can also represent protective concealment (hell, etymologically “place of concealment”). In the cult, (divine) light illuminates darkness. A sudden blaze of light at the climax of cultic mysteries marks a divine epiphany that enlightens the participants, leading to divinization, reb…

[German Version] I. Old Testament The word shekhinah (שְׁכִינָה), a postbiblical noun from the root שׁכן…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies The term substitution, originating in the language of law, is used primarily in Christian theology, but it is well suited for use in religious studies as well, even though so far there has been no detailed systematic treatment of it. In the most general sense, we speak of substitution when the true subject affected or acting (God, an individual like the king, or a collective) is represented by another ¶ entity (a person or group, an animal, or an object) as a substitute involved (actively or passively) in the action, acting for the…

[German Version] Lament I. Religious Studies – II. Bible – III. Systematic Theology – IV. Practical Theology – V. Judaism …