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Lecturer(s)
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Visi Tamás, doc. Ph.D., M.A.
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Course content
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1. Analytic categories 1: Symbolic institution Gods as magical words and amulets versus gods as representations in monumental discourses. Aesthetization of gods and sublimation of gods. 2. Analytic categories 2: Idolatry: the representation of gods in monumental discourses. Monotheism as iconoclasm: revolt against monumental discourses. Alphabetic writing as a cultural precondition of biblical monotheism. Ritual coherence versus textual coherence. Three similar, but different concepts: aniconism, iconoclasm, and monotheism. 3. Monotheistic trends in Egyptian theology. The Memphis theology. Ekhnaton's reforms. The post-Amarna period. The Amun-theology of the Ramesside period. From the primacy to the transcendence of Amun. 4. Egyptian cultural interferences in Phoenicia and Israel. Egyptian loanwords in Biblical Hebrew. The iw+verb construction in Ancient Egyptian and the waw conversativus in Phoenician and Biblical Hebrew. Political symbols: the scarabs as royal symbols of the kings of Israel and Judah. 5. Aniconism in Phoenicia and Israel as the result of Egyptian cultural interference. The Phoenicians' appropriation of the Ramesside Amun-theology. Phoenician aniconism. The Israelite appropriation of Phoenician aniconism 6. Early biblical texts about divine epiphanies. The secrecy of the divine names. The taboos on seeing God and pronouncing His name. Theological vocabulary: "one" "I will be whoever I will be" "wondrous name" and their Egyptian background. Psalm 104 and Ekhnaton's hymn to Aton. How Egyptian religious texts were transmitted to biblical Israel? 7. Chronological questions and periodization: what do we know about the early history of Jewish religion? Collective memory and collective forgetting in illiterate societies. 8. The first great drama: the Assyrian invasion of 701 BCE. Iconoclasm as Hezekiah's practice in rationalizing the economics of the kingdom. Monotheism as an ideology that justifies iconoclastic practices. Biblical religion = monotheism+iconoclasm. The battle of Eltekeh or how to reconstruct historical events (Assyrian royal propaganda, prophetic propaganda, anti-prophetic propaganda, Egyptian propaganda, and the truth). The formation of the monotheist party. 9. The second great drama: Josiah's religious reforms. The original form of the Deuteronomy. Esserhadon's vassal treatise as a literary model of Deuteronomy. From cultic to textual coherence: the emphasis on ethic and law ("righteousness"). The young Jeremiah as a loyalist prophet: the promise of a new golden age of Israel under king Josiah's rule. Josiah's sudden death and the problem of theodicy. 10. The third great drama: Jeremiah and the fall of the kingdom of Judah. Jeremiah's book as an ego-document. Reinterpreting memories and reinterpreting earlier prophecies. Jeremiah's doctrine after Josiah's death: first punishment, only afterwards the promised golden age under a future Davidic ruler (proto-messianism). Jeremiah's loyalty to the dynasty: cursing Babylon. The great paradigmatic shift: monotheist theology coupled with imperial power. Jeremiah's turn to imperial power: the doctrine that the only and one God gave all the power over the earth to his only and one representative: Nabu-kudurri-ussur, the king of Babylonia. 11. The post-exilic development. Reinterpreting the vassal contract as the law given to Moses.
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Learning activities and teaching methods
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Lecture, Dialogic Lecture (Discussion, Dialog, Brainstorming)
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Learning outcomes
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The Origins of Biblical Monotheism Arguably a fundamental event of intellectual, and religious history that determines our culture in multiply ways was the emergence of biblical monotheism. Recent researches in the fields of biblical philology, archeology, Egyptology, and Phoenician religious history allow us to draw a new picture of the origins of biblical monotheism. Reconstructing this enigmatic event is an important contribution to our understanding of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and all the cultures and civilizations based on any of these religions. The purpose of the seminar is to disseminate knowledge about recent researches (largely unknown to the larger public today) that shed new light on these important questions. Short (chiefly biblical) texts will be analyzed in the course of the seminar in detail.
Ability to use correctly basic analytical categories (such as iconic vs. aniconic cult, iconoclasm, monotheism, monolatria, sublime, aesthetization, sublimation, monumental discourse), ability to analyze biblical and extra-biblical texts as documents of early Jewish religious history, understanding the deep structure of Jewish intellectual traditions.
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Prerequisites
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Ability to read secondary literature in English.
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Assessment methods and criteria
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Essay
Students are expected to attend classes and read primary sources provided in translations that include: - the book of Isaiah - the book of Jeremiah - selections from Egyptian hymns (to be provided during the semester) -selections of Canaanite, Punic, and Aramaic inscriptions (to be provided during the semester) Students are expected to prepare a short presentation (10-15 mins) of the following topics: - the gods of Egypt - the gods of Mesopotamia - the gods of Canaan - the gods of Southern Arabia - Egyptian writing systems - Cuneiform script - Ugaritic script Short essay (ca. 5 pages) covering one of the topics discussed during the seminar at the end of the semester.
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Recommended literature
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Brian R. Doak. (2015). Phoenician Aniconism in Its Mediterranean and Ancient Near Eastern Contexts. Atlanta.
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Donald B. Redford. (1992). Egypt, Canaan, Israel in Ancient Times. Princeton.
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Jan Assmann. (2008). Of God and Gods: Egypt, Israel, and the Rise of Monotheism. Madison.
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