Suchergebnisse

This book examines the interpretation of dreams, which were thought to contain divine messages in the ancient Near East. For the first time in a single collection, scholars examine how dream divination was used in different ancient cultures. The essays, written by scholars specializing in different regions and bodies of literature, shed light on dream divination in the Bible, the Talmud, and in writings from Canaan, Mesopotamia, and Hittite Anatolia. Contributors include Franziska Ede, Esther J. Hamori, Koowon Kim, Christopher Metcalf, Alice Mouton, Scott B. Noegel, Andrew B. Perrin, Stephen C. Russell, Jonathan Stökl, and Haim Weiss. - from publisher

Mesopotamian and biblical societies in antiquity were characterized by their patriarchal structure. The father was head of the family unit, and his rule extended over many areas of life. He had broad legal authority over the members of his household, including his offspring. It is therefore expected that in the ancient sources a dominant father figure would be mentioned alone or almost alone. And yet, in Mesopotamian and biblical texts, particularly legal writings, the exclusivity of the father is not always explicit. In many of the Mesopotamian and biblical writings, especially legal texts, the mother is mentioned in various contexts and in a range of realms, mainly those pertaining to her offspring. This intriguing phenomenon raised the question whether the mother in the ancient Near East and ancient Israel had legal authority in the household. The book The Legal Status of the Mother in the Ancient Near East and the Bible sheds light on the world of the ancient mothers and their status within the households and the societies in which they lived. This study demonstrates that the mother acted by virtue of the legal status she possessed in matters related to her sons and daughters' marriages and their behavior towards her. This book is for those walking in the fields of Mesopotamian and biblical research, and for readers interested in the universal subject in question - the relations between the mother and her offspring