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Articles, studies and research files, from newest to oldest.
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Illustration
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A story's date is not its manuscript's date: how do we date ancient texts?
A story and its surviving manuscript may be centuries apart. Examples from Sargon, the flood, Enoch and the Qur'an explain how we date each stage.
Original IL Archive diagram of four distinct historical clocks: narrated event, composition, copy and material support. Modern methodological artwork, not a manuscript or artifact image
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Original photograph
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Typhon and the storm-god battles: Illuyanka, Baal, and the limits of resemblance
How do Illuyanka, Baal and Zeus–Typhon battles resemble one another? Hittite, Ugaritic and Greek accounts, dated witnesses, stolen body parts and possible paths of contact.
Zeus confronts Typhon on a Greek hydria of the sixth century BCE, Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich, 596. Photograph by Bibi Saint-Pol, 9 February 2007; a witness to the story’s artistic representation
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Illustration
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Kumarbi and Kronos: divine generations and the succession of kingship
The Hittite Kumarbi song and Hesiod’s Kronos–Zeus narrative: succession, swallowing and birth, the dates of damaged witnesses, and possible routes of story circulation.
Original IL Archive comparison of succession in CTH 344 and Hesiod's Theogony. The broken line by Teššub marks the missing final enthronement in the Hittite text; the question mark marks the unproven transmission route. This is not an ancient artifact
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Original photograph
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Divine assemblies in the Levant and Greece: resemblance and transmission limits
Councils of El, Baal and Zeus: how feasts, messengers and decisions move Ugaritic and Homeric stories, and what chronology and Phoenician–Greek contact help explain.
Volute-krater attributed to the Capodimonte Painter; South Italian Apulian, about 320–310 BCE. Front: divine assembly above Amazonomachy. Not Ugarit’s council or a particular Homeric scene
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Original photograph
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The son and the sacrifice: how Abraham’s story changed
How does Abraham's sacrifice story differ between Genesis and the Qur'an? A historical comparison of Jewish, Christian and Islamic retellings of the son, his rescue and the animal substitute.
The Sacrifice of Isaac, tapestry attributed to a workshop funded by William Sheldon, probably 1561–1613. Later depiction, not an artifact of the event
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AI-generated
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Gog and Magog: from Ezekiel to the enclosed nations
Leader, land, nations and barrier: Genesis, Ezekiel and Revelation through Alexander, the Quran and hadith, with Gyges, Marduk and witness dates examined.
Modern generated illustration of a barrier between mountains; neither a discovered artifact nor an identification of the narratives’ barrier
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Original photograph
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Solomon, spirits and birds: from Kings to the Talmud and Quran
Wisdom, rings, Ashmedai and the queen: texts and dates, from Josephus and the Testament of Solomon to birds, subjugation and the limits of unseen knowledge.
Bronze mirror, 12th–13th century; the museum interprets its scene as Solomon and his demons. Met 1978.348.2; public domain
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Original photograph
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Birds from clay: Jesus, infancy accounts and the Quran
Thomas’ sparrows, Arabic and Armenian infancy accounts, Al Imran and Al Maidah: actions and dates, from an ancient papyrus to transmission questions.
Greek papyrus fragment P.Hamb.Graec.1011 before the joining fragment published in 2025
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Original photograph
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Mary and the palm: accounts, dates and limits of the relationship
Surah Maryam, Pseudo-Matthew, Dormition traditions, Leto and Apollo: birth, journey and tree miracle, distinguishing composition, manuscript and episode dates.
Rest on the Flight into Egypt, a drawing by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, around 1770. It documents a later depiction, not the story's early date
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Original photograph
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Moses and the servant of God: the fish and water of life
Quran, hadith, al-Tabari, the Alexander Poem and Talmud: recurring fish motifs, different functions, and the evidence needed to establish transmission.
Elias and Khizr at the Fountain of Life in a Persian Shahnama manuscript painting from the late fifteenth century. It depicts a later reception of the life-water story
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Original photograph
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Dhul Qarnayn and Alexander traditions: texts, dating and debate
Sun, horns, metal gate, Gog and Magog: comparing al-Kahf with the Syriac Legend, distinguishing narrative relationship from a proven source and historical identity.
Alexander’s head with ram’s horn on Lysimachos coin, 297–281 BCE; Met 05.44.430. Posthumous Hellenistic image, not an identified Dhul Qarnayn portrait
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Original photograph
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The Companions of the Cave and the Sleepers of Ephesus: connected narratives
Syriac and Latin witnesses alongside the Qur’an: numbers, money, dog, al-raqim and duration, distinguishing narrative relationship from a proven direct source.
The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, a Falnama leaf from the 1550s, attributed to Qazvin in Iran. Metropolitan Museum, 35.64.3. It shows the story's artistic reception centuries after its ancient texts
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Illustration
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Abraham and the breaking of idols: between midrash and Qur’an
From Jubilees, the Apocalypse of Abraham and Genesis Rabbah to the Qur’an: the largest idol, fire and Haran, and the limits of identifying direct sources.
Modern explanatory design for idols and fire in Abrahamic narratives; symbolic geometric shapes, not an artifact or historical portrait of Abraham
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Illustration
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Satan, Mastema and Belial: different names for evil
Comparing Job’s adversary, Mastema in Jubilees and Belial at Qumran: personal names, local identifications and limits of hostile authority.
Modern comparative diagram distinguishing names, roles and authority in the cited passages; neither ancient portraits nor a fixed genealogy
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Original photograph
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Enoch and the Apkallu: Wisdom before the Flood
Kings,sages and the ancient scribe: primeval knowledge,instruction and limits of proposed transmission into Enochic literature.
Nimrud, ca. 883–859 BCE; Met 84.11, public domain. Winged figure proposed as apkallu; not Enoch’s portrait
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Original photograph
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Sons of God and Watchers: How a Brief Story Expanded
From four Genesis verses to angelic descent, teaching and giant spirits in Enoch: texts, manuscripts and limits of comparison with Mesopotamian sages.
Assyrian apkallu from Nimrud, ca.9th–8th century BCE; Met 54.117.26, public domain. Comparative context, not an Enochic Watcher
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Original photograph
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Judgment Scales: Egypt and the Worlds of Late Antiquity
Heart, destiny and deeds: Egyptian, Greek, Hebrew, Iranian and Quranic witnesses compared through roles, dates and the limits of transmission hypotheses.
Lucas Cranach the Elder, Michael weighing a soul, 1506, woodcut. Metropolitan Museum, 27.54.22; public domain. Later Christian depiction, not an original Testament of Abraham illustration
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Original photograph
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Gehenna and Ancient Underworlds: A Place-Name with Changing Meanings
From Hinnom and Sheol to Enoch, Mark and the Quran: distinguishing the dead’s abode, punishment, waiting and renovation while testing linguistic kinship and transmission.
Mount Zion from the valley of Hinnom; American Colony (Jerusalem), Photo Department, 1934–1939. Library of Congress, LC-DIG-matpc-19029. Modern historical site photograph, not an image of the afterlife or photographic evidence of ancient rites. Collection rights dedicated to the public; no known publication restrictions
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Original photograph
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Resurrection in Daniel: The Jewish Text and Its Ancient Context
From sleepers in the dust and dry bones to Iranian texts and Qumran: what can we establish about resurrection hope, and what do parallels or manuscript dates leave unproven?
Daniel Praying, William Holman Hunt, 1849; graphite, ink and grey wash. The Metropolitan Museum, 2023.675. Later reception of Daniel 6:10–11, not an ancient image of Daniel or a resurrection scene from chapter 12. Public Domain
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Original photograph
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Dumuzi and Adonis: Death, Return, and the Limits of the Resurrection Model
From Dumuzi’s dream and half-year settlement to Adonia at Athens, Alexandria and Byblos: distinguishing lamentation, alternation and return, with resurrection comparisons and Islamic-period continuity.
Attic red-figure oil jar, mid-4th century BCE; a woman receives a planter from Eros in a scene associated with the Adonia. Metropolitan Museum, 22.139.26; Public Domain
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Original photograph
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Returning from the Underworld and Resurrection: What Resembles What?
From Inanna and Alcestis to Daniel, Paul, and the Qur’an: distinguishing descent, rescue, apotheosis, and resurrection, with precise three-day sequences and transmission limits.
Attic red-figure vessel, 4th century BCE; depicts Heracles’s apotheosis, not Alcestis’s rescue. Metropolitan Museum, 52.11.18; public-domain photograph
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Original photograph
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Blood and Atonement: What Do Offerings Do?
Blood may purify a sacred place or establish a covenant, while flour can provide atonement. Leviticus, a Hittite rite, Hebrews and the Qur’an help explain what offerings do in each setting.
Hittite vessel terminating in a stag’s forepart, ca. 14th–13th century BCE; silver with gold inlay, central Anatolia. Metropolitan Museum, 1989.281.10; public-domain image. Ritual material culture, not evidence that it held blood or belonged to Papanikri’s or Leviticus’s rites
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Original photograph
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The Sent-Away Goat: Leviticus and Ancient Rites of Removing Evil
From Leviticus’s goats to Samuha and Ambazzi, then Azazel, Mishnah and Barnabas: comparing removal, slaughter and later interpretation while assessing transmission limits.
William Holman Hunt, The Scapegoat, mid-1850s; Lady Lever catalogue dates the painting to 1854, LL3623. Public-domain reproduction via Wikimedia Commons. Later religious artistic interpretation, not an archaeological depiction of Leviticus’s rite or a portrayal of Azazel
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Original photograph
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Jonah and the Marine Creature: From Inanna and Jason to Christian Reception and the Qur’an
Comparing Jonah’s great fish with Inanna’s descent, Oannes and Jason’s image, then tracing Gospel, artistic and Qur’anic reception; distinguishing resemblance and hypotheses from explicit reuse.
Roman marble table base depicting Jonah swallowed and cast up by a marine creature, early fourth century CE. Metropolitan Museum,77.7, public-domain photograph. Evidence of Christian artistic reception, not an artifact from the prophet’s time or identification of his fish’s species
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