Category موضوعي
Deities and divine councils
Divine names, attributes, roles and relationships in specific sources.
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Contextual definition
Shu and Tefnut
Shu and Tefnut are an Egyptian divine pair associated with air and moisture respectively
Bronze ritual menat bearing the heads of Shu and Tefnut, from Egypt’s Late Period, 664–380 BCE. Walters Art Museum, 54.1515. Instruments of this type were used with beaded collars in rituals
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Contextual definition
Re, Egyptian sun god
Re is the Egyptian sun god, associated with creation, life and renewal of cosmic order
Pay raises his hands before Re-Harakhty, shown with a falcon’s head and solar disk, in a limestone stela fragment from Saqqara. The Met dates the object to about 1328–1318 BCE; inventory 04.2.527
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Contextual definition
Ptah
Ptah is an Egyptian god associated with Memphis, craftsmanship and creation
Statuette of Ptah wearing a close-fitting cap, straight beard and enveloping garment. Made of cupreous metal, it is dated by the Met to 664–30 BCE; object 04.2.406
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Original photograph
Contextual definition
Atum
Atum is an Egyptian creator god associated with Heliopolis
Atum as a human-headed cobra above an animal-mummy box. Made of cupreous metal, the object is dated by the Met to 664–30 BCE; inventory 04.2.519. It illustrates one of the god’s forms in later Egyptian periods
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Illustration
Study
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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Illustration
Entity
War Scroll
Dead Sea Scroll text portraying war between the sons of light and the hostile camp; its principal copy is designated 1QM.
Modern distinction between War Scroll camps and equal divine origins; the prayer in1QM XIII attributes Belial’s making to God
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Illustration
Entity
Book of Jubilees
Jewish retelling of Genesis and Exodus framed as angelic teaching to Moses, adding chronology, narratives and interpretation.
Modern diagram of Jubilees10: permission for one tenth, confinement of nine tenths, and Noah’s remedies; narrative proportions, not a historical census
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Study
Leviathan and Lotan: the serpent across Ugaritic and Hebrew poetry
KTU 1.5 and Isaiah 27 pair a related name with the fleeing and twisting serpent epithets. What supports a shared tradition, and where does evidence for borrowing stop?
Fragments of Ugaritic KTU 1.5, Louvre AO 16641 and AO 16642, c. 1400–1200 BCE. The Baal Cycle text mentions ltn; the artifact does not depict the creature. Photograph by Rama, 2007, CC BY-SA 2.0 France via Wikimedia Commons; original unchanged
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Original photograph
Entity
Leviathan
A poetic sea being in Hebrew texts, related to Ugaritic ltn; its role varies between combat and creation imagery.
Fragments of Ugaritic KTU 1.5, Louvre AO 16641 and AO 16642, c. 1400–1200 BCE. The Baal Cycle text mentions ltn; the artifact does not depict the creature. Photograph by Rama, 2007, CC BY-SA 2.0 France via Wikimedia Commons; original unchanged
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Study
Weighing the Heart in Egypt: Justice, Ritual and the Afterlife
Reading judgment before Osiris through Maat, the heart and the Book of the Dead: ethics, texts and ritual without assuming a single timeless scene.
Funerary papyrus fragment depicting judgment before Osiris, Egypt, ca. 230–150 BCE; Metropolitan Museum 66.99.142. The scale contains a small figure of Maat
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Original photograph
Ancient text
Egyptian Book of the Dead
Modern designation for funerary texts and images aiding the deceased in the next world; spells and their arrangement vary between manuscripts.
Funerary papyrus fragment depicting judgment before Osiris, Egypt, ca. 230–150 BCE; Metropolitan Museum 66.99.142. The scale contains a small figure of Maat
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Entity
Maat
Ancient Egyptian right order, truth and rectitude, also divinely personified; represented in heart-weighing by a feather or a goddess’s figure.
Funerary papyrus fragment depicting judgment before Osiris, Egypt, ca. 230–150 BCE; Metropolitan Museum 66.99.142. The scale contains a small figure of Maat
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Entity
Osiris
Egyptian deity associated with the dead and continued life, presiding over judgment in funerary papyri such as 66.99.142.
Funerary papyrus fragment depicting judgment before Osiris, Egypt, ca. 230–150 BCE; Metropolitan Museum 66.99.142. The scale contains a small figure of Maat
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Original photograph
Study
Marduk’s Rise: Babylon and the Making of Divine Kingship
Enūma Eliš through battle, creation, recognition and fifty names: one god’s supremacy in a world that remains polytheistic.
Mušḫuššu dragon from Babylon’s Ishtar Gate decoration, Neo-Babylonian period; museum reconstruction using original bricks in Berlin. Associated with Marduk, not a confirmed depiction of Tiamat
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Entity
Tiamat
Primordial watery divine figure in Enūma Eliš, later Marduk’s opponent; her defeated body provides material for cosmic arrangement.
Mušḫuššu dragon from Babylon’s Ishtar Gate decoration, Neo-Babylonian period; museum reconstruction using original bricks in Berlin. Associated with Marduk, not a confirmed depiction of Tiamat
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Study
Mesha and Chemosh: How a King Narrates Sacred War
A reading of the Moabite inscription through divine anger, Yahweh’s vessels, violence and construction, separating evidence from royal rhetoric.
Mesha Stele, basalt from Dhiban, ninth century BCE, Louvre AO 5066. The displayed monument is reassembled with restored missing areas
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Entity
Chemosh
Prominent Moabite deity whose anger and favor explain defeat and recovery in Mesha’s royal inscription.
Mesha Stele, basalt from Dhiban, ninth century BCE, Louvre AO 5066. The displayed monument is reassembled with restored missing areas
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Illustration
Study
Judaism between exile and Christianity
Following Jewish diversity from exile to Roman times and changing angels, evil, resurrection and visions, distinguishing textual testimony, historical reconstruction and cultural-influence hypotheses.
Modern explanatory timeline of political and institutional changes, not dates for the birth of every belief or one uniform doctrinal path
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Entity
Apocalyptic literature
Writing disclosing hidden heavenly and historical knowledge, not every catastrophe.
Modern analytical tool. Resemblance alone does not prove Iranian borrowing: dating, contact, distinctive pattern, mechanism, alternatives and direction must be tested
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Illustration
Entity
First Enoch
Layered collection of Jewish writings about heaven, evil and judgment.
Modern comparison of different witnesses, not an archaeological afterlife map or three identical beliefs. Daniel retains “many”; Josephus’s account differs from bodily resurrection
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Illustration
Entity
Essenes
Group described by outside authors; a Qumran link is likely, not identity with all scrolls.
Modern comparison of an ancient outside author’s account. Josephus uses Greek philosophical language; this is neither the groups’ own manifesto nor an account of all Jews
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Illustration
Entity
Sadducees
Jewish group without a surviving doctrinal library of its own; known through others.
Modern comparison of an ancient outside author’s account. Josephus uses Greek philosophical language; this is neither the groups’ own manifesto nor an account of all Jews
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Illustration
Entity
Pharisees
Jewish group known through ancient testimony about law and human destiny.
Modern comparison of an ancient outside author’s account. Josephus uses Greek philosophical language; this is neither the groups’ own manifesto nor an account of all Jews
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Original photograph
Entity
Second Temple Judaism
Diverse Jewish traditions under Persian, Hellenistic and Roman rule, not one creed.
Qumran remains in a modern photograph. They provide a setting for the scrolls, not a portrait of every Jewish group or proof of an Essene identification. This is not a temple or heavenly-world reconstruction
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Study
Allah before Islam
Following the name from inscriptions and personal names to Quranic discourse, distinguishing continuity of language from changing belief and stone testimony from scholarly interpretation.
BES19s 77.1, Firʿ Wadi al-Khudari, Mafraq, Jordan. Its reading invokes Allat and then Allah. This photograph shows stone and writing; animal and human drawings are not identified as depictions of these deities. Original preserved without cropping or alteration
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Illustration
Entity
Shirk
Associating others with God in Quranic discourse; not equivalent to denying God’s existence.
Modern diagram separating acknowledgment of a creator from exclusive worship. The Quran rejects worship of intermediaries and conditions angelic intercession on permission; it does not categorically abolish all intercession
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Illustration
Entity
Paleo-Arabic
Designation for early Arabic inscriptions in writing traditions preceding Islam; the sample is limited.
Modern explanatory diagram, not inevitable stages or object dates. “Roughly two thousand years” concerns MH09; the 40-plus sample concerns the 2026 report. Neither describes all Arabs
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Original photograph
Entity
Allat
Name of an ancient Arabian deity, attested in inscriptions and mentioned in the Quran.
BES19s 77.1, Firʿ Wadi al-Khudari, Mafraq, Jordan. Its reading invokes Allat and then Allah. This photograph shows stone and writing; animal and human drawings are not identified as depictions of these deities. Original preserved without cropping or alteration
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Original photograph
Entity
Safaitic
Ancient North Arabian script preserving names and prayers; not one uniform creed.
BES19s 77.1, Firʿ Wadi al-Khudari, Mafraq, Jordan. Its reading invokes Allat and then Allah. This photograph shows stone and writing; animal and human drawings are not identified as depictions of these deities. Original preserved without cropping or alteration
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Original photograph
Entity
OCIANA
Digital corpus of Ancient North Arabian inscriptions, with texts, images and commentary.
BES19s 77.1, Firʿ Wadi al-Khudari, Mafraq, Jordan. Its reading invokes Allat and then Allah. This photograph shows stone and writing; animal and human drawings are not identified as depictions of these deities. Original preserved without cropping or alteration
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Original photograph
Entity
Epigraphy
Study of inscriptions on surviving materials, including writing, context and dating.
BES19s 77.1, Firʿ Wadi al-Khudari, Mafraq, Jordan. Its reading invokes Allat and then Allah. This photograph shows stone and writing; animal and human drawings are not identified as depictions of these deities. Original preserved without cropping or alteration
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Illustration
Entity
Quran
Central text of Islam, used here as evidence of its religious discourse.
Modern diagram separating acknowledgment of a creator from exclusive worship. The Quran rejects worship of intermediaries and conditions angelic intercession on permission; it does not categorically abolish all intercession
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Original photograph
Study
Did Zoroastrianism Change Judaism?
Established historical contact and debated influence: comparing Avestan layers with Jewish resurrection and angels while separating resemblance from transmission, narrative setting from composition.
Achaemenid gold daric with royal figure, approximately fourth century BCE, The Met 52.127.1. Imperial context, not Zoroaster or Ahura Mazda and not evidence of resurrection’s transmission to Judaism. Original preserved; display copy uncropped
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Illustration
Concept
Eschatology
Study of destiny and endings, including individual judgment, resurrection and renewal; not one uniform creed.
Modern conceptual comparison, not inevitable stages or a bridge map. Separates soul judgment, resurrection and cosmic renewal. Neither universal resurrection in Daniel nor identical detail across Iranian layers is assumed
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Illustration
Concept
Resurrection of the dead
The dead returning to life, distinguished from soul immortality, with differing scope and form among texts.
Modern conceptual comparison, not inevitable stages or a bridge map. Separates soul judgment, resurrection and cosmic renewal. Neither universal resurrection in Daniel nor identical detail across Iranian layers is assumed
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Entity
Amesha Spentas
Benevolent beings and concepts in Iranian tradition, approximately “holy/bounteous immortals.”
Original comparative diagram, not ancient artwork or portraits. Heavenly organization does not establish Michael and Gabriel as renamed Iranian beings
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Illustration
Concept
Frashokereti: final renovation
Creation’s completion or renovation in Iranian tradition, linked to incorruptible life and evil’s retreat.
Modern conceptual comparison, not inevitable stages or a bridge map. Separates soul judgment, resurrection and cosmic renewal. Neither universal resurrection in Daniel nor identical detail across Iranian layers is assumed
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Illustration
Concept
Chinvat Bridge
Avestan image of moral destiny after death, with passage elaborated in later traditions.
Modern conceptual comparison, not inevitable stages or a bridge map. Separates soul judgment, resurrection and cosmic renewal. Neither universal resurrection in Daniel nor identical detail across Iranian layers is assumed
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Illustration
Ancient text
Avesta
Avestan-language religious corpus with layers and oral transmission, not a book composed in one year.
Modern diagram of textual layers, not a Zoroaster portrait or Avesta manuscript. No single composition year for each layer; surviving-copy age is not an idea’s age
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Illustration
Entity
Angra Mainyu / Ahriman
Hostile spirit; Ahriman is a Middle Persian name in later traditions with changing theological relations.
Modern terminology diagram, not divine portraits or genealogy. Distinguishes Gathic spirits from later Pahlavi opposition; early theology is debated. These names are not equated with Yahweh and Satan
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