Category موضوعي
Names and languages
Words, theophoric names and linguistic relationships in context.
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Entity
Phoenicians
Communities of Levantine coastal cities known for Mediterranean contact during the first millennium BCE.
Ahiram’s sarcophagus from Byblos, held by the National Museum of Beirut. Evidence for art and writing on the Levantine coast; the sarcophagus and inscription have debated dates that need not coincide
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Concept
Ugaritic language
Ancient Semitic language preserved in Ugarit’s tablets on the Syrian coast, from the fourteenth–twelfth centuries BCE, written in a cuneiform alphabet.
Fragment bearing the sequence of Ugaritic alphabetic letters, about 1400–1200 BCE in the Louvre catalogue; AO 19992. A photograph of an actual witness from Ugarit
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Concept
Sumerian language
Ancient language of southern Mesopotamia, clearly attested in third-millennium BCE texts and maintained in learning and ritual after its spoken use declined.
Tablet of a Sumerian lament with Akkadian translations of many lines, about the second–first centuries BCE; Met 86.11.286a. A late witness to the language’s continued scribal and ritual use
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Entity
Hurrians
Ancient Near Eastern groups and language, prominent in northern Mesopotamia, the Levant and Anatolia in the second millennium BCE.
Hurrian-language incantation tablet from Ras Shamra, about 1400–1200 BCE, Louvre AO 12016. Rama, 20 October 2007. Evidence of Hurrian at Ugarit, not the Kumarbi-song tablet
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Study
From the Embodied God of Ancient Texts to Philosophical Transcendence
From Genesis and Exodus to Philo, Maimonides, Augustine, Aquinas, Avicenna and kalām: changing rules for reading body and emotion, with distinct doctrines of incorporeality, immutability and simplicity and diverse schools.
Three distinct axes, not one historical transition or a doctrine shared by every school
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Person
Al-Ghazālī
Eleventh- and twelfth-century Muslim thinker distinguishing treatments of attributes by audience.
Different interpretive patterns, not a fixed one-method-per-school table
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Entity
Bi-lā kayf
Affirming attribute language without specifying modality or creaturely likeness.
Different interpretive patterns, not a fixed one-method-per-school table
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Kalām
Islamic traditions of doctrinal reasoning with diverse approaches to attributes and transcendence.
Different interpretive patterns, not a fixed one-method-per-school table
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Person
Thomas Aquinas
Thirteenth-century theologian linking incorporeality, simplicity and immutability through philosophical premises.
Positions in specific texts, not a consensus of early or later Christianity; no portraits depicted
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Person
Augustine
Fourth- and fifth-century Christian author describing his changing grasp of nonspatial divine presence.
Positions in specific texts, not a consensus of early or later Christianity; no portraits depicted
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Person
Origen
Second- and third-century Christian exegete; the surviving First Principles argues for an incorporeal God.
Positions in specific texts, not a consensus of early or later Christianity; no portraits depicted
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Person
Tertullian
Latin Christian author of the late second and early third centuries with a distinctive body–spirit vocabulary.
Positions in specific texts, not a consensus of early or later Christianity; no portraits depicted
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Christian incarnation
The Word becoming flesh; distinct from every divine body or sensible manifestation.
Positions in specific texts, not a consensus of early or later Christianity; no portraits depicted
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Negative theology
Speaking of God through negating limitations while resisting comprehension of essence.
Different methods may coexist; they cannot all be reduced to one metaphor or delegation
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Divine anthropomorphism
Human bodily or emotional descriptions of God; not alone proof of corporeal essence.
Analyzing a phrase differs from reconstructing divine corporeality; words provide different kinds of evidence
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Entity
Divine simplicity
Metaphysical noncomposition, not simply belief in one God.
Three distinct axes, not one historical transition or a doctrine shared by every school
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Entity
Divine incorporeality
Denial of a material divine body; distinct from image prohibition and simplicity.
Three distinct axes, not one historical transition or a doctrine shared by every school
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When Israel’s God Encountered Greek Philosophy
From Greek Torah and Philo to Christian reception, Arabic philosophy and Maimonides: changing language of perfection, creation and logos, with distinct schools and graded transmission evidence.
Gold coin of Ptolemy II, Alexandria, ca. 261–246 BCE; the illustrated obverse bears Arsinoe II’s head. Context for Hellenistic Egypt, not a portrait of Philo or proof of a Torah translation commission. [24]
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Person
Avicenna (Ibn Sina)
Philosopher in the Arabic Islamic tradition, distinguishing possible from necessary existence in itself.
Modern diagram of ontological dependence, not a temporal sequence or portrait. The argument does not make all Islamic schools agree
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Neoplatonism
Modern label for later Platonic traditions associated with Plotinus, centuries after Philo.
Modern simplification of some Plotinian dependencies, not a spatial map or Christian Trinity. This third-century CE school postdates Philo
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Person
Moses Maimonides
Medieval Jewish thinker; wrote the Guide in Judeo-Arabic and examined incorporeality and attributes.
Modern diagram of passages read in the Guide; neither a portrait of Maimonides nor a summary of the entire book
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Divine immutability
Inquiry into divine change, distinguished from fidelity and impassibility.
Modern conceptual distinction; connecting the levels requires argument, and terminology alone does not deny love or providence
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Allegorical exegesis
Reading narrative elements for further meanings; not inherently abolition of literal practice.
Modern diagram of Philo’s approach, not a rule for every Jewish reader. Migration of Abraham rejects neglecting laws because of symbolic interpretation. [11][12]
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Person
Philo of Alexandria
Jewish exegete writing Greek in the early Roman period and using philosophical tools to read the law.
Modern explanatory chronology; succession does not establish direct borrowing between authors. Philo predates Plotinian Neoplatonism. [10][20][21][22][19]
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Unmoved mover
Aristotelian principle explaining eternal motion without its own transition from potentiality to actuality.
Modern comparison of explanatory principles, not three names for the same god. Plato’s ordering does not establish creation from nothing; Aristotle’s mover is not automatically the biblical God. [6][7][13]
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Person
Aristotle
Greek philosopher whose concepts of actuality, soul and motion were reinterpreted in later religious traditions.
Modern comparison of explanatory principles, not three names for the same god. Plato’s ordering does not establish creation from nothing; Aristotle’s mover is not automatically the biblical God. [6][7][13]
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Demiurge
Maker or organizer of the world in the Timaeus; not automatically a creator from nothing.
Modern comparison of explanatory principles, not three names for the same god. Plato’s ordering does not establish creation from nothing; Aristotle’s mover is not automatically the biblical God. [6][7][13]
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Person
Plato
Greek philosopher; the Timaeus’s maker differs from later religious conceptions of God.
Modern comparison of explanatory principles, not three names for the same god. Plato’s ordering does not establish creation from nothing; Aristotle’s mover is not automatically the biblical God. [6][7][13]
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Study
Allah in the Quran
Traces Allah before the Quran, then examines divinity, al-Raḥmān, angels, intercession and prophets in its discourse, separating linguistic kinship from doctrinal identity.
Quran manuscript folio, Met 1979.201, late eighth–early ninth century, Central Islamic Lands; ink, colours and gold on parchment. Later codex transmission, not a seventh-century copy or an image of the verses cited here. [28]
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Entity
Hanif
Quranic description of Abraham linked to submission and rejection of association.
Modern summary of passages about heavenly beings and Abraham, not depictions or an independent Abrahamic biography. Roles and surviving names do not establish a particular ancient god’s conversion into an angel. [9][10][11][27][23]
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Period
Late antiquity
Historical frame for late ancient transformations; boundaries vary by region and subject.
Modern distinction between the dates of witnesses surrounding this study, not fixed boundaries for late antiquity or a borrowing chain
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Intercession
Mediation subject in the cited Quranic texts to permission and approval, not divine independence.
Modern comparison of intermediary arguments with the permission condition. Neither denial of all intercession nor a complete history of interpretation. [18][19][25][9]
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Rabb
Title of lordship, ownership or care by context; applied to God in Lord of worlds.
Word functions in Quranic witnesses, not an etymological tree or four gods. Modern explanatory diagram; Allah’s possible derivation is a separate issue. [15][16][17][25]
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Raḥmānān
Divine designation rḥmnn in late Sabaic inscriptions before Islam.
Modern diagram of the Raḥmānān designation and settings, based on the passages read from Kjær. Not an inscription image or claim of uniform belief
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Entity
Al-Raḥmān
Quranic divine designation co-referring with Allah.
Word functions in Quranic witnesses, not an etymological tree or four gods. Modern explanatory diagram; Allah’s possible derivation is a separate issue. [15][16][17][25]
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Study
The Earliest Divine Names in Mesopotamia: When Writing Preserved the Name
From Uruk tablets to Fara lists: Nanna, Ninlil, Inanna, Enlil and An, and what makes a divine name readable without equating first attestation with the beginning of worship.
Modern distinction between logogram, phonetic use and determinative. Functions overlap; no ancient signs or fixed universal stages reproduced
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Concept
Logogram
A sign representing a word or related words; context selects the reading, and a sign may also have phonetic uses.
Modern distinction between logogram, phonetic use and determinative. Functions overlap; no ancient signs or fixed universal stages reproduced
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Concept
Divine determinative
A usually unspoken sign classifying a name as divine; usage differs by language, period and name.
Modern distinction between logogram, phonetic use and determinative. Functions overlap; no ancient signs or fixed universal stages reproduced
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Entity
Ninlil
Goddess later associated with Enlil and Nippur; early writings require distinguishing sign labels from place context.
Modern evidence comparison for Nanna, Ninlil and An, not divine portraits or birth order. Name clarity depends on sign and context
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Nanna / Su’en / Sin
Moon god associated with Ur, with early name evidence that does not date every later myth.
Modern evidence comparison for Nanna, Ninlil and An, not divine portraits or birth order. Name clarity depends on sign and context
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