Category موضوعي
Texts and their transmission
Inscriptions, manuscripts, editions, translations and the transmission of texts.
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Illustration
Entity
Mastema
Leader of harmful spirits in Jubilees; requests some spirits and proposes Abraham’s test, subject to divine limits.
Modern comparison of Enoch 8/10, Jubilees 10 and 1QM 13. Not one figure’s transformation. Jubilees 10:11 uses Satan in Mastema’s context; local overlap is not denied
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Illustration
Study
From gods to angels
From Ugarit’s council to heavenly beings in Kings, Job, Daniel, Tobit and Enoch: continuity of structures, roles and names, and the limits of proving an individual god became an angel.
Modern analytical diagram separating structure, role and identity. Comparative questions, not an archaeological chain proving a god became an angel
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Illustration
Entity
Seraphim
Six-winged beings in Isaiah 6’s throne vision, associated with praise and purification; not automatically identical to cherubim or every angel.
Modern paraphrase of Genesis 3/32, Exodus 25 and Isaiah 6. Not a historical depiction of the beings or a fixed taxonomy for all Judaism
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Illustration
Entity
Cherubim
Beings or figures with guarding and sacred functions in Hebrew texts, at the tree-of-life access and on the ark; not equivalent to every heavenly messenger.
Modern paraphrase of Genesis 3/32, Exodus 25 and Isaiah 6. Not a historical depiction of the beings or a fixed taxonomy for all Judaism
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Illustration
Entity
Watchers
Designation for heavenly beings in Daniel and Enochic literature, covering an obedient holy watcher or a rebellious group according to context.
Modern comparison of Daniel 4 and 1 Enoch 6–15: a watcher is not necessarily fallen, and giant spirits are not simply watchers renamed. Row order does not date composition
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Illustration
Entity
Angelology
Study and organization of angels and heavenly beings: names, ranks and roles within particular traditions, without assuming one fixed system.
Modern analytical diagram separating structure, role and identity. Comparative questions, not an archaeological chain proving a god became an angel
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Original photograph
Study
From a national god to the god of the universe
Exclusive allegiance and denial of other gods: inscriptions, Assyrian/Babylonian crises and Second Isaiah, separating events from composition and disagreements over monotheism.
Cyrus Cylinder, Babylon, after 539 BCE; British Museum 90920. Actual artifact; inscription does not name Yahweh
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Illustration
Entity
Second Isaiah
Scholarly label for Isaiah 40–55, substantially linked to exile and Cyrus; not proof of one author or one year for every verse.
Modern editorial paraphrase of three Isaiah passages, not a manuscript or full translation. Wording is attested; historical meaning and layered dating remain research questions
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Illustration
Entity
Babylonian exile
Judean deportations to Babylonia and the kingdom’s collapse in the early sixth century BCE; several phases, not everyone removed or returned at once.
Modern diagram of political reference points. It does not date monotheism’s birth or imply everyone’s simultaneous deportation/return
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Illustration
Entity
Henotheism
Privileging one god while acknowledging others in the working definition used here; not automatically monotheism or a fixed social phase.
Modern comparison of working definitions. Terms overlap and vary across scholars; arrangement does not date three successive stages for everyone
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Illustration
Entity
Monolatry
Worship of one deity without necessarily denying others; variable analytical term, not one uniform doctrine of all Israelites.
Modern comparison of working definitions. Terms overlap and vary across scholars; arrangement does not date three successive stages for everyone
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Original photograph
Study
Ugarit
From the 1929 excavations and alphabetic cuneiform to houses, scribes and the Baal Cycle: what does Ugarit reveal about Levantine gods, and where are the limits of comparison?
Entrance to Ugarit at Ras Shamra, near Latakia; M. Benoist, August 1989. Modern photograph of the remains, not an ancient-city reconstruction
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Illustration
Entity
Dagan
Deity known in Syria and Mesopotamia, attested in Ugaritic lists, offerings and names; Baal is called his son. Temple attribution remains debated.
Modern comparison of Ugaritic evidence for Dagan; not a divine likeness or a settled identification of the temple
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Illustration
Entity
Urtenu and his house
Ugaritic figure close to court and commerce, associated with a south-central archive; family and personal texts helped identify its owner.
Modern grouping of evidence types from Urtenu’s house in the selected 1995 pages; not a room plan or complete archive census
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Illustration
Entity
Ilimilku
Ugaritic scribe associated with the Baal Cycle, Kirta and Aqhat; handwriting and colophons aid attribution. His work alone does not date the traditions’ origins.
Modern distinction between Ilimilku’s scribal work and the origin of recorded traditions; no portrait or claim that he invented the myths
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Original photograph
Concept
Ugaritic alphabet
Long cuneiform alphabet of 30 signs, chiefly consonantal. Its wedge shapes do not imply Akkadian syllabic principles or priority as the first alphabet.
Incomplete Ugaritic abecedary, Louvre AO 19992 / RS 10.087, museum date about 1400–1200 BCE; found 1938, 7 letters missing. Not the complete RS 12.033 found 1948
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Original photograph
Study
El and Baal
The old father and the young god: battle, palace, mourning, Athtar’s throne and Shapshu’s warning reveal overlapping authority without a narrative of El’s deposition.
Baal with Thunderbolt stela from Ugarit, limestone, Louvre AO 15775 / RS 4.427. The museum assigns a broad date of 2000–1150 BCE. This depicts Baal, not El, and does not prove that Baal overthrew him
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Illustration
Entity
Kothar-wa-Hasis
Craftsman god in the Baal Cycle, supplying weapons and building the palace.
Modern explanation of the craftsman’s battle and building roles; no reconstruction of the weapons or palace
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Illustration
Entity
Athtar
God who tries Baal’s throne on Saphon during his absence, then descends; it is not El’s throne.
Modern diagram of KTU1.6I; Athtar is not presented as a fallen angel or denied all kingship beyond Saphon
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Illustration
Entity
Shapshu
Ugaritic sun goddess; involved in Baal’s crisis and intervening verbally in the Mot conflict.
Modern explanation of Shapshu’s roles in the passages consulted; her warning does not mean El actually deposed Mot in the scene
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Illustration
Entity
Mot
God of death in the Baal Cycle; an adversary who returns even after a violent attack.
Modern diagram of three points in Mot’s story; no proof of an annual agricultural rite or a complete revival mechanism
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Illustration
Entity
Yam / Nahar
Sea god and Baal’s opponent for kingship, also associated with Nahar, River.
Modern narrative diagram of Baal and Yam; no likeness of the Sea god or reconstruction of the cycle’s lost opening
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Illustration
Study
Did El Have an Image?
Between the tentatively identified seated figurine and the elder described in texts: separating artifact attribution from literary appearance, and comparing El with the Ancient of Days without inventing a transmission route.
Modern diagram distinguishing the object, its attribution and El’s textual portrayal. It neither depicts El nor settles the statue’s identity
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Illustration
Concept
Marziḥu
A banqueting institution or association in Ugaritic documents, with religious functions not reducible to one ritual.
Modern diagram of evidence relevant to the marziḥu; no reconstruction of El’s feast, guest count or ritual
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Illustration
Concept
KTU: Ugaritic Text References
Abbreviation for a modern scholarly corpus of alphabetic cuneiform texts; its numbers are references, not dates.
Modern reference guide: KTU1.114 corresponds to RS24.258 in Spronk’s chapter. No ancient writing or tablet surface reproduced
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Illustration
Concept
Ancient of Days
Designation of the divine figure with white hair, throne and court in Daniel7.
Modern textual comparison, depicting neither El nor the Ancient of Days and proving no direct transmission route
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Illustration
Concept
Aniconism
Avoidance of divine images in a particular practice or tradition; not inferred solely from an unidentified artifact.
Modern diagram of different explanations for an unidentified image; not evidence that any one occurred at Ugarit
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Original photograph
Concept
Iconography
Study of images, their attributes and contexts; resemblance alone does not prove identity.
Seated god, possibly El; Ugarit, 1400–1300 BCE according to the catalogue; gold-covered bronze, RS 23.394 / S3573. Catalogue information names Damascus Museum in 2011; current whereabouts not verified here. Attribution to El remains tentative
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Original photograph
Study
Who Headed the Sumerian Divine Assembly? An or Enlil?
From Fara lists to Lugalzagesi’s inscription and Ekur: An’s seniority, Enlil’s authority and why list order cannot establish a transfer of the throne.
Ziggurat mound at Nippur from the southwest, photograph by Noémi Alzayadi. The building on top dates to late-nineteenth-century excavations, not a standing Sumerian temple. Modern site context; display copy resized only
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Illustration
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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Illustration
Study
Anunna and Anunnaki: What Do the Texts Actually Say?
Names, membership, numbers, the underworld and human creation: Mesopotamian evidence distinguished from Sitchin’s modern orbital, gold-mining and genetic-engineering narrative.
Modern diagram ties numbers to contexts: seven judges, fifty of Eridu, six hundred in Enuma Elish. Neither a fixed roster nor an ancient portrait of the Anunnaki
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Illustration
Deity
Marduk
Babylon’s god, elevated with the city’s history. Enuma Elish celebrates his rise and cosmic ordering; sources associate him with Nibiru and Jupiter. Earliest origins and functions remain uncertain.
Modern guide to Marduk: Babylon, cosmic ordering, a creation plan executed by Ea, and connections to Nibiru and Jupiter. No claim to depict the god’s appearance
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Illustration
Concept
šar₂: The Numerical Value 3,600
Sumerian numerical term valued at 3,600, or 60×60. Alone it specifies neither years nor a planet’s orbit; distinct from Akkadian šar, king.
Modern numerical diagram: šar₂ = 3,600 = 60×60. The number alone specifies neither years nor Nibiru’s orbit; Akkadian šar, king, is a different word
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Illustration
Book
Enuma Elish
Babylonian Akkadian composition celebrating Marduk’s elevation and cosmic/divine ordering. Human creation is in VI, Nibiru in VII; a Tablet I reference cannot document those passages.
Modern passage map: human creation and divine distribution in VI, Nibiru in VII. Not a tablet image; a link to Tablet I does not document these passages
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Illustration
Concept
Nibiru: Crossing and Astral Name
Akkadian crossing-related word and astral designation, including Jupiter in some contexts and Marduk’s Nibiru. Cited sources establish no inhabited planet returning every 3,600 years.
Modern map of Nibiru’s uses: crossing, Jupiter in some contexts, and Marduk’s name. The equinox-marker reading is Freedman’s hypothesis. Not an image of a discovered planet
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Original photograph
Study
The Flood Before Noah: Ziusudra, Atrahasis, Utnapishtim and Genesis
Older Mesopotamian flood accounts and Noah: vessels, birds and sacrifice; changing motives and survival; the strength and limits of literary comparison.
Cuneiform fragment of the Atrahasis tradition, Mesopotamia, c. seventh–sixth centuries BCE; Met 86.11.378a. A later copy, not the Old Babylonian manuscript or Gilgamesh K.3375. Original preserved; resized without cropping
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Illustration
Book
Epic of Gilgamesh
Mesopotamian literary tradition with multiple versions, concerning Uruk’s king, Enkidu and mortality. Standard Tablet XI preserves Utnapishtim’s flood; manuscript date does not date the tradition’s origin.
Modern distinction between narrative setting, tradition and manuscript date. Seventh-century K.3375 does not date the origin of Gilgamesh’s flood; Sumerian Ziusudra does not establish strict priority over Atrahasis. Not a tablet photograph
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Illustration
Entity
Utnapishtim
Gilgamesh’s flood hero narrates survival to a king seeking immortality. Ea warns him; life is preserved; hero and wife receive exceptional life. Literary character, not an archaeologically established person.
Modern guide to Utnapishtim: the flood answers a question within Gilgamesh’s immortality quest. Hero and wife receive exceptional life, not immortality for humanity. Not a documented portrait or ship reconstruction
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Original photograph
Book
Atrahasis: Epic and Hero
Akkadian epic: humans created for divine labor, multiplication, noise and flood. Atrahasis, “exceedingly wise,” survives through Enki’s warning; human reproduction is regulated afterward.
Cuneiform fragment of the Atrahasis tradition, Mesopotamia, c. seventh–sixth centuries BCE; Met 86.11.378a. A later copy, not the Old Babylonian manuscript or Gilgamesh K.3375. Original preserved; resized without cropping
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Illustration
Entity
Ziusudra
King and priest in the fragmentary Sumerian Flood Story, preserved in an Old Babylonian copy. Survives, sacrifices and receives divine life in Dilmun; historicity is unproven.
Modern guide to the surviving Sumerian text: decision and warning, lost preparations, seven days and nights, sacrifice and divine life in Dilmun. Cause and warning speaker are not clearly preserved. Not a tablet image or hero portrait
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