Advanced search
Advanced archive search
Start with a word or phrase, then combine filters to find a material or a specific line.
Artifact 11 Entity 321 Page 3 Period 5 Person 153 Site 66 Study 100 Ancient text 19
-
Illustration
Artifact
Elephantine “Passover Letter”
Fragmentary Aramaic letter, Berlin P.13464, dated 419/418 BCE, on Nisan dates and ritual instructions. “Passover” is restored in a lacuna; no complete Torah is attested.
Modern guide to Berlin P.13464, Hananiah’s letter to Jedaniah, 419/418 BCE. Distinguishes surviving wording from restoration; “Passover” belongs to reconstructed text. Not a photograph or complete transcription
Read the record → -
Illustration
Entity
Philo of Alexandria
First-century CE Alexandrian Jewish author. In Life of Moses he presents Greek translation as inspired; the passage does not explicitly assign a separate room to each translator.
Modern comparison: Aristeas describes collaboration; Philo emphasizes inspired agreement without explicit separate rooms; Irenaeus explicitly separates translators and broadens scope. Witness order does not prove every detail’s transmission
Read the record → -
Illustration
Book
Letter of Aristeas
Hellenistic Jewish account, commonly dated to the second century BCE, of 72 elders translating Hebrew law in Egypt. Not contemporary minutes or a Torah-composition account.
Modern guide to Aristeas: Hebrew law from Jerusalem, 72 elders, collaborative translation on Pharos, community approval. These are claims of the later narrative, not independently proved events or a story of new composition
Read the record → -
Original photograph
Entity
Ptolemy II Philadelphus
Ptolemaic ruler of Egypt, sole reign c.282–246 BCE. Aristeas associates him with Greek Torah translation; royal sponsorship details lack independent confirmation.
Gold coin obverse, reign of Ptolemy II, Alexandria, c. 261–246 BCE. The portrait is Arsinoe II, not the king. Met 30.115.23. Context for Ptolemaic Egypt, not evidence of Torah translation. Original preserved; resized without cropping
Read the record → -
Original photograph
Study
When Was the Torah Written?
Between Moses’ time, inherited traditions and the surviving book: distinguishing composition and editing from translation, manuscripts and textual stabilization.
Ketef Hinnom silver amulets displayed at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; photograph, 2012. Usually dated to the late seventh or early sixth century BCE. A blessing related to Numbers 6, not evidence for the entire book. Display copy resized without cropping
Read the record → -
Original photograph
Inscription
Ketef Hinnom amulets
Two silver scroll amulets found in Jerusalem in1979, with wording related to Numbers6. Usually late seventh/early sixth century BCE; they do not date the whole book.
Ketef Hinnom silver amulets displayed at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; photograph, 2012. Usually dated to the late seventh or early sixth century BCE. A blessing related to Numbers 6, not evidence for the entire book. Display copy resized without cropping
Read the record → -
Illustration
Book
Samaritan Pentateuch
Samaritan Hebrew five-book tradition sharing an older textual history, with linguistic and theological variants, including readings involving Mount Gerizim.
Modern map of textual plurality, not a settled genealogy. Affinities with Masoretic, Greek or pre-Samaritan witnesses do not divide all copies into three closed families. The Samaritan Pentateuch shares earlier history and includes Gerizim readings
Read the record → -
Illustration
Manuscript
Dead Sea Scrolls
Judaean Desert manuscripts, especially Qumran cave finds. Biblical copies and other works reveal textual diversity; a copy’s age is not the work’s initial date.
Modern diagram of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Qumran manuscripts from the third century BCE to the first CE, with multiple languages and works. Not all are biblical; a copy’s age alone does not date a work’s initial composition. Not an artifact photograph
Read the record → -
Illustration
Concept
Documentary hypothesis
Model explaining the Torah through combined sources such as J, E, D and P. Boundaries, dating and editing are debated alongside supplementary models.
Modern diagram: editors combine sources, or texts grow through supplements. J/E/D/P is a scholarly model with disputed boundaries and dates. Literary materials can cross the current book divisions
Read the record → -
Illustration
Book
Torah / Pentateuch
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy: Mosaic corpus with a compositional history. Torah can also mean teaching or law beyond these five books.
Modern overview of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Topic order describes the present literary structure, not the order of composition. Torah has a broader meaning in some ancient usages
Read the record → -
Original photograph
Study
El in Human and Angelic Names
How does El survive in Israel, Ishmael, Daniel and angelic names? Seven formations, human and heavenly witnesses, selective Qurʾanic continuity, and the limits of inferring belief or identity from etymology.
Merneptah Stele, JE 31408, Egyptian Museum, Cairo; photographed in 2003. The inscription attests Israel around 1208 BCE. Evidence for the group’s name, not a Hebrew analysis of El or a stand-alone statement of its beliefs. Perspective-corrected version reused unchanged
Read the record → -
Illustration
Entity
Uriel
Name joining El to an element interpreted as light or fire; human in Chronicles, heavenly figure in Enoch. No Ugaritic divine origin established.
Modern diagram of Uriel: lexical alternatives involving light or fire, human attestation in Chronicles and heavenly attestation in Enoch. Not an artifact image or proof of identical bearers or independent divine origin
Read the record → -
Illustration
Entity
Raphael / Rephael
Theophoric name from healing and El; human Rephael in Chronicles and angel Raphael in Tobit. Distinct from Israfil, whose etymology is a separate question.
Modern diagram of Raphael: healing root with El, a human name in Chronicles and an angel in Tobit. Distinguishing him from Israfil does not settle Israfil’s disputed etymology
Read the record → -
Illustration
Entity
Gabriel / Jibrīl
Name joining El with an element involving man or strength; interpreter in Daniel, messenger in Luke, named Jibrīl in the Qurʾan.
Modern diagram of Gabriel: analyses involving man or strength and literary roles in Daniel, Luke and the Qurʾan. Not a portrait or proof of one unchanging role across texts
Read the record → -
Illustration
Entity
Michael / Mīkāl
Theophoric name asking who is like God; borne by humans and a heavenly figure in Daniel. It establishes no former Canaanite deity.
Modern diagram of Michael: “Who is like God?”, with a human attestation in Numbers and a heavenly attestation in Daniel. Not an angel’s portrait or proof of a former Ugaritic deity
Read the record → -
Illustration
Study
From El’s Council to Yahweh’s Court
How did heavenly council structures persist as sovereignty and membership changed? Ugarit, Deuteronomy 32 and Job through messengers and angels, separating evidence from a presumed single evolutionary path.
Modern comparison of the sons of God and ha-satan in Job, the host’s deliberations in 1 Kings, and prophetic hearing in Jeremiah. Different literary functions, not a reconstructed historical chamber or an identification of their members
Read the record → -
Illustration
Concept
Ha-satan in Job
The adversary or accuser in Job, with the Hebrew definite article; among the sons of God, acting within permission and limits rather than carrying every later Satanic trait.
Modern comparison of the sons of God and ha-satan in Job, the host’s deliberations in 1 Kings, and prophetic hearing in Jeremiah. Different literary functions, not a reconstructed historical chamber or an identification of their members
Read the record → -
Illustration
Concept
Angel / Divine Messenger
Hebrew malʾakh means messenger, human or celestial according to context; the word alone proves neither wings nor origin from a particular Canaanite god.
Modern diagram explaining malʾakh as a messenger defined by context: divine or human envoy. Genesis 32 uses Hebrew verse numbering. The word proves neither wings nor that every later angel was formerly a Canaanite god
Read the record → -
Illustration
Concept
Heavenly Host
A heavenly group whose meaning varies: celestial bodies in some texts, attendants around the throne deliberating in 1 Kings 22.
Modern comparison of the sons of God and ha-satan in Job, the host’s deliberations in 1 Kings, and prophetic hearing in Jeremiah. Different literary functions, not a reconstructed historical chamber or an identification of their members
Read the record → -
Illustration
Concept
Sons of God
A Hebrew expression for heavenly beings in texts such as Job; context determines its meaning, rather than biological descent or a fixed angelic roster.
Modern diagram of heavenly-group vocabulary. Sons of God resemble sons of El structurally, but the terms establish no fixed membership or transfer of every Ugaritic figure into Hebrew texts
Read the record → -
Illustration
Study
How Did El and Yahweh Become One God?
From El traditions to Israel’s god: ancestral names, the heavenly council and Deuteronomy 32 variants, separating textual evidence from hypotheses of convergence and monotheism.
Modern diagram separating El–Yahweh identification, adaptations of storm and sea imagery, and exclusive one-God claims. These processes may overlap without forming a single event or securely dated stages
Read the record → -
Illustration
Concept
Septuagint
Traditional designation for ancient Greek translations of Jewish scriptures, whose readings sometimes differ from the Hebrew Masoretic Text.
Modern diagram of Deuteronomy 32:8: sons of Israel in the Masoretic text, sons of God in 4QDeutj, and angels of God in a common Greek reading. The variant alone does not establish that the Most High and Yahweh are distinct. Not a manuscript photograph
Read the record → -
Illustration
Concept
Masoretic Text
A Hebrew textual transmission and reading tradition, compared in textual criticism with ancient manuscripts and translations.
Modern diagram of Deuteronomy 32:8: sons of Israel in the Masoretic text, sons of God in 4QDeutj, and angels of God in a common Greek reading. The variant alone does not establish that the Most High and Yahweh are distinct. Not a manuscript photograph
Read the record → -
Illustration
Concept
El Elyon
A name or title meaning “God Most High,” joined to Yahweh in Hebrew Genesis 14. Elyon does not always designate an independent deity.
Modern diagram distinguishing words from divine identity. El titles are applied to Yahweh in the texts; the original identities and their convergence require historical reconstruction
Read the record → -
Illustration
Concept
El Shaddai
A compound El name or title associated with ancestral narratives and identified with Yahweh in Exodus 6; Shaddai’s meaning and etymology remain uncertain.
Modern diagram distinguishing words from divine identity. El titles are applied to Yahweh in the texts; the original identities and their convergence require historical reconstruction
Read the record → -
Original photograph
Study
Where Did Yahweh Come From?
Seir, Edom, Midian and the earliest trace of the name: what Egyptian Yhw lists, southern poetry and the Moses story establish, and where a hypothesis of religious transmission begins.
Soleb temple in Sudan, from Amenhotep III’s reign; photograph by Hans Birger Nilsen, 2017. Context for the Egyptian list, not a photograph of the Yhw entry or a temple of Yahweh
Read the record → -
Original photograph
Inscription
Mesha Stele
Ninth-century BCE inscription of King Mesha of Moab; line 18 mentions Yahweh’s vessels, clear external evidence for the deity associated with Israel.
Mesha Stele, basalt, from Dhiban in Jordan, ninth century BCE; Louvre AO 5066 / KAI 181. Broken, reassembled and supplemented. Yahweh occurs in line 18 according to the published reading; no reading from the photograph is claimed
Read the record → -
Illustration
Concept
Tetragrammaton
Designation for YHWH written with four Hebrew letters; it does not settle the earliest pronunciation or etymology.
Modern diagram: El belongs to the Semitic word family for god; YHWH has four letters. Religious identification does not establish linguistic derivation of one name from the other. Not an ancient inscription or a solution to Yahweh’s etymology
Read the record → -
Illustration
Region
Midian
Name for groups and a wilderness-associated landscape in Hebrew narratives; Moses’s link to its priest supports a hypothesis, not proof of Yahweh worship’s transfer.
Modern diagram of names in poetry and narrative. It draws no Midianite borders or certain Sinai/Paran locations, and does not equate a divine appearance with the origin of worship
Read the record → -
Original photograph
People
Shasu
Egyptian designation for mobile pastoral groups; Yhw occurs in their lists without automatically identifying a deity or Israel.
Soleb temple in Sudan, from Amenhotep III’s reign; photograph by Hans Birger Nilsen, 2017. Context for the Egyptian list, not a photograph of the Yhw entry or a temple of Yahweh
Read the record → -
Original photograph
Study
El at Ugarit
Father, king and head of the council: how Ugaritic texts combine El’s authority and palace approval with Baal’s martial power, and the limits of kinship, creation epithets and seventy.
Baal Cycle tablet AO 16640 / RS 3.367 from Ugarit, about 1400–1200 BCE, associated with KTU 1.2; Louvre. Not the palace-authorization tablet KTU 1.4. A photograph of actual textual evidence, not imagined gods
Read the record → -
Original photograph
Concept
Baal Cycle
A group of Late Bronze Age Ugaritic religious texts recounting Baal’s conflicts, relationships with the gods and the building of his palace.
Baal Cycle tablet AO 16640 / RS 3.367 from Ugarit, about 1400–1200 BCE, associated with KTU 1.2; Louvre. Not the palace-authorization tablet KTU 1.4. A photograph of actual textual evidence, not imagined gods
Read the record → -
Illustration
Entity
Anat
An active and violent goddess in Ugaritic literature; pressures El over Baal’s palace and addresses him with paternal and wisdom language.
Modern diagram of the palace episode: Anat presses and petitions, Athirat intercedes, El grants permission, and Baal obtains the palace. Narrative summary, not a chronology of every line, a divine constitution or an archaeological reconstruction
Read the record → -
Illustration
Entity
Athirat
A high-ranking goddess commonly understood as El’s consort in Ugaritic texts; associated with the progenitress epithet and the palace intercession.
Modern divine-household diagram: El as father and king, Athirat as consort with the progenitress epithet, and divine-group designations. Baal is Dagan’s son and also addresses El as father. Not a definitive birth genealogy or identification of all Athirat’s sons as known biological sons of El
Read the record → -
Original photograph
Entity
Baal
Storm god and protagonist of Ugarit’s Baal Cycle; exercises active kingship while El retains importance and authorizes the palace.
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
Read the record → -
Original photograph
Study
El Before Ugarit
From Ebla to Amorite names and Mari: distinguishing “god” from “El,” and assessing fatherhood and kinship language before Ugaritic literature.
Remains of Palace G at Ebla, Tell Mardikh: the setting of the royal archive, not an image of El or evidence identifying il in personal names
Read the record → -
Illustration
Concept
Personal god
An analytical concept for a deity’s relationship with an individual or family; it may overlap city worship and does not identify the god from a name alone.
Cult records and personal names in Nakata’s 1976 comparison. Modern evidence diagram; not two separate populations or proof that El’s cult was absent beyond the sample
Read the record → -
Illustration
Concept
Onomastics
The study of names, their origins, forms and contexts: evidence for language and religion, not a substitute for mythological or ritual texts.
A-BU-UM-DINGIR and Buccellati’s two analyses: Akkadian “god is father” and Amorite “El is father.” Modern diagram; not a copy of tablet signs or a verdict on every similar name
Read the record → -
Original photograph
Study
What Came Before the Anunnaki?
From city gods and Fara’s lists to Anunna: what preceded the earliest known collective name, and why the texts reveal neither one beginning nor a fixed family.
Statue of Gudea, Met 59.2, ca. 2090 BCE. The human ruler of Lagash, not a deity or an image of the Anunna collective
Read the record → -
Illustration
Deity
Inanna / Ishtar
Prominent Mesopotamian goddess with a major centre at Uruk, whose parentage and cult traditions vary rather than forming one fixed genealogy.
Alternative parentage of Inanna in different traditions, according to ORACC. Modern teaching diagram, not three simultaneous branches of one family tree
Read the record →