Category موضوعي
Comparative narratives and law
Comparative studies of religious narratives, creation, laws and wisdom in ancient texts and later traditions, distinguishing resemblance and shared traditions from demonstrated or debated transmission.
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Illustration
Entity
Radiocarbon dating
A probabilistic date range for organic material; for parchment it dates animal skin rather than ink directly.
Original clock diagram for dating organic material; it does not reproduce the Birmingham manuscript
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Illustration
Entity
Typhon / Typhoeus
Zeus's serpent-headed opponent, whose battle differs between Hesiod and later Greek accounts.
Modern diagram separating Hesiod's Typhoeus from the later sinew episode; not an ancient depiction
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Entity
Illuyanka
The serpent opposed by the storm god in two Hittite narratives preserved in CTH 321.
Modern diagram separating the two CTH 321 Illuyanka versions; neither a tablet photograph nor a portrait of the serpent
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Entity
Kumarbi
Hurrian divine figure in Hittite CTH 344; challenges Anu and carries the storm god after swallowing his seed.
Modern succession diagram for CTH 344; neither a proven father–son genealogy nor an ancient portrait of Kumarbi
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Original photograph
Entity
Zeus
Zeus is the sky god and leading deity in many Greek traditions. In the Iliad he presides over divine gatherings while others can still speak and object.
Greek marble head, third or second century BCE. The Metropolitan Museum identifies the deity as probably Zeus; the attribution is uncertain, and the object postdates the Iliad's formation
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Illustration
Entity
Divine assembly type-scene
A way to analyse a recurring assembly scene in narrative, while its purpose, speakers and decision vary.
Modern explanatory diagram comparing functions of particular Ugaritic, Iliadic and Odyssean scenes: message, dispute and feast, forbidding or permitting intervention, and a return decision. A tool for reading narratives, rather than independent evidence of transmission
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Entity
Sacrificial substitution
An offering replaces a person or another offering in a particular text; this alone establishes neither ritual origin nor borrowing.
Original diagram distinguishes text, interpretation, hypothesis and practice; comparison is not proof of borrowing or event
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Entity
Akedah (binding of Isaac)
Jewish designation for Isaac’s binding in Genesis 22, developing through retelling and prayer.
Modern diagram comparing explicit textual features; not a proven transmission route or final composition order
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Entity
Enclosed nations
Narrative motif of peoples beyond a barrier until their release, not a fixed ethnic name.
Modern method diagram distinguishing text, interpretation and copy dates; the rows do not give one date for the story
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Entity
Gog and Magog
Names with different roles in genealogies, invasion prophecy, end-time nations and barrier traditions.
Modern comparison of names and barriers in specified texts; no identification of a living people or proof of a complete transmission chain
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Illustration
Entity
Targum Sheni of Esther
An Aramaic translation and expansion of Esther containing an excursus on Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
Modern comparison of Eleazar’s and the Testament’s rings, nest and chamber glass, and Solomon’s roles; resemblance does not decide dependence
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Entity
Testament of Solomon
A Greek pseudepigraphal text about Solomon commanding spirits and building the Temple, preserved in different forms.
Modern method diagram: manuscript, work and modern research dates differ; these rows do not prove a transmission chain
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Illustration
Entity
Apocalypse of Abraham
Work attributed to Abraham and preserved in Slavonic transmission; opens with idol criticism before heavenly revelation.
Modern method diagram distinguishing specific resemblance from a direct source: priority and circulation alone identify no manuscript, intermediary or definite route
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Illustration
Entity
Genesis Rabbah
Jewish midrashic collection interpreting Genesis;38:13 narrates Abraham, idols, Nimrod and Haran’s death.
Modern comparison: Jubilees’ idol-house fire and Haran’s death; Genesis Rabbah’s rescue and Haran’s death; Apocalypse’s paternal-house destruction; Qur’anic rescue. No proven chain of borrowing
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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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Illustration
Entity
Enmeduranki
Primeval king in Mesopotamian wisdom tradition; distinguish from his sage and Enoch.
Modern distinction between king, sage and Enoch; seventh position proves neither personal identity nor a composition date
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Entity
Apkallu
Akkadian word for sage; lists,images and roles require their own textual contexts.
Modern comparison of Oannes, Enmeduranki, Watchers and Enoch in the cited passages; neither genealogy nor proof of borrowing
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Entity
Book of the Watchers
Opening section of1 Enoch, 1–36; includes the Watchers’ descent and transgression and Enoch’s journey.
1 Enoch 6–16: modern diagram distinguishing Watchers, their offspring’s bodies and offspring spirits; not an ancient image or portrait
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Illustration
Entity
Nephilim
Term in Genesis and Numbers; it alone identifies neither a biological population nor every fallen angel.
Nephilim and giants: modern comparison of Genesis 6,Numbers 13 and Enoch 7; not a proven biological genealogy or ancient image
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Entity
Testament of Abraham
Narrative of Abraham’s death and journey; its long recension distinguishes Abel the judge, Dokiel the weigher and Michael the guide.
Roles in the long Testament of Abraham, 10–14: a modern textual diagram distinguishing Michael the guide from Dokiel the weigher; not an ancient artifact
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Illustration
Entity
Rashnu: justice in Iranian reckoning
Iranian figure associated with just reckoning; the Menog i Khrad describes a balance favouring neither king nor pauper.
Reckoning in Menog i Khrad 2:110–122 and 12:11–15: original modern diagram of impartial justice and the outcomes of deeds; not a portrait of Rashnu or an ancient map
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Illustration
Entity
Sheol: a Hebrew term for the realm of the dead
Hebrew textual term involving death, descent and lost return; it does not automatically mean later punitive Gehenna.
Sheol in Job 7:7–10 and Genesis 37:33–35: an original modern diagram comparing two textual contexts only; not an afterlife map or an ancient artifact
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Original photograph
Entity
Gehenna: a place-name and language of punishment
Term related to the valley of Hinnom; usage changes across Jewish, Christian and Islamic texts and does not equate every afterlife term.
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
Entity
Adonia: the celebration of Adonis
Celebration associated with Adonis; texts and images attest practices varying by place and time, including planters, mourning and farewell.
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
Entity
Adonis: death and return in differing narratives
Figure associated with Aphrodite, mourning and celebration; divided residence, death and return differ between sources.
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
Entity
Apotheosis: acquiring divine status
Transformation granting divine status; differs from returning to an earlier human life or raising the dead for judgment.
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
Entity
Katabasis: descent to the underworld
Comparative term for a journey to the realm of the dead; does not by itself establish that its traveler died and rose.
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
Entity
Ritual atonement: kipper
Hebrew verb in offering and purification instructions; meaning depends on action, target, and beneficiary, rather than declaring someone outside a religion.
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
Entity
Ritual impurity
Religious classification concerning sacred access and purification; not automatically moral condemnation or a modern medical diagnosis.
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
Entity
Ritual removal
Analytical term for removing what is considered harmful or polluting from communal or sacred space; transfer, expulsion and slaughter are distinct functions.
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
Entity
Yom Kippur / Day of Atonement
Jewish observance whose Leviticus 16 setting involves sanctuary purification and the sent-away goat; distinguish ancient instructions from later practice and interpretation.
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
Entity
Kētos: marine creature
Greek word for the marine creature in Jonah and Matthew; alone it establishes neither a modern species nor the story’s origin.
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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Original photograph
Entity
Jonah / Yunus
Prophetic figure in Jonah and the Qur’an; distinguish the Kings notice from the book’s composition and later reception.
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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Original photograph
Entity
Greek Additions to Esther
Six blocks conventionally labeled A–F, adding a dream, letters, prayers and an audience scene to Greek witnesses of Esther.
Limestone relief of two servants carrying food and drink, Persepolis, ca. 358–338 BCE, under Artaxerxes III. Metropolitan Museum, 34.158, public-domain photograph. Evidence for the representation of banquet service, not Esther, Haman or a banquet of Xerxes
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Original photograph
Entity
Purim
Jewish festival connected in Esther with rescue and lots; the book’s explanation alone does not establish the first historical origin of every element.
Limestone relief of two servants carrying food and drink, Persepolis, ca. 358–338 BCE, under Artaxerxes III. Metropolitan Museum, 34.158, public-domain photograph. Evidence for the representation of banquet service, not Esther, Haman or a banquet of Xerxes
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Illustration
Entity
Court Tale
A scholarly label for stories of a sage or outsider tested or endangered by a ruler; the label alone does not prove textual borrowing.
Modern editorial illustration of a sage writing at an ancient court. Generated explanatory image, not a photograph of P.13446 or a documented reconstruction of Daniel or Ahiqar. © IL Archive, CC0
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Illustration
Entity
Potiphar’s Wife Motif
A comparative label for a woman’s rejected overture followed by a false accusation; it does not give every version a biblical origin.
Modern editorial illustration of a household divided by Bata’s accusation; neither an excavated papyrus nor a documented historical reconstruction. © IL Archive, CC0
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Illustration
Entity
Nun: Egyptian Primeval Waters
The primeval waters or realm in several Egyptian traditions; a parallel with Hebrew tehom does not prove an etymology or direct borrowing.
Modern conceptual illustration of primeval water, an emerging mound and sunrise; neither an excavated Egyptian artifact nor a reconstruction of one text. © IL Archive, CC0
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Illustration
Entity
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
The tree forbidden in Genesis 2:17 and discussed by the serpent before the eating in Genesis 3; it is not the tree of life.
Modern conceptual illustration juxtaposing Gilgamesh’s water-borne plant with two trees in Genesis’s garden. It depicts no excavated artifact and does not establish identical stories. © IL Archive, CC0
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