Category موضوعي
Ritual and changes in belief
Worship, ritual and religious change, including Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions.
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Original photograph
Entity
Plastered skulls
Human skulls with material added to model a face, sometimes with shell eyes; postmortem treatment distinct from modification during life.
Plastered skull from Jericho, Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, displayed at the British Museum. An ancient modeled face on human remains, not a modern facial reconstruction
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Original photograph
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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Original photograph
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
Entity
Ninshubur
Inanna’s attendant in the Sumerian descent, following her instructions and seeking help during her absence.
K.162, Akkadian copy of Ishtar’s Descent from Ashurbanipal’s library at Nineveh, seventh century BCE, British Museum. Not a tablet of the Sumerian Inanna composition
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Original photograph
Entity
Ereshkigal
Ruler of the underworld in Mesopotamian traditions, exercising authority over death’s realm in the descent narratives.
K.162, Akkadian copy of Ishtar’s Descent from Ashurbanipal’s library at Nineveh, seventh century BCE, British Museum. Not a tablet of the Sumerian Inanna composition
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Illustration
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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Entity
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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Entity
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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Entity
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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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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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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Entity
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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Entity
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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Entity
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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Entity
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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Entity
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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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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Entity
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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Entity
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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Illustration
Entity
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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Filioque
Later western Latin addition concerning the Spirit’s procession, absent from the expanded Greek creed.
Modern diagram of debate, showing arguments, politics and worship together. No claim that one decision immediately made all Christians agree
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Modalism
Label for positions opponents argued erased Father/Son/Spirit distinction.
Modern diagram of debate, showing arguments, politics and worship together. No claim that one decision immediately made all Christians agree
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First Council of Nicaea
Council convened by Constantine in 325, a major stage that did not immediately end dispute.
Modern timeline of witnesses and formulations, not one birth date for belief or immediate consensus. It distinguishes 381 from the expanded creed’s attestation in 451
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Entity
Nicene Creed
Creed associated with the 325 council, distinct from the expanded form associated with 381.
Modern comparison of transmitted texts, not a tablet or original council minutes. The expanded form is ecclesially attributed to 381 and clearly displayed in Chalcedon’s 451 documentation
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Illustration
Entity
Homoousios — consubstantial
Term in the 325 creed relating the Son’s substance to the Father, debated in reception.
Modern illustrated glossary of later technical usage. Meanings changed between authors; modern psychological person is no automatic equivalent of ancient hypostasis. The diagram does not depict the divine being
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Entity
Hypostasis
Term later used for distinguishing Father, Son and Spirit within one divinity.
Modern illustrated glossary of later technical usage. Meanings changed between authors; modern psychological person is no automatic equivalent of ancient hypostasis. The diagram does not depict the divine being
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Entity
Ousia — essence
Greek term for essence or nature, with meanings changing between authors.
Modern illustrated glossary of later technical usage. Meanings changed between authors; modern psychological person is no automatic equivalent of ancient hypostasis. The diagram does not depict the divine being
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Logos
Greek word for word or discourse, used in John’s language of God and incarnation.
Modern comparison of distinct witnesses. Threefold language and Christ’s status do not alone supply fourth-century terminology, and one text does not date every practice
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Trinity
Christian formulation of divine unity and Father/Son/Spirit distinction, with a history of debate.
Modern timeline of witnesses and formulations, not one birth date for belief or immediate consensus. It distinguishes 381 from the expanded creed’s attestation in 451
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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