Category موضوعي
Texts and their transmission
Inscriptions, manuscripts, editions, translations and the transmission of texts.
Advanced search →Artifact 10 Entity 180 Period 1 Person 99 Site 28 Study 79 Ancient text 17
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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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Entity
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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
Qumran
Between stability and plurality: Qumran witnesses, MT, shorter Jeremiah, harmonistic Torah and the Septuagint’s Hebrew source, with limits of copy dating and reconstruction.
Qumran site remains in a modern photograph. Context for the manuscripts, not Cave 4 or a Jeremiah fragment. Original preserved; display resized without cropping
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Concept
Textual criticism
Comparing witnesses to explain variation and infer earlier readings or editions, distinguishing preserved from reconstructed text.
Modern textual-criticism method, not a proven historical genealogy. An inferred reading is not material evidence; copy age alone does not determine the best reading
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Concept
Hebrew Vorlage
Hebrew text underlying a translation; may survive partly or be inferred, so reconstruction is not a discovered copy.
Modern diagram distinguishing preserved text from inferred Hebrew translation source. Agreement in Jeremiah does not establish a whole scroll identical to all Greek readings
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Concept
Textual harmonization
Aligning parallel passages through additions or changes; may be deliberate editing, not proof of a copyist’s identity.
Modern comparison of harmonization in 4QDeutⁿ, following VanderKam p.20. Does not reproduce the fragment or equate this witness with every Samaritan reading
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Concept
Proto-Masoretic text
Ancient witness close to later Masoretic consonants, without necessarily its vowels, accents and notes.
Modern diagram distinguishing textual layers. Ancient consonantal agreement does not mean identical letters or Masoretic pointing at Qumran. Not a facsimile or complete timeline
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Original photograph
Site
Qumran
Site near the northwestern Dead Sea; neighboring caves preserve ancient Jewish textual finds, not one complete Bible.
Qumran site remains in a modern photograph. Context for the manuscripts, not Cave 4 or a Jeremiah fragment. Original preserved; display resized without cropping
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Study
How did “the adversary” become Satan?
From human opponents and Balaam’s angel to Job, Zechariah and Chronicles, then Enoch, Jubilees, Qumran and the New Testament: expanding opposition, and what names and roles can establish.
Modern functional comparison of different witnesses, not a fixed chronology or historical portrait. A council role alone does not date Job
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Entity
Demonology
Study or organization of harmful powers, names, origins and roles within specific traditions; no single doctrine or claim about existence beyond the text is assumed.
Modern functional comparison of different witnesses, not a fixed chronology or historical portrait. A council role alone does not date Job
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Entity
Asael / Azazel
Name forms in Enochic tradition associated with corrupting teaching and punishment; witness variation cautions against one fixed form and identity everywhere.
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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Belial
Figure associated with darkness and wickedness in some Qumran texts; not a fixed alias for every heavenly adversary.
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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