Semitic snake charms in the Egypt of Moses

2008

University of Liverpool. MA Egyptology. Dissertation., 2020

The purpose of the present dissertation is to analyze the iconographic compositions of every snake from the BoG and to identify their role in the narrative of the Sungod’s journey. This can help reveal or clarify meanings or nuances not mentioned directly in the texts. this dissertation is divided in two main blocks. The first two chapters provide the necessary context to snakes in Egyptian culture and art, and the BoG, while the chapter "Snake iconography in the Book of Gates" will analyse in depth the iconographic compositions related to snakes in the mentioned book.

The Asbury Journal, 2022

This study pursues the question of why Yhwh, who in the Decalogue prohibits the creation and worship of divine images, would order Moses to create a snake image as the mode of healing snake bites in the desert (Num 21:4-9). This question is legitimated as the Judahites subsequently burn incense to Moses' bronze snake, which Hezekiah destroys as an act of loyalty to Yhwh symbolic action theory in cultural psychology, this essay explores what the bronze snake image would have meant for the earliest audiences of these stories. In the core of the essay, the biblical, iconographic, and mythologic contexts are investigated and prove to be suggestive for identifying the meaning(s). In the conclusion, recent studies in psychology offer insight for canonical reflection.

BAR Internationale series 2740, 2015

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), 2022

Snake symbolism is prevalent throughout recorded history and is seen in cultures vastly separated by distance and time such as from Ancient Egypt to modern Jordan. In the Southern Levant (present day Jordan and Palestine), many objects with snake appliques have been discovered during excavations. Twenty five pieces of pottery sherds and vessels decorated with snake appliqués were recorded during various excavations of Early Bronze Age sites in Southern Levant. Ten sherds with snake appliqués belonged to unidentified pottery vessels, seven sherds with the appliqués were identified from bowls, four appliqués were found on storage jars, three appliqués were found on jugs, one from a cooking pot and one appliquéd chalice. The greatest number of pieces comes from Khirbet ez-Zeraqon, followed by Bab Edh Dhra', Jebel Al-Mutawwaq, Khirbet Ras Ed Daliya, Khirbet el Kerak, Khirbet al-Batrawy, 'Arad, and Tel el-Qadi respectively. This study aims at examining the pieces to try to get a deeper understanding of how these separate sites had represented the image of the snake and where they typically place the snake on the object and with what behavior the snake is exhibiting in order to understand how these jars may have been used or what may have been placed inside the vessels or objects. A catalogue is included herein with 25 documented snake appliques with an overview of the sites they were recovered from, their type, their archaeological context, and references. Since most of these pieces were either found in temples or religiously related places in private houses, they were most probably used in certain cultic rituals or in activities relates to cultic beliefs. In conclusion, the preponderance of evidence suggests that some vessels may have been used for cultic purposes while others may have been used to hold things of value.

MA dissertation, University College London in Qatar, 2015

This dissertation focuses on the importance of the figure of the snake in Iron Age south eastern Arabian religious beliefs. The lack of literary evidence in this area has created much speculation on the subject, and the interpretation of the snake as a fertility animal to worship has been stressed several times in previous literature. In the light of these studies, this paper, on the other hand, concentrates mainly on the iconography of the snake as found in south eastern Arabia and compares it to contemporary and earlier depictions of this animal in the surrounding areas – i.e. Mesopotamia, Levant, Iran and other parts of the Arabian Peninsula. The research endeavours to find similarities or differences among them that could indicate either a local development of the cult, or assimilation of external influences. Throughout the paper, case studies are presented, discussed and analysed. The results presented here are mostly tentative, though initial findings and hypotheses are identified and examined, while awaiting further research in the area.

The parallelism in Zeph 1:9 is not prima facie clear: how can the act of jumping over the threshold be connected to the bringing of violence and deceit into the realm of the Temple? The discovery of early west Semitic lines in the Egyptian Pyramid Texts revealed a scenario in which a guarding deity protected the inner realm of the tomb against infiltrating serpents. In assuming that Zeph 1:9 refers to the presence of a guarding deity at the threshold, the jumpers can be seen as people wanting to avoid this guardian and hence as persons who were unwelcome in the temple.

The symbol of a serpent or snake played important roles in religious and cultural life of ancient Egypt, Canaan, Mesopotamia and Greece. The serpent was a symbol of evil power and chaos from the underworld as well as a symbol of fertility, life and healing. In this manner of research's aim to enumerate the using word in holy bible and to find out the variety of snakes mentioned in holy bible. Method of this study was; collection of data from sources of holy bible scripts and grouping the data and presentation of data finally analysis data with simple descriptive statistical way. Results of this research were snake "Actions"were 198 instances, "Cobra"mentioned 6 instances, "Serpent" mentioned were 43 instances, "Snake" mentioned were 44 instances, "Snakes" mentioned were 28 instances and "Viper" mentioned were 10 instances in holy bible respectively.