The Materiality of Power: Explorations in the Social History of Early Israelite Magic (Book)
Title: The Materiality of Power: Explorations in the Social History of Early Israelite Magic
Author: Brian B. Schmidt
Abstract: Were there countervailing cosmic realms ruled by Yahweh and Asherah in late pre-exilic Israel? Brian B. Schmidt presents five case studies corroborating the existence of a daimonic realm replete with intermediary protective spirits and a pandemonium that wreaked havoc upon both the living and dead. Having converged with Egypt's protective deities Bes and Beset, YHWH and Asherah also possessed the enhanced powers to govern a counteractive apotropaic realm from which Asherah mediated divine protection for humanity.
Year: 2016
Publisher: Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck
Type: Single author monograph
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

The Iron Age Pithoi Drawings from Horvat Teman or Kuntillat 'Ajrud: Some New Proposals (Article)
Title: The Iron Age Pithoi Drawings from Horvat Teman or Kuntillat 'Ajrud: Some New Proposals
Author: Brian B. Schmidt
Abstract: Did the Israelites and Judahites of the Iron age visually represent their gods? In this article, established arguments are supplemented and some new ones advanced in support of a single, ancient composer’s representation of the deities Yahweh and Asherah by means of the deliberate association of text and image on the two pithoi scenes from Iron age Kuntillet ‘Ajrud. Not only were the ancient artist and scribe one and the same, but this individual employed a number of well known artistic techniques to convey both depth of field and perspective in such a way as to create a unified field of meaning for each of the two ritual scenes as well as for both scenes in their complementary function as two halves of a larger semiotic whole.
Year: 2002
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions
Publisher: Brill

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