Papers by Christoph Uehlinger
Challenging Dichotomies and Biases in the Study of the Ancient Southern Levant (Die Welt des Orients, Supplementary Issue), ed. Bruno Biermann, Silas Klein Cardoso, Fabio Porzia and C.U. (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2024), 2024
This article offers an epistemological critique of the concept 'Biblical World' , still widely us... more This article offers an epistemological critique of the concept 'Biblical World' , still widely used in scholarly discussions on the history and archaeology of the ancient Levant and neighbouring regions. I argue that while many scholars especially in the West may have been drawn to the study of ancient Near Eastern history and culture via exposure to the Bible and biblical literature, the historian's task is to revert the logic of that initial encounter and to resist the misleading classification of the ancient Levantine world as a 'Biblical World'. Addressing the Levant in its own right will open up wider perspectives--even for the study of biblical texts or the Hebrew Bible as such. The article concludes with an outlook on Gaza, its (generally unintended) marginalization in recent scholarship, and a call to restore Gaza's memory to its proper place in southern Levantine history.
Near Eastern Archaeology 86 (4), 2023
The aim of this introductory article is threefold: (1) to situate the Stamp Seals from the Southe... more The aim of this introductory article is threefold: (1) to situate the Stamp Seals from the Southern Levant (SSSL) project in the broader history of twentieth-century glyptic research, especially with regard to Othmar Keel’s multivolume Corpus of Stamp Seals from Palestine/Israel launched in the 1980s; (2) to explain the SSSL project’s research design as a strategic response to that unfinished initiative, the intrinsic potential of stamp seals research, and the demands of a specific funding opportunity that emphasizes interdisciplinarity; (3) to consider SSSL as a trans-generational project, attentive to both transmission and innovation. The digital humanities transition offers crucial opportunities and challenges regarding all three aspects.
Note that for reasons of copyright, I am not entitled to upload the published version but the following link allows for up to 50 downloads: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/eprint/23QU6BDFVEWJYCMEEEYY/full?redirectUri=/doi/epdf/10.1086/727573
Near Eastern Archaeology 87 (1), pp. 14-19, 2024
The Stamp Seals from the Southern Levant (SSSL) project is based on a comprehensive corpus, big d... more The Stamp Seals from the Southern Levant (SSSL) project is based on a comprehensive corpus, big data, and complex historical scenarios. Sometimes, though, an individual artifact stands out as a highlight in its own right. Such is the case with a stamp seal discovered recently at Tel Hazor. It is unusual in several respects, but mainly because of its spectacular base engraving. The main scene represents a hero fighting a coiled, seven-headed serpent; it is enhanced by a series of mixed creatures and secondary motifs. This article offers a description and analysis of the object, situating its iconography in the long history of combat myths spanning from mid-third-millennium southern Mesopotamia through second-millennium northern Syria to first-millennium Phoenicia and Israel. Most significant for a historian of Near Eastern mythology, the seal provides a visual missing link in the main motif’s literary transition from Late Bronze Age Ugarit to the Hebrew Bible.
For reasons of copyright, I am not entitled to upload the published version, but the following link may be used by 50 readers for downloading the article:
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/eprint/TXQRMENZ6EUB26RKA6MU/full?redirectUri=/doi/epdf/10.1086/727582
In: Stefan Münger, Nancy Rahn and Patrick Wyssmann (eds), „Trinkt von dem Wein, den ich mischte!“ / “Drink of the wine which I have mingled!” (FS Silvia Schroer; Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis, 303). Leuven: Peeters, 2023, 552–590., 2023
Extensive discussion of a 7th-century cylinder seal found in the Garden Tomb compound, part of Je... more Extensive discussion of a 7th-century cylinder seal found in the Garden Tomb compound, part of Jerusalem's northern necropolis during the Iron Age, focusing on the archaeological context, the seal's iconography related to the Moon god of Harran, and its relevance for the history of religion in the southern Levant during the time of king Manasseh of Judah.
Kyle KEIMER & George A. PIERCE (eds), The Ancient Israelite World. Abingdon, Oxon – New York: Routledge, 2022, 434-463 [ch. 28]., 2022
This chapter reviews archaeologically secure material evidence for visual imagery from ancient Is... more This chapter reviews archaeologically secure material evidence for visual imagery from ancient Israel and Judah, with occasional side views of neighboring regions. Its focus is on artifacts produced and consumed during the first half of the first millennium BCE (or Iron Age II and III). Relevant data include representations of deities ranging from statuary through cult standards to ‘aniconic’ standing stones; terracotta shrine models, cult stands, and figurines; sophisticated wall paintings, however poorly preserved, and sketches; luxury objects such as metal bowls or ivory carvings; and, miniature objects such as seals or amulets. While important parts of ancient visual culture (wooden artifacts, textiles, or body paintings) are lost forever, enough data are available to prove that Israel and Judah had their share in the visual culture of the southern Levant. Israelite and Judahite craftsmen (and -women) contributed significantly to materialize and visualize, via their skillful products, the religious worldview and imagination of their contemporaries. In doing so, they relied on age-old motifs of Bronze Age “Canaanite” traditions as much as on the exchange of skills, patterns, and motifs with fellow craftsmen from neighboring regions. Regional repertoires, their overlaps, and differences, as well as diachronic developments, help to better understand the dynamics of cultural contact and the relative impact of political and economic circumstances. Future scholarship on Israelite and Judahite religion should make full use of both the material wealth and the cognitive vibrancy of these data.
Constitution du texte Canonicité et importance traditionnelle L'apparition dans l'histoire du Can... more Constitution du texte Canonicité et importance traditionnelle L'apparition dans l'histoire du Cantique des cantiques (= Ct), šîr haššîrîm, le Cantique par excellence, est aussi abrupte que l'entame de son texte : nul indice sur son auteur (autre que le patronage salomonien), sur les circonstances de sa composition ou ses premiers destinataires. Cette indétermination fondamentale ouvre le champ à une grande variété d'hypothèses. La première allusion à Ct pourrait figurer en Si 47,17, au début du 2 e s. av. J.-C., lorsque, à propos de Salomon, il est dit : « Tes chants, tes proverbes, tes sentences et tes réponses ont fait l'admiration du monde ». Quoi qu'il en soit, Ct était lu à Qumrân (50 av. J.-C.-50 ap. J.-C.) : on a découvert quatre fragments de ce texte dans trois manuscrits de la grotte 4 et un de la grotte 6, sans que l'on connaisse l'usage précis qui en était fait (liturgique, patrimoine culturel, lecture allégorique ?). La Septante l'a retenu sous le même nom de a i sma a i smatôn. Cette traduction semble remonter au premier siècle de notre ère. Vers 93-96, Flavius Josèphe paraît y faire allusion lorsque, dans son énumération des livres bibliques, il cite après le Pentateuque et treize livres prophétiques « les quatre restants [qui] contiennent des hymnes à Dieu et des conseils de vie pour les hommes » (Josèphe, C. Ap., 1,40). Il s'agit probablement des Psaumes et des trois livres attribués à la sagesse de Salomon : Proverbes, Cantique et Qohélet. Cependant, le quatrième pourrait tout aussi bien être le Siracide, retrouvé également dans les manuscrits de la mer Morte. Les écrits rabbiniques datant des alentours des 2 e-3 e s. rapportent les discussions du siècle précédent autour du statut de Ct et de Qo. Ainsi la Mishna : « "Le Cantique et Qohélet souillent les mains" [autrement dit sont à manier comme des réalités saintes]. R. Judah [2 e s. ap. J.-C.] a dit : "Le Cantique souille les mains, mais pour Qohélet il y a discussion". R. José [2 e s. ap. J.-C.] a dit : "Qohélet ne souille pas les mains, mais pour le Cantique il y a discussion". R. Siméon
Christoph Uehlinger Gott oder König? Bild und Text auf der altbabylonischen Siegesstele des König... more Christoph Uehlinger Gott oder König? Bild und Text auf der altbabylonischen Siegesstele des Königs D!du"a von E"nunna * Gegenstand dieses Beitrags ist eine bei Tall Asmar, dem am Diyala gelegenen altbabylonischen E"nunna, gefundene Stele, die auf der Schauseite eine vierregistrige Bilddarstellung (Abb. 1), auf den beiden Schmalseiten eine längere Inschrift aufweist 1. Letztere nennt als "Verfasser" (bzw. sprechendes Subjekt) der Inschrift König D!du"a, der im frühen 18.Jh. v.Chr. 2 als Zeitgenosse #am"$-Addus I. von Akkad und Ekall!tum und Hammurapis von Babylon in E"nunna regierte 3 , als "Empfänger" bzw. Gegenüber des Monuments den Sturmgott (d IM/I#KUR, im Folgenden mit Addu identifiziert) und präzisiert außerdem die Funktion des Denkmals: * Der Beitrag grüßt sehr herzlich den Freund und Kollegen Bernd Janowski, von dessen ständigem "Blick über den alttestamentlichen Tellerrand" und genuinem Interesse an altorientalischem Denken zahlreiche Publikationen und neuerdings die Herausgeberschaft von TUAT.NF (nunmehr bebildert) zeugen, und mit dem ich mich-trotz locker gewordener Kontakte seit meinem Fachwechsel in die Religionswissenschaft-in vielen Anlieen weiterhin verbunden weiß.
Open-Mindedness in the Bible and Beyond : A Volume of Studies in Honour of Bob Becking
In den seltensten Fällen passen institutionelle Organisation einerseits und Struktur des wissensc... more In den seltensten Fällen passen institutionelle Organisation einerseits und Struktur des wissenschaftlichen Arbeitens zusammen-allein schon deshalb, weil die Organisation meist eine Problembearbeitung zum Ausdruck bringt, die bereits überholt ist, aber auch deshalb, weil viele sachfremde Bedingungen des Umfelds die Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten bestimmen. Deshalb ist es gut, wenn man gelegentlich über die Bücher geht und überlegt, ob man die Organisationsform nicht einer neuen Problemlage anpassen sollte. 1 9780567663801_txt_print.indd 287 24/03/2015 11:06 288 Open-Mindedness in the Bible and Beyond visual arts, music …) and popular culture (film, comics …), an explicit or implicit referent for educated social discourse (in philosophy, ethics, politics, economics …), etc., etc.? The Bible, one should think when considering this non-exhaustive list, must concern academic fields and disciplines as diverse as languages and literature, history from ancient to modern, religious studies (whether comparative or tradition-focused), art history, cultural and media studies, musicology, the history and sociology of knowledge, etc. To be sure, the study of the Bible is also an important, if not always an essential part of Hebrew Studies, Jewish Studies, ' Ancient Studies' , disciplines taught in many universities around the world. From the perspective of these disciplines, the title question may easily be answered by the negative. It seems to make no sense at all in academic contexts where 'Biblical Studies' (the critical, academic study of the Bible par excellence) represent a full-fledged discipline of its own. Wherever the Bible is studied in the framework of one of these disciplines, within or alongside departments of Jewish Studies, Ancient History or Religious Studies/ Comparative Religion, 2 this is usually done in a Faculty of Humanities and/or Letters and most often (though not exclusively) in a secular environment. Such is the case, for instance, in many universities in Israel, the USA, Australia, South Africa and other countries (including in Britain, especially in recent years). Whatever future these disciplines may have in their various contexts, it does not seem to be directly related to the destinies of theology.
Leben in Weisheit und Freiheit: Festschrift für Thomas Krüger, 2022
Pp. 411–439 in: Leben in Weisheit und Freiheit: Festschrift für Thomas Krüger. Edited by Veronika... more Pp. 411–439 in: Leben in Weisheit und Freiheit: Festschrift für Thomas Krüger. Edited by Veronika Bachmann, Annette Schellenberg and Frank Ueberschaer (Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis, 296). Leuven: Peeters, 2022.
Monumentale Reliefs aus dem Vorderasiatischen Museum zu Berlin, der Skulpturensammlung Dresden un... more Monumentale Reliefs aus dem Vorderasiatischen Museum zu Berlin, der Skulpturensammlung Dresden und der Archaologischen Sammlung der Universitat Zurich werden seit ihrer Entdeckung vor rund 160 Jahren erstmals in einer Ausstellung zusammengefuhrt.Der assyrische Konig erscheint in Begleitung schutzender Genien und loyaler Hoflinge als herausragender Herrscher. Bilder von Stadteroberungen behaupten die Ubermacht des assyrischen Heeres. Keilinschriften verstarken die visuelle Evidenz mit sprachlichen Mitteln. Der vorliegende Band zeichnet den Weg nach, der diese aussergewohnlichen Monumente im 19. Jahrhundert aus den Ruinen von Nimrud in europaische Museen fuhrte. Ausfuhrliche Kommentare und eine Vielzahl von Fotografien, Zeichnungen und Planen erschliessen den einstigen architektonischen Kontekt, die mediale Funktion und die kulturgeschichtliche Bedeutung von Bildern und Inschriften. Der dezidiert interdisziplinare Zugang (Archaologie, Assyriologie, Religionswissenschaft) wirft neues L...
L'A. presente l'ouvrage de Nahman Avigad consacre aux sceaux des societes semitiques occi... more L'A. presente l'ouvrage de Nahman Avigad consacre aux sceaux des societes semitiques occidentales. Il s'agit d'un corpus qui pose egalement de nouvelles questions. Un des avantages decisifs du corpus d'Avigad reside dans la presence de donnees onomastiques et iconographiques. Il s'agit donc d'une source tres importante pour l'histoire religieuse de la region. Cet ouvrage devient une reference incontournable dans son domaine. La lecture, l'authentification et la datation des sceaux sont proposees par Avigad
Written from the point of view of a historian of religion, the article asks why the so-called “vi... more Written from the point of view of a historian of religion, the article asks why the so-called “visual turn” has not left a major effect on the study of religionas an academic discipline and how things could be improved to that effect. It offers a synthetic account of earlier and contemporary involvements of scholars of religion and scholarly networks with images and visual culture, pointing to a general lack of sustained training and little exposure to relevant methodology and theory developed in relevant neighbouring disciplines. The author argues that the study of religionwould benefit from increased attention to images and visual culture, emphasizing the potential of earlier (iconology in the Warburg-Panofsky tradition and the Groningen trajectory) as well as more recent approaches developed in Europe and the U.S., which theorize the visual in terms of visual culture, visual media, visual and scopic regimes, religious aesthetics and material religion. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163...
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Papers by Christoph Uehlinger
Note that for reasons of copyright, I am not entitled to upload the published version but the following link allows for up to 50 downloads: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/eprint/23QU6BDFVEWJYCMEEEYY/full?redirectUri=/doi/epdf/10.1086/727573
For reasons of copyright, I am not entitled to upload the published version, but the following link may be used by 50 readers for downloading the article:
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/eprint/TXQRMENZ6EUB26RKA6MU/full?redirectUri=/doi/epdf/10.1086/727582
Note that for reasons of copyright, I am not entitled to upload the published version but the following link allows for up to 50 downloads: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/eprint/23QU6BDFVEWJYCMEEEYY/full?redirectUri=/doi/epdf/10.1086/727573
For reasons of copyright, I am not entitled to upload the published version, but the following link may be used by 50 readers for downloading the article:
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/eprint/TXQRMENZ6EUB26RKA6MU/full?redirectUri=/doi/epdf/10.1086/727582
Préface des éditeurs
I. De la « Bible juive » à la « Bible chrétienne »
Innocent Himbaza
L’utilisation de l’Écriture dans le culte juif au début de l’ère chrétienne
Matthieu Collin
La Bible dans la liturgie chrétienne des premiers siècles
Yves-Marie Blanchard
Interdépendance entre la formation du Canon biblique chrétien et la lecture liturgique
II. Le Psautier – livre de prière liturgique
Erich Zenger
Les psaumes dans le culte et la piété du peuple d’Israël
Adrian Schenker
Le Psautier – livre de la prière liturgique chrétienne
Philippe Bernard
A-t-il existé un conflit entre l’hymnodie et la psalmodie dans le culte chrétien des six premiers siècles ? Considérations critiques sur une théorie de Josef Kroll
Philippe de Roten
La « christianisation » du psautier par son utilisation liturgique
III. Aspects historiques et systématiques des rapports entre Bible et liturgie
Marc Lienhard
Lire, prêcher et interpréter la Bible dans le culte : les intentions des réformateurs
Patrick Prétot
Vatican II – nouvelle appréciation de la Parole de Dieu
Jacques-Noël Pérès
L’utilisation de la Bible dans la liturgie des Églises orientales hier et aujourd’hui
IV. Lectionnaires bibliques actuels
Paul De Clerck
L’« Ordo lectionum missae » de l’Église romaine
Bruno Bürki
Ordonnance des lectures bibliques chez les Réformés francophones
Ralph Kunz
La lecture biblique dans le culte des Églises protestantes de Suisse alémanique et d’Allemagne
Christoph Uehlinger
Du « fleuve à cent voix » à la « Parole de Dieu ». Pour une hermé¬neutique de la différence
Daniel Marguerat
La Bible, hôte ou otage de la liturgie ?
V. Pratique de la proclamation de la Parole
Pierre-Yves Brandt
Quand la liturgie met en jeu des attitudes empruntées à la Bible
Arnaud Join-Lambert
L’évangéliaire pour une mystagogie de la présidence du Christ dans l’assemblée liturgique
Élisabeth Parmentier
Quelle parole proclamer dans la liturgie ? Exigences féministes
VI. Perspectives
Martin Klöckener
Présence et rôle de la Bible dans la liturgie
The final conference will take place on Friday, May 31, 2024 (online; during two time windows to accommodate the various time zones) and Saturday, June 1, 2024 (in-person; University of Zurich, Asien-Orient Institut, Rämistrasse 59, Aula G-01). While the first day of the conference is devoted to the demonstration of the new digital “Corpus of Stamp Seals from the Southern Levant” (CSSL), the second day is dedicated to presentation of the main achievements and the results of several sub-projects. Also during this in-person event, Dr. Daphna Ben-Tor will deliver a keynote on “Ideological Differences between Representations of the Pharaoh during the 18th and 19th Dynasties as Reflected on Scarabs and Stamp-seals”.
To register for the online component: https://levantineseals.org/index.php/final-conference/
We understand that an ambitious publication project such as the "Encyclopedia of the Material Culture of the Biblical World" takes time to be completed and will certainly not blame those who work hard toward that aim. That said, the entry might be of some use to fellow researchers even in the present, preliminary form. However, the main reason for uploading our manuscript here is yet another one: It should have been part of a new research application, but the funding agency's rulings do not allow unpublished manuscripts to be submitted with the application proper.