The Dawn Of Agriculture And The Earliest States In Genesis 1 11

This book invites a close textual encounter with the first 11 chapters of Genesis as an intimate drama of marginalised peoples wrestling with the rise of the world’s first grain states in the Mesopotamian alluvium. The initial 11 chapters of Genesis are often considered discordant and fragmentary, despite being a story of beginnings within the context of the Bible. Readers discover how these formative chapters cohere as a cross-generational account of peoples grappling with the hegemonic spread of domesticated grain production and the concomitant rise of the pristine states of Mesopotamia. The book reveals how key episodes from the Genesis narrative reflect major societal revolutions of the Neolithic period in Mesopotamia through a three-fold hermeneutical method: literary analysis of the Bible and contemporary cuneiform texts; modern scholarship from archaeological, anthropological, ecological, and historical sources; and relevant exegesis from the Second Temple and rabbinical era. These three strands entwine to recount a generally sequential story of the earliest archaic states as narrated by non-elites at the margins of these emerging state spaces. The Dawn of Agriculture and the Earliest States in Genesis 1–11 provides a fascinating reading of the first 11 chapters of Genesis, appealing to students and scholars of the Hebrew Bible and the Near East, as well as those working on ecological injustice from a religious vantage point.

This book explores the early Jewish understanding of divine knowledge as divine presence, which is embodied in major biblical exemplars, such as Adam, Enoch, Jacob, and Moses. The study treats the concept of divine knowledge as the embodied divine presence in its full historical and interpretive complexity by tracing the theme through a broad variety of ancient Near Eastern and Jewish sources, including Mesopotamian traditions of cultic statues, creational narratives of the Hebrew Bible, and later Jewish mystical testimonies. Orlov demonstrates that some biblical and pseudepigraphical accounts postulate that the theophany expresses the unique, corporeal nature of the deity that cannot be fully grasped or conveyed in some other non-corporeal symbolism, medium, or language. The divine presence requires another presence in order to be transmitted. To be communicated properly and in its full measure, the divine iconic knowledge must be "written" on a new living "body" which can hold the ineffable presence of God through a newly acquired ontology. Embodiment of Divine Knowledge in Early Judaism will provide an invaluable research to students and scholars in a wide range of areas within Jewish, Near Eastern, and Biblical Studies, as well as those studying religious elements of anthropology, philosophy, sociology, psychology, and gender studies. Through the study of Jewish mediatorial figures, this book also elucidates the roots of early Christological developments, making it attractive to Christian audiences.

The first chapters of Genesis continue to be a great enigma to the modern world. However, scientific evidence can place real constraints on what these stories originally meant, both as the inspired word of God and a record of the real experiences of ancient peoples. Geological, archaeological and literary evidence shows that the biblical account is consistent with a setting in the earliest history of Mesopotamian civilization. Starting from a scientific viewpoint, this commentary provides a systematic analysis of the meaning of the first eleven chapters of Genesis in a Mesopotamian context.

Dawn and Sunset tells the story of the earliest urban communities on earth that mushroomed in Mesopotamia throughout the fourth and third millennia BCE. The study of Sumerian society teaches a lesson about our own times as the roots of modern civilization have grown from that setting. The writer researches various aspects of the ancient city-state: its religion, administration, bureaucracy, agriculture, arts and crafts, foreign trade, laws, social classes, and warfare-a real gift for those who love the history of mankind and the Ancient Near East. "Dawn and Sunset" is a well researched, nicely written, and organized account of early Mesopotamian history." Clarion Review "Baizerman captures the mechanics of the spectacular rise of a glorious civilization." BlueInk Review "He provides a vivid impression of what life must have been like in this vanished world to which modern life finds many similarities." Kirkus Reviews

A study of social and economic transformations in the Near East during Palaeolithic-Neolithic transition, first published in 2000.

The stories passed down to us in the first eleven chapters of Genesis continue to be a great enigma to the modern world. However, scientific evidence can place important constraints on what these stories mean as a record of the real experiences of ancient peoples. Geological, archaeological and literary evidence show that the biblical account is consistent with a setting in the earliest history of Mesopotamian civilization. Starting from a scientific viewpoint, this commentary provides a systematic analysis of the meaning of the first eleven chapters of Genesis in a Mesopotamian context.

The first chapters of Genesis continue to be a great enigma to the modern world. However, scientific evidence can place real constraints on what these stories originally meant, both as the inspired word of God and a record of the real experiences of ancient peoples. Geological, archaeological and literary evidence shows that the biblical account is consistent with a setting in the earliest history of Mesopotamian civilization. Starting from a scientific viewpoint, this commentary provides a systematic analysis of the meaning of the first eleven chapters of Genesis in a Mesopotamian context.