Karel Van Der Toorn
Biographic Data
| ID | 1422112 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Karel Van Der Toorn |
| GIVEN NAMES | Karel |
| FAMILY NAME | Van Der Toorn |
| SIGNATURE | VAN DER TOORN K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Amsterdam |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 28 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 12 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 27 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1989 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Israelite Religion: From Tribal Beginnings to Scribal Legacy
From its Iron Age beginnings to its aftermath in the Roman period, Israelite religion went through significant changes and transformations. As the Israelites responded to major historical events and political realities, their collective beliefs and practices evolved over time and developed new forms, even as earlier elements of religious culture remained an active substratum. Weaving together biblical literature, archaeology, and comparative sour…
Israelite Religion: From Tribal Beginnings to Scribal Legacy
A panoramic, thousand-year history of Israelite religion, from the Iron Age to the birth of Judaism, by a renowned biblical scholar From its Iron Age beginnings to its aftermath in the Roman period, Israelite religion went through significant changes and transformations. As the Israelites responded to major historical events and political realities, their collective beliefs and practices evolved over time and developed new forms, even as earlier …
Before and After Babel: Writing as Resistance in Ancient Near Eastern Empires
Public Self and Private Self in the World of the Hebrew Bible
Contemporary theories of personhood tend to distinguish between the inner self of human individuals and the social or public self they project to the outer world. The two entertain a relationship of discrepancy. While the inner self is true and authentic, the social self is a mask that hides the real person. All of us have a range of personas (literally, ‘masks’) at our disposition, each suited to a particular social performance depending on the …
Priests in Exile: The History of the Temple of Onias and Its Community in the Hellenistic Period, written by Meron M. Piotrkowski
Patterns of Sin in the Hebrew Bible: Metaphor, Culture, and the Making of a Religious Concept. By Joseph Lam
Patterns of Sin in the Hebrew Bible: Metaphor, Culture, and the Making of a Religious Concept. By Joseph Lam. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. Pp. xix + 308. $74
Previously, at Elephantine
This article looks at the evidence for a turbulent episode in the life of the Jewish community at Elephantine. In the months leading up to the destruction of the Yaho temple, the summer of 410 BCE, Jews and Egyptians found themselves at loggerheads in a conflict about a precious stone. The stone had been stolen from the Egyptians and then turned up in the hands of Jewish traders. Six letters from the Elephantine archives document the affair. Thei…
Religionspraxis und Individualität: Die Bedeutung von Persönlicher Frömmigkeit und Family Religion für das Personkonzept in der Antike
Der Band stellt die anthropologische Frage nach Transformationen des Personkonzepts von den vorderorientalischen Hochkulturen bis zur Spätantike in einem kulturübergreifenden und religionsgeschichtlichen Horizont. Nachdem die Artikulation von personaler Identität, von Individualität und von »inneren Tiefen« in der Vergangenheit oft erst in der Linie Platon – Paulus – Augustin angesetzt, sie der vorgriechischen Antike aber oft abgesprochen wurde, …
Becoming Diaspora Jews: Behind the Story of Elephantine
This book tells the story of the earliest Jewish diaspora in Egypt in a way it has never been told before. In the fifth century BCE there was a Jewish community on Elephantine Island. Why they spoke Aramaic, venerated Aramean gods besides Yaho, and identified as Arameans is a mystery, but a previously little explored papyrus from Egypt sheds new light on their history. The papyrus shows that the ancestors of the Elephantine Jews came originally f…
Becoming Diaspora Jews: Behind the Story of Elephantine
This book tells the story of the earliest Jewish diaspora in Egypt in a way it has never been told before. In the fifth century BCE there was a Jewish community on Elephantine Island. Why they spoke Aramaic, venerated Aramean gods besides Yaho, and identified as Arameans is a mystery, but a previously little explored papyrus from Egypt sheds new light on their history. The papyrus shows that the ancestors of the Elephantine Jews came originally f…
Becoming Diaspora Jews: Behind the Story of Elephantine
God in Context: Selected Essays on Society and Religion in the Early Middle East
In this work, Karel van der Toorn explores the social setting, the intellectual milieu, and the historical context of the beliefs and practices reflected in the Hebrew Bible. While fully recognizing the unique character of early Israelite religion, the author challenges the notion of its incomparability. Beliefs are anchored in culture. Rituals have societal significance. God has a history. By shifting the focus to the context, the essays gathere…
Ethnicity at Elephantine: Jews, Arameans, Caspians
The dual ethnic identity of the Jews of Elephantine (5th century BCE) has long puzzled scholars. In the legal documents, the Jews are sometimes identified as ‘Jew’ and at others as ‘Aramean’. In order to discover the logic that underlies this practice, the author compares the ethnic identity tags of the Jews on the island with those applied to members of the local Caspian community. The comparison demonstrates that ‘Aramean’ did indeed serve as a…
Daily Life in Biblical Times. Oded Borowski
Nine Months among the Peasants in the Palestinian Highlands: An Anthropological Perspective on Local Religion in the Early Iron Age
Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible
Family Religion in Babylonia, Syria and Israel: Continuity and Change in the Forms of Religious Life
Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible
Origins: The Ancient near Eastern Background of Some Modern Institutions
From Her Cradle to Her Grave: The Role of Religion in the Life of the Israelite and the Babylonian Woman
Pluralism and Identity, Studies in Ritual Behaviour
The subject of this book is ritual behaviour, in particular of groups with a distinctive religious, ethnic or other identity which use rituals to pursue strategic ends ad intra and ad extra. Five essays offer theoretical perspectives on ritual in plural and pluralist societies, on similarity and demarcation, on the negative case of the Australian Aboriginals, on Brazilian religious pluralism, and on Ghanaian churches in the Netherlands. Three ess…
Family Religion in Babylonia, Syria and Israel: Continuity and Change in the Forms of Religious Life
Jean BottÉro, “Mesopotamia: Writing, Reasoning, and the Gods”
The fifteen essays of Jean Bottero's book, Mesopotamia: writing, reasoning and the gods, are divided over four sections: assiriology, writing, institutions and mentality and religion. The A. discusses two of the leading concepts assumed by Bottero: the role of Mesopotamia as the cradle of Western civilazation; the other is about divination being a science and in a sense, the precursor of modern science. His emphasis on the historical role of Meso…
The Domestic Cult at Emar
Gods and Ancestors in Emar and Nuzi
(Extrait de Res.d'A.). Owing to the discoveries at Emar, it has become possible to take a comparative approach to the domestic cult documented in the Nuzi tablets. The Emar texts contain frequent allusions to household gods. The gods mentionned in Emar inheritance texts refer in fact to the ancestors. The costumary expression the gods and the dead is best taken as a hendiadys: the dead are called gods on account of their priviliged state. A study…
The Domestic Cult at Emar
Ethnicity at Elephantine: Jews, Arameans, Caspians
The dual ethnic identity of the Jews of Elephantine (5th century BCE) has long puzzled scholars. In the legal documents, the Jews are sometimes identified as ‘Jew’ and at others as ‘Aramean’. In order to discover the logic that underlies this practice, the author compares the ethnic identity tags of the Jews on the island with those applied to members of the local Caspian community. The comparison demonstrates that ‘Aramean’ did indeed serve as a…
La pureté rituelle au Proche-Orient ancien
Le code de pureté rituelle, tel qu'on le connaît de nos jours dans l'islam et le judaïsme, est en partie un héritage des religions du Proche-Orient ancien. Dans cette contribution, l'auteur propose une étude du concept de pureté rituelle dans les traditions religieuses de l'ancienne Mésopotamie. Il soutient que l'exigence de pureté fait partie de l'étiquette religieuse, calquée, elle, sur les mœurs que l'on observait dans les relations humaines. …
Anat-Yahu, Some Other Deities, and the Jews of Elephantine
This contribution discusses the problem of the origin of the goddess Anat-Yahu and the related issue of the cultural background of the Jewish colony at Elephantine. It is argued that Anat-Yahu has been modeled after Anat-Bethel. Contrary to a current opinion, neither Bethel nor Anat-Bethel can be regarded as Phoenician gods. They are late Aramaean gods whose cult is confined to North Syria. Anat-Yahu must be regarded as an Aramaean creation, elic…
La pureté rituelle au Proche-Orient ancien
Le code de pureté rituelle, tel qu'on le connaît de nos jours dans l'islam et le judaïsme, est en partie un héritage des religions du Proche-Orient ancien. Dans cette contribution, l'auteur propose une étude du concept de pureté rituelle dans les traditions religieuses de l'ancienne Mésopotamie. Il soutient que l'exigence de pureté fait partie de l'étiquette religieuse, calquée, elle, sur les mœurs que l'on observait dans les relations humaines. …
Nimrod Before and After the Bible
The biblical information concerning the figure of Nimrod is scarce. Post-biblical tradition has added supplementary details that cannot be found in the biblical text, however much they may be presented as results of exegesis of this text. This article first examines the biblical data about Nimrod and sees whether he can be identified with an extra-biblical, a pre-biblical, prototype. Second, it investigates the ways in which the few biblical data…
Anat-Yahu, Some Other Deities, and the Jews of Elephantine
This contribution discusses the problem of the origin of the goddess Anat-Yahu and the related issue of the cultural background of the Jewish colony at Elephantine. It is argued that Anat-Yahu has been modeled after Anat-Bethel. Contrary to a current opinion, neither Bethel nor Anat-Bethel can be regarded as Phoenician gods. They are late Aramaean gods whose cult is confined to North Syria. Anat-Yahu must be regarded as an Aramaean creation, elic…
Gods and Ancestors in Emar and Nuzi
(Extrait de Res.d'A.). Owing to the discoveries at Emar, it has become possible to take a comparative approach to the domestic cult documented in the Nuzi tablets. The Emar texts contain frequent allusions to household gods. The gods mentionned in Emar inheritance texts refer in fact to the ancestors. The costumary expression the gods and the dead is best taken as a hendiadys: the dead are called gods on account of their priviliged state. A study…
Jean BottÉro, “Mesopotamia: Writing, Reasoning, and the Gods”
The fifteen essays of Jean Bottero's book, Mesopotamia: writing, reasoning and the gods, are divided over four sections: assiriology, writing, institutions and mentality and religion. The A. discusses two of the leading concepts assumed by Bottero: the role of Mesopotamia as the cradle of Western civilazation; the other is about divination being a science and in a sense, the precursor of modern science. His emphasis on the historical role of Meso…
The Domestic Cult at Emar
From Her Cradle to Her Grave: The Role of Religion in the Life of the Israelite and the Babylonian Woman
Pluralism and Identity, Studies in Ritual Behaviour
The subject of this book is ritual behaviour, in particular of groups with a distinctive religious, ethnic or other identity which use rituals to pursue strategic ends ad intra and ad extra. Five essays offer theoretical perspectives on ritual in plural and pluralist societies, on similarity and demarcation, on the negative case of the Australian Aboriginals, on Brazilian religious pluralism, and on Ghanaian churches in the Netherlands. Three ess…
Family Religion in Babylonia, Syria and Israel: Continuity and Change in the Forms of Religious Life
Origins: The Ancient near Eastern Background of Some Modern Institutions
Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible
Family Religion in Babylonia, Syria and Israel: Continuity and Change in the Forms of Religious Life
Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible
Nine Months among the Peasants in the Palestinian Highlands: An Anthropological Perspective on Local Religion in the Early Iron Age
Daily Life in Biblical Times. Oded Borowski
Ethnicity at Elephantine: Jews, Arameans, Caspians
The dual ethnic identity of the Jews of Elephantine (5th century BCE) has long puzzled scholars. In the legal documents, the Jews are sometimes identified as ‘Jew’ and at others as ‘Aramean’. In order to discover the logic that underlies this practice, the author compares the ethnic identity tags of the Jews on the island with those applied to members of the local Caspian community. The comparison demonstrates that ‘Aramean’ did indeed serve as a…
God in Context: Selected Essays on Society and Religion in the Early Middle East
In this work, Karel van der Toorn explores the social setting, the intellectual milieu, and the historical context of the beliefs and practices reflected in the Hebrew Bible. While fully recognizing the unique character of early Israelite religion, the author challenges the notion of its incomparability. Beliefs are anchored in culture. Rituals have societal significance. God has a history. By shifting the focus to the context, the essays gathere…
Becoming Diaspora Jews: Behind the Story of Elephantine
This book tells the story of the earliest Jewish diaspora in Egypt in a way it has never been told before. In the fifth century BCE there was a Jewish community on Elephantine Island. Why they spoke Aramaic, venerated Aramean gods besides Yaho, and identified as Arameans is a mystery, but a previously little explored papyrus from Egypt sheds new light on their history. The papyrus shows that the ancestors of the Elephantine Jews came originally f…
Becoming Diaspora Jews: Behind the Story of Elephantine
This book tells the story of the earliest Jewish diaspora in Egypt in a way it has never been told before. In the fifth century BCE there was a Jewish community on Elephantine Island. Why they spoke Aramaic, venerated Aramean gods besides Yaho, and identified as Arameans is a mystery, but a previously little explored papyrus from Egypt sheds new light on their history. The papyrus shows that the ancestors of the Elephantine Jews came originally f…
Becoming Diaspora Jews: Behind the Story of Elephantine
Religionspraxis und Individualität: Die Bedeutung von Persönlicher Frömmigkeit und Family Religion für das Personkonzept in der Antike
Der Band stellt die anthropologische Frage nach Transformationen des Personkonzepts von den vorderorientalischen Hochkulturen bis zur Spätantike in einem kulturübergreifenden und religionsgeschichtlichen Horizont. Nachdem die Artikulation von personaler Identität, von Individualität und von »inneren Tiefen« in der Vergangenheit oft erst in der Linie Platon – Paulus – Augustin angesetzt, sie der vorgriechischen Antike aber oft abgesprochen wurde, …
Public Self and Private Self in the World of the Hebrew Bible
Contemporary theories of personhood tend to distinguish between the inner self of human individuals and the social or public self they project to the outer world. The two entertain a relationship of discrepancy. While the inner self is true and authentic, the social self is a mask that hides the real person. All of us have a range of personas (literally, ‘masks’) at our disposition, each suited to a particular social performance depending on the …
Priests in Exile: The History of the Temple of Onias and Its Community in the Hellenistic Period, written by Meron M. Piotrkowski
Patterns of Sin in the Hebrew Bible: Metaphor, Culture, and the Making of a Religious Concept. By Joseph Lam
Patterns of Sin in the Hebrew Bible: Metaphor, Culture, and the Making of a Religious Concept. By Joseph Lam. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. Pp. xix + 308. $74
Previously, at Elephantine
This article looks at the evidence for a turbulent episode in the life of the Jewish community at Elephantine. In the months leading up to the destruction of the Yaho temple, the summer of 410 BCE, Jews and Egyptians found themselves at loggerheads in a conflict about a precious stone. The stone had been stolen from the Egyptians and then turned up in the hands of Jewish traders. Six letters from the Elephantine archives document the affair. Thei…
History (20 works) · Biblical Studies and Interpretation (15 works) · Ancient history (14 works) · Art (12 works) · Philosophy (11 works) · Archaeology and Historical Studies (9 works) · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology (7 works) · Ancient Near East History (7 works) · History (7 works) · Archaeology (6 works)