Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Israel's Beneficent Dead: Ancestor Cult and Necromancy in Ancient Israelite Religion and Tradition

Israel's Beneficent Dead: Ancestor Cult and Necromancy in Ancient Israelite Religion and Tradition

Schmidt, Brian B.

Paperback

JudaismAncient History GeneralBible Studies

ISBN10: 1575060086
ISBN13: 9781575060088
Publisher: Eisenbrauns
Published: Jun 30 1996
Pages: 416
Weight: 1.90
Height: 1.20 Width: 6.10 Depth: 9.00
Language: English

Did the ancient Israelites perform rituals expressive of the belief in the supernaturalbeneficent power of the dead? Contrary to long held notions of primitive society and the euhemeristic origin of the divine, various factors indicate that the ancestor cult, that is, ancestor veneration or worship, was not observed in the Iron Age Levant. The Israelites did not adopt an ancient Canaanite ancestor cult that became the object of biblical scorn. Yet, a variety of mortuary rituals and cults were performed in Levantine society; mourning and funerary rites and longer-term rituals such as the care for the dead and commemoration. Rituals and monuments in or at burial sites, and especially the recitation of the deceased's name, recounted the dead's lived lives for familial survivors. They served broader social functions as well; e.g., to legitimate primogeniture and to reinforce a community's social collectivity.

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