Not Sparing the Child: Human Sacrifice in the Ancient World and Beyond: Studies in Honor of Professor Paul G. Mosca

by Paul C. Burns; Richard Menkis; Dietmar Neufeld; Vita Daphna Arbel

and

1 more

Publisher:

Bloomsbury

, 2015

Overview

Human sacrifice in the ancient Mediterranean world continues to be a topic that ignites popular imagination and engenders scholarly discussion and controversy. This volume aims to advance the discussion by providing balanced and judicious treatments of these topics from a cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural perspective. It provides nuanced examinations of ancient ritual, exploring the various meanings that human sacrifice held for antiquity, and examines its varied repercussions up into the modern world. The book explores evidence that sheds new light on the origins of the rite, to whom these sacrifices were offered, and by whom they were performed. It presents fresh insights into the social and religious meanings of this practice in its varied biblical landscape and ancient contexts, and demonstrates how human sacrifice has captured the imagination of later writers who have employed it in diverse cultural and theological discourses to convey their own views and ideologies. It provides valuable perspectives for understanding key cultural, theological, and ideological dimensions, such as the sacrifice of Christ, scapegoating, self-sacrifice, and martyrdom in post-biblical and modern times.

Key Features

• Clear and balanced window into the worlds inhabited by biblical characters
• Leading scholarship from a diverse field of disciplines
• Examines the use of human sacrifice in the ancient Mediterranean world

Contents

• Part I: History, Ritual, Archeology
  • “Child Sacrifice as the Extreme Case and Calculation” by Mark S. Smith
  • “Human Sacrifice in Pre- and Early Dynastic Egypt: What Do You Want to Find?” by Thomas Hikade and Jane Roy
  • “God’s Infanticide in the Night of Passover: Exodus 12 in the Light of Ancient Egyptian Rituals” by Thomas Schneider
  • “A Late Punic Narrative about Disrupted Sacrifice? Hr. Medeine N2” by Philip C. Schmitz
• Part II: Textual, Cultural, and Social Aspects
  • “Is the Language of Child Sacrifice Used Figuratively in Ezekiel 16?” by Peggy L. Day
  • “Mocking Boys, Baldness, and Bears: Elisha’s Deadly Honour (2 Kings 2:23–24)” by Dietmar Neufeld
  • “Death and the Maiden: Human Sacrifice in Euripides’ Andromeda” by C.W. Marshall
• Part III: Theology and Reception
  • “Child Sacrifice: A Polyvalent Story in Early Eucharistic Piety” by Paul C. Burns
  • “Deus Necans: Jesus in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas” by J.R.C. Cousland
  • “Living Sacrifice: Rethinking Abrahamic Religious Sacrifice Using Field Narratives of Eid ul-Adha” by Michael Desjardins and Aldea Mulhern
  • “John Milton’s Poetics for Christ Versus Moloch” by Lee Johnson

Product Details

• Title: Not Sparing the Child: Human Sacrifice in the Ancient World and Beyond: Studies in Honor of Professor Paul G. Mosca
• Editors: Daphna Arbel, Paul C. Burns, J.R.C. Cousland, Richard Menkis, and Dietmar Neufeld
• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Publication Date: 2013
• Pages: 320
• Resource Type: Collected Essays
• Topic: Bible Backgrounds

About the Editors

Daphna Arbel is associate professor in the department of classical, Near Eastern, and religious studies at the University of British Columbia.

Paul C. Burns is associate professor emeritus of classical, Near Eastern, and religious studies at the University of British Columbia.

J.R.C. Cousland is associate professor in the department of classical, Near Eastern, and religious studies at the University of British Columbia.

Richard Menkis is associate professor of medieval and modern Jewish history of the University of British Columbia.

Dietmar Neufeld is associate professor in the department of classical, Near Eastern, and religious studies at the University of British Columbia.