Objects, Qualities, and Attributes as Deities in the Ancient Near East

Jennifer Singletary, Ph.D., is Assistant Research Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies and Jewish Studies at the Pennsylvania State University. She is the co-editor of Uses and Misuses of Ancient Mediterranean Sources: Erudition, Authority, Manipulation (Mohr Siebeck, 2022).

• AcknowledgmentsAbbreviations1 Gods, Deities, and the Superhuman1 Gods, Deities, Divinity, and the Superhuman2 Form, Mind, Agency, and Counterintuitiveness3 Indicators of Divinity in Ancient Texts and Artistic Representations4 Objects, Qualities, and Attributes5 The Evidence6 Chapter Outline2 Reconsidering the Evidence from Mesopotamia1 Sources from Mesopotamia2 Diachronic Studies3 Objects, Qualities, and Attributes as Deities from the Third Millennium to the Late Babylonian Period4 Key Issues: A Summary3 The Evidence from Ebla1 Sources from Ebla2 Objects, Qualities, and Attributes as Deities at Ebla3 Observations on the Evidence from Ebla4 The Evidence from Alalakh1 Sources from Alalakh2 A Weapon as a Deity at Alalakh3 Observations on the Evidence from Alalakh5 The Evidence from Emar1 Sources from Emar2 Objects as Deities at Emar3 Observations on the Evidence from Emar6 The Evidence from Ugarit1 Sources from Late Bronze Age Ugarit2 Objects, Qualities, and Attributes as Deities in Ritual Texts from Ugarit3 Observations on the Evidence from Ugarit7 First Millennium Inscriptions1 The Evidence from Kuntillet ʿAjrud2 Inscriptions from Taymāʾ3 Theophoric Personal Names4 Esarhaddon’s Treaty with Baʿal of Tyre5 Observations on First Millennium Texts8 Aramaic Documents from Egypt and the Hebrew Bible1 The Judean Archives from Elephantine2 Deities in the Documents from Elephantine3 Theophoric Personal Names from Elephantine4 Papyrus Amherst 635 Objects of Trust in the Hebrew Bible6 Observations on the Aramaic Documents from Egypt and the Hebrew Bible9 Understanding Objects, Qualities, and Attributes as Deities1 Deity as a Fuzzy Category2 Understanding Anthroform and Nonanthroform Concepts of Deity3 Why Deify These Objects, Qualities, and Attributes?4 Directions for Future ResearchBibliographySubject Index