W.S. McCullough – författare

The essays in this volume have as their centre the Ancient Near East, the special field of interest of the distinguished scholar of the University of Toronto whom they honour. The authors, specialists in the languages, history, and culture of the Near, Middle, and Far East, are a group of orientalists, classicists, and mediaevalists from among the membership of the Oriental Club of Toronto. T.J. Miik was himself actively concerned with the founding of the Oriental Club, and served as its first president.

Theological studies are represented here by W.G. Lambert''s discussion of the role of Nebuchadnezzar I in Babylonian religion, by D.K. Andres'' inquiry into the origin of the title "Yahweh, the God of the Heavens," and its significance for post-exile Judaism, by J.W. Wevers'' evaluation of contributions to Proto-Septuagini studies, by F.W. Beare''s description of the concepts of Zeus in the Hellenistic age, by the examination by John M. Rist of the famous literary fraud which led to the acceptance for many years of St. Denis -- Dionysius the Areopagite -- as the convert of St. Paul, by M.E. Marmura''s account of Avicenna''s theory of prophecy in the light of Ash''arite theology, and by C.C. Shih''s discussion of the origin of ancestor worship in ancient China. Two aspects of Egypt are considered: R.J. Williams discusses the role of literature as political propaganda, and G.M. Wickens writes on Mamluk Egypt. An interesting problem in attempting reconstructions of Solomon''s Temple is considered by Gilbert Bagnani. R.A.F. Mackenzie, S.J., discusses ancient Near Eastern law, and E.J. Sherry, S.J., comments on the life and works of Joseph Hazzaya, a prolific writer on behalf of the Nestorians.

THE FIVE TERRACOTI''A BOWLS which are the subject of this study are commonplace in appearance, their only distinction being that each has on its inside surface (and in one case on the outside as well) a spiral inscription in a dialect of Aramaic. The inscriptions are in fact magical texts designed to throw a protective spell over the persons for whom they were written. Bowls of this type have been found in Mesopotamia in considerable numbers during the past century, and have reached the Western world either through dealers or through archaeologists.

The five texts before us add in various ways to the lore of the Mesopotamian incantation bowls, and in particular the three Mandaean ones make a modest contribution to the known vocabulary of Mandaic.