The Horned Moses in Medieval Art and Thought


Book Description

An interdisciplinary study touching not only upon medieval art, but also upon such disciplines as medieval history, history of the Church, Latin and vernacular literature both religious and secular, medieval drama, mythology, and folklore. Mellinkoff's goal is to provide an iconographical interpretation of horned Moses in as deep a sense as possible.




Comets and the Horns of Moses


Book Description

Laura Knight-Jadczyk's series, The Secret History of the World, is one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken to provide a cogent, comprehensive account of humanity's true history and place in the cosmos. Following the great unifying vision of the Stoic Posidonius, Laura weaves together the study of history, mythology, religion, psychology and physics, revealing a view of the world that is both rational and breathtaking in its all-encompassing scope. This second volume, Comets and the Horns of Moses, (written in concert with several following volumes soon to be released) picks up the dangling threads of volume one with an analysis of the Biblical character of Moses -- his possible true history and nature -- and the cyclical nature of cosmic catastrophes in Earth's history. Laura skillfully tracks the science of comets, revealing evidence for the fundamentally electrical and electromagnetic nature of these celestial bodies and how they have repeatedly wreaked havoc and destruction on our planet over the course of human history. Even more startling however, is the evidence that comets and cometary fragments have played a central role in the formation of human myth and legend and the very concept of a 'god'. As she expertly navigates her way through the labyrinth of history, Laura uncovers the secret knowledge of comets that has been hidden in the great myths, ancient astronomy (and astrology) and the works of the Greek philosophers. Concluding with a look at the political and psychological implications of cyclical cometary catastrophes and what they portend for humanity today, Comets and the Horns of Moses is a marvel of original thought and keen detective work that will rock the foundations of your understanding of the world you live in, and no doubt ruffle the feathers of the many academics who still cling to an outdated and blinkered view of history.




Moses the Egyptian in the Illustrated Old English Hexateuch (London, British Library Cotton MS Claudius B.iv)


Book Description

In Moses the Egyptian, Herbert Broderick analyzes the iconography of Moses in the famous illuminated eleventh-century manuscript known as the Illustrated Old English Hexateuch. A translation into Old English of the first six books of the Bible, the manuscript contains over 390 images, of which 127 depict Moses with a variety of distinctive visual attributes. Broderick presents a compelling thesis that these motifs, in particular the image of the horned Moses, have a Hellenistic Egyptian origin. He argues that the visual construct of Moses in the Old English Hexateuch may have been based on a Late Antique, no longer extant, prototype influenced by works of Hellenistic Egyptian Jewish exegetes, who ascribed to Moses the characteristics of an Egyptian-Hellenistic king, military commander, priest, prophet, and scribe. These Jewish writings were utilized in turn by early Christian apologists such as Clement of Alexandria and Eusebius of Caesarea. Broderick’s analysis of this Moses imagery ranges widely across religious divides, art-historical religious themes, and classical and early Jewish and Christian sources. Herbert Broderick is one of the foremost historians in the field of Anglo-Saxon art, with a primary focus on Old Testament iconography. Readers with interests in the history of medieval manuscript illustration, art history, and early Jewish and Christian apologetics will find much of interest in this profusely illustrated study.




The Horns of Moses


Book Description

David Green wants payback. It's been more than thirty years since his son, Aaron, was murdered by Arabs in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. And after the 2006 war in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah, Green has abandoned all hope that the Israelis can defeat the Arab militants. Now it's 2007, and David is ready to avenge his son's death-on his own terms. David calls on his oldest group of friends, the Stony Island Gang, to help him execute Project Moses, his brazen plan to send terminally ill Jewish suicide bombers into Palestine and Lebanon to target one hundred Arab terrorists. Together, the men argue the moral implications of David's proposal. Echoing the centuries-old debate over the horns on Michelangelo's statue of Moses, they question whether murder is always unthinkable or sometimes justifiable. Despite misgivings, the gang puts Project Moses into action and begins the hunt for willing recruits. As their scheme takes shape, David and his friends cannot possibly know the chaos, suspicion, and international panic that are about to ensue. Can murder and treachery possibly pave the road to peace?




Jews, Horns and the Devil


Book Description

One picture may save a thousand words but we will never know how many hundreds of thousands of lives were not saved, how many millions of lives were not even lived, because of the climate of fear and of hate prompted and promoted by the anti-Semitic pictures of Satanic horned Jews. From the 12th to the 21st century, these cartoons, simplifying and intensifying fears and hatreds, were powerful tools in the spread of anti-Semitism. These images first appeared in medieval Christianity, reappeared in 19th and 20th century Racialism, Fascism and Marxism, and today are part of the visual images of contemporary Islam; four absolutely different belief systems with different life cycles all sharing the exact same indelible meme with its exact same visual expression targeting the exact same expiatory victim. For a thousand years, the power of this fabrication has erased existential realities and, with devastating consequences, the fear generated by the image of the demonised Jew has been reflected onto the real Jew. Some of the cartoons in this book may shock our sensibilities; to many they are a vital shared social truth, to others a vile experienced reality.




An Olive Grove in Ends


Book Description

A “vivid, urgent” (Entertainment Weekly) story that follows a young man faced with a fraught decision: escape a dangerous past alone—or brave his old life and keep the woman he loves. Sayon Hughes longs to escape the volatile Bris­tol neighborhood known as Ends, the tight-knit but sometimes lawless world in which he was raised, and forge a better life with Shona, the girl he’s loved since grade school. With few paths out, he is drawn into dealing drugs along­side his cousin, the unpredictable but fiercely loyal Cuba. Sayon is on the cusp of making a clean break when an altercation with a rival dealer turns deadly and an expected witness threatens blackmail, upending his plans. Sayon’s loyalties are torn. If Shona learns the secret of his crime, he will lose her forever. But if he doesn’t escape Ends now, he may never get another chance. Is it possible to break free of the bookies’ tickets, burnt spoons, and crook­ed solutions, and still keep the love of his life? Rippling with authenticity and power, Mo­ses McKenzie’s dazzling debut brings to life a vi­brant and teeming world we have read too little about. In its sheer lyrical power, An Olive Grove in Ends recalls the work of James Baldwin and marks the arrival of an exciting and formidable new voice. One of The Guardian’s Top 10 Debuts of the Year One of Entertainment Weekly’s Most Anticipated Books of the Summer




Revelation


Book Description

The final book of the Bible, Revelation prophesies the ultimate judgement of mankind in a series of allegorical visions, grisly images and numerological predictions. According to these, empires will fall, the "Beast" will be destroyed and Christ will rule a new Jerusalem. With an introduction by Will Self.




Anti-Semitism


Book Description

In this provocative book, Marvin Perry and Frederick M. Schweitzer analyze the lies, misperceptions, and myths about Jews and Judaism that anti-semites have propagated throughout the centuries. Beginning with antiquity, and continuing into the present day, the authors explore the irrational fabrications that have led to numerous acts of violence and hatred against Jews. The book examines ancient and medieval myths central to the history of anti-semitism: Jews as 'Christ-killers', instruments of Satan, and ritual murderers of Christian children. It also explores the scapegoating of Jews in the modern world as conspirators bent on world domination; extortionists who manufactured the Holocaust as a hoax designed to gain reparation payments from Germany; and the leaders of the slave trade that put Africa in chains. No other book has focused its attention exclusively on a thematic discussion of historic and contemporary anti-semitic myths, covering such an expansive scope of time, and allowing for such a painstaking level of exemplification. Anti-semitism is an essential book that will serve as a corrective to bigotry, stereotype, and historical distortion.




Sanskrit of the Body


Book Description

In this mesmerizing debut collection, chosen by Mary Oliver for the National Poetry Series, we’re witness to an expansive travelogue of the human spirit that moves throughtfully through multiples ages, cultures, and beings. Each poem explores in depth, through pensive, evocative images, aspects of the human condition and their place within the rich continuum of animal existence. W.B. Keckler presents these poems in a fugal form, uniting the individual works in what he describes as a “holistic formalism” that reveals the poems’ powerful collective meaning. Lives and afterlives are explored with equal care as Keckler attempts to restore the concept of “spirit” in a modern world often overwhelmed by materialistic priorities. “Readers will find these poems lively and pleasurable. They are deft and rich in language, grounded in the actual—even the ordinary—yet admitting into their brief structures a deeper existence of strangeness, or mystery. Which is to say, that they have entered the true realm of the poetry. In a literary age pleached with sameness, this book is a bright and swirling original.”—Mary Oliver




Moses among the Idols


Book Description

In Moses among the Idols: Mediators of the Divine in the Ancient Near East, Balogh simultaneously redefines one of the greatest figures in the history of religion and challenges the historically popular understanding of ancient Mesopotamian idols as the idle objects of antiquated faiths. Drawing on interdisciplinary research and methods of comparison, Balogh not only offers new insight into the lives of idols as active mediators between humanity and divinity, she also makes the case that when it comes to understanding the figure of Moses, Mesopotamian idols are the best analogy that the ancient Near East provides. This new understanding of Moses, idols, and the interplay between the two on the stage of history and within the biblical text has been made possible only with the recent publication of pertinent texts from ancient Mesopotamia. Drawing from the fields of Assyriology, biblical studies, comparative religion, and archaeology, Balogh identifies a problem with Moses’s status, and offers an unexpected solution to that problem. Moses among the Idols centers on the question: What is it that transforms Moses from an inadequate representative of Yahweh who is “uncircumcised of lips” to “god to Pharaoh” (Exodus 6:28-7:1)? In this moment, Moses undergoes a status change best understood through comparison with the induction ritual for ancient Mesopotamian idols as described in the texts of the Mīs Pȋ, “Washing” or “Purification of the Mouth.” This solution to the problem of Moses’s status explains not only his status change, but also why Moses radiates light after speaking with YHWH (Exod 34:29-35), and his peculiar relationship with YHWH and people of Israel. The comparative, interdisciplinary perspective provided by Balogh allows one to read these and other millennia-old interpretive issues anew, and to do so in a way that underscores the contribution of in-depth comparison to our understanding of ancient civilizations, texts, and intellectual frameworks.




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