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Writing ritual and calendar together: The biblical cultic calendars in ancient Near Eastern context
Author(s) -
Thames John Tracy
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
religion compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.113
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1749-8171
DOI - 10.1111/rec3.12417
Subject(s) - hebrew bible , biblical studies , context (archaeology) , ritualization , history , torah , literature , nexus (standard) , mode (computer interface) , dead sea scrolls , art , archaeology , sociology , anthropology , computer science , judaism , embedded system , operating system
The Hebrew Bible's cultic calendars (found in Exodus 23, Exodus 34, Leviticus 23, Numbers 28–29, and Deuteronomy 16) propose a link between ritual time and the fixation of the annual calendar. These texts take part in an ancient Near Eastern mode of writing about rituals in connection with calendars that produced canonical texts, which, like the biblical calendars, outlasted the actual practice of the rituals they describe. Moreover, the connection of the festivals in the biblical calendars to the annual equinoxes demonstrates their ritualization of the passage of time. In this feature and other thematic elements, they participate in a shared nexus of ritual ideas that can be seen in documents describing other ancient Near Eastern equinoctial festivals.