The Symbolism Of The Biblical World: Ancient Ne... (2027)

While the Bible contains a famous ban on divine images (aniconism), the world in which it was written was "shot through with images". Keel argues that to truly understand the Psalms, we must "see through the eyes of the ancient Near East" by comparing biblical metaphors to the physical artifacts of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Canaan.

: Literary imagery in the Old Testament often mirrors themes found in ANE art, such as the king as a "shepherd" or the sea as a "chaos monster". Key Symbolic Domains The Symbolism of the Biblical World: Ancient Ne...

Othmar Keel’s seminal work, , serves as a bridge between the visual art of antiquity and the poetic landscape of the Hebrew Bible. First published in 1972, Keel’s methodology—often called iconographic exegesis —challenges the idea that the Bible exists in a literary vacuum, proving instead that its metaphors are deeply embedded in the "conceptual world" of the Ancient Near East (ANE). The Lens of Iconography While the Bible contains a famous ban on

: Keel uses monumental reliefs, freestanding statues, amulets, scarabs, and cylinder seals to illuminate biblical concepts. Key Symbolic Domains Othmar Keel’s seminal work, ,