Violence, Scripture, and Textual Practice in Early Judaism and Christianity

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The Astrolabe

An ancient instrument for solving problems of location and distance, as well as time

Astrolábon órganon is the word used in Ptolemaeus Syntaxis 5.1 to describe a form of armillary sphere consisting of both fixed and rotating rings for determining the ecliptic co-ordinates of stars. Also called astrolabe were two-dimensional representations of the celestial sphere: over fixed disks with a representation of the horizon of the earth (in each case for a specific geographic latitude) and its parallels up to the zenith lies a rotating representation of the heavens (called ‘spider’ or ‘net’) with zodiac and indicators for some of the brightest stars. On the back is an indicator (‘alidade’) with visor plates for calculating the height of the stars. The astrolabe allows its user to determine the hours of day and night, the positions of stars, and the height and depth of objects on earth (mountains, buildings, wells). The oldest extant descriptions of the flat, planispheric astrolabe come from Iohannes Philoponus, 6th century AD, and (in Syrian) from Severus Sebokht, c. 660 AD. Indirect references may date back as early as Theon (4th cent.). Between the 8th and the 9th centuries the Arabs appropriated the knowledge of the astrolabe. At the end of the 10th century and again in the 12th century, they passed it on to Western Europe, where astrolabes were constructed up until the 17th cent. Today, one Byzantine astrolabe (from 1062) is extant, as are some 750 Arabic-Islamic astrolabes and approximately the same number of European astrolabes.

This information is abstracted from Brill's New Pauly, the English edition of the authoritative Der Neue Pauly, Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. The encyclopaedic coverage and high academic standard of the work, the interdisciplinary and contemporary approach and clear and accessible presentation have made the New Pauly the unrivalled modern reference work for the ancient world. For more information see www.brillsnewpauly.com or visit our website catalog: www.brill.nl/bnp
Brill’s New Pauly and the complete original Der Neue Pauly, the recognized standard reference works for students and scholars of the ancient world are also available online. This dual-language edition offers basic and advanced search facilities and is fully browsable. New English translations are added as they become available. See www.paulyonline.brill.nl for more information and a demo version.

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Publications & Services> Books> Book Series> Violence, Scripture, and Textual Practice in Early Judaism and Christianity

Violence, Scripture, and Textual Practice in Early Judaism and Christianity

Edited by: Ra'anan Boustan, Alex P. Jassen, Calvin J. Roetzel

Books

Available
Publication year: 2010


ISBN-13 (i)The ISBN (International Standard Book Number) has been changed from 10 to 13 digits on 1 January 2007:	978 90 04 18028 4
ISBN-10:	90 04 18028 1

Cover:	Paperback
Number of pages:	xii, 288 pp.
Google Book Search:	View this book at Google Book Search

List price:	€ 33.00 / US$ 49.00

Table of contents

Contributors include: Alex P. Jassen, Kimberly B. Stratton, Calvin J. Roetzel, Jennifer A. Glancy, Shelley Matthews, Beth A. Berkowtiz, Margaret M. Mitchell, Ra'anan S. Boustan, Jan Willem van Henten.

Readership

All those interested in religious studies, violence and religion, New Testament, Patristics, Second Temple Judaism, rabbinic literature, and early Jewish–Christian relations.

About the author(s)

Ra'anan S. Boustan, Ph.D. (2004) in Religion, Princeton University, is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of History and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA. His publications include From Martyr to Mystic: Rabbinic Martyrology and the Making of Merkavah Mysticism (Mohr-Siebeck, 2005).

Alex P. Jassen, Ph.D. (2006) in Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University, is Assistant Professor of Early Judaism at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of Mediating the Divine: Prophecy and Revelation in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Second Temple Judaism (Brill, 2007), which won the 2009 John Templeton Award for Theological Promise.

Calvin J. Roetzel, Ph.D. (1967) in New Testament, Duke University, is Sundet Professor of New Testament and Christian Studies at the University of Minnesota. His scholarship on the Apostle Paul has enjoyed international acclaim, and his book Paul: The Man and the Myth was chosen by the Biblical Archaeological Society as the New Testament Book of the Year in 1999.

This volume analyzes the various and overlapping discourses of “religious violence” that emerged within Jewish and Christian culture in the Roman world. Toward this end, the nine papers collected here address both the presence of violence within the authoritative scriptural traditions of early Judaism and Christianity and the redeployment of these older traditions to represent, legitimate, and indeed sacralize violence. Individual papers focus on the specific social and historical contexts from which these texts emerged, while the volume as a whole highlights the patterns of textual practice shared across social and religious boundaries. Throughout, the dynamic interplay between text, tradition, and violence in early Jewish and Christian culture is located within the broad landscape of Roman imperial society.

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