Light of the land, sun of the people: The solarization of ancient Near Eastern and Biblical lawgivers

Johnson, Dylan R. 2022. Light of the land, sun of the people: The solarization of ancient Near Eastern and Biblical lawgivers. Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions 22 , pp. 16-54. 10.1163/15692124-12341326 Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

Ancient Near Eastern kings were always assumed to mediate between the divine and human worlds, but where they fell in the spectrum between mortal and divine varied from one king or dynasty to the next. Additionally, human kings could claim divine or semi-divine status through certain activities attached to the office of kingship. Through a diachronic survey, this study examines how the royal act of lawgiving elevated human rulers above other people. As lawgivers, these rulers could embody certain attributes of gods of justice within their political realms – most evident in metaphors attributing solar imagery and solar language to human rulers in royal ideology. Using cognitive metaphor theory, I examine the various ways that ancient audiences received and processed this figurative language, answering for themselves how the king could simultaneously be a mortal man and represent a solar god of justice.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	History, Archaeology and Religion
Publisher:	Brill Academic Publishers
ISSN:	1569-2116
Funders:	European Union?s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No 833222
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	20 October 2022
Date of Acceptance:	21 July 2022
Last Modified:	09 Nov 2022 02:22
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/153569

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