Jen Singletary - When Things Become Deities (in the ancient Near East)

Episode: We all understand that statues were considered divine in the ancient Near East. But what about a god's sword, or concepts about a god? Could they also be divine? In this episode, Jennifer Singletary helps understand the conditions in which objects and attributes were divinized (if that's the right word) alongside the gods themselves and how this might help us understand biblical divinization.

Guest: Dr. Jennifer Singletary is Assistant Research Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies and Jewish Studies at Penn State University. Her work explores ancient ideas regarding superhuman beings, methods used to communicate with them, relationships among religious specialists, and cognitive approaches to religion and linguistics. Her first book, Objects, Qualities, and Attributes as Deities in the Ancient Near East (Brill, 2025), examines deified objects, qualities, and attributes in the ancient Near East. She is currently working on her second book, Ancient Near Eastern Prophecy, which is under contract with the Cambridge Elements series, the Ancient Near Eastern World and the Bible. Her third book project (under contract with Brill) investigates the strategies that ancient diviners, including prophets, used to discredit their rivals or work cooperatively with their peers in Old Babylonian Mari, Neo-Assyria, and the Hebrew Bible. Her research on this topic was recently featured in an article in Archaeology magazine. She is also the area editor for the Early Alphabetic and Northwest Semitic section of Prayer in the Ancient World (Brill) and a series editor for the Religions in the Ancient Mediterranean book series (Eisenbrauns). (adapted from the Penn State website)

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