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The signifying creator : nontextual sources of meaning in ancient Judaism / Michael D. Swartz.

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: New York : NYU Press, 2012.Description: 1 online resource (xii, 120 pages)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780814723784
  • 0814723780
  • 9780814708118
  • 0814708110
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Additional physical formats: Print version:: Signifying Creator : Nontextual Sources of Meaning in Ancient Judaism.DDC classification:
  • 296.3 23
LOC classification:
  • BM530 .S88 2012
Other classification:
  • online - EBSCO
Online resources:
Contents:
Introduction: outside the text -- Myths of creation -- The semiotics of the priestly vestments -- Divinations and its discontents -- Bubbling blood and rolling bones -- Conclusions: the signifying creator.
Summary: For centuries, Jews have been known as the "people of the book." It is commonly thought that Judaism in the first several centuries CE found meaning exclusively in textual sources. But there is another approach to meaning to be found in ancient Judaism: one that sees it in the natural world and derives it from visual clues rather than textual ones. According to this conception, God embedded hidden signs in the world that could be read by human beings and interpreted according to complex systems. In exploring the diverse functions of signs outside of the realm of the written word, Swa.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Print version record.

Introduction: outside the text -- Myths of creation -- The semiotics of the priestly vestments -- Divinations and its discontents -- Bubbling blood and rolling bones -- Conclusions: the signifying creator.

For centuries, Jews have been known as the "people of the book." It is commonly thought that Judaism in the first several centuries CE found meaning exclusively in textual sources. But there is another approach to meaning to be found in ancient Judaism: one that sees it in the natural world and derives it from visual clues rather than textual ones. According to this conception, God embedded hidden signs in the world that could be read by human beings and interpreted according to complex systems. In exploring the diverse functions of signs outside of the realm of the written word, Swa.

English.