Birth In Babylonia & The Bible (Cuneiform Monographs, 14)

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Description

Utilising material spanning 3000 years, this book examines childbirth in the Biblical and Babylonian world. Stol’s scholarship has an ordinary range. He follows the mother and child from conception to weaning, analyzing quite a lot of different texts and topics. He deals, for instance, with the vicissitudes and procedures of labor and delivery, delivery with magical plants and amulets, and with legal issues in the case of abortion or to the liability of the wet-nurse. A number of the texts are wealthy and distinctive. Babylonian incantations to facilitate birth describe the child moving “over the dark sea” and, like a ship, reaching “the quay of life.” His discussions are supplemented with relevant examples drawn from Greek and Roman sources, Rabbinic literature, and up to date ethnographic material from traditional Middle Eastern societies. The last chapter, written by F.A.M. Wiggermann, deals with the horrible baby-snatching demon, Lamastum. This book is a completely re-worked edition of a volume firstly written in Dutch (1983). Both authors teach on the Free University (Amsterdam).

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