CONTENTS
COPYRIGHT
DEDICATION
INTRODUCTION
DANCE
ABBREVIATIONS
PERIODS, AGES, AND DATES
SELECT GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
ADDITIONAL EBOOKS FROM DDL
Dedicatedtoouresteemedcolleague, theeminentOldTestamentscholar
Roland K. Harrison
1920–1993
of rotary mills, housewives had to labor on hands and knees about four hours a day to grind wheat and barley for their daily bread. Most of the bread in the ancient world was flat (unleavened) bread, because the predominant emmer wheat and the barley in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Greece did not have the gluten necessary to cause bread to rise.
From the articles on CLOTHING, DYES, LAUNDRY, and TEXTILES, one would learn that white linen was the preferred textile in Egypt, and was worn by Israelite priests and New Testament angels. How was Jesus dressed? Jesus’ sole garments, except for his burial shroud, were woolen. As wool was not easily laundered, his clothes would have been dirty except for the moment of his transfiguration.
How did Jesus appear? From the article on BARBERS & BEARDS, we can conclude with near certainty that Jesus had a beard. Why? Men in antiquity could not shave themselves. They had to resort either to slaves or to barbers for a shave. Moreover, beards were a symbol of masculinity and seniority. The Old Testament word for “elders” is literally “bearded ones.”
Where did people live? This would have varied from place to place and from one time period to another. From the article on DWELLINGS, one would learn that in the Old Testament era in Palestine most would have lived in houses with flat roofs and courtyards full of animals. In Rome, 95% of the people would have lived in insulae, crowded tenements without kitchens or bathrooms.
What about the relations between men and women? From the ar‐ticles on EDUCATION and MARRIAGE, one would learn a striking fact, which is missing from both the Old and the New Testaments— the average age of spouses. We learn from our extra-biblical evidence that the bride would have certainly been a young teenager, and the groom several years her senior. The early marriage of girls, to preserve their purity, meant that they had only at best a primary education, with the exception of those from wealthy Roman families, which could afford private tutors for their daughters.
The DDL is also quite unique in attempting to trace the developments of the features of the biblical world along what the French historians of the Annales School have called the longue
durée, that is, over the centuries afterthe New Testament era. It is instructive to understand how the Jewish rabbis, in following the traditions of the Pharisees, debated over the application of biblical laws in changing circumstances, and how the Church Fathers also responded to these same developments.
Rather than attempting to cover all possible topics, we have chosen to concentrate on 120 subjects, not because of their prominence in the biblical text but because of their significant roles in the ancient world. For example, ASTROLOGY, DREAMS, MAGIC, and DIVINATION & SORTITION (i.e., the casting of lots) are mentioned sparingly in the biblical texts themselves but they were dominant facets of life in antiquity.
The outline each contributor has followed is to briefly summarize references to his or her subject in: (1) the Old Testament and (2) the New Testament; followed by (3) the Near Eastern world, primarily Mesopotamia and Egypt, with some references to Anatolia and Persia; (4) the Greco-Roman world, from the Minoans and Mycenaeans, Homer, through the Hellenistic era, the Roman Republic, and the Roman Empire; (5) the Jewish world, including the Old Testament Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, Philo, Josephus, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Mishnah, and the Talmuds (Babylonian and Jerusalem); and (6) the Christian world, including the church fathers up to Chrysostom and Augustine, as well as the early Byzantine empire to Justinian. Each article closes with a bibliography providing both source material for the article and material for further study. Further, the articles are carefully cross-referenced with other articles in print or planned.
The citations from the Old Testament and the New Testament, unless otherwise marked, are from the New International Version. Citations from the Septuagint (LXX) are taken from A. Pietersma and B. G. Wright, trans., A New English Translation of the Septuagint (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007). Citations from the Tosefta are taken from J. Neusner, The Tosefta (2 vols.; Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2013 repr.). Citations from the Midrashim are from the Soncino Midrash Rabba for Macintosh (Copyright Institute for Computers in Jewish Life and Davka Corporation, 2008). Citations
from the Old Testament Apocrypha are from the Revised Standard Version; those from the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha are from James H. Charlesworth, ed., The Old TestamentPseudepigrapha (2 vols.; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983, 1985). The classical citations (including Philo and Josephus) are from the Loeb Classical Library. References to the Dead Sea Scrolls are from The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation by Michael Wise, Martin Abegg Jr., and Edward Cook (rev. ed.; New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005). Citations from the Mishnah are from Herbert Danby, trans., The Mishnah(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1933). Citations from the Babylonian Talmud are from The Soncino Talmud (Institute for Computers in Jewish Life and Davka Corporation, 2007); those from the Jerusalem Talmud are from TheJerusalemTalmud, ATranslation and Commentary, ed. Jacob Neusner (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2009). With the exception of citations from Michael W. Holmes, TheApostolicFathers:GreekTextsandEnglishTranslations (3rd. ed.; Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007), patristic references are from the New Advent, Fathers of the Church (www. NewAdvent.org; 2007; © Kevin Knight). Citations from the Nag Hammadi texts are cited from Marvin Meyer, ed., TheNag Hammadi Scriptures(New York: HarperOne, 2007).
My deepest gratitude is first of all to Marvin R. Wilson, and to his former student, Andrew Pottorf, who have carefully examined all the essays and provided innumerable edits and corrections. I thank Graham Harrison for allowing us to update and expand his late father’s excellent entries. I wish to express my appreciation to all of the contributors, many of whom were my history PhD students at Miami University. My thanks go also to my wife Kimi, who spent countless hours photocopying pages from books and journals. I am grateful also to Sue Cameron, who has checked the biblical and apocryphal references for me.
My profound thanks go to Allan Emery, senior editor at Hendrickson, for spending much of the final two years before his retirement overseeing this project, and also to Hannah Brown and Carl Nellis. Our appreciation also goes to John F. Kutsko, who assisted with some of the research in the earliest stages of
dictionary project. Finally, special thanks to Foy D. Scalf, Chief Archivist of the Oriental Institute, for supplying me with the sources of many Near Eastern quotations.
Edwin M. Yamauchi
April 2014
praising the Lord (Pss 149:3; 150:4). It was often accompanied by music, as with the women who danced upon David’s triumphant return after defeating the Philistines (1 Sam 18:6). The circle dance was a feature of the annual grape festival, performed by the maidens of Shiloh (Judg 21:21), which was used to advantage by the bachelor Benjaminites. And the dance of joy was prophesied by Jeremiah as a feature of the restored people of God (Jer 31:4, 13).
The word raqad, as a dance involving skipping and jumping, correlates with its use in the OT to illustrate the movements of rams and lambs (Ps 114:4–6) as well as a calf and a young wild ox (Ps 29:6). Job complained that the children of the wicked danced about to the music of tambourine, harp, and flute (Job 21:11–12). Times of joy called for the exuberance of the skip dance, in contrast to the time for tears and beating the breast in mourning (Eccl 3:4). Such a time of joy was the ushering of the Ark into Jerusalem by David. In describing the event, the Chronicler (1 Chr 15:29) chose meraqqed umesakheq, “dancing and celebrating,” as substitutes for 2 Sam 6:16 mepazzez umekarker, “leaping and dancing,” using expressions then more familiar to his readers. The forms in 2 Sam 6:16 derive from the rarer words pizzez (skip) and kirker (whirl, pirouette). The word mesakheqderives from sakhaq (play, dance). In 6:20, Michal, Saul’s daughter, reproached David for exposing himself before the slave girls as one of the “dregs” (hrqym, according to the MT); this should be read as one of the “dancers” (hrqdym), a reading supported by the LXX (orchoumenon).
In Elijah’s confrontation with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, the followers of Baal leaped about (1 Kgs 18:26–29) in a vain attempt to rouse their god to consume the offering. A manifestation of this god in Phoenicia was BaalMarqad(Baal of the Dance). They “danced” (wayepassekhu) around the altar they had made (1 Kgs 18:26). This was a limping dance intended to curry the sympathy of the deity. The verb pasakh otherwise connotes “to become crippled” or “to waver.” A Late Bronze clay plaque (14th c. BC) from Tel Dan depicts a Canaanite man playing a lute with his right foot raised in a dancing posture.
B. THE NEW TESTAMENT
Five references to dance are found in the NT. Jesus referred to dance when characterizing the juvenile attitude of his generation (Matt 11:17; Luke 7:32); the text employs a form of Gk. orcheomai (to dance, normally with musical accompaniment). The same expression is used for the deadly dance of the daughter of Herodias (Matt 14:6; Mark 6:22), identified as Salome by Josephus (Ant. 18.5.1–4), which resulted in the beheading of John the Baptist. Clearly, these references are not to religious dances. Neither is the dancing at the party welcoming home the prodigal son (Luke 15:25). The Greek choros, which originally meant “ring” as used in this Lucan passage, also appears in LXX for Heb. mekholah. The New Testament (Gal 5:21; Rom 13:13; 1 Pet 4:3) condemns komos (“revelry”), which involved bawdy processions of drunken revelers dancing and shouting in the streets.
C. THE NEAR EASTERN WORLD
The earliest depictions of dance in the Near East come from sites such as Nevali Çori in southeast Turkey and Tell Halula in the upper Euphrates River valley in Syria in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic era (ca. 8000 BC). An analysis of dancing in the early Neolithic age indicates that these are circle dances, with individuals holding hands or standing shoulder to shoulder. Dancing appears to have been the most important cultic activity of these early farming villages and was performed mainly at night.
Concentric designs on Samarran dishes display dancing women with wind-blown hair and extended arms (ca. 5500 BC). Seals dated to 4000–3000 BC depict dancers holding hands, or with raised hands. A cylinder seal found in the royal tomb at Ur (ca. 2600 BC) depicts a woman playing a lyre, flanked by other women dancing and clapping.
The Akkadian verb raqadu means “to skip, to dance,” the word riqdu “dance,” and raqqidu “cult dancer.” The verb gashu means to “whirl,” and gushtu is “a whirling dance,” often performed in honor
Metal bowls depict scenes of Phoenician dance. In a bronze bowl a tambourine player is shown in a dancing posture, and in a silver bowl two male dancers are holding either leaves or feathers in their hands as they face each other.
The Egyptians were a “dance-loving” people. The most common terms for dance is ib/iba; as well as rwifor the striding dance, ksks for the leaping dance, and trf/tnf for the pair dance. Groups of professional dancers/musicians attached to a temple were known as the h˘nr, most of whom were female. The hieroglyphic determinative is that of a standing man with one leg crossed over the other. In general men danced with other men, and women with other women.
In prehistoric Egypt the first representation of dance appeared during the Naqada II phase (3500 BC), with females, either goddesses or priestesses depicted with their arms upraised. Men are depicted with clappers, formed in the shape of an arm and hand. During the Old Kingdom dances were formal and restrained, with the depiction mainly of women dancing the circle dance, most often in funerary contexts. In the Middle Kingdom a leaping dance was introduced. During the New Kingdom dances by scantily clad or nude young slave girls were performed as entertainment during banquets, accompanied by musicians, including blind harpers. One scene depicts eight nude women playing tambourines. Libyan men wearing phallic sheaths and ostrich feathers are depicted. Nubian dances and dancers were also featured. Pygmies were imported from central Africa to serve as dancers and acrobats.
In a painted relief from the tomb of Nenkheftikai (5th Dyn.) at Sakkara, female dancers are depicted kicking one foot high in the air, while they lean backwards at an impossible angle, with a ball attached to their hair. Acrobats perform cartwheels and forward somersaults. Nude girls holding boomerangs dance in circles. A female dancer is depicted in a series: first she has her arms forward, right leg bent backward, then arms behind her, then arms forward, arms at her side. She then leaps up, and has her legs underneath her.
Temples had dancers and singers who performed for the amusement of the gods. An attendance list from Lahun indicates that the dancers and singers were divided into four watches with two to four dancers per watch. In this list the names of the singers were Egyptian whereas the names of the dancers were Nubian or Asiatic (i.e., Semitic). Dancers also entertained pharaohs and foreign ambassadors, and even some pharaohs themselves danced.
When the harvest was gathered, the farmer gave his first fruits to Min, the fertility god, and danced to express his joyful gratitude to the god. Dancing by the people accompanied the procession of the bark of Amun from Karnak to Luxor and back during the month-long Opet festival.
Dancers, including acrobats, accompanied the funerary processions. Dancers were present at the raising of the djedcolumn, which represented the backbone of Osiris, the god of the dead, and they were also present at the “Feasts of Eternity,” held in honor of the dead. One archaic survival was the performance of the Muu dancers, women who had their hair drawn high upon a frame of papyrus stalks so as to resemble the white crown of Upper Egypt. They performed a jigging dance with finger snapping. The Muuwere originally believed to be the shades of the deceased kings of predynastic Buto, who greeted the funeral cortege after a pilgrimage to the ancient Delta cities of Sais, Pe, and Dep.
Gods such as Isis, Horus, Thoth, and Bes were known to dance. Hathor, the goddess of love, was also the Mistress of the Dance. A hymn to her declared: “We beat the drum to her spirit, we dance to her Grace . . . She is the . . . mistress of dance . . . the mistress of skipping” (Lexová, 40). A quartet of young girls danced to depict the union of Re and Hathor. Women danced holding mirrors and clappers, shaking sistrums and snapping their fingers. Bes, a dwarfish, bandy-legged god who protected women in childbirth was also known for dancing while holding a tambourine. In one instance his image was tattooed on the leg of a slave girl dancer.
D. THE GRECO-ROMAN WORLD
18.599–602). Such anamix (mixed) dancing, which is also depicted on a “François” vase, became very rare in later centuries.
While Odysseus was away on the Trojan expedition and presumed dead, the crowd of suitors for Penelope’s hand enjoyed dance and song after dinner (Hom. Od. 1.150–152; 421–424; 17.605–606; 18.304–306). When Telemachus, in search of his father, visited Menelaus’ palace at Sparta, he viewed two acrobats whirling and dancing (Hom. Od.4.5–19). Odysseus at the court of Alcinoös saw a number of youths dancing in a circle while two of his sons performed an acrobatic ball dance (Hom. Od. 8.256–380).
Animal dances were very old and numerous. Dancers wore masks and costumes resembling birds, horses, bulls, donkeys, and goats. Certain animals were associated with particular gods, the bull with Zeus and Poseidon, and the cow with Hera. The hyporchema or “dance song,” originally from Crete, was a lively, joyous combination of music, song, dance, and pantomime performed by men, women, boys, or girls in honor of Apollo.
After Theseus had escaped from the Minotaur in the labyrinth, he performed a celebratory dance with the youths and maidens he had rescued at Delos. It was said that no sailor passed by Delos without stopping to dance there in honor of Apollo. Every four years choirs of Athenians would come to Delos to offer first fruits to Apollo, while priestesses, the Deliades, performed dances. Paians, hymns to Apollo, the god of prophecy and healing, would be sung in a processional dance before battles and in times of pestilence.
By the 8th c. BC, men dressed in armor performed a dance imported from Crete known as prylis in honor of Ares, the god of war. The Spartans of Laconia were famed for their military prowess, which was developed from the age of five not only by training in athletics but also in warlike dances known as Pyrrhic (from pyrrhikhe = “dressed in red”) dances. The anapale was a dance using wrestling moves. The podism was a dance of quick, shifting movements of the feet, to train the warrior for hand to hand combat. The xiphism was a dance involving a mock battle with groups of youths practicing arts of warfare.
At the Gymnopaidia, a festival of Apollo at Sparta, three choruses, of boys, of mature men, and of old men, all naked, performed a dance using wrestling movements. Choruses of Spartan maidens danced the parthenia, as celebrated by the poet Alcman. Laconian girls known as the Caryatids danced the kalathiskos for Artemis Caryatis. Their coiffures were crowns of pointed leaves. At the temple of Artemis Orthia in Sparta young girls wearing only a short chiton performed orgiastic dances in a frenzy with a tympanum (drum) in hand. At Athens boys learned not only wrestling but also dancing from an instructor at the palaestra, a private sports building. Red figure vases depict girls learning to dance in groups, under the supervision of a dancing mistress, who held a teacher’s staff.
Frequent dances by women were performed for Artemis, the protectress of young girls. Each year at Brauron, 20 miles east of Athens, the Arkteiawas performed by select young girls called arktoi (she-bears) between the ages of five and ten, who wore shaggy costumes imitative of bears. The younger group danced clothed, while the older group danced nude, signifying the end of childhood. At the temple of Artemis at Ephesus, young marriageable girls danced around the statue of the goddess, and her priestesses performed ecstatic dances.
At Eleusis 13 miles west of Athens mysteries celebrating the myth of Demeter and her daughter Persephone involved nocturnal torch dances performed by married women. Demeter was the goddess of fertility and maternity. The annual Thesmophoria at Athens, held in honor of the return of Persephone, included feasting and dancing, with women carrying serpent-shaped images believed to have magical powers.
In Athens, Corybantes, frenzied dancers with tambourines who claimed to be the successors to the Curetes, performed ecstatic dances, which were said to have aroused emotional disturbances and even madness among the spectators. As early as the 5th c. BC we have the appearance of orpheotelestae, itinerant healers, who offered to heal by dancing around the patient in the form of a ring dance.
Dances in Greece almost always involved men dancing with men, and women with women. But dances of both men and women, known as anamix, were performed at weddings. The kallinikoswas a victory dance celebrated in honor of athletic or military victories. Both men and women dancing side by side performed this. In some cases men in women’s dresses danced. After banquets drunken revelers would proceed, dancing out into the streets in a komos, a festive procession.
Maenads or bacchantes were the frenzied women followers of Dionysus, the god of wine. Crowned with ivy, wearing fawn skins, and holding the thyrsus, a wand entwined with vine leaves, they danced the oribasia, or mountain dance. Their god-inspired enthousiasmos (enthusiasm) led them to tear animals apart and to eat their raw flesh. In Euripides’ play the Bacchae, the mother and wife of Pentheus attacked him and tore him to pieces.
The choros or dance in a ring was perfected by the Athenians in their development of drama. Drama originated as tales in the intervals of a dance. From 508 BC annual contests for the dithryamb dances performed to the music of the double flute were held in Athens. Each of the ten tribes sponsored two 50-member choruses, one of adult males and the other of boys. They circled the altar in the orchestra of the theater of Dionysus.
In the fifth century BC contests were held at Athens for the performance of tragoidoi (tragedies) and komoidoi (comedies). A wealthy patron, the choregos, paid for the chorodidaskalos, who would train the chorus. The chorostragikos consisted of twelve men (for Aeschylus), and later of fifteen singers/dancers (for Sophocles and Euripides). Aeschylus originated many of the dances himself; Sophocles danced around the trophy celebrating the victory at Salamis over the Persians. The chorus performed the stasimon (“dance song”), which was an emmeleia, a noble and dignified dance.
By contrast the choros komikos of Aristophanes, which consisted of twenty-four men (arranged in four rows of six), performed the cordax, which reprised the lascivious behavior of satyrs, creatures who were followers of Dionysus. This involved lewd rotations of the
abdomen, the slapping of thighs, and the kicking of one’s own buttocks. The satyr plays featured the sikinnisdance, which involved horseplay and acrobatic movements. In Aristophanes’ play, Lysistrata (1273–1277), there is a rare anamix dance of men and women together.
Xenophon’s Anabasis (6.1.1–14) describes six weapons dances performed by soldiers and a slave girl dressed in war regalia. At a banquet described by Xenophon (Symp. 2.8–11) a boy danced and played the kithara, and an acrobatic dancing girl performed, juggling twelve hoops and doing stunts over a hoop rimmed with upright swords. When Socrates volunteered to dance, the other banqueters laughed. In his defense, he replied: “You are laughing at me, are you? Is it because I want to exercise to better my health? . . . Or is this what provokes your laughter, that I have an unduly large paunch and wish to reduce it? Don’t you know that just the other day Charmides here caught me dancing early in the morning?” (Symp. 2.17–19).
Plato’s final work, TheLaws, has an extensive discussion of dance. He considered the achoreutos(“danceless man”) as uneducated and the kechoreukos (“endowed with dance”) man as educated. He distinguished between two kinds of dancing: to semnon (“the noble”), which included war dances, and tophaulon (“the ignoble”) which included Bacchic dances. He held that dance and music were innate in children: “almost without exception, every young creature is incapable of keeping either its body or its tongue quiet, and is always striving to move and to cry, leaping and skipping and delighting in dances and games, and uttering, also, notes of every description” (Leg. 2.653e). He believed that dancing should be consecrated to the gods, inasmuch as the gods themselves danced: “the very gods, who were given, as we said, to be our fellows in the dance, have granted the pleasurable perception of rhythm and harmony, whereby they cause us to move and lead our choirs, linking us one with another by means of songs and dances” (Leg. 653e–654a).
Rome
In Rome with a few exceptions dance did not have as prominent a role in religion that it had in Greek culture. The Greek loanword chorea meant a round or ring dance. Saltio meant “dance,” saltatio “a hopping dance,” and saltantes“dancers.” The word tripudiummay originally have meant a “three-step dance,” though its etymology is disputed; it came to mean “jubilation.” Lucian (2nd c. AD) wrote about dance in his PeriOrcheseos.
In the festival of Palilia in honor of Pales, the goddess of shepherds, magnificent evening dances around blazing fires of straw were performed by shepherds. Farm-servants danced and sang praises before Ceres, the goddess of agriculture, and offered her libations of milk, honey, and wine. The priesthood of the Arval Brothers conducted a ritual dance in honor of the Dea Dia, the goddess of the plowed fields.
When the temple of Juno on the Aventine was struck by lightning, twenty-seven young virgins in long robes proceeded with a special offering to the temple: “the virgins, all taking hold of a rope, moved forward again keeping time with the rhythm of their hymn” (Livy Rom.Hist.27.37.12–15).
What Lucian called “the most majestic dance,” was that of the salii, twenty-four priests of Mars, who were chosen from patrician families. They wore military dress, carried shields, and sang the carmen saliare. They were divided into two choruses of older and of younger men, and were led by a dance leader. They walked around in a circle with a deliberate pace rhythmically beating their shields. Their leaping was compared by Seneca to the jumping of fullers upon wet woolen cloth.
In the Late Republic, about 200 BC, Etruscan and Greek choreographers taught private dancing lessons to the sons and daughters of patrician families. Scipio Africanus, who was in many ways a philhellene, sought in vain ca. 150 BC to close dancing schools. In the Late Republic and Early Empire ludi, gladiatorial games, became more and more popular. Preceding the games ludiones, groups of men, adolescents, and children dressed in military dress, jigged non-stop to music played on flutes and lyres.
Lucian wrote in TheDance (PeriOrcheseos), “Not a single ancient mystery cult can be found that is without dancing, since they were established by Orpheus and Musaeus, the best dancers of that time, who included it in their prescriptions as something exceptionally beautiful to be imitated with rhythm and dancing” (Salt.15). Among the mysteries were those of Cybele (the Magna Mater), whose emasculated priests, the galli, danced around her altar to the sound of drums and cymbals. Both male and female followers of Sabazius danced wildly in the streets.
Cicero expressed his contempt for dancing: “For no man, one may almost say, ever dances when sober, unless perhaps he be a madman; nor in solitude, nor in a moderate and sober party; dancing is the last companion of prolonged feasting, of luxurious situation, and of many refinements” (Mur. 6.13). Plutarch also expressed his disdain.
Because of the polyglot audiences and large theaters in the early Empire the most popular dance/drama became pantomimes, which could be understood simply by gestures without the use of the spoken word. This form of entertainment was invented by two professional dancers, Pylades from Cilicia and Bathyllus from Alexandria. The former favored tragic stories, the latter comedic ones; their cliques clashed on the streets of Rome.
A herald introduced a mythological story, then the pantomime appeared with a mask and a lavish costume, which he changed from scene to scene. Women also performed as Apuleius described: “Then Venus appeared, displaying to all her perfect beauty, naked, unclothed, except for a sheer silk scarf” (Metam. 10.30). The pantomimes were disliked by Augustus and Tiberius, but were favored by emperors such as Caligula, Nero, and Commodus. According to Suetonius, Nero sponsored “a ballet performance by certain young Greeks, to whom he granted certificates of Roman citizenship when their show ended” (Nero12).
Much to the chagrin of Ammianus Marcellinus the popularity of dancers endured as shown by the fact that in AD 383, when peregrini (aliens) were expelled from Rome because of a famine,
three thousand female dancers and their dancing masters were allowed to stay.
E. THE JEWISH WORLD
Philo in On the Contemplative Life describes the Therapeutae, a remarkable community of ascetic men and women in Egypt, who each night after supper formed two “choirs” of men and of women to sing and to dance, each group following a precentor. “Then they sing hymns to God composed of many measures and set to many melodies, sometimes chanting together, sometimes taking up the harmony antiphonally, hands and feet keeping time in accompaniment, and rapt with enthusiasm reproduce sometimes the lyrics of the procession, sometimes of the halt and of the wheeling and counter-wheeling of a choric dance. Then when each choir has separately done its own part in the feast, having drunk as in the Bacchic rites of the strong wine of God’s love they mix and both together form a single choir, a copy of the choir set up of old beside the Red Sea in honor of the wonders there wrought” (Contempl.84–85).
According to the Mishnah and the Talmud even sages such as Hillel loved to dance. During the water-drawing festival on the last day of the feast of Tabernacles, rabbis danced and juggled lighted torches at night in the temple court. “Men of piety and good works used to dance before them with burning torches in their hands, singing songs and praises” (m.Sukkah5.4).
R. Simeon b. Gamaliel could dance while juggling eight lighted torches. (y. Sukkah 5.4). He said, “There were no happier days for Israel than the 15th of Ab and the Day of Atonement, for on them the daughters of Jerusalem used to go forth in white raiments; and these were borrowed, that none should be abashed which had them not; [hence] all the raiments required immersion. And the daughters of Jerusalem went forth to dance in the vineyards. And what did they say? ‘Young man, lift up thine eyes and see what thou wouldest choose for thyself’ ” (m. Ta‘an. 4.8). This was the occasion when
endeavoring to abstract the body from the earth, along with the discourse, raising the soul aloft, winged with longing for better things” (Strom. 7.7).
Gregory Thaumaturgus wrote, “O river Jordan, accompany me in the joyous choir, and leap with me, and stir your waters rhythmically, as in the movements of the dance; for your Maker stands by you in the body” (Homily4, OnChrist’s Baptism; cf. his OnAlltheSaints). Epiphanius exhorted, “Celebrate thy festival, thou Christian Church, not in the letter, not performing the ring-dance in the physical sense, but in the spiritual, perceiving the destruction of the false gods and the setting up of the Church” (Pan.3.77).
Eusebius described the jubilation of Christians over the victory of Constantine over Licinius, “With dances and hymns, in city and country, they glorified first of all God the universal King, because they had been thus taught, and then the pious emperor with his God-beloved children” (Hist.eccl.10.9.7).
Basil (Hom. 14, Against Drunkards) condemned mixed dancing, and the dancing of women at Easter celebrations and at martyrs’ shrines. On the other hand, he wrote, “Thou hast angels, with whom thou shalt dance about the throne of God, and shalt be glad with everlasting joy” (HomilyonThanksgiving).
Gregory of Nazianzus advised: “If you must dance, as one who celebrates and likes feasts, then dance not the dance of the indecent Herodias which brought about the death of the Baptist, but that of David for the repose of the ark, by which ‘dance’ I understand to be designated mystically a certain course of life pleasing to God, gifted and versatile in its activity” (Oratio 5, Second Invective against Julian, 35).
John Chrysostom in his Homily on Matthew harshly condemned dance: “Where there is dancing, there is the devil. It was not for this that God gave us feet, but that we might walk orderly; it was not that we might offend against decency, nor so that we might jump like camels . . . but in order to join in a dance with the choir of angels” (Hom. Matt. 48.5). He condemned in his Homily on Colossians dancing at weddings: “Do you want to see choirs of dancers? Behold the choirs of angels. And how is it possible,
someone will say, to see them? If you drive away all things unbecoming a wedding, including dancing, even Christ shall come to such a marriage, and Christ being present the chorus of angels is present also” (Hom.Col.12.4–6). On the other hand, he noted that bishops themselves performed and conducted sacred festival dances before the relics of martyrs: “Ye have seen how human nature may be imbued with supernatural forces; ye have seen these splendid wreaths won by the shedding of blood; we have here in various places danced comely ring-dances under the guidance of your leader” (Hom.adAgricolas).
Like Chrysostom, the Syrian Jacob of Serugh condemned the stage and dancing: “Love not dancing, the mother of all lasciviousness; understand it, how and what it is when thou dost investigate it. It is a great fountain of mockery which every day vomits forth spectacles; a spring of licentiousness, which flows, that it may give drink to worthless fellows” (Moss, 105).
Ambrose, while rejecting the “actor-like movements of indecent dances,” voiced his approval for spiritual round dances: “For that reason we have announced to you the rejoicing in Heaven, and you may lift up your hearts in rapture. For this reason the Lord bids us dance, not merely with the circling movements of the body, but with pious faith in him. For just as he who dances with his body at one time floats ecstatically, at another leaps in the air and at another by varying dances pays reverence to certain places, so also he who dances in the spirit with a burning faith is carried aloft, is uplifted to the stars, and at the same time solemnly glorifies Heaven by the dances of the thought of Paradise” (Speech 42; Backmann, 29).
Heretical groups were associated with dances. The Gnostic Actsof John has a remarkable “Hymn of the Dance,” in which the disciples are commanded “to form a circle, holding one another’s hands, and [Jesus] himself stood in the middle and said, ‘Answer Amen to me’ ” (94.4–6). Later, Jesus declares: “Now if you follow my dance, see yourself in Me who am speaking . . . . You who dance, consider what I do, for yours is this passion of Man which I am to suffer” (96.1–8; Bowe, 84–85).
Testament,” ExpTim 86 (1975), 136–40; U. Gabbay, “Dance in Textual Sources from Ancient Mesopotamia,” NEA66.3 (2003), 103–4; Y. Garfinkel, Dancing at the Dawn of Agriculture (2003); Y. Garfinkel, “The Earliest Dancing Scenes in the Near East,” NEA66.3 (2003), 84–95; M. I. Gruber, “Ten Dance-Derived Expressions in the Hebrew Bible,” Bib62 (1981), 328–46; T. Ilan, “Dance and Gender in Ancient Jewish Sources,” NEA 66.3 (2003), 135–36; A. D. Kilmer, “Music and Dance in Ancient Western Asia,” CANE, IV.2601–13; R. Kraus, A History of the Dance in Art and Education (1969); L. B. Lawler, The Dance in Ancient Greece (1964); I. Lexová, Ancient Egyptian Dances (2000); B. Leyerle, Theatrical Shows and Ascetic Lives (2001); I. M. Linforth, “The Corybantic Rites in Plato,” University of California Publications in Classical Philology 13.5 (1946), 121–62; S. H. Lonsdale, Dance and Ritual Play in Greek Religion (1993); M. Matoushová-Rajmová, “Mesopotamia,” in International Encyclopedia of Dance, ed. S. J. Cohen (1998), IV, 355–57; C. Moss, JacobofSerugh’sHomiliesontheSpectacleofthe Theatre (2010); C. L. Myers, “Of Drums and Damsels: Women’s Performance in Ancient Israel,” BA 54 (1991), 16–27; F. G. Naerebout, “Music and Dance, Hellenistic and Roman Period,” OEBA, II.147–55; E. B. Poethig, TheVictory Song Tradition of the Women of Israel (1986); B. Rosenstock, “David’s Play: Fertility Rituals and the Glory of God in 2 Samuel 6,” JSOT31 (2006), 63–80; E. G. Rust, The Music and Dance of the World’s Religions: A Comprehensive, AnnotatedBibliography ofMaterialsintheEnglishLanguage(1996); M. Saleh, “Egypt,” in InternationalEncyclopedia of Dance, ed. S. J. Cohen (1998), II, 481–86; P. Spencer, “Dance in Ancient Egypt,” NEA 66.3 (2003), 111–21; J. N. Tubb, “Phoenician Dance,” NEA 66.3 (2003), 122–25; M. Wegner, MusikundTanz(1968); G. P. Wetter, La danserituelledansl’égliseancienne(1961); D. P. Wright, “Music and Dance in 2 Samuel 6,” JBL 121 (2002), 201–25; A. Yarber, “Undulating the Holy? Relating the Sacred to Our Dancing Bodies: Song of Songs 7:1–4,” RevExp105 (2008), 471–80.
CONTRIBUTOR: Keith N. Schoville, PhD (Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Studies emeritus, University of Wisconsin).
ABBREVIATIONS
GENERAL
#(#) number(s)
|| parallel to
AD annodomini, in the year of the Lord
Akk. Akkadian
Arab. Arabic
Aram. Aramaic
AV Authorized Version (i.e., KJV = King James Version)
b. ben,Hebrew “son”; born
b. Babylonian Talmud
BC before Christ
c. century
C centigrade
ca. circa, about
CE Codex Eshnunna
cf. confer, compare
ch(s). chapter(s)
CH Code of Hammurabi
cm. centimeter
col(s). column(s)
d. died
Dyn. Dynasty
EA El Amarna (designation of texts from)
ed. editor(s), edition
e.g. exempligratia, for example
Egy. Egyptian
Ep. epistle, letter
esp. especially et al. etalia, and others
Eth. Ethiopic
F Fahrenheit
fl. floruit,flourished
ft. foot, feet
gal. gallon(s)
Gk. Greek
ha. hectare (about 2.5 acres)
Heb. Hebrew
i.e. idest, that is ibid. ibidem,in the same place
in. inch(es)
JB Jerusalem Bible
KJV King James Version
km. kilometer
Lat. Latin lb(s). pound(s)
LCL Loeb Classical Library
lit. literally
LXX Septuagint
m. meter(s)
m. Mishnah
MAL
Middle Assyrian Law Code
mi. mile(s)
MK Middle Kingdom (of Egypt)
Mt. mount, mountain
MT Masoretic Text
NAB New American Bible
NASB New American Standard Bible
NEB New English Bible
NEV New English Version
NHC Nag Hammadi codices
NIV New International Version
NJPS Tanakh:TheHolyScriptures:TheNewJPS TranslationaccordingtotheTraditionalHebrewText
NK New Kingdom (of Egypt)
NRSV New Revised Standard Version
n.s. new series (of journals)
NT New Testament
OB Old Babylonian
OK Old Kingdom (Egypt)
Old Pers. Old Persian
OT Old Testament
Oxy. Oxyrhynchus
Pap. Papyrus
Phoen. Phoenician
R. rabbi
REB Revised English Bible
repr. reprint(ed)
rev. revised
RSV Revised Standard Version
sing. singular
sq. square
St. saint
Sum. Sumerian
t. Tosefta
trans. translator(s)
Ugar. Ugaritic vol(s). volume(s)
vs(s). verse(s)
Vulg Vulgate
y. Jerusalem (Yerushalmi) Talmud
ANCIENT SOURCES
Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
Gen Genesis
Exod Exodus
Lev Leviticus
Num Numbers
Deut Deuteronomy
Josh Joshua
Judg Judges
Ruth Ruth
1–2 Sam1–2 Samuel
1–2 Cor 1–2 Corinthians
Gal Galatians
Eph Ephesians
Phil Philippians
Col Colossians
1–2 Thess1–2 Thessalonians
1–2 Tim 1–Timothy
Titus Titus
Phlm Philemon
Heb Hebrews
Jas James
1–2 Pet 1–2 Peter
1–3 John 1–3 John
Jude Jude
Rev Revelation
Apocrypha and Septuagint
1–2 Esd 1–2 Esdras
1–4 Macc1–4 Maccabees
Add Esth Addition to Esther
Bar Baruch
Bel Bel and the Dragon
Ep Jer Epistle of Jeremiah
Jdt Judith
Pr Azar Prayer of Azariah
Pr Man Prayer of Manasseh
Sg ThreeSong of the Three Young Men
Sir Sirach/Ecclesiasticus
Sus Susanna
Tob Tobias
Wis Wisdom of Solomon
Old Testament Pseudepigrapha
2Bar. 2Baruch
1En. 1Enoch
4Ezra 4Ezra
Jos.Asen.JosephandAseneth
Jub. Jubilees
Lad.Jac. LadderofJacob
Pss.Sol. PsalmsofSolomon
Sib.Or . SibyllineOracles
T.Isaac TestamentofIsaac
T.Naph. TestamentofNaphtali
Vis.Ezra VisionofEzra
New Testament Pseudepigrapha
ActsJohnActsofJohn
Dead Sea Scrolls and Cairo Geneza
CD DamascusDocument
1QHa,b (=1Q35) Hodayot(Thanksgiving Hymns)
1QS SerekHayahad(Rule of the Community) 1QSa 1Q28a (Rule of the Congregation) 4QMMT (=4Q394–399) (MiqtsatMa‘aseha-Torah)
11QTemplea,b11Q19–20 (Temple Scroll)
Judaica
‘Abod.Zar. ‘AbodahZarah ’Abot ’Abot ‘Arak. ‘Arakin
B.Bat. BabaBatra
B.Mes. BabaMetzi’a
B.Qam. BabaQamma
Bek. Bekorot
Ber. Berakot Betzah Betzah(YomTob)
‘Ed. ‘Eduyyot
‘Erub. ‘Erubin
Gitt Gittin
Hag. Hagigah
Hul. Hullin
Kelim Kelim
Ketub. Ketubbot
Kil. Kil’ayim
Mak. Makkot
Maksh. Makshirin
Meg. Megillah
Menah. Menahot
Mid. Middot
Miqw. Miqwa’ot
Mo‘edQat.Mo‘edQatan
Naz. Nazir
Ned. Nedarim
Neg. Nega‘im
Nez. Neziqin
Nid. Niddah
’Ohol. ’Oholot
Pe’ah Pe’ah
Pesah. Pesahim
Qidd. Qiddushin
Qod. Qodashim
RoshHash.RoshHashshanah
Shabb. Shabbat
Sanh. Sanhedrin
Sheb. Shebi‘it
Sheqal. Sheqalim
SifreNum Sifre(toNumbers)
SifreDeut Sifre(toDeuteronomy)
Sotah Sotah
Sukkah Sukkah
T.Yom TebulYom
Ta‘an. Ta‘anit
