medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
This is way out of my area of expertise, but isn't there also Daniel's
interpretation of the writing on the wall at Belshazzar's feast in
Daniel 5 (mene, mene, tekel, parsin)--you've been weighed in the
balance and found wanting. The scales as an image of judgment?
Best from Anchorage,
Dan
_________________________________________
Daniel T. Kline
Associate Professor of English
U of Alaska Anchorage
Anchorage, Alaska 99508
907-786-4364 | [log in to unmask]
hosting.uaa.alaska.edu/afdtk/ect_main.htm
"Fortunately, I keep my feathers
numbered for just such an emergency."
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ms Brenda M. Cook" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sunday, January 30, 2005 5:45 am
Subject: Re: Christianization of Eastern motifs
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
> culture
> > One of the clearest eastern motifs that was actually Christianized,
> however, was the
> > weighing of souls in Last Judgement images. Even though one of
> the four
> riders in
> > Revelations holds a pair of scales, the weighing imagery itself
> can be
> traced quite
> > precisely back to New Kingdom Egypt, where books of the dead
> contained> illustrations of Osiris (or Thoth?) weighing souls.
> According to Louis
> Reau, it was
> > Coptic Christians who first adapted this motif to a Christian
> context.
>
> Is it not the Archangel St Michael who holds the scales (=Balance)
> in which
> to weigh souls ? And doesn't Chaucer have a reference somewhere
> to "St
> Michael's weigh"?
>
> Brenda M.C.
>
>
>
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