KJCKorea
Journal Central

The period of United Kingdom, dated to the 10th century BCE in biblical archaeology, is one of the most vehemently debated periods for the history of ancient Israel. Scholars’ opinions lay in wide range from nihilistic point of view denying the existence of United Kingdom to the one accepting the biblical description in face value. This paper examines methodological matrix in three main sources for reconstructing the history of ancient Israel (biblical source, historical source and archaeological source), and analyzed historical sources as well as archaeological results from Jerusalem, Khirbet Qeiyafa, Tel Hazor, Tel Megiddo, Tel Gezer and settlement sites in the Negev. It argues that the archaeological excavations in the land of Israel so far revealed the realities of the period of United Kingdom, dated to the 10th centiury BCE and that they are assumed to provide material culture for state formation and geo-political status of Jerusalem. This leads us to consider that the biblical descriptions for the United Kingdom period could be main historical source even though we acknowledge that it is interpreted in religious point of view and a part of Deuteronomistic History composed in centuries later.

Among the literary works of ancient Mesopotamia, the Epic of Gilgamesh is the one whose formative history is best traced. The earliest known ‘later’ or ‘canonical’ version dates from the 7th century BC, but its prototype can be traced back to the Old Babylonian period. So how did the Old Babylonian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh come to be written? Even before Sumerian manuscripts of the Epic of Gilgamesh were known, scholars believed that its origins could be traced back to Sumerian times. In fact, the publication of Sumerian fragments of the Epic of Gilgamesh in the early 20th century spurred research into the relationship between the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Sumerian fragments. While many scholars agree that the Sumerian fragments serve as the "source material" for the Akkadian epic, they are skeptical about the existence of a Sumerian epic that utilizes the Sumerian poems of Gilgamesh. This paper aims to critically examine that consensus and explore the possibility of the existence of a Sumerian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh. To this end, I will present an alternative interpretation of the evidence presented by scholars who deny the existence of the Sumerian epic, as well as Bing's research on the traces of the Sumerian epic hidden within the Gilgamesh epic. For example, the hymnic ending, which has been presented as evidence for the independence of the Sumerian fragment, points to the end of an oral performance and does not negate the possibility that the story is part of a larger narrative. Also, according to Bing, the theological and thematic contradictions in the Gilgamesh epic hint at traces of the Sumerian epic. The above discussion suggests that it is possible that Sumerian epics existed, at least in oral form, during the Third Dynasty of Uruk. While the oral origins of Sumerian literature are debatable, it is clear that the Sumerian epics were transmitted through interaction with the oral tradition, so it is reasonable to assume the existence of a Sumerian epic, at least in an oral form, underlying Sumerian poems featuring Gilgamesh.

This study explores euphemisms and dysphemisms related to “death” in Biblical Hebrew. Euphemisms involve avoiding direct expressions to minimize discomfort, while dysphemisms use language that intentionally provokes discomfort. Research on euphemisms and dysphemisms in Biblical Hebrew, particularly concerning death, is limited. This study aims to address this gap by analyzing relevant euphemisms and dysphemisms in Biblical Hebrew. The essay begins with a review of previous studies on euphemism and dysphemism in biblical language, followed by an overview of the concepts of metaphor and metonymy. A metaphor is a figure of speech in which ideas or objects are expressed through similarities to other things, while metonymy involves representing a part for the whole or the whole for a part. The main section of the study categorizes and examines euphemistic and dysphemistic expressions related to death, distinguishing between those based on metaphors and those based on metonymies. Three primary metaphors for death are identified: death as departure/movement; death as sleep/rest; and death as termination. Additionally, the metonymies underlying euphemistic and dysphemistic expressions of death are predominantly synecdochic, where a part represents the whole. By systematically analyzing various euphemistic and dysphemistic expressions related to death in Biblical Hebrew, this study enhances our understanding of both the language itself and how the people depicted in the Old Testament, as well as those who recorded it, conceptualized death.