Видове лен в „Стария завет“
Different Kinds of Linen in the Old Testament

Summary/Abstract: Eight different words are used to denote linen in the Old Testament — vvE [šeš]; #WB [butz]; ~yDIB; [badìm]; ~yTiv.PI [pištìm]; tn<toK. [ketònet]; !ydIs' [sadìn]; !Wjae [etùn], sP;r.K; rWx [hur karpàs]. in the ancient rituals, the linen clothes are known as “the robe of light”. The detailed analysis of the different words for linen in the Old Testament leads to several general conclusions: Each different word for linen builds its own web of meanings in the linguistic picture of the world in Hebrew; Each different word for linen serves the monotheistic mentality in the frame of the Old Testament. That mentality involves a requirement for harmony between spiritual and ritual purity obtained by wearing linen clothes; The monotheistic mentality as coded in the different words for linen in the Old Testament is drastically different from neighbouring peoples’ polytheistic mentality and language, albeit certain borrowed lexemes in Hebrew originate from these peoples’ languages and cultures; The different words for the cloth of which „the robe of light” is made are subject to a special ideology and symbol chains, based on worldly, moral and abstract ‘ritual purity’, as conveyed by the notion of ‘whiteness’; The different words for linen testify to the immense variety of transformations of the notion of light in the Old Testament; The text of the Old Testament is a declaration and a duty for the initiated Israelite to see, cover and handle the world through the „robe of light” and not through the „robe of darkness”.

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