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Apparitions
1 We can distinguish two dimensions of manifestations of the divine: theophany (explicit manifestation of the divine entity) and epiphany (where a separate reality indicates a manifestation of divine reality).
2 A vision can be conceived as a situation in which man finds himself face to face with a deity. Mesopotamian examples differ from Biblical examples as they are not part of historical narratives, involve semi-divine human protagonists, and do not have consequences for other human beings.
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Signs and Wonders
3 Examples of Biblical epiphanic manifestations are signs (which follow the laws of nature) and wonders (extraordinary phenomena). Mesopotamian signs and wonders serve as omens. Unlike Biblical miracles, Mesopotamian omens do not have a causal link with the events they predict, are not predicted in advance, and their value is limited to the informational. They are not framed as demonstrating divine favor or intervention or illustrating a point.
4 Biblical miracles are the perception of signs and wonders as 1. operating not as symbols but through their nature, 2. occasionally predicted, 3. always favorable 4. sometimes serving to demonstrate an assumption. The Biblical attitude is interested in the salvific effect of the miracle, while in Mesopotamia abnormalities are believed to be connected to a wider system that allows normality.
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Dreams
5 A theophanic dream involves a message communicated explicitly to a sleeper by a figure fro; the divine sphere. There are scarce examples in both Mesopotamian and Biblical literature: the Biblical dreams include a spiritual dimension not present in Mesopotamian dreams, where it is always a matter of entirely contingent situations.
6 Epiphanic dreams contain symbols than must be interpreted. In Mesopotamia, this was done through divination with a catalog of protases and apodoses, while in the Bible, interpretation came through an inspired individual - signs were seen as a unique act of God, not part of a natural system.
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Necromancy
7 We do not see necromancy in Mesopotamia, but we find it in the Hurrian sphere and the incident of the Witch of Endor. Interestingly, the Biblical writers did not doubt that the necromancer achieved the desired results: the prohibition concerns the fact that the evocation of the spirits of the underworld serves to answer questions of a completely contingent nature.