The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Index Database

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Please note: the results are produced through a computerized process which may frequently lead to errors, both in incorrect tagging and in other issues. Please use with caution.
Due to load times, full text fetching is currently attempted for validated results only.
Full texts for Hebrew Bible and rabbinic texts is kindly supplied by Sefaria; for Greek and Latin texts, by Perseus Scaife, for the Quran, by Tanzil.net

For a list of book indices included, see here.

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All subjects (including unvalidated):

subject	book bibliographic info
essential, flesh, natural and	Williams (2009), Williams, The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis: Book I: (Sects 1-46), 212
essential, for religious life, sacrifice	Bickerman and Tropper (2007), Studies in Jewish and Christian History, 582, 615, 616, 617
essential, goodness of god, theoi, θεοί‎	d'Hoine and Martijn (2017), All From One: A Guide to Proclus, 242, 244, 253
essential, immortality	Long (2019), Immortality in Ancient Philosophy, 20, 29, 30, 31, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 61
essential, nature of god	Osborne (1996), Eros Unveiled: Plato and the God of Love. 198
essential, number	Corrigan and Rasimus (2013), Gnosticism, Platonism and the Late Ancient World, 419, 420
essential, part of the conversion process, immersion, not	Cohen (2010), The Significance of Yavneh and other Essays in Jewish Hellenism, 341
essential, sociability, as	Isaac (2004), The invention of racism in classical antiquity, 244, 245, 451
essential, to human nature, intellect, as	Segev (2017), Aristotle on Religion, 105, 110, 117, 118, 119, 169
essential, to the motif of eros, arrows	Osborne (1996), Eros Unveiled: Plato and the God of Love. 23, 71, 73, 74
essential, unity gods, as, boethius	Hoenig (2018), Plato's Timaeus and the Latin Tradition, 26
essentialism	Feder (2022), Purity and Pollution in the Hebrew Bible: From Embodied Experience to Moral Metaphor, 196, 207, 210, 211, 212, 223, 254, 258, 259
essentialism, essence	Lieu (2004), Christian Identity in the Jewish and Graeco-Roman World, 22, 26, 54, 157, 315
essentialism, gender	Neis (2012), When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven: Rabbis and the Reproduction of Species. 12, 146, 155, 161, 162, 171, 186, 205
essentialized, around, reproduction, women	Neis (2012), When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven: Rabbis and the Reproduction of Species. 186
essentializing, around reproduction, women	Neis (2012), When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven: Rabbis and the Reproduction of Species. 186
essentializing, nature	Neis (2012), When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven: Rabbis and the Reproduction of Species. 7, 161
essentially, genderless / sexless, soul, whether	Schultz and Wilberding (2022), Women and the Female in Neoplatonism, 43, 45, 59, 71, 72, 82, 83, 85, 90, 99, 100, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 129, 138, 139, 147, 149, 230, 246, 271, 279
essentially, good, creation	Blidstein (2017), Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature, 48, 79, 87, 170, 207, 209, 210
essentially, linked to the soul, body, as	Carter (2019), Aristotle on Earlier Greek Psychology: The Science of Soul, 139
intelligible/essential, logos/logoi, reason principle, λόγος‎/λόγοι‎, ousiôdês, οὐσιώδης‎	d'Hoine and Martijn (2017), All From One: A Guide to Proclus, 172, 176, 181, 192, 195
καθ‎αὑτό‎, /essential, property, per se, kathhauto	d'Hoine and Martijn (2017), All From One: A Guide to Proclus, 60, 71, 114

List of validated texts:

11 validated results for "essential"

1. Hebrew Bible, Genesis, 1.27, 1.31, 3.20, 9.3-9.4 (9th cent. BCE - 3rd cent. BCE)
Tagged with subjects: • Psychic Adam/Eve/body, essence • creation, essentially good • essence (Aristotelian concept) • gender, essentialism • human being, views of, three essences in • hyle (“stuff, matter”), essence of • psychic essence • spirit (pneuma), essence of

Found in books: Blidstein (2017), Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature, 79, 210; Dunderberg (2008), Beyond Gnosticism: Myth, Lifestyle, and Society in the School of Valentinus. 56, 136, 140; Neis (2012), When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven: Rabbis and the Reproduction of Species. 146, 205; Pedersen (2004), Demonstrative Proof in Defence of God: A Study of Titus of Bostra’s Contra Manichaeos. 303; Rasimus (2009), Paradise Reconsidered in Gnostic Mythmaking: Rethinking Sethianism in Light of the Ophite Evidence, 135, 161

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1.27 וַיִּבְרָא אֱלֹהִים אֶת־הָאָדָם בְּצַלְמוֹ בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים בָּרָא אֹתוֹ זָכָר וּנְקֵבָה בָּרָא אֹתָם׃ ^1.31 וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים אֶת־כָּל־אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה וְהִנֵּה־טוֹב מְאֹד וַיְהִי־עֶרֶב וַיְהִי־בֹקֶר יוֹם הַשִּׁשִּׁי׃' ^9.3 כָּל־רֶמֶשׂ אֲשֶׁר הוּא־חַי לָכֶם יִהְיֶה לְאָכְלָה כְּיֶרֶק עֵשֶׂב נָתַתִּי לָכֶם אֶת־כֹּל׃ ^9.4 אַךְ־בָּשָׂר בְּנַפְשׁוֹ דָמוֹ לֹא תֹאכֵלוּ׃'' None

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1.27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them. ^1.31 And God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. ^3.20 And the man called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. ^9.3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be for food for you; as the green herb have I given you all. ^9.4 Only flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.'' None

2. Plato, Phaedrus, None (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
Tagged with subjects: • Essence (οὐσία) • essence • essence (ousia) • immortality, essential

Found in books: Hankinson (1998), Cause and Explanation in Ancient Greek Thought, 98; Horkey (2019), Cosmos in the Ancient World, 5; Joosse (2021), Olympiodorus of Alexandria: Exegete, Teacher, Platonic Philosopher, 67; Long (2019), Immortality in Ancient Philosophy, 54

^252d καὶ οὕτω καθʼ ἕκαστον θεόν, οὗ ἕκαστος ἦν χορευτής, ἐκεῖνον τιμῶν τε καὶ μιμούμενος εἰς τὸ δυνατὸν ζῇ, ἕως ἂν ᾖ ἀδιάφθορος καὶ τὴν τῇδε πρώτην γένεσιν βιοτεύῃ, καὶ τούτῳ τῷ τρόπῳ πρός τε τοὺς ἐρωμένους καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους ὁμιλεῖ τε καὶ προσφέρεται. τόν τε οὖν ἔρωτα τῶν καλῶν πρὸς τρόπου ἐκλέγεται ἕκαστος, καὶ ὡς θεὸν αὐτὸν ἐκεῖνον ὄντα ἑαυτῷ οἷον ἄγαλμα τεκταίνεταί τε καὶ κατακοσμεῖ, ὡς' ' None

^252d And so it is with the follower of each of the other gods; he lives, so far as he is able, honoring and imitating that god, so long as he is uncorrupted, and is living his first life on earth, and in that way he behaves and conducts himself toward his beloved and toward all others. Now each one chooses his love from the ranks of the beautiful according to his character, and he fashions him and adorns him' ' None

3. Plato, Theaetetus, None (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
Tagged with subjects: • essence • essence of human soul

Found in books: Broadie (2021), Plato's Sun-Like Good: Dialectic in the Republic, 141; d'Hoine and Martijn (2017), All From One: A Guide to Proclus, 247

^176e οὐδὲν ἀδικοῦντες, ἀλλὰ ἣν ἀδύνατον ἐκφυγεῖν. ΘΕΟ. τίνα δὴ λέγεις; ΣΩ. παραδειγμάτων, ὦ φίλε, ἐν τῷ ὄντι ἑστώτων, τοῦ μὲν θείου εὐδαιμονεστάτου, τοῦ δὲ ἀθέου ἀθλιωτάτου, οὐχ ὁρῶντες ὅτι οὕτως ἔχει, ὑπὸ ἠλιθιότητός τε καὶ τῆς ἐσχάτης'' None

^176e THEO. What penalty do you mean? SOC. Two patterns, my friend, are set up in the world, the divine, which is most blessed, and the godless, which is most wretched. But these men do not see that this is the case, and their silliness and extreme foolishness blind them to the fact that'' None

4. Plato, Timaeus, None (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
Tagged with subjects: • Essence (οὐσία) • essential goodness of god (theoi, θεοί‎) • immortality, essential • per se (kathhauto, καθ‎αὑτό‎)/essential property

Found in books: Joosse (2021), Olympiodorus of Alexandria: Exegete, Teacher, Platonic Philosopher, 66; Long (2019), Immortality in Ancient Philosophy, 52; d'Hoine and Martijn (2017), All From One: A Guide to Proclus, 71, 244

^36d ταὐτοῦ καὶ ὁμοίου περιφορᾷ· μίαν γὰρ αὐτὴν ἄσχιστον εἴασεν, τὴν δʼ ἐντὸς σχίσας ἑξαχῇ ἑπτὰ κύκλους ἀνίσους κατὰ τὴν τοῦ διπλασίου καὶ τριπλασίου διάστασιν ἑκάστην, οὐσῶν ἑκατέρων τριῶν, κατὰ τἀναντία μὲν ἀλλήλοις προσέταξεν ἰέναι τοὺς κύκλους, τάχει δὲ τρεῖς μὲν ὁμοίως, τοὺς δὲ τέτταρας ἀλλήλοις καὶ τοῖς τρισὶν ἀνομοίως, ἐν λόγῳ δὲ φερομένους.'^41a τούτων, ἐκ δὲ Κρόνου καὶ Ῥέας Ζεὺς Ἥρα τε καὶ πάντες ὅσους ἴσμεν ἀδελφοὺς λεγομένους αὐτῶν, ἔτι τε τούτων ἄλλους ἐκγόνους· ἐπεὶ δʼ οὖν πάντες ὅσοι τε περιπολοῦσιν φανερῶς καὶ ὅσοι φαίνονται καθʼ ὅσον ἂν ἐθέλωσιν θεοὶ γένεσιν ἔσχον, λέγει πρὸς αὐτοὺς ὁ τόδε τὸ πᾶν γεννήσας τάδε— ^41b δεθὲν πᾶν λυτόν, τό γε μὴν καλῶς ἁρμοσθὲν καὶ ἔχον εὖ λύειν ἐθέλειν κακοῦ· διʼ ἃ καὶ ἐπείπερ γεγένησθε, ἀθάνατοι μὲν οὐκ ἐστὲ οὐδʼ ἄλυτοι τὸ πάμπαν, οὔτι μὲν δὴ λυθήσεσθέ γε οὐδὲ τεύξεσθε θανάτου μοίρας, τῆς ἐμῆς βουλήσεως μείζονος ἔτι δεσμοῦ καὶ κυριωτέρου λαχόντες ἐκείνων οἷς ὅτʼ ἐγίγνεσθε συνεδεῖσθε. νῦν οὖν ὃ λέγω πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἐνδεικνύμενος, μάθετε. θνητὰ ἔτι γένη λοιπὰ τρία ἀγέννητα· τούτων δὲ μὴ γενομένων οὐρανὸς ἀτελὴς ἔσται· τὰ γὰρ ἅπαντʼ ἐν ^41d ἐγὼ παραδώσω· τὸ δὲ λοιπὸν ὑμεῖς, ἀθανάτῳ θνητὸν προσυφαίνοντες, ἀπεργάζεσθε ζῷα καὶ γεννᾶτε τροφήν τε διδόντες αὐξάνετε καὶ φθίνοντα πάλιν δέχεσθε. ' None

^36d to the Revolution of the Same and of the Uniform. For this alone He suffered to remain uncloven, whereas He split the inner Revolution in six places into seven unequal circles, according to each of the intervals of the double and triple intervals, three double and three triple. These two circles then He appointed to go in contrary directions; and of the seven circles into which He split the inner circle, He appointed three to revolve at an equal speed, the other four to go at speeds equal neither with each other nor with the speed of the aforesaid three, yet moving at speeds the ratios of which one to another are those of natural integers.'^41a and of Cronos and Rhea were born Zeus and Hera and all those who are, as we know, called their brethren; and of these again, other descendants. ^41b yet to will to dissolve that which is fairly joined together and in good case were the deed of a wicked one. Wherefore ye also, seeing that ye were generated, are not wholly immortal or indissoluble, yet in no wise shall ye be dissolved nor incur the doom of death, seeing that in my will ye possess a bond greater and more sovereign than the bonds wherewith, at your birth, ye were bound together. Now, therefore, what I manifest and declare unto you do ye learn. Three mortal kinds still remain ungenerated; but if these come not into being the Heaven will be imperfect; for it will not contain within itself the whole sum of the hinds of living creatures, yet contain them it must if ^41d For the rest, do ye weave together the mortal with the immortal, and thereby fashion and generate living creatures, and give them food that they may grow, and when they waste away receive them to yourselves again. ' None

5. Philo of Alexandria, On The Creation of The World, 135 (1st cent. BCE - missingth cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Psychic Adam/Eve/body, essence • divine essence

Found in books: Heo (2023), Images of Torah: From the Second-Temple Period to the Middle Ages. 108; Rasimus (2009), Paradise Reconsidered in Gnostic Mythmaking: Rethinking Sethianism in Light of the Ophite Evidence, 161

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135 But he asserts that the formation of the individual man, perceptible by the external senses is a composition of earthy substance, and divine spirit. For that the body was created by the Creator taking a lump of clay, and fashioning the human form out of it; but that the soul proceeds from no created thing at all, but from the Father and Ruler of all things. For when he uses the expression, "he breathed into," etc., he means nothing else than the divine spirit proceeding form that happy and blessed nature, sent to take up its habitation here on earth, for the advantage of our race, in order that, even if man is mortal according to that portion of him which is visible, he may at all events be immortal according to that portion which is invisible; and for this reason, one may properly say that man is on the boundaries of a better and an immortal nature, partaking of each as far as it is necessary for him; and that he was born at the same time, both mortal and the immortal. Mortal as to his body, but immortal as to his intellect. XLVII. '' None

6. Philo of Alexandria, On Curses, 43-46 (1st cent. BCE - missingth cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • divine essence • divine essence and • divine essence, divine immanence and transcendence related to • gods, essence

Found in books: Frede and Laks (2001), Traditions of Theology: Studies in Hellenistic Theology, its Background and Aftermath, 302; Heo (2023), Images of Torah: From the Second-Temple Period to the Middle Ages. 127, 285, 289

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43 The race of these men is difficult to trace, since they show a life of plotting, and cunning, and wickedness, and dissoluteness, full of passion and wickednesses, as such a life must be. For all those whom God, since they pleased him well, has caused to quit their original abode, and has transformed from the race of perishable beings to that of immortals, are no longer found among the common multitude. XIII. '⁴⁴ Having, therefore, thus distinguished the indications intended to be afforded by the name of Enoch, let us now proceed in regular order to the name of Methuselah; and this name is interpreted, a sending forth of death. Now there are two meanings contained in this word; one, that according to which death is sent to any one, and the other, that according to which it is sent away from any one. He, therefore, to whom it is sent, immediately dies, but he, from whom it is sent, lives and survives. ⁴⁵ Accordingly, he who receives death is akin to Cain, who is dying as to the life in accordance with virtue; but he from whom death is sent away and kept at a distance, is most nearly related to Seth, for the good man enjoys real life. ⁴⁶ And again, the name Lamech, which means humiliation, is a name of ambiguous meaning; for we are humiliated either when the vigour of our soul is relaxed, according to the diseases and infirmities which arise from the irrational passions, or in respect of our love for virtue, when we seek to restrain ourselves from swelling selfopinions. ' None

7. New Testament, 1 Timothy, 4.4 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • creation, essentially good • essence (Aristotelian concept)

Found in books: Blidstein (2017), Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature, 79; Pedersen (2004), Demonstrative Proof in Defence of God: A Study of Titus of Bostra’s Contra Manichaeos. 303

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4.4 ὅτι πᾶν κτίσμα θεοῦ καλόν, καὶ οὐδὲν ἀπόβλητον μετὰ εὐχαριστίας λαμβανόμενον,'' None

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4.4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with thanksgiving. '' None

8. New Testament, Colossians, 1.15-1.18 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • divine essence • essentialism, essence

Found in books: Heo (2023), Images of Torah: From the Second-Temple Period to the Middle Ages. 160; Lieu (2004), Christian Identity in the Jewish and Graeco-Roman World, 22

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1.15 ὅς ἐστιν εἰκὼν τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ἀοράτου, πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως, ^1.16 ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ ἐκτίσθη τὰ πάντα ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, τὰ ὁρατὰ καὶ τὰ ἀόρατα, εἴτε θρόνοι εἴτε κυριότητες εἴτε ἀρχαὶ εἴτε ἐξουσίαι· τὰ πάντα διʼ αὐτοῦ καὶ εἰς αὐτὸν ἔκτισται· ^1.17 καὶ αὐτὸς ἔστιν πρὸ πάντων καὶ τὰ πάντα ἐν αὐτῷ συνέστηκεν, ^1.18 καὶ αὐτός ἐστιν ἡ κεφαλὴ τοῦ σώματος, τῆς ἐκκλησίας· ὅς ἐστιν ἡ ἀρχή, πρωτότοκος ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν, ἵνα γένηται ἐν πᾶσιν αὐτὸς πρωτεύων,'' None

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1.15 who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ^1.16 For by him were all things created, in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and for him. ^1.17 He is before all things, and in him all things are held together. ^1.18 He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. '' None

9. New Testament, John, 1.14 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Psychic Adam/Eve/body, essence • Tetragrammaton, The (Divine Name), divine essence related to • divine essence • divine essence, Tetragrammaton identified with

Found in books: Heo (2023), Images of Torah: From the Second-Temple Period to the Middle Ages. 112, 127, 160; Rasimus (2009), Paradise Reconsidered in Gnostic Mythmaking: Rethinking Sethianism in Light of the Ophite Evidence, 135

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1.14 Καὶ ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο καὶ ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν, καὶ ἐθεασάμεθα τὴν δόξαν αὐτοῦ, δόξαν ὡς μονογενοῦς παρὰ πατρός, πλήρης χάριτος καὶ ἀληθείας·?̔'' None

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1.14 The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. '' None

10. None, None, nan (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • creation, essentially good • eschatology, “essence”

Found in books: Azar (2016), Exegeting the Jews: the early reception of the Johannine "Jews", 183; Blidstein (2017), Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature, 207

11. None, None, nan (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Soul, whether essentially genderless / sexless • energeia, distinguished from essence • essence, distinguished from activity

Found in books: Marmodoro and Prince (2015), Causation and Creation in Late Antiquity, 206; Schultz and Wilberding (2022), Women and the Female in Neoplatonism, 45

Please note: the results are produced through a computerized process which may frequently lead to errors, both in incorrect tagging and in other issues. Please use with caution.
Due to load times, full text fetching is currently attempted for validated results only.
Full texts for Hebrew Bible and rabbinic texts is kindly supplied by Sefaria; for Greek and Latin texts, by Perseus Scaife, for the Quran, by Tanzil.net

For a list of book indices included, see here.

Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database