Prof. JoAnn Scurlock is Professor (Emerita) of History at Elmhurst College. She holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations of the University of Chicago. She is the author of Diagnoses in Assyrian and Babylonian Medicine (University of Illinois, 2005), Magico-Medical Means of Treating Ghost Induced Illnesses in Ancient Mesopotamia (Brill, 2006), and Sourcebook for Ancient Mesopotamian Medicine (SBL, 2014), and co-editor of In the Wake of Tikva Frymer Kensky (Gorgias 2009) and Creation and Chaos: Reconsideration of Hermann Gunkel's Chaos Kampf Hypothesis (Eisenbrauns, 2013).
Last Updated
April 23, 2026
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Ten lavers, mounted on wheels, and decorated with images of lions, bulls, and cherubs, stood on either side of the bronze sea in the Jerusalem Temple’s courtyard. Are these the “chariots of the sun” (2 Kings 23:11) that Josiah’s reform purges from the Temple?
Ten lavers, mounted on wheels, and decorated with images of lions, bulls, and cherubs, stood on either side of the bronze sea in the Jerusalem Temple’s courtyard. Are these the “chariots of the sun” (2 Kings 23:11) that Josiah’s reform purges from the Temple?
In the courtyard of the First Temple, in addition to ten lavers, stood a massive bronze basin of water, supported by twelve bronze bulls. What was its function?
In the courtyard of the First Temple, in addition to ten lavers, stood a massive bronze basin of water, supported by twelve bronze bulls. What was its function?
