Jewish cultural encounters in the ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern world /
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The essays in this volume originate from the Third Qumran Institute Symposium held at the University of Groningen, December 2013. Taking the flexible concept of "cultural encounter" as a starting point, the essays in this volume bring together a panoply of approaches to the study of various cultural interactions between the people of ancient Israel, Judea, and Palestine and people from other parts of the ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern world. In order to study how cultural encounters shaped historical development, literary traditions, religious practice and political systems, the contributors employ a broad spectrum of theoretical positions (e.g., hybridity, métissage, frontier studies, postcolonialism, entangled histories and multilingualism), to interpret a diverse set of literary, documentary, archaeological, epigraphic, numismatic, and iconographic sources.
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1 online resource. :
9789004336919 :
1384-2161 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
In the shadow of Bezalel : Aramaic, biblical, and ancient Near Eastern studies in honor of Bezalel Porten /
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Twenty nine scholars from Israel, Europe and the Americas came together to honor and celebrate Prof. Bezalel Porten's (Emeritus, Dept. of History of the Jewish People, Hebrew University of Jerusalem) academic career. Covering a wide variety of topics within Aramaic, Biblical, and ancient Near Eastern Studies, In the Shadow of Bezalel offers new insights and proposals in the areas of Aramaic language, paleography, onomastica and lexicography; ancient Near Eastern legal traditions, Hebrew Bible, and social history of the Persian period.
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1 online resource (l, 429 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004240841 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Studies in the cult of Yahweh.
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These two volumes collect some of the most influential and important scholarly essays by the late Morton Smith (1915-1991), for many years Professor of Ancient History at Columbia University in New York City. Smith was admired and feared for his extraordinary ability to look at familiar texts in unfamiliar ways, to re-open old questions, to pose new questions, and to demolish received truths. He practiced the \'hermeneutics of suspicion\' to devastating effect. His answers are not always convincing but his questions cannot be ignored. The essays of Volume I center on the Hebrew Bible (\'Old Testament\'), Ancient Israel and Ancient Judaism, of Volume II on the Christian Bible (\'New Testament\'), Early Christianity and Ancient Magic. Volume II also contains an assessment of Smith's scholarly achievement and a complete list of his publications.
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1 online resource (viii, 334 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004295872 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Authoritative scriptures in ancient Judaism /
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Many scholars of the Second Temple period have replaced the concept of canonization by that of canonical process. Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls has been crucial for this new direction. Based on this new evidence taxonomic terms like biblical, nonbiblical or parabiblical seem anachronistic for the period before 70 C.E. The notion of authoritative Scriptures plays an important part in the new paradigm of canonical process, but it has not yet been sufficiently reflected upon and is in need of clarification. Why were some texts more authoritative than others? For whom and in what contexts were texts authoritative? And what are our criteria to determine to what extent a text was authoritative? In short, what do we mean by "authoritative"? This volume focuses on specific texts or corpora of texts, and approaches the notion of authoritative Scriptures from sociological, cultural and literary perspectives.
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"This volume is a collection of contributions that reflect on the issue of the authoritativeness of Scriptures in Second Temple period Judaism. They result from a conference that the Qumran Institute organized on 28-29 April 2008"--Preface. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004190740 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Sources and interpretation in ancient Judaism : studies for Tal Ilan at sixty /
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Sources and Interpretation in Ancient Judaism: Studies for Tal Ilan at Sixty , a collection of studies by 14 scholars, is designed to honor an outstanding scholar in the field of Ancient Judaism, Tal Ilan. These studies reflect realms within the broad field of Ancient Judaism that are central to Ilan's scholarship: Second Temple literary sources and history, Gender, Jewish papyrology and rabbinic literature. The studies within this volume are of an interdisciplinary nature, offering new readings and interpretations of known sources such as Josephus and rabbinic texts, but also introducing the reader to an entirely new body of sources, namely Jewish papyri. The volume therefore aims to introduce specialists and non-specialists to new fields of research
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004366985 :
1871-6636 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Aux origines des messianismes juifs : actes du colloque international tenu en Sorbonne, à Paris, les 8 et 9 juin 2010 /
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Les termes « messie » et « messianisme » recouvrent aujourd'hui une désignation exagérément large au regard de leur sens initial dans le judaïsme et le christianisme. Ils sont utilisés dans des contextes qui empruntent souvent inconsciemment aux modèles rhétoriques à l'oeuvre dans le judaïsme ancien et dans le christianisme primitif. Le livre s'intéresse à ces modèles qui caractérisent l'histoire intellectuelle du premier messianisme juif. Tout d'abord, l'émergence du messianisme est examinée à travers les modèles de divinisation du roi dans le Proche-Orient ancien (Égypte, Mésopotamie, culture cananéenne), et à travers l'évolution de l'idéologie royale dans l'Israël ancien. D'autre part, les premiers textes chrétiens ont mis en avant la fusion des attentes messianiques en une seule figure de messie (Jésus-Christ), mais la pluralité des figures messianiques semble prévaloir dans la littérature juive ancienne. ____________________________________ The words 'messiah' and 'messianism' are presently used in a too wide significance in comparison with their original meaning in Judaism and Christianity. Nevertheless, they often borrow unconsciously from rhetorical models at work in Ancient Judaism and Christianity. The book constitutes a series of studies on these models which characterize the intellectual history of the first Jewish messianism. Firstly, the birth of messianism is studied across the divinization of kings in Ancient Near East (Egypt, Mesopotamia, Canaanite culture) and secondly, the change of royal ideology in Ancient Israel to messianism. Thirdly, the first Christian texts have promoted the merging of messianic expectations in one messianic figure (Jesus-Christ), but the plurality of messiahs seem to prevail in early Jewish literature.
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1 online resource (xi, 240 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004251670 :
0083-5889 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Heavenly tablets : interpretation, identity and tradition in ancient Judaism /
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This volume brings together a wide range of international scholars of Ancient Judaism, in celebration of the career of Betsy Halpern-Amaru. The essays in the first section, Interpreting Ritual Texts, examine Jewish ritual praxis in late antiquity, highlighting the ways in which text and ritual intersect in the process of interpretation. Mapping Diaspora Identities asks how Diaspora communities came to understand the Bible's preoccupation with land, and how land was used to figure ancient authors' depictions of "center" and "margin" in drawing the boundaries of Jewish communities, and of Jewish identity. Finally, Rewriting Tradition explores rewriting of biblical stories in Hellenistic and later Jewish sources, and the ways that authors work through the tradition to reflect their current realities and their hopes for the future.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [285]-305) and indexes. :
9789047420996 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Legal fiction s studies of law and narrative in the discursive worlds of ancient Jewish sectarians and sages /
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Ancient Jewish writings combine interpretive narratives of Israel's sacred history with legal prescriptions for a divinely ordered way of life. Two ancient Jewish societies have left us extensive textual corpora preserving interpenetrating legal and narrative interpretive teachings: the sectarian community of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the sage-disciple circles of the early Rabbis. This book comprises studies that explore specific aspects of the interplay of interpretative, narrative, and legal rhetoric with an eye to pedagogic function and social formation for each of these communities and for both of them in comparison. It addresses questions of how best to approach these writings for purposes of historical retrieval and reconstruction by recognizing the inseparability of literary-rhetorical textual analysis and a non-reductive historiography.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004201842 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Judaism in late antiquity.
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What, in Judaism - a religion so concerned with social norms and public policy - can we possibly mean by "law"? That is the thoroughly fresh perspective with which this work commences. It proceeds with two chapters on Second Temple Judaism, and two on the special subject of the Dead Sea library. Learning withers when criticism is substituted by political consensus, and when other than broadly accepted viewpoints find a hearing only with difficulty, if at all. The editors, therefore, invited colleagues from the USA, Europe, and Israel to systematically outline their views in one account and set it alongside contrary ones. The several participants explain how, in broad and sweeping terms, they see the state of learning in their areas of special interest. The volume provides first an overview, followed by a systematic, critical account of the fading consensus. In a number of accounts, the different perspectives are presented in scholarly debate. Because of the willingness of contending parties to meet one another in a single frame of discourse, the work is able to portray with considerable breadth the presently contending viewpoints concerning the use of Rabbinical literature for historical purposes. Besides this sustained and vigorous debate, precipitated by historical-critical reading of the rabbinical literature, other issues have attracted attention, such as, for example, feminist interests.
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Pt. 3, volume 4 edited by Alan J. Avery-Peck and Jacob Neusner.
Pt. 5, volume 1-2 edited by Alan J. Avery-Peck, Jacob Neusner and Bruce D. Chilton. :
1 online resource (xii, 196 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004294172 :
0169-9423 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Judaism in late antiquity.
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This collection of systematic Auseinandersetzungen articulates difference and spells out what is at issue. Learning atrophies when political consensus substitutes for criticism, and when other than broadly-accepted viewpoints, approaches, and readings find a hearing only with difficulty, if at all. The editors therefore have invited colleagues systematically to outline their views in an Auseinandersetzung with contrary ones. The several participants explain how, in broad and sweeping terms, they see the state of learning in their areas of special interest. The editors invited leading players in the USA, Europe, and the State of Israel, in the study of ancient Judaism, both in Second Temple Times and after 70 C.E. The work commences with a thoroughly fresh perspective of a theoretical question: what, in a religion so concerned with social norms and public policy, can we possibly mean by \'law\' when we speak of law in Judaism. It then proceeds with two chapters on Second Temple Judaism, and two on the special subject of the Dead Sea library. The two papers in the present part provide an overview of matters and a systematic, critical account of the fading consensus, respectively. The next set of papers ought to stand as the definitive account of the diverse viewpoints on a basic question of method. Because of the willingness of contending parties to meet one another in a single frame of discourse, the work is able to portray with considerable breadth the presently-contending viewpoints concerning the use of Rabbinic literature for historical purposes. Then proceed a number of other accounts of how matters look from the perspective of major participants in scholarly debate. At the same time as the requirements of historical-critical reading of the Rabbinic literature precipitated sustained and vigorous debate, other problems have attracted attention. Among these a critical issue emerges in the hermeneutics to govern the reading of the documents for the purposes of other-than-historical study, feminist interests, for example.
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Pt. 3, volume 4 edited by Alan J. Avery-Peck and Jacob Neusner.
Pt. 5, volume 1-2 edited by Alan J. Avery-Peck, Jacob Neusner and Bruce D. Chilton. :
1 online resource (xiv, 250 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004294059 :
0169-9423 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Judaism in late antiquity.
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What, in Judaism - a religion so concerned with social norms and public policy - can we possibly mean by \'law\'? That is the thoroughly fresh perspective with which this work commences. It proceeds with two chapters on Second Temple Judaism, and two on the special subject of the Dead Sea library. Learning withers when criticism is substituted by political consensus, and when other than broadly accepted viewpoints find a hearing only with difficulty, if at all. The editors, therefore, invited colleagues from the USA, Europe, and the State of Israel to systematically outline their views in one account and set it alongside contrary ones. The several participants explain how, in broad and sweeping terms, they see the state of learning in their areas of special interest. The volume provides first an overview, followed by a systematic, critical account of the fading consensus. In a number of accounts, the different perspectives are presented in scholarly debate. *** Because of the willingness of contending parties to meet one another in a single frame of discourse, the work is able to portray with considerable breadth the presently contending viewpoints concerning the use of Rabbinical literature for historical purposes. *** Besides this sustained and vigorous debate, precipitated by historical-critical reading of the rabbinical literature, other issues have attracted attention, such as, for example, feminist interests.
:
Pt. 3, volume 4 edited by Alan J. Avery-Peck and Jacob Neusner.
Pt. 5, volume 1-2 edited by Alan J. Avery-Peck, Jacob Neusner and Bruce D. Chilton. :
1 online resource (xii, 180 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004294165 :
0169-9423 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Jewish love magic : from late antiquity to the Middle Ages /
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Jewish Love Magic: From Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages is the first monograph dedicated to the supernatural methods employed by Jews in order to generate love, grace or hate. Examining hundreds of manuscripts, often unpublished, Ortal-Paz Saar skillfully illuminates a major aspect of the Jewish magical tradition. The book explores rituals, spells and important motifs of Jewish love magic, repeatedly comparing them to the Graeco-Roman and Christian traditions. In addition to recipes and amulets in Hebrew, Aramaic and Judaeo-Arabic, primarily originating in the Cairo Genizah, also rabbinic sources and responsa are analysed, resulting in a comprehensive and fascinating picture.
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Based on the author's thesis (doctoral) -- Universiṭat Tel-Aviv, 2009. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004347892 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Between evidence and ideolog y essays on the history of ancient Israel read at the joint meeting...
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The historiography of Ancient Israel is much debated. The various approaches are never void of ideology and some reckon more with the available evidence than others. This volume consists of a set of case-studies that reveal the difficulties that arise when trying to write a history as honestly as possible. This implies that both the archaeology of Ancient Palestine - the finds and their interrogation - as well as the Philosophy of History - their models and their implications - are discussed. The outcome is a variety of approaches that inform the reader of current views on the history of Ancient Israel.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004203228 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Manières de penser dans l'antiquité mediterranéenne et orientale : mélanges offerts à Francis Schmidt par ses élèves, ses collègues et ses amis /
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Francis Schmidt's works in various fields of religious studies (mainly ancient Judaism), can be characterized by three words: historiography, anthropological history, and comparatism. In that respect he placed himself in the continuation of previous French scholars, such as Maurice Halbwachs or Pierre Vidal-Naquet. Francis Schmidt also played an essential role in transmitting to a new generation of scholars the complex issues and debates concerning the Dead Sea scrolls and Qumranic research. The papers offered in this volume share all the same interest in ancient religions and the methodological devices previously mentioned. They offer a rare example of a large comparatism between Assyrian, Greek, Roman, Jewish, and Christian approaches of some essential social or intellectual issues, by some of the most competent specialists in each field.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047428633 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Judaism in late antiquity.
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Thirteen foremost scholars describe the views of death, life after death, resurrection, and the world-to-come set forth in the literary evidence for late antique Judaism. The volume covers the vie w of Scripture as a whole as against other Israelite writings; distinct parts of Scripture such as Psalms and the Wisdom literature; apocalyptic and the non-apocalyptic pseudepigraphic literature, Philo; Josephus; the Dead Sea Scrolls; earliest Christianity (the Gospels in particular); the Rabbinic sources; the Palestinian Targums to the Pentateuch; and, out of material culture, the inscriptional evidence. The result is both to highlight the range of available perspectives on this important issue and to illuminate a central problem in the study of Judaism in late antiquity, phrased neatly as "One Judaism or many?" Here we place on display indicative components of Judaism in their full diversity, leaving it for readers to determine whether the notion of a single, coherent religion falls under the weight of a mass of documentary contradictions or whether an inner harmony shines forth from a repertoire of largely shared and only superficially-diverse data.
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Pt. 3, volume 4 edited by Alan J. Avery-Peck and Jacob Neusner.
Pt. 5, volume 1-2 edited by Alan J. Avery-Peck, Jacob Neusner and Bruce D. Chilton. :
1 online resource (xii, 346 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004294141 :
0169-9423 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Pentateuchal traditions in the late Second Temple period : proceedings of the international workshop in Tokyo, August 28-31, 2007 /
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The main theme of the collected essays is expressed clearly in the following statement by Eugene Ulrich in the beginning of his article: What was the state of the Pentateuch during the Second Temple period? Was it basically complete and static at the time of Ezra, or was it still developing in substantial ways? To pursue this main theme, the International Workshop on the Study of the Pentateuch with special emphasis on textual transmission history in the Hellenistic and Roman period was held on August 28-31, 2007 in Tokyo. Fifteen papers were read and discussed enthusiastically in the workshop, and they were later revised based on the discussion for this volume. Those who are interested in the Dead Sea Scrolls will find the recent scholarly trend in this volume.
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1 online resource (xv, 299 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004223608 :
1384-2161 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Judaism and Hellenism reconsidered /
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This book is a collection of 26 previously published articles, with a number of additions and corrections, and with a long new introduction on "The Influence of Hellenism on Jews in Palestine in the Hellenistic Period." The articles deal with such subjects as "Homer and the Near East," "The Septuagint," "Hatred and Attraction to the Jews in Classical Antiquity," "Conversion to Judaism in Classical Antiquity," "Philo, Pseudo-Philo, Josephus, and Theodotus on the Rape of Dinah," "The Influence of the Greek Tragedians on Josephus," "Josephus' Biblical Paraphrase as a Commentary on Contemporary Issues," "Parallel Lives of Two Lawgivers: Josephus' Moses and Plutarch's Lycurgus," "Rabbinic Insights on the Decline and Forthcoming Fall of the Roman Empire."
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [813]-843) and indexes. :
9789047408734 :
1384-2161 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.