Abraham unser Vater : Juden und Christen im Gespräch über die Bibel : Festschrift für Otto Michel zum 60. Geburtstag /
:
1 online resource (vi, 503 pages) : illustrations, portrait. :
"Bibliographie der Schriften Otto Michels / zusammengestellt von Peter Schmidt"-Pages 484-497.
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004332560 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Seek to see him : ascent and vision mysticism in the Gospel of Thomas /
:
This monograph represents a critical juncture in Thomas studies since it dispels the belief that the Gospel of Thomas originates from gnostic traditions. Rather, Jewish mystical and Hermetic origins are proposed and examined. Following this analysis, the anthropogony and soteriology of Thomas are discussed. The Thomasites taught that they were the elect children of the Father, originating from the Light. The human, however, became unworthy of these luminous beginnings and was separated from the divine when Adam sinned. Now he must purify himself by leading an encratite lifestyle. He is to ascend into heaven, seeking a visio dei which will transform him into his original immortal state and grant him citizenship in the Kingdom.
:
1 online resource (xiv, 211 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-199) and indexes. :
9789004313002 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Creation, covenant, and the beginnings of Judaism : reconceiving historical time in the Second Temple period /
:
This study examines the relationship between time and history in Second Temple literature. Numerous sources from that period express a belief that Jewish history began with an act of covenant formation and proceeded in linear fashion until the exile, an unprecedented event which severed the present from the past. The authors of Ben Sira, Jubilees , the Animal Apocalypse , and 4 Ezra responded to this theological challenge by claiming instead that Jewish history began at creation. Between creation and redemption, history unfolds as a series of static, repeating patterns that simultaneously account for the disappointments of the Second Temple period and confirm the eternal nature of the covenant. As iterations of timeless, cyclical patterns, the difficult post-exilic present and the glorious redemption of the future emerge as familiar, unremarkable, and inevitable historical developments.
:
1 online resource (xii, 216 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 191-208) and index. :
9789004281653 :
1384-2161 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The concept of time in the Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls /
:
The book is concerned with the concept of time in the Bible and in later literature, primarily that of the Judaean Desert sect. By the term "concept of time" the author refers to the entire complex of issues relating to time, as follows from our involvement in the writings of the corpus. The work discusses issues of terminology, substance and ideology that arise from the totality of texts dealing with the subject of time. The conjoining of the eight groups of chapters of the book provides a comprehensive picture of the approach to time in ancient Hebrew literature, beginning with the Bible and concluding with the first century CE, the latest possible time frame for the Scrolls.
:
1 online resource (xii, 389 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 375-380) and index. :
9789047401179 :
0169-9962 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Der betende Sünder vor Gott : Studien zu Vergebungsvorstellungen in urchristlichen und frühjüdischen Texten /
:
This volume provides important new insights into the concept of \'forgiveness\' in early Christian literature. In contrast to much of the existing literature on the notion of forgiveness, which usually focuses on the preconditions for being forgiven, the author sets out to describe the actual meanings and connotations of this concept during the period in which the New Testament was being formed. In early Christian texts the notion of forgiveness is expressed in a variety of ways. On the basis of detailed analysis of a number of early Christian and contemporary Jewish prayers the author uncovers an array of different shades of meaning, which often can be obscured in modern translations. In so doing he demonstrates the importance of this complex of meanings for early Christians, not only as part of their soteriology, but in their overall theological outlook as well.
:
1 online resource (xiii, 388 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004332416 :
0169-734X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
A legacy of learning : essays in honor of Jacob Neusner /
:
In a career spanning over fifty years, the questions Jacob Neusner has asked and the critical methodologies he has developed have shaped the way scholars have come to approach the rabbinic literature as well as the diverse manifestations of Judaism from rabbinic times until the present. The essays collected here honor that legacy, illustrating an influence that is so pervasive that scholars today who engage in the critical study of Judaism and the history of religions more generally work in a laboratory that Professor Neusner created. Addressing topics in ancient and Rabbinic Judaism, the Judaic context of early Christianity, American Judaism, World Religions, and the academic study of the humanities, these essays demarcate the current state of Judaic and religious studies in the academy today.
:
1 online resource (xiii, 430 pages) : illustrations (color) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004284289 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The mission of the church in Paul's letter to the Philippians in the context of ancient Judaism /
:
Paul seemingly nowhere in his letters commands his congregations to preach the gospel. Therefore many scholars have concluded that Paul's thinking had little or no place for a mission of the church. This study undertakes a fresh investigation of the question by devoting close attention to a text hitherto overlooked in discussion of early Christian mission, Paul's letter to the Philippians. The Jewish context of Paul's thought in Philippians is the key to unlocking his understanding of church and mission in the letter. The study accordingly begins in Part One with an investigation of conversion of gentiles in ancient Judaism. Part Two, drawing upon this Jewish context, focuses on close exegesis of Philippians, revealing the crucial place of the mission of the church in Paul's thought. The questions addressed by this study go to the heart of our understanding of Paul and of mission in earliest Christianity.
:
1 online resource (xv, 380 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047415831 :
0167-9732 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Empire, power, and indigenous elites : a case study of the Nehemiah memoir /
:
Ancient Near Eastern empires, including Assyria, Babylon and Persia, frequently permitted local rulers to remain in power. The roles of the indigenous elites reflected in the Nehemiah Memoir can be compared to those encountered elsewhere. Nehemiah was an imperial appointee, likely of a military/administrative background, whose mission was to establish a birta in Jerusalem, thereby limiting the power of local elites. As a loyal servant of Persia, Nehemiah brought to his mission a certain amount of ethnic/cultic colouring seen in certain aspects of his activities in Jerusalem, in particular in his use of Mosaic authority (but not of specific Mosaic laws). Nehemiah appealed to ancient Jerusalemite traditions in order to eliminate opposition to him from powerful local elite networks.
:
1 online resource (xii, 327 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 285-314) and indexes. :
9789004292222 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Nazirites in late Second Temple Judaism : a survey of ancient Jewish writings, the New Testament, archaeological evidence, and other writings from late antiquity /
:
Nazirites appear in a number of sources relevant to Judaism of the late Second Temple period. This book surveys the pertinent evidence and assesses what it reveals regarding the role of the Nazirite within Judaism of the late Second Temple and early Christian era. The survey is arranged according to three primary sections: "Direct Evidence for Nazirites"; "Possible and Tangential Evidence for Nazirites"; and a final section, "Making Sense of the Evidence." It concludes by arguing that the role of the Nazirite portrayed in sources was that of a religious devotee, and concomitant with biblical law, Nazirite devotion typically involved flexibility, personal freedom of expression, and adaptation to outside cultural norms. Those interested in the Nazirite vow as portrayed in the New Testament and other relevant sources will find this study useful, as will those interested in Bible translation and interpretation in late Second Temple and early rabbinic literature.
:
Revision of the author's thesis (doctoral)--University of Oxford, 2002. :
1 online resource (x, 196 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047407874 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Mishnah : social perspectives /
:
The Mishnah - the second-century law code that lays the foundation, after Scripture, of normative Judaism - encompasses all subjects that pertain to the life of the Jewish nation and as such provides a systematic basis for Israel's social order and world view. Any social program has its own politics, economics, and philosophy which together define a given social entity rather than any other. And any system defining the structure of a society strives to establish a set of harmonised and coherent fundamental principles, viewpoints and attitudes in treating the components of its theory of the community. It has been long shown that the Mishnah is such a well-composed theory of world-construction. It is demonstrated here how its specific message concerning the politics and economics that define the social order recapitulate those of Aristotle. This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details.
:
" ... reprise of established research ..."--Preface. :
1 online resource (xviii, 267 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004294127 :
0169-9423 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Mishnah : religious perspectives /
:
Condensing research concerning questions of religion which encompass the social history of ideas and the religious uses of language, this book deals with three questions: the relationship of the Mishnah to Scripture, the relationship of the religious ideas people hold to the world in which they live, and the religious meaning of the formalization of language that characterizes the Mishnah in particular. In discussing how the Mishnah relates to Scripture - in the (later) mythic language of Rabbinic Judaism: \'the oral Torah\' to \'the written Torah\' - a complete analysis is presented, based on a systematic application of a single taxonomic program. Then an examination is made of how the stages in the unfolding of the Halakhah of the Mishnah relate to the principal events of the times, which delineate those stages. Here focus is given to those pre-70 C.E. components of the Halakhah that later come to the surface in the Mishnah, but discussion extends to the periods from the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E. to the Bar Kokhba War, concluded in circa 135 C.E., then from the reconstruction, 135 C.E., to the closure of the Mishnah, 200 C.E. Finally attention is given to methods of interpreting the rhetorical forms of the Mishnah in the context of the social culture laid bare by the socio-linguistics of the documents concerned. This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details.
:
" ... this book completes the condensation and recapitulation of large-scale research of mine"--Preface. :
1 online resource (xii, 249 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004294110 :
0169-9423 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.