The mission of the church in Paul's letter to the Philippians in the context of ancient Judaism /
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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.
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1 online resource (xv, 380 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047415831 :
0167-9732 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Liturgical perspectives : prayer and poetry in light of the Dead Sea scrolls : proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium of the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Sc...
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The papers published in this volume were presented at the Fifth Orion International Symposium (Jerusalem, 2000), which focused on prayer and poetry in light of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The volume examines the recently published poetical and liturgical texts from Qumran against the background of Second Temple Judaism, its biblical antecedents, and later rabbinic developments. The essays treat a variety of prayers and religious practices, as well as major issues in the history of Jewish liturgy. Topics range from magic, mysticism and thanksgiving to lamentation, fast day rituals, communal worship, and the relationship between the prayers from Qumran and the traditional Jewish prayers. The application of new Scrolls material to this breadth of topics constitutes an important contribution to the study of religious poetry, religious practice, and liturgy.
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1 online resource (xi, 282 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004350465 :
0169-9962 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Josephus' Contra Apionem : studies in its character and context with a Latin concordance to the portion missing in Greek /
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This volume offers a state-of-the-art collection of papers on one of the most significant works of Flavius Josephus, by many of the leading scholars in current Josephus research. The collection, which includes a concordance by H. Schreckenberg of the Latin section Contra Apionem 2.52-113, forms a standard, indispensable resource for the study of Josephus' writings, of apologetic literature in general, and particularly for the study of Contra Apionem , one of the most significant apologetic treatises in Antiquity.
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1 online resource (x, 517 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004332881 :
0169-734X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Empire, power, and indigenous elites : a case study of the Nehemiah memoir /
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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.
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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 /
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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.
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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.
For out of Babylonia shall come Torah and the word of the Lord from Nehar Peqod : the quest for Babylonian tannaitic traditions /
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In For Out of Babylonia Shall Come Torah and the Word of the Lord from Nehar Peqod , Barak S. Cohen reevaluates the evidence in Tannaitic and Amoraic literature of an independent "Babylonian Mishnah" which originated in the proto-talmudic period. The book focuses on an analysis of the most notable halakhic corpora that have been identified by scholars as originating in the Tannaitic period or at the outset of the amoraic. If indeed such an early corpus did exist, what are its characteristics and what, if any, connection does it have with the parallel Palestinian collections? Was this Babylonian Mishnah created in order to harmonize the Palestinian Mishnah with a corpus of rabbinic teachings already existent in Babylonia? Was this corpus one of the main contributors to the forced interpretations and resolutions found so frequently in the Bavli?
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1 online resource (viii, 295 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004347021 :
1571-5000 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Creation, covenant, and the beginnings of Judaism : reconceiving historical time in the Second Temple period /
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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.
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1 online resource (xii, 216 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 191-208) and index. :
9789004281653 :
1384-2161 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Qumran prayer and religious poetry /
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Qumran Prayer and Religious Poetry represents the first attempt to undertake a systematic, comprehensive study of the liturgical and poetic texts which were discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls from Qumran. The collections of prayers, blessings and hymns indicate that fixed prayers were already customary within Judaism during the period of the Second Temple within sectarian circles. In the light of the prayer texts from Qumran the author conducts a systematic study of Jewish prayer beginning with its biblical traditions, through its development during the Second Temple period, and down to rabbinic prayer. By means of comparative literary analysis, the author is able to elucidate the relationship of the Qumran texts to forms and motifs found in parallel text types from various periods and circles within Judaism. This volume provides the reader with tools for a renewed study of the history of prayer in Judaism in the light of new textual evidence from the Second Temple period.
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1 online resource (xxi, 415 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 371-380) and index. :
9789004350137 :
0169-9962 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Studien zur Geschichte und Theologie des rabbinischen Judentums /
: "Der Sammelband vereinigt neun Aufsätze ... ; fünf dieser Beiträge wurden bereits an anderer Stelle veröffentlicht, vier werden hier zum erstenmal im Druck vorgelegt." : 1 online resource (305 pages) : Includes bibliographical references and index. : 9789004332683 : Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Der betende Sünder vor Gott : Studien zu Vergebungsvorstellungen in urchristlichen und frühjüdischen Texten /
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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.
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1 online resource (xiii, 388 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004332416 :
0169-734X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Abraham unser Vater : Juden und Christen im Gespräch über die Bibel : Festschrift für Otto Michel zum 60. Geburtstag /
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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 /
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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.
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1 online resource (xiv, 211 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-199) and indexes. :
9789004313002 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The concept of time in the Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls /
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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.
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1 online resource (xii, 389 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 375-380) and index. :
9789047401179 :
0169-9962 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Mishnah : religious perspectives /
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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.
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" ... 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.
Ein Bild des Judentums für Nichtjuden von Flavius Josephus : Untersuchungen zu seiner Schrift Contra Apionem /
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Contra Apionem , the last known work by the Jewish author Flavius Josephus (38 - circa 100 CE), is the only direct Jewish apology, that remains from antiquity. It is of special interest to us, because in its third part Josephus undertakes to explain the main ideas and laws of Judaism and its \'theocratic\' constitution to non-Jewish readers. This volume gives an introduction to Contra Apionem as a whole, a German translation, and a precise analysis and interpretation of the work's third part on Judaism, especially its meaning for non-Jewish readers. This study gives the reader access to an aspect of Josephus and to a part of his important work Contra Apionem , which, to date, have not attracted sufficient scholarly attention.
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Based on the author's thesis (doctoral)--Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1996. :
1 online resource (xiv, 456 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 427-444) and indexes. :
9789004332461 :
0169-734X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Jewish identity in early rabbinic writings /
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Jewish Identity in Early Rabbinic Writings is more than a question of legal status: it is the experience of being Jewish or of 'Jewishness' in all its social and cultural dimensions. This work describes this experience as it emerges in Talmudic and Midrashic sources. Besides the question of "who is a Jew?", topics include the contrast between Israel and the non-Jews, the physical embodiment of Jewish identity, the 'boundaries' of Israel and resistance to assimilation. Jewish identity, it is argued, hinges essentially on the Divine commandments ( mitzvot ) and on Israel's perceived proximity with the Divine. Drawing on a variety of disciplines, including the theories of William James and Merleau-Ponty, this study raises important issues in anthropology, as well as accounting for central aspects of early rabbinic Judaism.
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Rev. version of the author's thesis (D. Phil.)--Jews' College. :
1 online resource (xxxix, 269 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 260-266) and index. :
9789004332768 :
0169-734X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
A legacy of learning : essays in honor of Jacob Neusner /
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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.
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1 online resource (xiii, 430 pages) : illustrations (color) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004284289 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Jewish writings of the Second Temple period : Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, Qumran, sectarian writings, Philo, Josephus /
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Series: Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum Section 1 - The Jewish people in the first century Historial geography, political history, social, cultural and religious life and institutions Edited by S. Safrai and M. Stern in cooperation with D. Flusser and W.C. van Unnik Section 2 - The Literature of the Jewish People in the Period of the Second Temple and the Talmud Section 3 - Jewish Traditions in Early Christian Literature
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Includes indexes. :
1 online resource (xxiii, 697 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 603-653). :
9789004275119 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.