The serpent kills or the serpent gives life the kabbalist Abraham Abulafia's response to Christianity /
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Abraham Abulafia (1240 - c. 1291) founded an enormously influential branch of Jewish mysticism, referred to as the prophetic or ecstatic kabbalah. This book, from several perspectives, explores the impact of Christianity upon Abulafia. His copious writings evince an intense fascination with Christian themes, yet Abulafia's frequent diatribes against Jesus and Christianity reveal him to be deeply conflicted in his relationship to his southern European religious neighbors. This book undertakes a careful study of Abulafia's writings, suggesting that the recognition of an inner dynamic of attraction and revulsion toward the forbidden other provides a crucial key to understanding Abulafia's mystical hermeneutic and his meditative practice. It also demonstrates that Abulafia's uneasy relationship to Christianity shaped the very core of his mystical doctrine.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004194472 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Purity and the forming of religious traditions in the ancient Mediterranean world and ancient Judaism /
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Purity is a cultural construct that had a central role in the forming and the development of religious traditions in the ancient Mediterranean. This volume analyzes concepts, practices and images associated with purity in the main cultures of Antiquity, and discusses from a comparative perspective their parallel developments and transformations. The perspective adopted is both synchronic and diachronic; the comparative approach takes into account points of contact and mutual influences, but also includes major transcultural trends. A number of renowned specialists contribute a large variety of perspectives and approaches, combining archaeology, epigraphy and social history; in addition, particular attention is given to concepts of purity in ancient Israel and early Judaism as a 'test-case' of sorts. Through its extensive coverage, the volume contributes decisively to the present discussion about the forming of religious traditions in the ancient Mediterranean world.
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1 online resource (601 pages) : illustrations, mappages. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004232297 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Ancient Readers and their Scriptures, Engaging the Hebrew Bible in Early Judaism and Christianity.
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explores the various ways that ancient Jewish and Christian writers engaged with and interpreted the Hebrew Bible in antiquity, focusing on physical mechanics of rewriting and reuse, modes of allusion and quotation, texts and text forms, text collecting, and the development of interpretative traditions. Contributions examine the use of the Hebrew Bible and its early versions in a variety of ancient corpora, including the Septuagint, Dead Sea Scrolls, New Testament, and Rabbinic works, analysing the vast array of textual permutations that define ancient engagement with Jewish scripture. This volume argues that the processes of reading and cognition, influenced by the physical and intellectual contexts of interpretation, are central aspects of ancient biblical interpretation that are underappreciated in current scholarship.
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1 online resource. :
9789004383371
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.
From Judaism to Christianity : tradition and transition : a festschrift for Thomas H. Tobin, S.J., on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday /
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As a far reaching tribute to the distinguished career of Thomas H. Tobin, S.J., a team of outstanding biblical scholars has joined to offer essays on the religious milieu of the ancient Mediterranean region. Challenged by Hellenistic and Greco-Roman cultural and political domination, the religious struggles of Jewish and, later, Christian communities sought to maintain tradition as well as mitigate transition. Jewish responses to a Hellenistic world are revealed anew in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the works of Artapanus and Philo. Also, Christian views on the transitory world of the early centuries of the Common Era are brought to light in the New Testament literature, apocryphal texts, and Patristic writings. Professors and students alike will benefit from the depth and breadth of this fresh scholarship.
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Includes a biographical note on Thomas H. Tobin and a bibliography of his works (p. [xvii]-xxxii). :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [289]-311) and indexes. :
9789004214859 :
0167-9732 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Myths, martyrs, and modernity : studies in the history of religions in honour of Jan N. Bremmer /
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This volume in honour of Jan N. Bremmer contains the contributions of numerous students, colleagues, and friends offered to him on the occasion of his 65th birthday. Throughout his career, Bremmer has distinguished himself as an internationally renowned scholar of religion both past and present, including first and foremost Greek and Roman religion, but also early Christianity and post-classical developments in religion and spirituality. In line with these three main areas of Bremmer's research, the volume is divided into three parts, bringing together contributions from distinguished scholars in many fields. The result is a diverse book which provides a broad spectrum of original ideas and innovative approaches in the history of religions, thus reflecting the nature of the scholarship of Bremmer himself.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004193659 :
0169-8834 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Studies in rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity : text and context /
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The question of the origins of Christianity is a theme still discussed in historical research. This book investigates the relations between the Rabbinic Judaism and the Primitive Christianity. It studies the factors of influences, the polemics in the texts and factors of mutual conceptions between two new movements: Rabbinical Judaism and Primitive Christianity. Finally it offers an analysis of the perception of Christianity in the corpus of talmudic literature. La question des origines du christianisme est un thème encore débattu par la recherche historique. Cet ouvrage choisi d'explorer les relations entre le judaïsme rabbinique et le christianisme primitif. Il étudie les facteurs d'influences, les polémiques dont témoignent les textes et les emprunts réciproques entre les deux mouvements naissant : le judaïsme rabbinique et le christiansime primitif. Il propose également une analyse sur la perception du christianisme à l'oeuvre dans la littérature talmudique.
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"This volume emerged from the symposium held at Paris in March 2007 on the theme 'Rome, Athens or Jerusalem. Where does Christianity come from?' under the auspices of the Alliance Israelite Universelle" -- Introd. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004190627 :
1871-6636 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Messias Puer: Christian Knorr von Rosenroth's Lost Exegesis of Kabbalistic Christianity : Editio princeps plena with Translation and Introduction /
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Previously considered irretrievably lost, the discovery of the only manuscript of the Messias Puer composed by Knorr von Rosenroth, the leading exponent of Christian Kabbalah in the seventeenth century, gives us an important insight into the evolution of his thought and specific vision of the relations between Jews and Christians. Moreover, the subtle intertwining of both Kabbalah and the emerging biblical criticism at work in this partial commentary on the New Testament Gospels sheds new light on the largely unexplored role of Esotericism during the Modern Era in the construction of the future study of religion. This book includes a critical edition of the original manuscript and an annotated translation.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004443426
9789004426481
Forced conversion in Christianity, Judaism and Islam : coercion and faith in premodern Iberia and beyond /
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Focusing on the Iberian Peninsula but examining related European and Mediterranean contexts as well, Forced Conversion in Christianity, Judaism and Islam traces how Christians, Jews, and Muslims grappled with the contradictory phenomenon of faith brought about by constraint and compulsion. Forced conversion brought into sharp relief the tensions among the accepted notion of faith as a voluntary act, the desire to maintain "pure" communities, and the universal truth claims of radical monotheism. Offering a comparative view of an important yet insufficiently studied phenomenon in the history of religions, this collection of essays explores the ways in which religion and violence reshaped these three religions and the ways we understand them today.
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Includes index. :
1 online resource. :
9789004416826
Spirituality in the writings of Etty Hillesum : proceedings of the Etty Hillesum Conference at Ghent University, November 2008 /
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Much of the previous scholarship on Etty Hillesum (1914-1943) was done by individual scholars within the analyses of their fields. After the proceedings of the international Etty Hillesum Congress at Ghent University in November 2008, this Congress volume is the first joined effort by more than twenty Hillesum experts worldwide. It is an absorbing account of international scholarship on the life, works, and vision of the Dutch Jewish writer Etty Hillesum, whose life was shaped by the totalitarian Nazi regime. Hillesum's diaries and letters illustrate her heroic struggle to come to terms with her personal life in the context of World War II. Building on new interest in theology, philosophy, and psychology, this book revives Hillesum research with a comprehensive rereading of both her published works and lesser-known secondary discourses on her life. The result is fascinating. With the current explosion of interest in inter-religious dialogue, peace studies, Judaism, the holocaust, gender studies, and mysticism, it is clear that this Congress volume will be invaluable to students and scholars in various disciplines.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004188594 :
1873-9008 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Cave 3 Copper Scroll: A Symbolic Journey /
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In The Cave 3 Copper Scroll: A Symbolic Journey , Jesper Høgenhavn presents a reading of the Copper Scroll as a literary text. For more than 60 years, scholars have debated whether or not the treasures recorded here reflect historical realities. This study argues that the dichotomy between "facts" and "fiction" is inadequate for a proper understanding of the Copper Scroll. The document was designed to convey specific images to its readers, thus staying true to the format of an instruction for retrieving hidden treasures. Yet, the evoked landscape is dense with symbolical associations, and the journey through it reflects deliberate narrative patterns. The scroll was written against the background of the social and political turmoil of Jewish Palestine in the 1st century CE, and reflects contemporary concerns and interests.
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1 online resource. :
9789004429581
9789004428553
The spirit in first century Judaism /
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Conceptions of the divine spirit underwent complex metamorphoses in Jewish biblical interpretation during the Greco-Roman era. This monograph explores those permutations in the writings of Philo Judaeus, Josephus, and Pseudo-Philo ( Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum ). The first section, 'An Anomalous Prophet', unfolds surprisingly divergent transformations of the inspiration of Balaam. The second section, 'An Eclectic Era', unearths both faint and conspicuous traces of Greco-Roman conceptions in early Jewish interpretations. The third section, 'An Extraordinary Mind', undermines the view that the spirit was associated primarily with ecstasy rather than with intellectual insight. By analyzing these interpretations in light of other contemporary Greco-Roman and Jewish writings, this volume offers original and essential data for further study of inspiration in Antiquity, including early Judaism, early Christianity, and the Greco-Roman world. This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details.
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1 online resource (xiv, 302 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 276-279) and indexes. :
9789004332829 :
0169-734X ; :
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, 292 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004301443 :
0927-7633 ; :
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.
Rabbinisme et paganisme en Palestine romaine : étude historique des Realia talmudiques (Ier-IVème siècles) /
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This study deals essentially with the knowledge of the Palestinian Rabbis concerning paganism in the days of Mishna and Talmud. The Late Professor Saul Lieberman wrote that "Many isolated items on idolatry and idol worshippers are scattered all over rabbinic literature. It would require a large volume to treat this topic". This valuable and exhaustive study proves methodically that the Rabbis had deeper knowledge about Syrian, Arabian, Anatolian and Graeco-Roman Pagan cults than is commonly believed. Clear, accessible and displaying considerable scholarship this work will undoubtedly provide an important challenge to both historians, archaeologists, and scholars of Rabbinic texts. *** Cette étude traite essentiellement du niveau de connaissances des Rabbins de Judée et de Galilée concernant les cultes païens dans le sens le plus large du terme. Le Professeur Saul Lieberman affirmait : "Many isolated items on idolatry and idol worshippers are scattered all over rabbinic literature. It would require a large volume to treat this topic" Ce travail exhaustif, à travers l'ensemble du corpus talmudique et au regard de la réalité historique propre à la Palestine romaine, montre méthodiquement que les connaissances des Sages, tant sur les divinités du paganisme que sur des rites syriens, arabes, anatoliens voire gréco-romains, étaient bien plus vastes et approfondies, que ce qu'il est communément admis aujourd'hui par la recherche historique. De part sa clareté et son accessibilité, ce livre intéressera aussi bien les historiens du peuple juif, que ceux des religions antiques. Les archéologues, les historiens du Levant à l'époque romaine, ainsi que les spécialistes de la littérature talmudique y trouveront également un vif intérêt en vertu de son aspect extrêmement novateur.
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1 online resource (xx, 447 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 385-421) and indexes. :
9789047408277 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.