Life at the bottom of Babylonian societ y servile laborers at Nippur in the 14th and 13th centuries, B.C. /
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Life at the Bottom of Babylonian Society is a study of the population dynamics, family structure, and legal status of publicly-controlled servile workers in Kassite Babylonia. It compares some of the demographic aspects proper to this group with other intensively studied past populations, such as Roman Egypt, Medieval Tuscany, and American slave plantations. It suggests that families, especially those headed by single mothers, acted as a counter measure against population reduction (flight and death) and as a means for the state to control this labor force. The work marks a step forward in the use of quantitative measures in conjunction with cuneiform sources to achieve a better understanding of the social and economic forces that affected ancient Near Eastern populations.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004207042 :
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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 :
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Moses und der Mytho s die Auseinandersetzung mit der griechischen Mythologie bei jüdisch-hellenistischen Autoren /
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In the Hellenistic period Jews regularly encountered Greek mythology in one form or another: in literature, in art, or through language. This book is the first comprehensive study of the different strategies pursued by Jewish-Hellenistic authors as they engaged with Greek myth. The principal focus of this study is on the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, but a large range of other authors from the Third century BCE to the 1st century CE are also discussed. Far from limiting themselves to outright rejection, these authors often show a striking familiarity with Greek myth, which they sometimes even incorporated into Jewish myth. Ancient Jewish discourse on Greek myth was not primarily driven by apologetics, but constituted an important aspect of Jewish Hellenism. Juden trafen in der hellenistischen Zeit regelmässig auf griechische Mythen: in der Literatur, in der Kunst oder im allgemeinen Sprachgebrauch. Dieses Buch ist die erste weitgespannte Untersuchung der unterschiedlichen Strategien, die jüdisch-hellenistische Autoren in ihrem Umgang mit griechischen Mythen anwandten. Das Hauptgewicht der Untersuchung liegt auf dem jüdischen Historiker Flavius Josephus, aber eine grosse Zahl weiterer Autoren vom 3. Jh. volumeChr. bis zum 1. Jh. n.Chr. wird auch einbezogen. Diese Autoren haben griechische Mythen nicht einfach nur verworfen. Häufig zeigen sie eine bemerkenswerte Vertrautheit mit ihnen und gelegentlich gar die Bereitschaft, sie mit jüdischen Mythen zu verbinden. Der antike jüdische Diskurs über die griechischen Mythen war nicht in erster Linie von Apologetik bestimmt, sondern bildete einen wichtigen Aspekt des jüdischen Hellenismus.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004191136 :
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The relationship between Roman and local law in the Babatha and Salome Komaise archives : general analysis and three case studies on law of succession, guardianship, and marriage...
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The discovery of the Babatha archive provided scholars with unique opportunities for reconstructing the life of Jews in second-century Arabia. Although legal issues and especially the question of the relationship between Roman and local law have received attention in a number of publications, this study presents the first complete overview of the legal situation as presented in the Babatha as well as the Salome Komaise archive, using references to law in the documents' texts as the key element for understanding what law is applicable to these documents. By distinguishing between two levels in the papyri, of substantive and of formal law, a new understanding is reached of the part both Roman and local law played in legal reality.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047421368 :
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Rêves hittites : contribution à une histoire et une anthropologie du rêve en Anatolie ancienne /
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This volume deals with the ancient Anatolian textual evidence on dreams. The book starts with a study of the evidence from different perspectives. The second and third parts are of special interest for anthropologists and historians of religion, as they focus on the various shapes and functions allotted to dreams in Hittite Anatolia. The fourth part assembles the Hittite cuneiform texts in which a dream is either described or mentioned. The texts are given in transliteration and translation, with relevant bibliography. This study makes a significant contribution to our understanding of dream conception in the ancient Near East by providing a systematic edition and analysis of the Hittite testimonies.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [319]-331) and indexes. :
9789047421566 :
1566-2055 ; :
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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 :
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New Kingdom ostraca from the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridg e
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This book publishes a previously unknown collection of hieratic ostraca from the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. The texts include a broad range of genres, including wisdom literature, religious hymns, magical texts, medical recipes, private letters, administrative notes, scribal exercises ( Kemit ), and copies of tomb inscriptions. Each ostracon is presented with photographs, facsimile drawings and hieroglyphic transcriptions, as well as translations and brief philological commentaries. Many of the texts can be linked to the village of Deir el-Medina on internal evidence, and the book offers new data to scholars working with material from this famous site.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004183766 :
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History, time, meaning, and memory ideas for the sociology of religion /
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It can be said that history is poor sociology that does not account sufficiently for present social circumstances, while sociology is bad history in that it does not go back in time. This volume in the Religion and Social Order series sets out to address these conjoint problems of history and sociology within the disciplinary boundaries of the sociology of religion. History has such a fickle nature that it has seen religion hold varied and different places within the timeline of sociological thought. Religion had a high level of importance among the early founders of sociology. A perceived decline of significance for religion by sociology in the latter half of the twentieth century mirrored the changing social location of religion. The increase in world fundamentalisms, religious movements, private spiritualities and other indicators in the millennial age have brought a renaissance to this longstanding subdiscipline and shown that religion is far from extinction.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004215610 :
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Saints, sinners, and the God of the world the Hartford sermon notebook transcribed, 1679-1680 /
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Saints, Sinners, and The God of the World: The Hartford Sermon Notebook Transcribed, 1679-1680 , is a complete transcription of The Hartford Sermon Notebook, a compact, bound series of notes taken from sermons delivered by the ministers Isaac Foster, Ben Woodbridge, John Whiting, Caleb Watson, and Thomas Cheever, in Hartford, Connecticut during the years 1679 and 1680. The original notebook's authorship is unknown, but whoever took the notes did a meticulous job, and the 62 sermons contained in the notebook are nearly all complete. These sermons span a two year period of colonial Connecticut history where few extant sources exist, and represent important new primary source material for scholars of colonial New England's earliest religious history
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [313]-317) and indexes. :
9789004216402 :
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Verhärtet eure Herzen nicht : der Hebräer, eine Synagogenhomilie zu Tischa be-Aw /
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This volume offers the first in-depth analysis of the literary structure of Hebrews against the background of its most frequently mentioned Sitz im Leben, the ancient synagogue. In the context of the liturgical year and its reconstructed cycle of readings, the text is newly interpreted on the basis of Exod 31:18-32:35 and Jer 31:31-34, so as to demonstrate that Hebrews was an ancient homily for the most important fast-day, Tisha be-Av, on which the destruction of the two temples was commemorated. The first part presents 20th- and 21st-century scholarship on Hebrews and a new structural analysis. The second part offers a detailed discussion of the ancient synagogue and its liturgy. This allows the reconstruction of the readings on which the text of Hebrews is based and a positioning within the liturgical year. The resulting thesis, that Hebrews is an exhortative homily for Tisha be-Av, is confirmed through a motivic analysis of all the biblical texts read on this fast-day. On the basis of the hermeneutical key thereby established, the third part offers seven cumulative readings of the entire text: structural, contextual, intertextual, rhetorical, theological, socio-historical, and hermeneutical-critical. These generate new interpretations and insights within the horizon of current Hebrews scholarship. The present monograph is the first to connect research on the ancient synagogue and its liturgy with a comprehensive interpretation of Hebrews that also discusses alternative form-critical avenues and establishes intertextual connections, especially to relevant rabbinic texts. The examination is directed not only to those with a specific interest in Hebrews, but also to scholars and students of the New Testament, Theology, Jewish Studies, and Religious Studies. ***** Der vorliegende Band bietet erstmals eine fundierte Analyse der literarischen Struktur des Hebräers vor dem Hintergrund seines meistgenannten Sitzes im Leben, der antiken Synagoge. Im Kontext des liturgischen Jahres sowie des rekonstruierten Lesezyklus' wird die Schrift neu auf der Basis der Lesungen aus Ex 31,18-32,35 und Jer 31,31-34 als antike Homilie zum wichtigsten Fasttag von Tischa be-Aw, an dem der Zerstörung der beiden Tempel gedacht wurde, erschlossen. Die Untersuchung stellt im ersten Teil die Hebräerforschung des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts sowie eine neue Strukturanalyse vor. Der zweite Teil fügt eine profunde Untersuchung der antiken Synagoge sowie der antiken Synagogenhomilie im liturgischen Kontext hinzu. Diese erlaubt die Rekonstruktion der dem Hebräertext zugrunde liegenden Lesungen und eine Positionierung innerhalb des liturgischen Jahres. Die resultierende These, dass der Hebräer eine mahnende Homilie zu Tischa be-Aw sei, wird im Rahmen einer Motivanalyse sämtlicher zu diesem Fasttag gelesenen biblischen Texte bekräftigt. Im dritten Teil wird der gesamte Text auf der Basis des etablierten hermeneutischen Schlüssels sieben kumulativen Lesungen unterzogen, einer strukturellen, kontextuellen, intertextuellen, rhetorischen, theologischen, sozio-historischen sowie einer hermeneutisch-kritischen. Diese generieren vor dem Horizont der aktuellen Hebräerforschung neue Interpretationsmöglichkeiten und Einsichten. Die vorliegende Monographie verbindet zum ersten Mal Forschungen zur antiken Synagoge und ihrer Liturgie mit einer kohärenten Interpretation des Hebräertextes, die auch alternative formkritische Ansätze thematisiert sowie intertextuelle Bezüge insbesondere zu relevanten rabbinischen Texten benennt. Die Ausführungen richten sich somit nicht nur an solche mit einem spezifischen Interesse am Hebräer, sondern auch an ForscherInnen und StudentInnen des Neuen Testaments, der Theologie, der Judaistik sowie der Religionswissenschaften.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [393]-410) and indexes. :
9789047411079 :
0928-0731 ; :
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Zwischen Philosophie und Gesetz : Jüdische philosophie und theologie von 1933 bis 1938 /
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Despite the revival of intellectual history in recent years, there is still relatively little research into German-Jewish intellectual history between 1933 and 1938. The present work studies for the first time the important discussions of the period from the debate between Leo Strauss and Julius Guttmann, Alexander Altmann's contribution to "Jewish theology," to the reception of the work of Franz Rosenzweig and Martin Heidegger as well as the works of David Baumgardt and Fritz Heinemann. Many now forgotten texts of those discussions have been made accessible here. All the leading figures presented in this study were sooner or later forced to choose between "philosophy" and "law."
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [317]-334). :
9789047442745 :
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Head of all years : astronomy and calendars at Qumran in their ancient context /
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Rather than being an isolated, primitive body of knowledge the Jewish calendar tradition of 364 days constituted an integral part of the astronomical science of the ancient world. This tradition-attested in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in the Pseudepigrapha-stands out as a coherent, novel synthesis, representing the Jewish authors' apocalyptic worldview. The calendar is studied here both "from within"-analyzing its textual manifestations -and "from without"-via a comparison with ancient Mesopotamian astronomy. This analysis reveals that the calendrical realm constituted a significant case of inter-cultural borrowing, pertinent to similar such cases in ancient literature. Special attention is given to the "Book of Astronomy" (1 Enoch 72-82) and a variety of calendrical and liturgical texts from Qumran.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [289]-307) and indexes. :
9789047424192 :
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Exile and suffering : a selection of papers read at the 50th anniversary meeting of the Old Testament Society of South Africa OTWSA/OTSSA, Pretoria, August 2007 /
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At the fiftieth anniversary of the Old Testament Society of South Africa a conference was organized on the theme Exile and Suffering. This volume contains a selection of the papers presented. Focal questions are such themes as: What do we really know about the Exile? To what degree did suffering take place? How did the Ancient Israelites cope with the disaster? Where the ancinet traditions sufficient to deal with the Exile? Or did this period produce new forms of 'theology'? The significance of the Exile as a matrix for understanding suffering until this day is also dealt with.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047424352 :
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Christian remnant-African folk church : Seventh-Day Adventism in Tanzania, 1903-1980 /
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The growth of Christianity in Africa during the twentieth century is one of the most fascinating shifts in the history of religions. This book presents a history of the Tanzanian Seventh-day Adventist Church, which is representative of this shift in many respects: slow beginnings, struggles over cultural issues, the emergence of a unique church life combining denominational heritage and African elements, frictions with governments, and the development of popular theology. Yet Tanzanian Adventism also exemplifies an important phenomenon which has been given little attention so far - the transformation of minority denominations to dominant religions. This study breaks new ground in analyzing how the Adventist "remnant" developed into an African "folk church" while attempting to remain true to its original ethos.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [559]-600) and index. :
9789047422686 :
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Spiritual mapping in the United States and Argentina, 1989-2005 : a geography of fear /
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Spiritual Mapping is a U.S. Evangelical and Neo-Pentecostal movement (1989-2005), which developed its own religious technique to wage a 'spiritual' war against unseen non-human beings. These 'spirits' were identified along the lines of geographical territories and put on a map, whence 'Spiritual Mapping' . Its intended function was to boost the numerical growth of Christianity. This book offers a comprehensive historical-descriptive approach of both the movement and the concept, with special attention for theological and anthropological concepts. Its historical roots, relation with Argentina, self-understanding and critics are being described. The reader is presented with a unique insight into Spiritual Mapping as an expression of Americanism, as well as the socio-political concept of Manifest Destiny and U.S. religious marketing.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 337- 361) and index. :
9789047443551 :
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Geschenke und Steuern, Zölle und Tribute : antike Abgabenformen in Anspruch und Wirklichkeit /
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This book examines modes of economic contribution in the ancient world through taxes, tribute, or so-called gifts. Specialists in the field of the ancient Near East, Egypt, classical Greece, Rome, and Israel, joined by an economic anthropologist, present a fresh evaluation of the textual and archaeological evidence. A prime question explored is the extent to which these disparate sources complement or contradict each other. State-imposed transactions were often recorded with an ideological bias, much dependent on whether the donors and recipients were viewed as in- or outsiders. The present interdisciplinary approach supplies the basis for the ancient economic terminology of contribution, taking into account the specific cultural context, the language of 'international' policy, and the correlation between modern and ancient termini.
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Conference proceedings. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047422952 :
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Protestant Missions and Local Encounters in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Unto the Ends of the World.
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This book makes visible an important but largely neglected aspect of Christian missions: its transnational character. An interdisciplinary group of scholars present case-studies on missions and individual missionaries, unified by a common vision of expanding a Christian Empire "to the ends of the world". Examples range from Madagascar, South-Africa, Palestine, Turkey, Tibet, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Canada and Britain. Engaging in activities from education, health care and development aid to religion, ethnography and collection of material culture, Christian missionaries considered themselves as global actors working for the benefit of common humanity. Yet, the missionaries came from, and operated within a variety of nation-states. Thus this volume demonstrates how processes on a national level are closely linked to larger transnational processes.
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Includes index. :
1 online resource. :
9789004207691 :
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Protest or propaganda : war in the Old Testament book of Kings and in contemporaneous ancient Near Eastern texts /
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In this study, the war stories from the Old Testament book of Kings are compared to ten extrabiblical texts. Narratological analysis is applied to deconstruct the ideology of the respective literary compositions. The Old Testament ideology of war seems to be neither typically Israelite, as Gerhardt von Rad put it, nor commonly Ancient Near Eastern, as Manfred Weippert thought it to be. This poses the question whether the reading experience of biblical war stories is so very different from, for instance, Assyrian royal inscriptions, both in terms of its literary value and its ideological bias. Narratological analysis turns out to be a strong tool for explaining the similarities and distinctive features of the respective texts.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [689]-700) and indexes. :
9789047443414 :
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Pentecostal churches in transition : analysing the developing ecclesiology of the Assemblies of God in Australia /
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The global growth of Pentecostal movements during the course of the twentieth century has been widely documented although, to date, there has been little written on their developing ecclesiology. After making the case for a concrete rather than idealised approach to ecclesiology, this book describes and analyses the transitions that have framed the ways in which Australian Pentecostals have understood church life and mission. From a loosely knit faith missions movement, to congregational free church structures, to the so-called apostolic models of mega-churches, Australian pentecostalism stands as a microcosmos of ecclesial developments that have occurred throughout the world. This book, therefore, provides a means of reflecting upon what has been gained and lost in the process of ecclesiological change.
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Based on the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Australian Catholic University, 2005. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [227]-242) and index. :
9789047428701 :
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Mediating the divine : prophecy and revelation in the Dead Sea scrolls and Second Temple Judaism /
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This book is a comprehensive treatment of prophecy and revelation in the Dead Sea Scrolls. It begins by analyzing the re-presentation of the classical prophets and their revelatory experience in an attempt to identify how prophecy and revelation was reconceptualized in the Dead Sea Scrolls in dialogue and in contrast with received biblical models. This work then examines the direct evidence in the Dead Sea Scrolls regarding ongoing prophetic activity at Qumran and in related segments of Second Temple Judaism. This study argues that the Dead Sea Scrolls bear witness to a transformed prophetic tradition active at Qumran and in Second Temple Judaism. Topics treated include the relationship of prophecy to scriptural interpretation, wisdom, and law, and eschatological prophecy.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [389]-423) and index. :
9789047420613 :
0169-9962 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.