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.
Sabbath and synagogue : the question of Sabbbath worship in ancient Judaism /
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Sabbath worship as a communal event does not feature in the Hebrew Bible. In the context of the first century CE, according to Philo and Josephus, the sabbath gatherings took place only for the purpose of studying the law, and not for the liturgical recital of psalms or prayer. Classical authors depict Jews spending the sabbath at home. Jewish inscriptions provide no evidence of sabbath-worship in prayer-houses ( proseuchai ), while the Mishnah prescribes no special communal sabbath activities. The usual picture of Jews going on the sabbath to the synagogue to worship thus appears to be without foundation. It is even doubtful that there were synagogue buildings, for 'synagogue' normally meant 'community'. The conclusion of this study, that there is no evidence that the sabbath was a day of communal Jewish worship before 200 CE, has far-reaching consequences for our understanding of early Jewish-Christian relationships. This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details.
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Includes index. :
1 online resource (xi, 279 pages) :
9789004295834 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Jews and Christians in the Roman World : From Historical Method to Cases /
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Roman Judaea, Christian origins, and Roman-Judaean-Christian relations are flourishing fields of endless fascination. Amid the flurry of new research, however, which uses ever new methods in the humanities and social sciences, basic questions about what happened and how people then understood events are easily obscured. This book argues that a simple but consistent historical method can throw new light - and challenge entrenched views - on such familiar topics as Roman provincial governance, the Jewish War, Flavian politics, Judaea after King Herod, Jewish and Christian historiography, Pharisees and Essenes, John the Baptist, the apostle Paul, and Luke-Acts.
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1 online resource (670 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004545960
Reading the human body : physiognomics and astrology in the Dead Sea scrolls and Hellenistic-early Roman period Judaism /
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This study deals with physiognomic and astrological texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls that represent one of the earliest examples of ancient Jewish science. For the first time the Hebrew physiognomic-astrological list 4Q186 (4QZodiacal Physiognomy) and the Aramaic physiognomic list 4Q561 (4QPhysiognomy ar) are comprehensively studied in relation to both physiognomic and astrological writings from Babylonian and Greco-Roman traditions. New reconstructions and interpretations of these learned lists are offered that result in a fresh view of their sense, function, and status within both the Qumran community and Second Temple Judaism at large, showing that Jewish culture in Palestine participated in the cultural exchange of learned knowledge between Babylonian and Greco-Roman cultures.
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Originally presented as author's thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Groningen, 2006. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [293]-319) and indexes. :
9789047420460 :
0169-9962 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Historiography and self-definition : Josephos, Luke-Acts, and apologetic historiography /
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For centuries scholars have recognized the apologetic character of the Hellenistic Jewish historians, Josephos, and Luke-Acts; they have not, however, adequately addressed their possible relationships to each other and to their wider cultures. In this first full systematic effort to set these authors within the framework of Greco-Roman traditions, Professor Sterling has used genre criticism as a method for locating a distinct tradition of historical writing, apologetic historiography. Apologetic historiography is the story of a subgroup of people which deliberately Hellenizes the traditions of the group in an effort to provide a self-definition within the context of the larger world. It arose as a result of a dialectic relationship with Greek ethnography. This work traces the evolution of this tradition through three major eras of eastern Mediterranean history spanning six hundred years: the Persian, the Greek, and the Roman.
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1 online resource (xiv, 500 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 394-426) and indexes. :
9789004266940 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Nuptial symbolism in Second Temple writings, the New Testament, and Rabbinic literature : divine marriage at key moments of salvation history /
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In Nuptial Symbolism in Second Temple Writings, the New Testament and Rabbinic Literature , André Villeneuve examines the ancient Jewish concept of the covenant between God and Israel, portrayed as a marriage dynamically moving through salvation history. This nuptial covenant was established in Eden but damaged by sin; it was restored at the Sinai theophany, perpetuated in the Temple liturgy, and expected to reach its final consummation at the end of days. The authors of the New Testament adopted the same key moments of salvation history to describe the spousal relationship between Christ and the Church. In their typological treatment of these motifs, they established an exegetical framework that would anticipate the four senses of Scripture later adopted by patristic and medieval commentators.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004316263 :
1871-6636 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Otherworldly and eschatological priesthood in the Dead Sea scrolls /
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Departing from scholarship dedicated to the socio-historical realities of priesthood at Qumran, this book explores, in two parts, the most pervasive literary representations of priesthood in the Dead Sea Scrolls as a reflection of the religious worldview of the Qumran community and broader segments of Second Temple society. Part one compares depictions of otherworldly priesthood in non-sectarian and sectarian documents. Part two examines the historical and traditional roots of portrayals of messianic/eschatological priesthood. The study reveals a fresh understanding of the integral role of priestly imagery in the tension-filled eschatological identity of the Qumran community. It concludes with a consideration of the relationship of the evidence treated to the phenomenon of democratization of priestly holinesses in rabbinic Judaism and Christianity.
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Revised version of author's thesis (Ph. D.)--New York University, 2008. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [311]-350) and indexes. :
9789004181465 :
0169-9962 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Jenseitshoffnung in Wort und Stein : Nefesch und pyramidales Grabmal als Phänomene antiken jüdischen Bestattungswesens im Kontext der Nachbarkulturen /
: 1 online resource. : Includes bibliographical references (p. 299-318) and index. : 9789047412939 : 0169-734X ; : Available to subscribing member institutions only.
A vocabulary of desire : the Song of Songs in the early synagogue /
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In A Vocabulary of Desire , Laura Lieber offers a nuanced, multifaceted and highly original study of how the Song of Songs was understood and deployed by Jewish liturgical poets in Late Antiquity (ca. 4th-7th centuries CE). Through her examination of poems which embellish and even rewrite the Song of Songs, Lieber brings the creative spirit-liturgical, intellectual, and exegetical-of these poems vividly to the fore. All who are interested in the early interpretation of the Song of Songs, the ancient synagogue, early Jewish and Christian hymnography, and Judaism in Late Antiquity will find this volume both enriching and accessible. The volume consists of two interrelated halves. In the first section, four introductory essays establish the broad cultural context in which these poems emerged; in the second, each chapter consists of an analytical essay structured around a single, complete poetic cycle, presented in new Hebrew editions with annotated original English translations. \'The Hebrew text edition is accompanied by a lucid and poetic English translation with annotations and a commentary. In this excellent, scholarly text edition, the commentary is focused and to the point...This reviewer highly recommends this monograph to scholars interested in the early synagogue and its liturgy, late antique and medieval Hebrew poetry, rabbinic Judaism, and early Christianity. The book invites further comparative work in these areas.\' Rivka B. Ulmer, H-Judaic, H-Net Reviews. May, 2015.
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"This volume examines six piyyutim ... 1. An anonymous qedushta shel sheva for Passover (ca. fifth century) ; 2. A shivata for Passover by Yannai (sixth century) ; 3. A qerova for Passover by Yannai ; 4. A shivata for the Prayer for Dew by Eleazar birabbi Qallir (late sixth-early seventh century) ; 5. A qedushta for the first Sabbath following a wedding by Eleazar birabbi Qallir ; 6. A yotzer for Passover by Eleazar birabbi Qallir"--ECIP introduction. :
1 online resource (pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004278592 :
1571-5000 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Jewish Jesus research and its challenge to Christology today /
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Historical Jesus research, Jewish or Christian, is marked by the search for origins and authenticity. The various Quests for the Historical Jesus contributed to a crisis of identity within Western Christianity. The result was a move "back to the Jewish roots!" For Jewish scholars it was a means to position Jewry within a dominantly Christian culture. As a consequence, Jews now feel more at ease to relate to Jesus as a Jew. For Walter Homolka the Christian challenge now is to formulate a new Christology: between a Christian exclusivism that denies the universality of God, and a pluralism that endangers the specificity of the Christian understanding of God and the uniqueness of religious traditions, including that of Christianity.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004331747 :
1388-2074 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The social role of liturgy in the religion of the Qumran community /
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"This volume investigates the layers of meaning of the Qumran community's liturgical practice as prayer (communication with the divine), ritual (actions that establish and reinforce the social and ideological structures of the community), and speech (containing both verbal and non-verbal communication)."--Jacket.
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1 online resource (ix, 267 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 237-252) and indexes. :
9789047409151 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Was 70 CE a watershed in Jewish history? : on Jews and Judaism before and after the destruction of the Second Temple /
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The destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem in 70 CE, which put an end to sacrificial worship in Israel, is usually assumed to constitute a major caesura in Jewish history. But how important was it? What really changed due to 70? What, in contrast, was already changing before 70 or remained basically - or "virtually" -- unchanged despite it? How do the Diaspora, which was long used to Temple-less Judaism, and early Christianity, which was born around the same time, fit in? This Scholion Library volume presents twenty papers given at an international conference in Jerusalem in which scholars assessed the significance of 70 for their respective fields of specialization, including Jewish liturgy, law, literature, magic, art, institutional history, and early Christianity.
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"This volume presents revised versions of lectures given in January 2009 at a Jerusalem symposium sponsored by Hebrew University's Scholion Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Jewish Studies"--Preface. :
1 online resource (xiii, 548 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004217447 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Atonement and the Logic of Resurrection in the Epistle to the Hebrew s
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Scholars often explain Hebrews' relative silence regarding Jesus' resurrection by emphasizing the author's appeal to Yom Kippur's two key moments-the sacrificial slaughter and the high priest's presentation of blood in the holy of holies-in his distinctive portrayal of Jesus' death and heavenly exaltation. The writer's depiction of Jesus as the high priest whose blood effected ultimate atonement appears to be modeled upon these two moments. Such a typology discourages discrete reflection on Jesus' resurrection. Drawing on contemporary studies of Jewish sacrifice (which note that blood represents life, not death), parallels in Jewish apocalyptic literature, and fresh exegetical insights, this volume demonstrates that Jesus' embodied, resurrected life is crucial for the high-priestly Christology and sacrificial soteriology developed in Hebrews.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004206915 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.