The Provenance of the Pseudepigrapha : Jewish, Christian, or Other? /
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The Old Testament pseudepigrapha are ancient quasi-biblical texts inspired by the Hebrew Bible. Although frequently mined as Jewish background by New Testament specialists, they were transmitted almost entirely in Christian circles, often only in translation. Christian authors wrote some pseudepigrapha and did not necessarily always mention explicitly Christian topics. This book challenges the assumption that pseudepigrapha are Jewish compositions until proven otherwise. It proposes a methodology for understanding them first in the social context of their earliest manuscripts, inferring still earlier origins only as required by positive evidence while considering the full range of possible authors (Jews, Christians, "God-fearers," Samaritans, etc.). It analyzes a substantial corpus of pseudepigrapha, distinguishing those that are probably Jewish from those of more doubtful origins.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047416609
9789004137523
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.
Exploring the scripturesque : Jewish texts and their Christian contexts /
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These essays span about a third of a century and include both previously published and some unpublished studies by Robert A. Kraft which focus on interfaces between Jewish materials and the worlds in which they were transmitted and/or perceived, especially Christian contexts. The initial section on general context and methodology is followed by several detailed studies by way of example. The final section touches on some related issues involving Philonic and other texts. The primary concern is with \'scripturesque\' materials and traditions, whether they later became canonical or not, that seem to have been respected as "scriptural" by some individuals or communities in the period prior to (or apart from) the development of an exclusivistic canonical consciousness in some Jewish and Christian circles.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004190726 :
1384-2161 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Wisdom and Torah : the reception of "Torah" in the wisdom literature of the Second Temple period /
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A proper assessment of the manifold relationships that obtain between "wisdom" and "Torah" in the Second Temple Period has fascinated generations of interpreters. The essays of the present collection seek to understand this key relationship by focusing attention on specific instances of the reception of "Torah" in Wisdom literature and the shaping of Torah by wisdom. Taking the concepts of wisdom and torah in the various literary strata of the book of Deuteronomy as a point of departure, the remainder of the book examines the relationship between wisdom and Torah in Wisdom literature of the Second Temple period, including Proverbs, Qohelet, Ps 19 and 119, Baruch, Ben Sira, Wisdom, sapiential and rewritten scriptural texts from Qumran, and the Wisdom of Solomon.
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"The present volume presents papers which were given at an international symposium at Humboldt-universitat zu Berlin in September, 2011"--Introduction. :
1 online resource (vi, 340 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004257368 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.