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Reading the Fifth Veda Studies on the Mahabharata-- Essays by Alf Hiltebeitel. Volume 1.
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Often spoken of as the 'Fifth Veda', id est, as a text in continuity with the four Vedas and outweighing them all in size and import, the Mahābhārata presents a complex mythological and narrative landscape, incorporating fundamental ethical, social, philosophic, and pedagogic issues. In a series of position pieces and essays written over a span of 30 years, Alf Hiltebeitel, Columbian Professor of Religion, History, and Human Sciences at The George Washington University, articulates a compelling new approach to the epic: as a literary work of fundamental theological and philosophical significance rich in metaphor and meaning. In this three-part volume, the editors gather some of Hiltebeitel's seminal writings on the epic along with new pieces written especially for the volume. This two volume edition collects nearly three decades of Alf Hiltebeitel's researches into the Indian epic and religious tradition. The two volumes document Hiltebeitel's longstanding fascination with the Sanskrit epics: volume 1 presents a series of appreciative readings of the Mahābhārata (and to a lesser extent, the Rāmāyaṇa), while volume 2 focuses on what Hiltebeitel has called "the underground Mahābhārata," id est, the Mahābhārata as it is still alive in folk and vernacular traditions. Recently re-edited and with a new set of articles completing a trajectory Hiltebeitel established over 30 years ago, this work constitutes a definitive statement from this major scholar. Comprehensive indices, cross-referencing, and an exhaustive bibliography make it an essential reference work. For more information on the second volume please click here .
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004216204 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
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.
Coping with the gods : wayward readings in Greek theology /
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Inspired by a critical reconsideration of current monolithic approaches to the study of Greek religion, this book argues that ancient Greeks displayed a disquieting capacity to validate two (or more) dissonant, if not contradictory, representations of the divine world in a complementary rather than mutually exclusive manner. From this perspective the six chapters explore problems inherent in: order vs. variety/chaos in polytheism, arbitrariness vs. justice in theodicy, the peaceful co-existence of mono- and polytheistic theologies, human traits in divine imagery, divine omnipotence vs. limitation of power, and ruler cult. Based on an intimate knowledge of ancient realia and literary testimonia the book stands out for its extensive application of relevant perceptions drawn from cultural anthropology, theology, cognitive science, psychology, and linguistics.
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1 online resource (xiii, 593 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 561-576) and indexes. :
9789004210905 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Leviticus at Qumran : text and interpretation /
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In Leviticus at Qumran: Text and Interpretation Robert A. Kugler and Kyung S. Baek provide an indispensable reference work for understanding how the Book of Leviticus shaped the people of Qumran and their texts. Focusing on issues central to the Qumran community's identity-sacrifice, priesthood, purity, and holiness-Leviticus played a pivotal role in the group's self-understanding. The volume presents all of the texts of Leviticus from Qumran with their variants (with contributions from Eugene Ulrich and Peter Flint), lists over three hundred and fifty uses of Leviticus in the scrolls from Qumran, and provides brief summaries of each of those uses. It provides all the data necessary to explore how Leviticus shaped the people of the scrolls.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004329850 :
0083-5889 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Reading John in Ephesus /
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This study describes the embedding of the Gospel of John in the city life of Ephesus. It uses the epigraphical and historical materials of first-century Ephesus as the point of reference for a reading of John. The study is a specific demonstration of the linguistic supposition that the use of the same (combination of) words in different co-texts evokes semantic similarities and dissimilarities which influence the process of giving meaning to a text. Reading John against the background of Ephesus influences its impact. Five topics have been selected: the use of names; the use of the titles for the emperors and Artemis in relation to the titles used for Jesus; the social city life; the group formations; and the function of the high priests in relation to the imperial cult.
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1 online resource (vii, 232 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 221-230) and index. :
9789004267299 :
0167-9732 ; :
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Writing and reading the scroll of Isaiah : studies of an interpretive tradition /
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This first part of a 2-volume work, this study combines recent approaches that treat the formation and early interpretation of the final form of the book of Isaiah with the more conventional historical-critical methods that treat the use of traditions by Isaiah's authors and editors. Studies investigate Isaiah's use of early sacred tradition, the editing and contextualization of oracles within the Isaianic tradition itself, and the interpretation of the book of Isaiah in later traditions (as seen in the various versions of the text and various communities). Contributors of this volume include virtually all of the major scholars of Isaiah and the leading scholars of biblical interpretation in the intertestamental, New Testament, and early Jewish periods.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004275942 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Somapower: Somaesthetics Reads Politics /
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We do politics in, through, and as bodies. All our political activity is inevitably corporeal. Parliamentary debates, party assemblies, street demonstrations, and civil disobedience are all bodily actions. Political regimes maintain their power by controlling our bodies, both through explicit acts of violence and, more insidiously, by inculcating somatic norms of obedience to the political authorities and ideologies. This oppression can be effectively challenged if we use somaesthetics to identify and examine the bodily habits and feelings that express and reinforce such domination. Somaesthetically explored, they can be refashioned and help overcome the oppressive social conditions that produce them.
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1 online resource (228 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004697805
Reading for history in the Damascus document : a methodological study /
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Scholars tend to view the Damascus Document as a historical source, but a reading of the text in light of contemporary (audience-oriented) literary criticism finds its emphasis in the ideological construction of history and communal identity, rather than in the preservation of a historical record. An introduction to contemporary literary criticism is followed by a series of thematic readings, focusing on historical narrative, priestly imagery, and gender in the covenant community. Each theme is examined in terms of its potential for multiple (sometimes contradictory) interpretations and for its place in the larger sectarian discourse. This study offers an alternative approach to the historiography of ancient Jewish sectarianism, acknowledging the presence of competing claims to shared traditions and the potential for changes in textual interpretation over time or among diverse communities.
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1 online resource (xii, 255 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 229-241) and indexes. :
9789004350434 :
0169-9962 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Alternative targum traditions : the use of variant readings for the study in origin and history of targum Jonathan /
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The present study explores the possibility of using variant readings of the Targum of the Prophets to get a better insight into the origin and history of Targum Jonathan. The focus is on two sorts of variant readings: the Tosefta Targums and the targumic quotations in rabbinic and medieval Jewish literature. The chapter on the Tosefta Targums concentrates on variants from the book of Samuel. The chapter on the targumic quotations includes quotations of all the Prophets in early Jewish literature. In the Appendix a full list is given of all quotations of Targums of the Prophets presently known. The book is useful for the study of the genesis of Targum Jonathan as well as for its later developments.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [270]-289) and index. :
9789004181519 :
1570-1336 ; :
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The Thousand and one nights and twentieth-century fiction : intertextual readings /
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It is gradually being acknowledged that the Arabic story-collection Thousand and One Nights has had a major influence on European and world literature. This study analyses the influence of Thousand and One Nights , as an intertextual model, on 20th-century prose from all over the world. Works of approximately forty authors are examined: those who were crucial to the development of the main currents in 20th-century fiction, such as modernism, magical realism and post-modernism. The book contains six thematic sections divided into chapters discussing two or three authors/works, each from a narratological perspective and supplemented by references to the cultural and literary context. It is shown how Thousand and One Nights became deeply rooted in modern world literature especially in phases of renewal and experiment.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004362697 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Song of song s a close reading /
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This book puts forward an interpretation of the Canticle which is alert to the literal sense of the poem. The author thus distances himself both from the allegorical interpretation and from an interpretation that is purely secular. According to the author, the Song offers a theological vision of human love. Barbiero sees the Song as composed in the third century BC, in the Hellenistic epoch, but also as hugely dependent on the love poetry of the Ancient Near East, particularly that of Egypt. Above all, however, the Song was composed in dialogue with the other books of the Old Testament, especially in contrast with the negative view of sexuality which they represent. The study pays particular attention to the structure of the poem and of the individual cantos: for Barbiero, the Song is a closely unitary work and is only to be understood as a whole.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [509]-521) and indexes. :
9789004203709 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Narrative and identity : an ethical reading of Exodus 4 /
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Using Ricoeur's theories of narrative and identity, and their ethical implications, this book offers a multi-disciplinary Asian reading of Moses' reverse migration in Exodus 4:18-26, in light of the liminal experience of global economic migration. The work demonstrates the productivity of Ricoeur's threefold movement of prefiguration, configuration, and refiguration for OT studies and contemporary realities. By bringing together the world of an ancient text, a nuanced reading of the text's narrative movement and its history of interpretation, and the bittersweet realities of Filipino overseas workers, this creative study charts the way for an OT hermeneutic that opens up possibilities for the formation of a reader's narrative and ethical identity.
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Revision of the author's thesis (doctoral)--Fuller Theological Seminary. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [325]-343) and indexes. :
9789047420569 :
0928-0731 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Framing the Dialogues: How to Read Openings and Closures in Plato /
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Framing the Dialogues: How to Read Openings and Closures in Plato is a collection of 14 chapters with an Introduction, that focuses on the intricate and multifarious ways in which Plato frames his dialogues. Its main aim is to explore both the association between inner and outer framework and how this relationship contributes to, and sheds light upon, the framed dialogues and their philosophical content. All contributors to the volume advocate the significance of closures and especially openings in Plato, arguing that platonic frames should not be treated merely as 'trimmings' or decorative literary devices but as an integral part of the central philosophical discourse. The volume will prove to be an invaluable companion to all those interested in Plato as well as in classical literature in general.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004443990
9789004443983
Primeval histor y Babylonian, biblical, and Enochic : an intertextual reading /
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Most cultures have myths of origin. The Babylonians were the first to combine blocks of traditions about primeval time into primeval histories where humans had a central role. In the first millennium there were different versions that influenced the concepts of primeval history within Jewish religion, both in the Bible and in the parallel Enochic tradition. Atrahasis and the traditions of primeval dynasties had crucial impact on Genesis; the traditions of the primeval apkallus as cosmic guardians were lying behind the Enochic Watcher Story. The book offers a comprehensive analytic comparison between the images of primeval time in these three traditions. It presents new interpretations of each of these traditions and how they relate to each other.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004196124 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Abraham as spiritual ancestor : a postcolonial Zimbabwean reading of Romans 4 /
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New Testament commentaries and exegetes have not paid sufficient attention to the context in which Paul's Epistel to the Romans was crafted. This book written from an African perspective offers a fresh interpretation on a contextualizing reading of Romans and its theology. The argument of the book is that Paul's construcntion of Abraham as a Spiritual ancestor of \'all\' faith people was based on his encounter with the Roman Ideology based on Aeneas as the founder of Rome. A juxtaposition of these two canonical ancestors needs to be considered in our 21st multi - ethnic Christian world. Paul's epitsle is not about how God saves the individual human being; rather the debate between Paul and the Jewish - Christian interlocutor is about how families of people and nations establish a kinship with God and one another. The concern with ancestors is apaque to Western Biblical readers and Christians. This is book helps both Westerners and Africans to value ethnic diversity.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [247]-262) and indexes. :
9789004183339 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Intertextuality in the tales of Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav : a close reading of Sippurey Maʼasiyot /
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Until 1806, Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav (1772-1810) disseminated his thoughts on redemption through homilies. In 1806, however, Nahman chose the genre of tales as an additional and innovative means of religious discourse. An academic close reading of all of the tales, known as Sippurey Ma'asiyot , has not yet been undertaken. As the first comprehensive scholarly work on the whole selection of tales and contrary to previous scholarship, this book does not reduce the tales to biographical expressions of Nahman's tormented soul and messianic aspirations. Instead, it treats them as religious literature where the concept of "intertextuality" is considered essential to explain how Nahman defines his theology of redemption and invites his listeners and readers to appropriate his religious world-view.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [637]-642) and index. :
9789047420170 :
0169-8834 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
All Citizens of Christ: A Cosmopolitan Reading of Unity and Diversity in Paul's Letters /
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In this work, Jeehei Park proposes Greek and Roman cosmopolitanism as a constructive category through which to navigate a reading of human diversity and communal unity in Paul's letters. Park takes a thorough look at the cosmopolitan ideas of Diogenes of Sinope, Philo, Plutarch, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius to establish Paul as an interlocutor who critically participated in the discourse of cosmopolitanism. Park characterizes Paul's understanding of unity with the distinctive phrase "heterogeneous unity," in which human differences are respected and embraced rather than being universalized or homogenized. This book offers a novel analysis of Paul's rhetoric about citizenship in Philippians and its adoption of Greek and Roman cosmopolitanism as an interpretive contour.
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1 online resource :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004522008
9789004522084
Avicenna and the Aristotelian tradition : introduction to reading Avicenna's philosophical works /
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Through close study of Avicenna's statements and major works, Dimitri Gutas traces Avicenna's own sense of his place in the Aristotelian tradition and the history of philosophy in Islam, and provides an introduction to reading his philosophical works by delineating the approach most consistent with Avicenna's intention and purpose in philosophy. The second edition of this foundational work, which has quickened fruitful research into the philosopher in the last quarter century, is completely revised and updated, and adds a new final chapter summarizing Avicenna's philosophical project. It is also enlarged with the addition of a new appendix which offers a critical inventory of Avicenna's authentic works, updating the work of Mahdavi (1954) with additional information on all manuscripts and important editions and translations. Its usefulness enhanced, the book provides primary orientation to Avicenna's philosophy and works and constitutes an indispensable research tool for their study. Winner of the I. R. Iran World Award for the Book of the Year 2014
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004262072 :
0169-8729 ;
The library of Eusebius of Caesarea /
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This volume reconstructs the contents of the library in Roman Palestine of Eusebius of Caesarea (ca. 265-339) by examining Eusebius' major works, the Ecclesiastical History , Chronicon , Preparation for the Gospel , and Life of Constantine . After surveying the history of the library from its origins as an ecclesiastical archive and its true foundation by Origen of Alexandria to its disappearance in the seventh century, it discusses how Eusebius used his sources and then examines what specific works were available in the library in chapters devoted to philosophical works, poetry and rhetoric, histories, Jewish and Christian works, and contemporary documents. The book ends with a useful list of the contents of the library.
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Revision of the author's thesis--Columbia University. :
1 online resource (xv, 358 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 317-330) and indexes. :
9789047402312 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.