When the Goddess was a Woman Mahabharata Ethnographies-- Essays by Alf Hiltebeitel. Volume 2.
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Explicitly acknowledging its status as a strī-śūdra-veda (a Veda for women and the downtrodden), the Mahābhārata articulates a promise to bring knowledge of right conduct, fundamental ethical, philosophical, and soteriological teachings, and its own grand narrative to all classes of people and all beings. Hiltebeitel shows how the Mahābhārata has more than lived up to this promise at least on the ground in Indian folk traditions. In this three-part volume, he journeys over the overlapping terrains of the south Indian cults of Draupadī (part I) and Kūttāṇṭavar (part II), to explore how the Mahābhārata continues to be such a vital source of meaning, and, in part III, then connects this vital tradition to wider reflections on prehistory, sacrifice, myth, oral epic, and modern theatre. 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 first volume please click here .
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004216228 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
"Enlarge the site of your tent" :the city as unifying theme in Isaiah : the Isaiah Workshop = De Jesaja Werkplaats /
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In the year 2000, the first OTS volume by the Jesaja Werkplaats was published, entitled: Studies in Isaiah 24-27 (OTS 43). In the present volume, the question as to the possible unity of the book Isaiah forms the centre of the Jesaja Werkplaats ' interest. In order to gain a better insight into this question, the Jesaja Werkplaats has decided on a fixed starting point: the concept of the 'city' within the book Isaiah. This concept not only has a literary meaning, but also a historical one. Examining the 'city', therefore, demands various exegetical approaches, overcoming the classical dichotomy between diachrony and synchrony. This volume offers an intriguing variety of contributions on the 'city' throughout the entire book Isaiah.
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This is the second volume of papers emanating from the Isaiah Workshop (De Jesaja Werkplaats), an exchange platform for the exegesis of the book Isaiah in the Netherlands and Flanders (Belgium). The first volume of papers was published in 2000.--Cf. Preface, pages [vii]. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [207]-228) and indexes. :
9789004194243 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
2 Peter and the Apocalypse of Peter : towards a new perspective : Radboud prestige lectures by Jörg Frey /
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In the 2016 Radboud Prestige Lectures , published in this volume, Jörg Frey develops a new perspective on 2 Peter by arguing that the letter is dependent on the Apocalypse of Peter . Frey argues that reading 2 Peter against the backdrop of the Apocalypse of Peter sheds new light on many longstanding interpretative questions and offers fresh insights into the history of second-century Christianity. Frey's lectures are followed by responses from leading scholars in the field, who discuss Frey's proposal in ways both critical and constructive. Contributors include: Richard Bauckham, Jan Bremmer, Terrance Callan, Paul Foster, Jeremy Hultin, Tobias Nicklas, David Nienhuis and Martin Ruf.
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"This volume is based on the Radboud prestige lectures delivered by Jörg Frey in Nijmegen in 2016"--ECIP t.p. verso. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004399549 :
0928-0731 ;
The church as paradise and the way therein : early Christian appropriation of Genesis 3:22-24 /
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In The Church as Paradise and the Way Therein: Early Christian Appropriation of Genesis 3:22-24 , Christopher A. Graham demonstrates that early Christian authors employed the words "paradise" and "way" as allusions to the expulsion narrative (Genesis 3:22-24) to signify that the benefits available in protological Paradise were once again accessible in and through Jesus and the Church. The centrality of the expulsion narrative in their literary milieus gave these authors confidence that readers would discern these allusions. After considering the reception of the expulsion in texts circulating within the early Christian milieu, Graham turns to the texts of Luke and Irenaeus of Lyons. Both authors drew from an interpretive tradition in which a return to Paradise was desirable. Both celebrated Jesus's reversal of Adam's expulsion and the constitution of Jesus's followers as the location and means by which humanity could continue to access divine truth and life. For both authors, the Church is Paradise and the way therein.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004342088 :
1542-1295 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
In the second degree : paratextual literature in ancient Near Eastern and ancient Mediterranean culture and its reflections in medieval literature /
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To better understand the phenomenon of Literature in the Second Degree - in Jewish and Biblical studies often characterized as parabiblical or Rewritten Bible - the current volume applies the theories of Gerard Genette to ancient and medieval literature from various cultures. Literature in the Second Degree realigns earlier (authoritative) texts to the dynamics of developing cultures and their changing cultural memories. In the case of authoritative base texts, Literature in the Second Degree reaffirms their authority by way of interpretative actualization. In the case of non-authoritative base texts it replaces them to effect cultural forgetting. Far from being just literary forgery (pseudepigraphy), Literature in the Second Degree has an important function in the development of the ancient and medieval cultures.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004194199 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Dead Sea media : orality, textuality and memory in the scrolls from the Judean desert /
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In Dead Sea Media Shem Miller offers a groundbreaking media criticism of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Although past studies have underappreciated the crucial roles of orality and memory in the social setting of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Miller convincingly demonstrates that oral performance, oral tradition, and oral transmission were vital components of everyday life in the communities associated with the Scrolls. In addition to being literary documents, the Dead Sea Scrolls were also records of both scribal and cultural memories, as well as oral traditions and oral performance. An examination of the Scrolls' textuality reveals the oral and mnemonic background of several scribal practices and literary characteristics reflected in the Scrolls.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004408203
The inimitable Qurʾān : some problems in English translations of the Qurʾān with reference to rhetorical features /
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In The Inimitable Qurʾān: Some Problems in English Translations of the Qurʾān with Reference to Rhetorical Features, Khalid Yahya Blankinship examines certain Arabic rhetorical features of the Qurʾān as represented in seven English translations. The author addresses the intersection of two important topics in Qurʾānic studies: the critique of the available English translations and the role of rhetoric in the interpretation of the Qurʾān. He identifies a number of figures characteristic of Qurʾanic style which represent some of the chief stumbling blocks for readers who are used to English in attempting to understand, interpret, and appreciate the text. The book should be useful to all those interested in rhetorical and translation studies and theory as well as Islamic studies.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004417441
Sharḥ al-arbaʿīn /
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In the history of Islamic literature, the 'Forty Traditions' genre goes back as far as the 3th/9th century at least and exists in all of Islam's major and minor languages. It finds its origin in the tradition saying that whoever commits forty traditions to memory will be reckoned among the jurists on Resurrection Day. Collections vary, from a simple listing of the basic teachings of Islam to more dedicated works around some specific theme, in either case with or without a commentary. Qāḍī Saʿīd Qumī (d. after 1107/1696) is a Shīʿite philosopher, jurist, physician and mystic of the Safavid period. Having been trained by some of the foremost scholars of his time, he spent most of his active life in Qum, where he divided his time between his judgeship and teaching. The literary, mystical and philosophical explanations in the present, unfinished collection are all written from the viewpoint of the author's own, 'transcendent' metaphysics.
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1 online resource. :
9789004402157
9789646781344
Kritik des Wachstumsmodells : die Grenzen alttestamentlicher Redaktionsgeschichte im Lichte empirischer Evidenz /
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Mit seiner bahnbrechenden preisgekrönten Kritik des Wachstumsmodells plädiert Benjamin Ziemer für einen Paradigmenwechsel in der alttestamentlichen Literaturgeschichte. Er untersucht in detaillierten Einzelstudien einen repräsentativen Katalog empirischer Beispiele für Redaktion, vom Gilgamesch-Epos über das ägyptische Totenbuch bis hin zu biblischen Büchern (Chronik, Jeremia, Daniel, Esther) und Qumranschriften (Tempelrolle, Sektenregel). Er zeigt, dass die durch Textvergleich nachweisbaren Redaktoren ihre Vorlagen nie nur durch Neues erweitert, sondern immer auch zugleich Formulierungen angepasst oder vervielfältigt, heterogenes Material eingearbeitet oder eine kürzende Auswahl getroffen haben. Bislang dominieren im kontinentaleuropäischen Forschungskontext Fortschreibungs- und Ergänzungshypothesen, nach denen man ein beliebiges Textelement nur der richtigen Entstehungsschicht zuweisen müsse, um seinen ursprünglichen literarischen Kontext wiederherstellen zu können. Dieses Modell stufenweisen ℗»literarischen Wachstums℗± ist, so Ziemer, wissenschaftlich nicht mehr haltbar. With his groundbreaking award-winnig study Kritik des Wachstumsmodells, Benjamin Ziemer is arguing for a change of paradigm in Old Testament literary criticism. He examines a representative list of empirical examples of editorial processes, including the Gilgamesh Epic, the Book of the Dead, books of the Bible and Dead Sea Scrolls. He shows that redactors who can be identified by external evidence never confined themselves to adding new material. Rather, they simultaneously adjusted or duplicated parts of the text, incorporated material from elsewhere or shortened their source texts. Until now, the bulk of redaction critical studies in Europe adhere to the presupposition of textual or literary ℗»growth℗± - assuming that multiple previous layers are to be found intact in the final texts. With Ziemer's study, this model of growth is no longer tenable.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004410817
Wom(b)an : a cultural-narrative reading of the Hebrew Bible barrenness narratives /
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In Wom(b)an: A Cultural-Narrative Reading of the Hebrew Bible Barrenness Narratives Janice Pearl Ewurama De-Whyte offers a reading of the Hebrew Bible barrenness narratives. The original word "wom(b)an" visually underscores the centrality of a productive womb to female identity in the ANE and Hebrew contexts. Conversely, barrenness was the ultimate tragedy and shame of a woman. Utilizing Akan cultural custom as a lens through which to read the Hebrew barrenness tradition, De-Whyte uncovers another kind of barrenness within these narratives. Her term "social barrenness" depicts the various situations of childlessness that are generally unrecognized in western cultures due to the western biomedical definitions of infertility. Whether biological or social, barrenness was perceived to be the greatest threat to a woman's identity and security as well as the continuity of the lineage. Wom(b)an examines these narratives in light of the cultural meanings of barrenness within traditional cultures, ancient and present.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004366305 :
0928-0731 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Talmudic transgressions : engaging the work of Daniel Boyarin /
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Talmudic Transgressions is a collection of essays on rabbinic literature and related fields in response to the boundary-pushing scholarship of Daniel Boyarin. This work is an attempt to transgress boundaries in various ways, since boundaries differentiate social identities, literary genres, legal practices, or diasporas and homelands. These essays locate the transgressive not outside the classical traditions but in these traditions themselves, having learned from Boyarin that it is often within the tradition and in its terms that we can find challenges to accepted notions of knowledge, text, and ethnic or gender identity. The sections of this volume attempt to mirror this diverse set of topics. Contributors include Julia Watts Belser, Jonathan Boyarin, Shamma Boyarin, Virginia Burrus, Sergey Dolgopolski, Charlotte E. Fonrobert, Simon Goldhill, Erich S. Gruen, Galit Hasan-Rokem, Christine Hayes, Adi Ophir, James Redfield, Elchanan Reiner, Ishay Rosen-Zvi, Lena Salaymeh, Zvi Septimus, Aharon Shemesh, Dina Stein, Eliyahu Stern, Moulie Vidas, Barry Scott Wimpfheimer, Elliot R. Wolfson, Azzan Yadin-Israel, Israel Yuval, and Froma Zeitlin.
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"Originated in a conference held at the University of California, Berkeley, in April 2014"--From the editors. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004345331 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Studies in Matthew's gospel : literary design, intertextuality, and social setting /
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These Studies in Matthew's Gospel by Wim J.C. Weren are the result of scholarly work carried out using recent methods in Biblical exegesis such as structural analysis, text semantics and intertextuality. Part One presents a new proposal regarding the macrostructure of Matthew's Gospel and discusses meanings of textual units from this Gospel on the basis of synchronic research. In Part Two, intertextual theories are described and practical tools are developed that enable us to identify various types of relations between texts from Matthew's Gospel and co-generic or co-thematic textual units from the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint and early Jewish and early Christian writings. Part Three answers the question to what extent the ways in which the disciples are portrayed in Matthew is related to 'real' groups in the Matthean communities. The three successive steps are deliberately chosen and are in a complementary relationship to each other.
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1 online resource (x, 345 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 303-326) and index. :
9789004280519 :
0928-0731 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
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.
'You are a priest forever' : Second Temple Jewish messianism and the priestly christology of the Epistle to the Hebrews /
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Scholars have long questioned the conceptual background for the priestly Christology of the Epistle to the Hebrews, with suggestions including Gnosticism, the thought of Philo of Alexandria, common themes in early Christian theology and exegesis, and the creativity of the author of Hebrews himself. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls prompted waves of enthusiasm for understanding Hebrews in that context, both in terms of the Qumran sect's priestly messianism and understanding of Melchizedek, but claims often were excessive and the approach was discredited. The present study reevaluates the priestly Christology of Hebrews and the presentations of the messianic priest and Melchizedek in the Qumran texts, arguing that the latter do indeed provide the closest parallels to Hebrews' thought.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [205]-224) and index. :
9789047427636 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Isaiah in context : studies in honour of Arie van der Kooij on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday /
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The present volume contains a collection of essays on the Book of Isaiah offered as a tribute to Arie van der Kooij on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday, which coincides with his retirement as Professor of Old Testament at Leiden University. The twenty-four contributions, written by leading scholars in the field of Old Testament studies, focus on the Book of Isaiah within the context of Hebrew and ancient near-eastern writings, particularly those from the Neo-Assyrian period, as well as on the book's reception history , particularly in its Greek and Syriac translations. Together these studies offer a rich and original contribution to the study of the Book of Isaiah in its Hebrew, Aramaic, Assyrian, Greek, Syriac, and Dutch contexts.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004191181 :
0083-5889 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Dust of the ground and breath of life (Gen 2:7) : the problem of a dualistic anthropology in early Judaism and Christianity /
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Issues such as the immortality of the soul, the debate about matter versus life, and whether one was capable of knowing the outside world were all being extensively discussed in many religions and cultures in both East and West. The present volume addresses the concept of an immortal soul in a mortal body, and focuses on early Judaism and Christianity, where this issue is often related to the initial chapters of the book of Genesis. The papers are devoted to the interpretation of Gen 2:7 in relation to the broader issue of dualistic anthropology. They show that the dualism was questioned in different ways within the context of early Judaism and Christianity.
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This volume contains the revised papers of a Themes in Biblical Narrative colloquium which took place at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies of the University of Groningen on September 9-10, 2010. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004334762 :
1388-3909 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Die apokryph gewordenen Evangelien : Studien zu neuen Texten und zu neuen Fragen /
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Known for his studies on the canonical gospels and on Paul, Dieter Lührmann has also done pioneering work on the apocryphal gospels. This volume presents his essays on new fragments of the gospels of Peter and Mary Magdalene, of the Egerton gospel and of the gospel according to the Hebrews. All essays have been revised and updated, and a new one on the gospel of Thomas in Greek has been added. The work is framed by new studies on the problematic claim for a canon, and on following in the footsteps of Jerome in modern scholarship, showing how deeply it has been inspired by his picture of the apocrypha.
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1 online resource (xii, 292 pages) : 3 illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047412533 :
0167-9732 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Mishnah : religious perspectives /
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Condensing research concerning questions of religion which encompass the social history of ideas and the religious uses of language, this book deals with three questions: the relationship of the Mishnah to Scripture, the relationship of the religious ideas people hold to the world in which they live, and the religious meaning of the formalization of language that characterizes the Mishnah in particular. In discussing how the Mishnah relates to Scripture - in the (later) mythic language of Rabbinic Judaism: \'the oral Torah\' to \'the written Torah\' - a complete analysis is presented, based on a systematic application of a single taxonomic program. Then an examination is made of how the stages in the unfolding of the Halakhah of the Mishnah relate to the principal events of the times, which delineate those stages. Here focus is given to those pre-70 C.E. components of the Halakhah that later come to the surface in the Mishnah, but discussion extends to the periods from the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E. to the Bar Kokhba War, concluded in circa 135 C.E., then from the reconstruction, 135 C.E., to the closure of the Mishnah, 200 C.E. Finally attention is given to methods of interpreting the rhetorical forms of the Mishnah in the context of the social culture laid bare by the socio-linguistics of the documents concerned. This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details.
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" ... this book completes the condensation and recapitulation of large-scale research of mine"--Preface. :
1 online resource (xii, 249 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004294110 :
0169-9423 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Mishnah in contemporary perspective.
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The authors of the studies on the Mishnah collected in the present volumes represent the best of contemporary scholarship on that document. In the past thirty years, the Mishnah seen as a document on its own terms has taken its place as a principal focus in the academic study of religion and of Judaism. Many university scholars have participated in the contemporary revolution in the description, analysis, and interpretation of the Mishnah. Nearly all the publishing scholars of the academy (as distinct from the yeshiva or rabbinical seminary) who are now at work are represented in this project, ultimately planned for three volumes. In this and the companion volumes, the editors place on display a broad selection of approaches to the study of the Mishnah in the contemporary academy. What they prove in diverse ways is that the Mishnah defines the critical focus of the study of Judaism. It is a document that rewards study in the academic humanities. Because many viewpoints register here, this is the most representative selection of contemporary Mishnah-study available in any state-of-the-question-collection in a Western language.
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Includes index. :
1 online resource (1 volumes (XV-270 pages)) :
9789004294226 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.