{"product_id":"a-kingdom-of-priests-9780812239508","title":"A Kingdom of Priests","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eAccording to the account in the Book of Exodus, God addresses the children of Israel as they stand before Mt. Sinai with the words, You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (19:6). The sentence, Martha Himmelfarb observes, is paradoxical, for priests are by definition a minority, yet the meaning in context is clear: the entire people is holy. The words also point to some significant tensions in the biblical understanding of the people of Israel. If the entire people is holy, why does it need priests? If membership in both people and priesthood is a matter not of merit but of birth, how can either the people or its priests hope to be holy? How can one reconcile the distance between the honor due the priest and the actual behavior of some who filled the role? What can the people do to make itself truly a kingdom of priests?\u003cbr\u003eHimmelfarb argues that these questions become central in Second Temple Judaism. She considers a range of texts from this period, including th\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction\u003cbr\u003e 1. Priest and Scribe: Ancestry and Professional Skill in the \u003ci\u003eBook of the Watchers\u003c\/i\u003e, the Wisdom of Ben Sira, and \u003ci\u003eAramaic Levi\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 2. \u003ci\u003eJubilees\u003c\/i\u003e' Kingdom of Priests\u003cbr\u003e 3. Priesthood and Purity Laws: \u003ci\u003eThe Temple Scroll\u003c\/i\u003e and the \u003ci\u003eDamascus Document\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 4. Priesthood and Sectarianism: The \u003ci\u003eRule of the Community\u003c\/i\u003e, the \u003ci\u003eDamascus Document\u003c\/i\u003e, and the Book of Revelation\u003cbr\u003e 5. Priesthood and Allegory: Philo and Alexandrian Judaism\u003cbr\u003e 6. \"The Children of Abraham Your Friend\": The End of Priesthood, the Rise of Christianity, and the Neutralization of Jewish Sectarianism\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments\u003cbr\u003e Bibliography\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Pennsylvania Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49405712761175,"sku":"9780812239508","price":52.7,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780812239508.jpg?v=1730493369","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/a-kingdom-of-priests-9780812239508","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}