Search results for ""jcb mohr (paul siebeck)""

Parable research has to a large degree ignored the Sermon on the Mount (SM) and for its part, research into the SM has likewise left the parables by the wayside. However, the use of parabolic language in more than one third of the SM influences its interpretation and indeed opens up a new approach to it. In the current volume, Ernst Baasland focuses on this important factor, whilst also taking the rhetoric of Jesus' teaching into consideration. The author maintains that rhetorical features have a great bearing on the interpretation of the text with the overall structure illuminating the entire composition of the sermon. Fresh insights into its oration therefore serve to challenge the source problem in a new way. The religious and philosophical settings of this most well-known of Christ's preachings are clarified by its parables and rhetoric; and the sermon's Jewish background has often been investigated. While the author continues with that particular task, he simultaneously affords more emphasis to the parallels in (Greek) Hellenistic literature. The combining of all these factors leads to a clearer comprehension of the Sermon on the Mount's philosophy of life and provides a better understanding of this classical text.

Read more less

Does the letter to the Hebrews confirm traditional notions of Jewish identity, does it articulate a fresh notion of Christian identity, or is neither of these alternatives adequate? Taking the motif of the "people of God" in Hebrews as his starting point, Ole Jakob Filtvedt explores these questions, and argues that the answer must be related to a paradoxical tension between newness and continuity in Hebrews. Prior attempts to read Hebrews within a supersessionist paradigm are critiqued, but so are more recent interpretations that see Hebrews as confirming a "radical new perspective" on Christian origins.

Read more less

The International Yearbook for Hermeneutics represents one of the prominent currents in contemporary philosophy as well as in bordering disciplines. It gathers studies on questions concerning understanding and interpretation in all relevant fields, including philosophy, theology, jurisprudence, theory of science as well as literary and cultural studies. The Yearbook includes contributions to current debates and on the history of ideas from antiquity to the present. This volume is dedicated to the topic of "The Space of Imagination."

Read more less

Although recent discussions on Matthew have emphasized the document's setting within Judaism, these studies have not analyzed how the Jewish figure of John the Baptist functions within this setting. Brian C. Dennert steps into this gap, arguing that Matthew presents Jesus to be the continuation and culmination of John's ministry in order to strengthen the claims of Matthew's group and to vilify the opponents of his group. By doing this he encourages Jews yet to align with Matthew's group (particularly those who esteem the Baptist) and to gravitate away from its opponents. The author examines texts roughly contemporaneous with Matthew which reveal respect given to John the Baptist at the time of Matthew's composition. The examination of Matthew shows that the first Evangelist more closely connects the Baptist to Jesus while highlighting his rejection by Jewish authorities.

Read more less

The preferred moral curriculum of a Roman education abounded with exemplary stories of Rome's native heroes. To inculcate conceptions of virtuous leadership, politicians and populace alike deployed exempla as rhetorical vehicles of the mos maiorum (way of the ancestors). James Petitfils explores Jewish and Christian participation in this widespread pedagogical practice. After surveying Roman discourse on exemplary leadership, the author consults several texts, written in significantly Romanized environments, celebrating Jewish or Christian ancestral leaders (Josephus' Antiquities 2-4, Philo's Mosis 1-2, 1 Clement, and The Letter of the Churches of Vienne and Lyons). He highlights their respective appropriation, adaptation, and redeployment of the Roman moral idiom on exemplary leadership in the promotion of self-consciously non-Roman ancestral exempla and languages of leadership.

Read more less

The hyphenated phrase 'in-visibility' indicates that the visible and the invisible are inseparable and yet in tension with each other. If originating from acts of (in)visibilization, both the visible and the invisible are ethically imbued. Whether we see or overlook each other, respect or dismiss another's dignity, remember or forget a history of crimes against humanity, our (over)sight has an impact on our interaction. What, then, is implied in seeing the human being as created in the image of an invisible God, as imago Dei? Which (re)sources in Judaism and Christianity can counter idolatry in the sense of cognitive captivity and experiences of abandonment after the Shoah? In addressing such questions, this volume outlines an ethics of in-visibility in an interdisciplinary dialogue between philosophy and theology, cultural history, art and media theory, sociology, literary and gender studies.

Read more less

The purpose of this comprehensive sourcebook by David W. Chapman and Eckhard J. Schnabel is to publish the extra-biblical primary texts that have been cited as relevant for understanding Jesus' trial and crucifixion. The texts in the first part deal with Jesus' trial and interrogation before the Sanhedrin, and the texts in the second part concern Jesus' trial before Pilate. The texts in part three represent crucifixion as a method of execution in antiquity. For each document the authors provide the original text (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, etc.), a translation, and commentary. The commentary describes the literary context and the purpose of each document in context before details are clarified, along with observations on the contribution of these texts to understanding Jesus' trial and crucifixion.

Read more less

Stephen C. Carlson investigates the text of Paul's Epistle to the Galatians and analyses how that text changed over the course of its transmission in manuscript copies over several centuries. For this study, he collated ninety-two textual witnesses of Galatians and arranged them into a genealogical family tree called a stemma codicum, with assistance from a computer-implemented method used in computational biology known as cladistics. Using this global stemma, he establishes a critical text for the epistle and assesses the nature of the textual variations that occurred throughout the text's history of transmission in over 250 significant variant readings, paying particular attention to possible theological motivations. This is the first study to produce a global stemma of any kind for a New Testament book, an accomplishment that was previously thought to be unfeasible.

Read more less

Bradley Arnold examines the argumentative logic and central aim in Paul's letter to the Philippians. A historical context is mapped out that is useful for these purposes, examining the broad structure of thought in ancient moral philosophy (namely, Aristotle, Epicureanism, and Stoicism), ancient athletics, and vivid description. The author then uses these areas to elucidate the nature of Paul's argument in Philippians. In an exegetical analysis of the entire letter he demonstrates that Paul's argument is structured similarly to the pattern of thinking in ancient moral philosophy and that within this framework Paul utilizes athletics at key places to conceptualize the nature of Christian existence. He argues that Paul sums up his perspective on life with the image of the runner in Phil 3:13-14, which functions as a vivid description. This imagery plays a central role in Paul's rhetorical aim in this letter, presenting in nuce his persuasive appeal for the Philippians to pursue Christ as the τέλος of life.

Read more less

Did Luke intend Peter's visionary command to eat 'unclean animals' in Acts 10 to suggest the dissolution of the Jewish Law? Whilst scholars have argued over sources, inconsistent redaction and later reception, many have failed to notice here the novel use of a type of transgression anxiety dream. John Moxon shows how by the incorporation of such naturalistic motifs, Luke takes "revelation" in a new and decidedly psychological direction, probably imitating similar developments in Graeco-Roman biography. If the vision reveals an illegitimate transfer of disgust within an exaggerated halakha of separation, then its target is prejudice and inconsistency, not the Jew-Gentile divide as such, as underlined by the ironic contrast with the pious Cornelius. In this reading, Luke's non-supercessionism is maintained, whilst showing him acutely aware of the kinds of nightmare holding many back from the nascent Gentile mission.

Read more less

How does God's government function and how is it structured? Ellen White helps one gain a better understanding of Yahweh's position and relationship to the other divine beings and contributes to the academic discussion surrounding monotheism and polytheism in the Hebrew Bible.

Read more less

The claim that Revelation's hymns function as did Classical tragic choral lyrics insofar as they comment upon or interpret the surrounding narrative has become axiomatic in studies of Revelation.Justin Jeffcoat Schedtler marks an advance in this line of inquiry by offering an exegetical analysis of Revelation's hymns alongside a presentation of the forms and functions of ancient tragic choruses and choral lyrics. Evaluating the hymns in light of the varieties and complexities of ancient tragic choruses, he demonstrate that they are not best evaluated in terms of choral lyrics generally, but in terms of dramatic hymns in particular, insofar as they constitute mythological-theological reflections on the surrounding narrative, and function to situate the surrounding dramatic activity in a particular mythological-theological contexts.

Read more less

Although it has become increasingly popular to understand the earliest rural Jesus movement as emerging from a peasant milieu, proponents of this model have not yet taken the time to explore the ramifications for a highly stylized written document being the earliest evidence for this movement. On the contrary, the Sayings Gospel Q, a sophisticated literary text having affinities with other ancient literature and even documentary papyri, does not seem to be a product of a peasant milieu. Even so, Q does not appear to be the product of elites either, for the text is rife with tropes of social and economic marginality. In order to access the elusive "middling stratum" from which Q's authors may stem, Sarah E. Rollens looks cross-culturally at middling figures to understand the ideological project in Q.

Read more less

Paul's Letter to the Philippians is one of the most important but also most difficult parts of the corpus Paulinum. The main difficulties are caused by unresolved issues in the interpretation, which are reflected in the current commentary literature. In the present work, Hans Dieter Betz does not offer a full commentary, but rather seven chapters of new exegetical investigations focusing on controversial passages and issues of the letter. These chapters represent separate engagements over a period of several years and employ the standard historical-critical methodologies, including rhetorical and literary criticism. The introduction clarifies the author's understanding and use of key terminology such as text, manuscript, translation, critical-historical commentary, literary criticism, letter and letter-writing, literary integrity, and verification. As a result, the studies offer new proposals for analyzing difficult passages and issues, and lay the groundwork for understanding the letter as a whole. This letter is decisive primarily for understanding Paul's thinking and acting during his last days when he was imprisoned in Rome (ca. 62 CE). In this situation, he sees clearly what is at stake for his own "life or death", his churches, his collaborators, and the Gospel mission in the future. He took this last letter as being his final chance to set an example on facing personal catastrophe, even raising the question as to whether or not everything had been in vain. He wrote in retrospect of his entire life, but also looking forward to beyond his own death.

Read more less

To gain a proper understanding of a foreign legal system, a legal scholar cannot rely on written sources alone. He must also familiarise himself with how these are interpreted and applied to hard cases. This is crucial to comparative studies and the harmonisation of law in Europe. However, materials explaining legal methods are often difficult to access for foreign lawyers, as they tend to be written in the national language and build on a series of unspoken preconceptions inherent to the specific legal order. It is therefore the purpose of this book to provide the comparative legal scholar with the tools to overcome some of these initial obstacles and gain a better understanding of how colleagues from different legal systems think about law.The present volume gives an introduction to the legal methods of the countries in the Nordic and Germanic legal families, primarily addressed to foreign readers, thus explaining also those unspoken preconceptions. It further seeks historical and cultural explanations for present-day legal methods, and explores the impact of internationalisation as well as the possibility of a common European legal method.

Read more less

Benjamin A. Edsall provides a new approach to the classic quest for the preaching and teaching (or the kerygma, didache and catechesis) of the early Church. His method draws on ancient communication practices whereby communicators rely on knowledge they expect their audience to possess. This reconstruction of early Christian instruction is based on rhetorical cues in 1 Thessalonians, 1 Corinthians and Romans. Passages are grouped and analyzed according to the way in which they function as appeals to knowledge. This Pauline lens, the author argues, illuminates not only Paul's formative instruction - what he taught while establishing his communities and how he built on this initial instruction in his letters - but also how he assumed certain elements present in his own teaching to be part of a shared formative heritage among non-Pauline communities in Rome.

Read more less

The use of biblical and parabiblical texts on amulets and other apotropaic objects was ubiquitous in late antique Egypt. Among the passages most frequently cited were the opening lines ( incipits) of the Gospels, the Psalms, and other scriptural texts. Scholars have repeatedly observed the apotropaic use of such incipits, but have yet to subject them to thorough and focused analysis. In the present volume, Joseph E. Sanzo addresses this scholarly need by offering the first sustained study of the scriptural incipits on Greek and Coptic amulets and other apotropaic objects from late antique Egypt. In addition to providing a catalog and edition of these texts, the author draws on insights from cognitive linguistics, ritual studies, and the history of the book to establish a typology of the incipits and to determine their ritual functions.

Read more less

Cotton Mather's synoptic commentary on Ezra through the Psalms contains the core of the massive theological and scholarly endeavor that he called "Biblia Americana." Here, he links biblical to secular history, analyzes the problem of suffering and evil in creation, and considers the Psalms both as Hebrew poetry and as Christian prophecy. In his annotations on Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, Mather explores topics that range from the philosophical underpinnings of international law to court customs in the Persian Empire to the uneven progress of the reformations attempted by Ezra and Nehemiah. In Job, Mather turns to questions of theodicy and natural philosophy. The Psalms commentary shows his linguistic acumen and his formidable skill as a Christian Hebraist, as well as his sensitivity to difficult matters of hermeneutics. Throughout, he displays the lively wit, curious intellect, and compassionate nature that made him one of the most popular ministers of the colonial period.

Read more less

Irregular immigration is at the forefront of the political and public debate in the European Union. Images of desperate people arriving at the southern shores of the EU regularly dominate the media coverage. In this book, Steffen Minter focuses on the coordination problems between EU Member States in dealing with immigrants and refugees entering the EU. The author demonstrates that the enforcement of the external EU border constitutes a public good as long as irregular immigrants have the possibility to move on between member states once they have entered EU territory. In this scenario he analyzes the interaction between border enforcement and immigration amnesties from an economic point of view. Furthermore, he introduces a mechanism to implement financial burden sharing between Member States, so that an efficient level of border enforcement can be achieved.

Read more less

In this book, Meghan Henning explores the rhetorical function of the early Christian concept of hell. Building upon classical rhetorical techniques and the descriptions of Hades in Greek and Roman literature, she contends that the ancient Christian concept of hell was developed as a part of a distinctively Christian paideia. She traces the history of this interpretive process, illustrating the ways in which early Christians drew upon the Greek and Roman system of ethical and cultural education, to create and maintain their own culture. By doing this the author demonstrates that Matthew's gospel is the nexus in which early Christian ideas about eternal punishment begin to crystallize, and becomes the focal point for later apocalyptic and patristic authors who interpret and reshape Matthew's "weeping and gnashing of teeth" in a variety of pedagogical contexts.

Read more less

In this study of motives and arguments in Jesus' halakic conflicts, Thomas Kazen suggests a way out of the present methodological impasse in the use of traditional criteria of authenticity in historical Jesus research, at least when it comes to those Jesus traditions that relate to halakic issues. Kazen employs results from recent research on the development of halakah during the Second Temple period, in particular from Aharon Shemesh's discussion of two models (developmental and reflective) for explaining halakic development within and between various Jewish movements, and three areas of tension for analyzing dissenting views (revelation vs. interpretation, Scripture vs. tradition, and nominalism vs. realism). Kazen revisits the Synoptic conflict narratives about Sabbath observance, purity rules and divorce practices, and discusses motives and arguments ascribed to Jesus, whether implicitly or explicitly, by the texts themselves, or by modern interpreters. By combining analyses of halakic development with tradition and redaction criticism, Kazen disentangles theological motives from reasonable historical explanations and suggests relative dates and contexts for motives and arguments often ascribed to Jesus. He questions interpretations which focus on unique individual or halakic authority and suggests that the earliest Jesus tradition appeals to the priority of human need and to creational intent, viewing revelation as based on plain reading and a realistic understanding of Scripture. Jesus' stance is best explained within the framework of prophetic criticism and a traditional Israelite understanding of Torah. With this work the author contributes as much to our understanding of halakic development during the Second Temple and Tannitic periods as he does to our understanding of the historical Jesus and his relationship to contemporary movements.

Read more less

The treatise De mundo (On the Cosmos), dated around the 1st century BCE, offers a cosmology in the Peripatetic tradition which draws also on Platonic and Stoic thought and subordinates what happens in the cosmos to the might of an omnipotent god. Thus the work is paradigmatic for the philosophical and religious concepts of the early imperial age, which offer points of contact with nascent Christianity. In line with the aims of the SAPERE series, this volume on De mundo is explicitly interdisciplinary by nature, bringing together contributions from scholars from a broad spectrum of disciplines and specialisations which focus on specific topics, each from its own disciplinary perspective. The volume contains a Greek text and translation of De mundo as well as interpretive essays on the language and style, geography, cosmotheology and the reception in or possible influence of De mundo in various intellectual traditions.

Read more less

Teresa J. Calpino's social-historical examination opens out the significance of two women often bypassed in studies of Acts of the Apostles, Tabitha (Acts 9:36—43) and Lydia (Acts 16:11—15). In this first ever work to analyze these women as a pair, Calpino takes special notice of the ways in which depictions of the ideal woman in Greco-Roman literature are at variance with the descriptions of Tabitha and Lydia. She uncovers the signals to the Greco-Roman audience concerning each woman's portrait, as single, financially independent and socially respected as benefactresses, but each in her own unique manner. While recognizing certain differences in the societal parameters and cultural conventions that still held in the Greek East and Roman West, the author shows how each woman clearly belongs to the new movement across the Empire in which women take a more active part in business and commerce, as leaders and entrepreneurs. The particular cameo appearance of each woman reflects in an important manner that rather than shrinking into the background, women continued to play a vital role in post-Pauline, emergent Christianity.

Read more less

This volume represents the most thorough study of characters and characterization in the Fourth Gospel heretofore published. Building on several different narrative approaches, the contributors assembled here offer sixty-two essays related to characters and group characters in John. Among these are detailed studies presenting fresh perspectives on characters who play a major role in the Gospel (e.g., Peter, Mary Magdalene, etc.), as well as original studies of characters who have never been the focus of narrative analysis before, characters often glossed over in commentaries as insignificant (e.g., the boy with the loaves and fish, the parents of the man born blind, etc.). Clearly, characters in John stand in the shadow of the protagonist—Jesus. In this volume, however, they step fully into the light. Thus illuminated, it becomes clear how complex and nuanced many of them are.

Read more less

This collection of essays by Isaiah M. Gafni reflects over forty years of research on central issues of Jewish history in one of its formative eras. Questions relating to representations of the past, beginning with Josephus but primarily in rabbinic and post-rabbinic literature, represent an axial theme in this volume. Throughout the collection the author addresses the tension between realities on the ground and the historiography that shaped the image of that reality for all subsequent generations. Two specific clusters of studies analyze the emergence and development of the Babylonian rabbinic community, as well as the complex relationship between the Judaean centre and the Jewish diaspora in Late Antiquity. A final selection of essays examines the impact of modern ideologies and revised methods of research on the image of Jewish life and rabbinic leadership in late antique Judaism.

Read more less

Acts of Paul is a collection of early Christian traditions that were not included in the canonized Acts: the Acts of Paul and Thekla, 3 Corinthians, the Martyrdom of Paul, and other fabulous stories, such as Paul baptizing a lion. By the end of the second century, there was a rumor in North Africa that "Acts of Paul" had been fabricated by a presbyter in Asia Minor (Tertullian, De baptismo 17.5); and to this day, it is alleged that Acts of Paul is later than and inferior to the traditions preserved in Acts - historically, theologically, and otherwise. But what evidence is there for the composition and reception of Acts of Paul? In this study Glenn E. Snyder critically examines Greek, Latin, and Coptic witnesses to Acts of Paul from the second to sixth centuries, with chapters on the independently circulating acts, extant collections, and other evidence for the formation of Acts of Paul.

Read more less

Georg A. Walser investigates the use of the Old Testament (Gen. 47:31b; Ps. 40:7b; Jer. 31:33) in the Letter to the Hebrews, taking the complicated textual history of the quotations into account, especially the Septuagint and the possibility that different Hebrew texts may underlie the Greek translation. Further, he draws on the assumption that Hebrews was composed in a Jewish context, where the Old Testament text had been interpreted for a long time. It is also presupposed that this exegesis was handed down in the post Second Temple Jewish community and in the early church. Hence primary sources, such as Talmud, Midrash and early church fathers, are consulted. The author shows that several versions of Old Testament texts were interpreted, which had a decisive impact on the exegesis and that some versions of the texts were favoured in the Jewish context while others were preferred in the early Church.

Read more less

Interest in the Greek translations of scripture popularly known as "the Septuagint" has never been greater, with major translation and commentary projects completed or well underway in German, French, English, and Spanish. Dating from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE, these translations open a window onto early Jewish interpretation of the Bible. Yet crucial problems of "Septuagint hermeneutics," particularly the question of how to identify interpretive elements in a translated text, remain unresolved. Drawing on important work both in translation studies and in literary theory, J. Ross Wagner develops an interpretive approach that combines patient investigation of the process of translation with careful attention to the rhetorical shape of the translated text. The author demonstrates the fruitfulness of this method through a close reading of Isaiah's opening vision (Isa 1:1-31) as both translation and text. The Greek translator interprets Isaiah 1 for his audience by elucidating its language, modulating its discourse and contextualizing its message. By amplifying Isaiah's criticism of those who rely on their wealth, power, and political connections rather than on the Lord, and by characterizing the blatant disregard for social and economic justice on the part of Zion's elites as a refusal to heed God's Law, the translator depicts trusting adherence to the Law as central to the life of God's people. In this way, Old Greek Isaiah makes a distinctive contribution to the formation and preservation of Jewish identity in the Hellenistic diaspora.Published in North America by Baylor University Press, Waco.

Read more less

Daniele Pevarello analyzes the Sentences of Sextus, a second century collection of Greek aphorisms compiled by Sextus, an otherwise unknown Christian author. The specific character of Sextus' collection lies in the fact that the Sentences are a Christian rewriting of Hellenistic sayings, some of which are still preserved in pagan gnomologies and in Porphyry. Pevarello investigates the problem of continuity and discontinuity between the ascetic tendencies of the Christian compiler and aphorisms promoting self-control in his pagan sources. In particular, he shows how some aspects of the Stoic, Cynic, Platonic and Pythagorean moral traditions, such as sexual restraint, voluntary poverty, the practice of silence and of a secluded life were creatively combined with Sextus' ascetic agenda against the background of the biblical tradition. Drawing on this adoption of Hellenistic moral traditions, Pevarello shows how great a part the moral tradition of Greek paideia played in the shaping and development of self-restraint among early Christian ascetics.

Read more less

In this book Christoph Ochs presents for the first time an extensive study of the use of the Gospel of Matthew in Jewish polemics. These often overlooked texts advance numerous exegetical arguments against Jesus' divinity, the incarnation, and the Trinity. Seven Jewish polemical key texts comprise the main sources for this inquiry: Qissat Mujādalat al-Usquf (c. 8/9th century) and Sefer Nestor ha-Komer (before 1170), Sefer Milhamot ha-Shem (c. 1170), Sefer Yosef ha-Meqanne (c. 13th century), Nizzahon Vetus (13-14th century), Even Bohan (late 14th century), Kelimmat ha-Goyim (c. 1397), and Hizzuq Emunah (c. 1594) et al. Together with the relevant passages in the original Hebrew and in translation each text is presented with a historical and exegetical introduction. Contemporary parallels are also discussed, but in less detail. The result is a compendium of arguments against the divinity of Jesus based on the Jewish interpretation of Matthew. Jewish polemicists focused in particular on Jesus' portrayal as a human (e.g. as sleeping, hungry, and ignorant) and passages where he differentiates himself from God. Some of these arguments can be traced back to philosophical and heterodox dogmatic debates in antiquity, while others look surprisingly modern. The aim of the polemicists was to highlight what they saw as contradictions between Christian Scriptures and Christian beliefs.

Read more less

The early Christian texts discussed in this book are often treated as "gnostic" ones. The studies by Ismo Dunderberg collected here, however, approach them as witnesses to the views of educated second-century Christians engaged in dialogue with philosophical traditions. Following the idea that ancient philosophical schools first and foremost provided their adherents with a way of life, the author explores issues related to morality and lifestyle in non-canonical gospels and among groups that were gradually denounced as heretical in the church. Prominent themes he deals with in this book include the soul's progress from material concerns to a life dominated by spirit, the control of emotions (such as desire, anger and grief), the avoidance of luxury, the ideal "perfect human" as a tool in moral instruction, classifications of humankind into distinct groups based upon their moral advancement, and Christian debates about the value of martyrdom. In addition Dunderberg offers a critical review of some recent trends and attitudes towards New Testament scholarship, especially those in which the non-canonical texts discussed in this book are either ignored or deemed as irrelevant, irrational, and sometimes even dangerous.

Read more less

Dalia Marx provides a general introduction and feminist commentary on the last three tractates of the order of Qodashim. Each tractate deals with different aspects of the Second Temple as perceived by the rabbis and each sheds its own light on gender issues. The commentary on Tamid, a tractate dealing with the priestly service in the Temple, discusses the priests as a "gender unto themselves" and considers women as potential participants in the lay-service of the Temple and perhaps even as part of the sacred service. Middot concerns itself with the design of the Temple, and the commentary explores sacred space from a gendered perspective. Finally, Marx turns to Qinnim, a tractate dealing with bird offerings, typically brought by women. The commentary shows how the tractate employs images of women to develop its discourse. This volume opens a unique window onto the rabbis' perspectives on the Temple and gender related matters.

Read more less

Judean pillar figurines are one of the most common ritual objects from Iron II Israel. These small terracotta females have received a great deal of scholarly attention, appearing in discussions about Israelite religion, monotheism, and women's practice. Yet the figurines are still poorly understood. Modern interpreters connect the figurines with goddesses, popular religion, and females but often base their arguments on the presumed significance of the figurines' breasts and the Hebrew Bible. In contrast, archaeological context is frequently overshadowed or oversimplified. In an attempt to address these problems and to understand figurine rituals in Jerusalem, Erin Darby evaluates relevant Near Eastern texts, archaeological context, biblical texts, and Near Eastern iconography. She also explores changes in figurine iconography, the function of the figurines in rituals of healing and protection and the gender of figurine users.

Read more less

The catastrophic events at the beginning of the sixth century BCE resulted in a theological crisis for the Judean elite. The end of the only surviving Hebrew kingdom was explained by a theology of divine abandonment, a motif widely understood in the ancient Near East. Many years later Jewish exiles would return to rebuild and settle Jerusalem. During their time in Babylonia and in the Persian period this group redefined the traditional understanding of divine presence and developed various new understandings that could explain YHWH's commitment to Jerusalem as well as the cataclysmic events that they had experienced. This collection of essays from a conference held in Göttingen in May 2011 examines changing ideas of divine presence and absence in late biblical texts. The essays tackle subjects such as the understanding of divine presence in Deuteronomy, Ezekiel, the Psalms and Ezra-Nehemiah, as well as topics such as divine abandonment, aniconism, the exaltation of Torah and the spirit of God. These Judean perspectives are contextualized by essays that examine ideas of divine presence elsewhere in the ancient Levant and the Near East, and modern theological and philosophical attempts to speak about the presence or absence of God. This volume is the first publication in the context of the Sofja-Kovalevskaja Research Group under the leadership of Nathan MacDonald. This research group seeks to examine the considerable diversity in Israelite and Jewish monotheistic thought and practice during the exilic and Persian periods, particularly through an examination of the relevant biblical texts. The project consists of a small team of post-doctoral and doctoral researchers based at the Georg-August Universität Göttingen. The project has a strong contemporary resonance because of concerns expressed about the relationship between monotheism, hegemony and violence.

Read more less

Research on Q has frequently been driven by questions addressing the legitimacy of the two-source hypothesis or by questions related to the reconstruction of this source. As such, Q scholarship has often viewed its tasks primarily through the lenses of source- and redaction-critical perspectives. The authors of this volume make a conscious effort to refocus, at least to a certain extent, discussions concerning Q from questions of reconstruction to narratival and metaphorical aspects of this text. Narrative elements such as space, time, characters, plot, etc. on the one hand, and metaphorical elements such as Bildfeldtradition, socio-historical aspects of the images employed, etc., on the other, can be recognized and examined even apart from a precise, verbal reconstruction of a text. Since parables are an especially fruitful area for such considerations, the parables found in Q receive particular emphasis and consideration. Along these lines, this publication is intended to provide not only new perspectives on old questions in Q scholarship (e.g., tradition-history, social context, tradents, etc.) but also to provide stimulus for new directions in the study of Q.

Read more less

This volume offers an extensive collection of cutting-edge articles in Jewish studies and related areas that celebrate Peter Schäfer and take their lead from his groundbreaking scholarship. Among the topics addressed are Jewish material culture in the Graeco-Roman world; the evolution of rabbinic literature and thought; the appropriate methods for producing editions of pre-modern texts; gender, embodiment, and the nature of the divine; Jewish representations of Jesus; and the reception of Hebrew sources by Christian scholars in the early modern period. The collection lays particular emphasis on the dynamics of continuity and change in Jewish society, culture, and religion in the ancient Mediterranean world, from the Second Temple period to the rise of Islam. It also traces how in the course of the medieval and early modern periods Jews, Christians, and Muslims came to participate in—and contest—shared literary, intellectual, and religious traditions. The contributions to this Festschrift transcend the entrenched divisions that too often fracture scholarly dialogue among specialists. Its broad scope reflects the startling breadth of Schäfer's own research interests as well as the lasting impact of his contributions to the academic study of Jewish literature and history, which have made visible the inner diversity of Judaism and stressed the essential place of Jewish studies within the humanities.

Read more less

From its very beginning, Christianity was an innovative movement which had to construct and maintain its identity, morality, and social as well as theological boundary markers as it developed from a religion of conversion into a religion of tradition. Early Christianity's sensitivity to "outsiders" evolved in various ways as circumstances and socio-cultural contexts changed. In this volume scholars from around the world reflect on the dynamic relationship between mission and ethos in the New Testament and Early Christianity, focusing particularly on the sensitivity, or lack thereof, to outsiders, and thereby offering new insights into old questions. Most of the New Testament and several second century books are individually studied by specialists in the field making this book a valuable reference volume on the topic. Contributors:Andries G. van Aarde, Jonathan Draper, John Dunne, Ernest van Eck, Paul Foster, Erhard Gerstenberger, Christopher M. Hays, Dirk J. Human, Stephan Joubert, Jacobus (Kobus) Kok, Andreas Köstenberger, Abraham Malherbe, Johann Meylahn, David Moffitt, Candida Moss, Tobias Nicklas, Nelus Niemandt, Heike Omerzu, Bert-Jan Lietaert Peerbolte, Jeremy Punt, Volker Rabens, Dieter Roth, Christopher Rowland, Herbert Schlögel, Gert Steyn, Andrie du Toit, Chris L. De Wet, Ruben Zimmermann

Read more less

Asle Eikrem strives to develop a systematic philosophical understanding of the constitutive structures of religious discourses. Different philosophical traditions (phenomenology, hermeneutics, pragmatics, metaphysics or analytical philosophical thinking) have articulated these structures in their own distinctive ways. The author aims to show how insights from partly conflicting traditions can be coherently reconstructed within the framework of a comprehensive philosophical presentation. The central thesis guiding his work is inspired by the deep-metaphysics of German philosopher Lorenz B. Puntel, and states that the relation between the pragmatic, semantic and ontological structures of religious discourses must be understood as internally necessary. They cannot be thought independently from each other. The pragmatic and semantic structures of religious discourses must be understood as substructures in a comprehensive ontological dimension (Being) that is characterized as practicable and expressible.

Read more less

Edwin Judge's description of early Christian communities as 'scholastic communities' provides the starting point of a search for a sociological description of the Christian communities portrayed in 1 Corinthians, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. An original methodology uses a multi-layered exegetical approach to study every occurrence of the vocabulary of 'teaching' in the letters. The focus is on the activity of teaching (e.g., participants, method, manner, purpose, result, etc). The vocabulary represents ten semantic groupings, which shed further light on the place and practice of education in the communities ( core-teaching, speaking, traditioning, announcing, revealing, worshipping, commanding, correcting, remembering / imitation, and false teaching). Claire S. Smith supports and develops Judge's 1960 description, advancing on it by showing that the communities are better described as 'learning communities' with horizontal (human-human) and vertical (divine-human) dimensions.

Read more less

The Order of Qodashim in the Mishnah and the Babylonian Talmud discusses the Temple and its rituals, especially the sacrifices. It is well known that the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, while it stood, was almost exclusively a male institution. The purpose of the feminist commentary on Seder Qodashim is to discover niches in this elaborate system where women were present and active. Differences between male and female participation in the Temple cult - as they are presented in the mishnaic and talmudic texts - are the topic of the essays in this volume. The contributions by highly esteemed scholars of rabbinic literature represent a surprising selection of topics that touch on Temple and gender. This volume sums up two conferences, held in Berlin and Jerusalem, devoted to the Order of Qodashim, initiating the Feminist Commentary Series on this Order.

Read more less

The topics covered in this volume range from classics of the on-going discussion on the economic analysis of international law - such as the issue of legitimacy of customary international law - to more recent topics such as internet privacy, private military contractors, the fight against piracy, the International Criminal Court and the highly topical issue of land grabbing.

Read more less

After the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the primary form of Jewish worship in Palestine shifted from offering sacrifices in Jerusalem to non-sacrificial forms of worship in local synagogue buildings. While the literary and archaeological evidence from the first few centuries CE makes this shift clear, the evidence is less clear about the extent of synagogue worship at this time. In other words, the evidence doesn't explicitly tell us whether most Jews in late-antique Palestine actually participated in synagogue worship. In this book, Chad Spigel suggests that it is possible to ascertain the extent of synagogue worship by determining and analyzing the seating capacities of ancient synagogue buildings. He begins by filling a lacuna in the scholarly literature with the creation of a methodology that can be used to determine the seating capacity of any ancient synagogue building. The seating capacity methodology is then applied to ancient synagogue buildings from the Roman and Byzantine Periods, thus creating a catalog of seating capacities for late-antique Palestine. The seating capacities are then analyzed in conjunction with ancient population estimates and other demographic data in an effort to better understand local Jewish worship practices. By gathering and analyzing seating capacity and demographic data for more than fifty ancient synagogue buildings, the author not only shows that the extent of synagogue worship varied from place to place, he also provides an important resource for scholars of late-antique Judaism.

Read more less

The present volume brings together papers by internationally renowned specialists in Jewish history in the Roman period. Most of them were read at a conference at Tel Aviv University in 2009 in honour of Aharon Oppenheimer. The volume focuses on a number of well-defined key topics in the history of the Jews both in Judea and in the diaspora: first of all the image of Jews among non-Jews and of non-Jews among Jews; questions of social and intellectual history, mostly those dealing with the transformation that took place as a result of the failed Jewish revolts against Rome and urgent issues in modern scholarship.Studies to be mentioned here are: the relationship and cultural differences between Palestinian and Babylonian Jews; the relationship between Jews and early Christians; the evolving image of first century Judaism as projected in the early Christian sources and modern scholarship; the role of the sages in this period, conversion to Judaism, and Jewish resistance and martyrdom under Roman rule.Many of the papers provide a new assessment of the relevant subjects in the light of changing views of social and religious history. Central to many of the papers is a focus on attitudes toward others and collective image: the Jews as seen by others; Jews looking at others and at internal groups. Another category of articles are chapters in social and intellectual history with a sensitive and controversial ideology in the background, some of them providing provocative re-assessments.

Read more less

"In this splendid work the reader is introduced to a re-evaluation of the nature of 'Biblical Hebrew'. The author suggests a new model for understanding the north-western Semitic dialects in general and the Hebrew in particular. […] This is a highly recommended work for scholars and students interested in the history and development of Hebrew as part of the northwestern Semitic languages."C A P van Tonder in Old Testament Essays 8:2 (1995), pp. 302-303"This is an important book, not only for scholars concerned with the history of the Hebrew language but also for those investigating dating and background of Old Testament literature. It is thought-provoking and reflects an impressive erudition."Geoffrey Khan in Vetus Testamentum XLVII (1997), no. 3, pp. 409-412"Young's theory is provocative and far-reaching. It comprehends a large amount of evidence with an elegantly simple explanation."Marsha White in Journal of Biblical Literature 11 (1997), pp. 730-732

Read more less

The rapid expansion of non-discrimination provisions through EU legislation and court decisions gives rise to the need to determine the foundations, objectives and limitations of protection against discrimination in relation to freedom of contract. This new challenge in the field of European private law may only be overcome through a discussion of the different legal traditions in Europe. Such a discussion is presented in this volume by legal scholars from a number of European nations.

Read more less

A central rhetorical strategy of Ephesians involves the portrayal of Christ as an ideal king who reunites a fractured cosmos and humanity through his reign. In this comprehensive study, Julien Smith shows how this literary characterization unifies the letter's major themes: reconciling humanity with God, uniting Jew and gentile, establishing ecclesiastical harmony, and defeating hostile powers arrayed against the church. The author grounds his analysis in a thorough account of the kingly ideal's powerful contemporary cultural resonance, which was rooted in the widespread yearning within both Greco-Roman and Jewish thought for a golden age inaugurated by a divinely ordained monarch. For Ephesians' author and audience, only Christ the ideal king has power to form identity and transform behavior.

Read more less

Joel Harter reconstructs Samuel Taylor Coleridge's intellectual project as a philosophy of faith that anticipates modern philosophical hermeneutics, challenges reductive notions of reason and personhood, and illustrates the progressive potential of the biblical tradition. His central claim is that Coleridge's definition of the symbol is his attempt to reclaim an allegorical vision in response to modern alienation. The symbolic imagination affirms meaning through ongoing interpretation and informs Coleridge's various efforts in literature, philosophy, theology, and cultural criticism. Harter examines Coleridge's complex appropriation of Immanuel Kant and Friedrich Schelling, and clarifies the relationship of symbol to allegory and irony. Harter also responds to later postmodern challenges to meaning and transcendence. In a discussion that includes Paul Ricoeur, David Tracy, and modern theologies of symbol the author concludes that Coleridge's understanding of the symbol reconciles reason and revelation and that creative imagination is necessary for critical philosophy and theology.

Read more less

Death is one of the major themes of 'First Isaiah,' although it has not generally been recognized as such. Images of death are repeatedly used by the prophet and his earliest tradents.The book begins by concisely summarizing what is known about death in the Ancient Near East during the Iron Age II, covering beliefs and practices in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Syria-Palestine, and Judah/Israel. Incorporating both textual and archeological data, Christopher B. Hays surveys and analyzes existing scholarly literature on these topics from multiple fields.Focusing on the text's meaning for its producers and its initial audiences, he describes the ways in which the 'rhetoric of death' functioned in its historical context and offers fresh interpretations of more than a dozen passages in Isa 5-38. He shows how they employ the imagery of death that was part of their cultural contexts, and also identifies ways in which they break new creative ground.This holistic approach to questions that have attracted much scholarly attention in recent decades produces new insights not only for the interpretation of specific biblical passages, but also for the formation of the book of Isaiah and for the history of ancient Near Eastern religions.

Read more less