Search results for ""Author Peter Schäfer""

Peter Schäfer befasst sich mit den Rückwirkungen des sich herauskristallisierenden Christentums auf das zeitgenössische rabbinische Judentum, d.h. den Einflüssen, die das zu sich selbst findende Christentum auf das Judentum ausübte.Nach der viel diskutierten Erzählung vom verschwundenen Messiasbaby im Jerusalemer Talmud werden Auseinandersetzungen zwischen Rabbinen und diversen Häretikern bezüglich der Frage des einen Gottes oder einer möglichen Vielzahl von Göttern untersucht. Vor allem die im Christentum allmählich konkrete Gestalt annehmende Idee einer göttlichen Zweiheit (Vater und Sohn) bzw. Dreiheit (Vater, Sohn und Heiliger Geist) hat im rabbinischen Judentum deutlichere Spuren hinterlassen als bisher meist angenommen. Daneben spielen Vorstellungen eine wichtige Rolle, die sich aus dem Menschensohn des Danielbuches im Judentum und im Christentum entwickelten; im babylonischen Talmud und in der frühen jüdischen Mystik tritt uns dann die Gestalt eines höchsten Engels mit Namen Metatron entgegen, der sogar den Beinamen "Kleiner Gott" erhält. Abschliessend wird ein klassischer rabbinischer Midrasch vorgestellt, der ganz unbefangen den Gedanken des stellvertretenden Sühneleidens des Messias (wieder) in das Judentum einführt.Die Grenzen zwischen "Rechtgläubigkeit" und "Häresie" erweisen sich auch im Judentum als fließend, und mehr als einmal drängt sich die häretische Überlegung auf, ob man nicht nur von der "Geburt des Christentums aus dem Geist des Judentums" sprechen sollte, sondern umgekehrt auch von der "Geburt des Judentums aus dem Geist des Christentums".

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In late antiquity, as Christianity emerged from Judaism, it was not only the new religion that was being influenced by the old. The rise and revolutionary challenge of Christianity also had a profound influence on rabbinic Judaism, which was itself just emerging and, like Christianity, trying to shape its own identity. In The Jewish Jesus, Peter Schafer reveals the crucial ways in which various Jewish heresies, including Christianity, affected the development of rabbinic Judaism. He even shows that some of the ideas that the rabbis appropriated from Christianity were actually reappropriated Jewish ideas. The result is a demonstration of the deep mutual influence between the sister religions, one that calls into question hard and fast distinctions between orthodoxy and heresy, and even Judaism and Christianity, during the first centuries CE.

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In late antiquity, as Christianity emerged from Judaism, it was not only the new religion that was being influenced by the old. The rise and revolutionary challenge of Christianity also had a profound influence on rabbinic Judaism, which was itself just emerging and, like Christianity, trying to shape its own identity. In The Jewish Jesus, Peter Schafer reveals the crucial ways in which various Jewish heresies, including Christianity, affected the development of rabbinic Judaism. He even shows that some of the ideas that the rabbis appropriated from Christianity were actually reappropriated Jewish ideas. The result is a demonstration of the deep mutual influence between the sister religions, one that calls into question hard and fast distinctions between orthodoxy and heresy, and even Judaism and Christianity, during the first centuries CE.

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This book provides the reader for the first time with a history of pre-kabbalistic Jewish mysticism. It covers the period from the Hebrew Bible (Ezekiel) up to Merkavah mysticism, the first full-fledged mystical movement in late antiquity. Many scholars have dealt with Merkavah mysticism proper and its ramifications for classical rabbinic Judaism, but very few have paid full attention to the evidence of the Hebrew Bible, the apocalyptic literature, Qumran, and Philo. It is this gap between the Hebrew Bible and Merkavah mysticism that Peter Schäfer wishes to fill in a systematic and reflective manner. In addressing the question of the origins of Jewish mysticism, he asks whether we can rightfully and sensibly speak of Jewish mysticism as a uniform and coherent phenomenon that started some time in the mythical past of the Hebrew Bible and later developed into what would become Merkavah mysticism and ultimately the Kabbalah. Instead of imposing a preconceived notion of "mysticism" on a great variety of relevant literatures, belonging to different communities at different times and on different places, the author proceeds heuristically and asks what these literatures wish to convey about the age-old human desire to get close to and communicate with God.Peter Schäfer has dedicated much of his scholarly life to the history of Jewish mysticism. The Origins of Jewish Mysticism summarizes his views in an accessible way, directed at specialists as well as at a broader audience.

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Scattered throughout the Talmud, the founding document of rabbinic Judaism in late antiquity, can be found quite a few references to Jesus--and they're not flattering. In this lucid, richly detailed, and accessible book, Peter Schafer examines how the rabbis of the Talmud read, understood, and used the New Testament Jesus narrative to assert, ultimately, Judaism's superiority over Christianity. The Talmudic stories make fun of Jesus' birth from a virgin, fervently contest his claim to be the Messiah and Son of God, and maintain that he was rightfully executed as a blasphemer and idolater. They subvert the Christian idea of Jesus' resurrection and insist he got the punishment he deserved in hell--and that a similar fate awaits his followers. Schafer contends that these stories betray a remarkable familiarity with the Gospels--especially Matthew and John--and represent a deliberate and sophisticated anti-Christian polemic that parodies the New Testament narratives. He carefully distinguishes between Babylonian and Palestinian sources, arguing that the rabbis' proud and self-confident countermessage to that of the evangelists was possible only in the unique historical setting of Persian Babylonia, in a Jewish community that lived in relative freedom. The same could not be said of Roman and Byzantine Palestine, where the Christians aggressively consolidated their political power and the Jews therefore suffered. A departure from past scholarship, which has played down the stories as unreliable distortions of the historical Jesus, Jesus in the Talmud posits a much more deliberate agenda behind these narratives.

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The Second Jewish Revolt against the Roman dominion (132-135 CE) considerably changed the political and cultural landscape of Jewish Palestine. Judaea was almost completely devastated, and Jewish life shifted from Judaea to the Galilee. The Roman victory, however, was won at great cost.The last decade has seen some stunning developments in research on the Bar Kokhba War. In particular, recent archaeological findings provide new material for evaluation. This volume is based on a conference which took place in November 2001 at Princeton University and gathers a distinguished array of scholars working at the forefront of research on the Bar Kokhba period. It appraises the state of the subject in light of the present scholarly discussion and evaluates the historical importance of this major event and its repercussions for the subsequent history of the Jews in Roman Palestine. A concluding essay investigates the use of Bar Kokhba's image in modern Israeli culture. Survey of contents: Peter Schäfer: Preface - Peter Schäfer: Bar Kokhba and the Rabbis - Martin Goodman: Trajan and the Origins of the Bar Kokhba War - Yoram Tsafrir: Numismatics and the Foundation of Aelia Capitolina: A Critical Review - Benjamin Isaac: Roman Religious Policy and the Bar Kokhba War - Aharon Oppenheimer: The Ban of Circumcision as a Cause of the Revolt: A Reconsideration - Ra'anan Abusch: Negotiating Difference: Genital Mutilation in Roman Slave Law and the History of the Bar Kokhba Revolt - Hanan Eshel: The Dates Used during the Bar Kokhba Revolt - Menahem Mor: The Geographical Scope of the Bar Kokhba Revolt - Hannah M. Cotton: The Bar Kokhba Revolt and the Documents from the Judaean Desert: Nabataean Participation in the Revolt (P. Yadin 52) - Werner Eck: Hadrian, the Bar Kokhba Revolt, and the Epigraphic Transmission - Glen W. Bowersock: The Tel Shalem Arch and P. Nahal Hever/Seiyal 8 - Amos Kloner and Boaz Zissu: Hiding Complexes in Judaea: An Archaeological and Geographical Update on the Area of the Bar Kokhba Revolt - Yuval Shahar: The Underground Hideouts in Galilee and their Historical Meaning - Yaron Z. Eliav: The Urban Layout of Aelia Capitolina: A New View from the Perspective of the Temple Mount - Yael Zerubavel: Bar Kokhba's Image in Modern Israeli Culture

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The Origins of Jewish Mysticism offers the first in-depth look at the history of Jewish mysticism from the book of Ezekiel to the Merkavah mysticism of late antiquity. The Merkavah movement is widely recognized as the first full-fledged expression of Jewish mysticism, one that had important ramifications for classical rabbinic Judaism and the emergence of the Kabbalah in twelfth-century Europe. Yet until now, the origins and development of still earlier forms of Jewish mysticism have been largely overlooked. In this book, Peter Schafer sheds new light on Ezekiel's tantalizing vision, the apocalyptic literature of Enoch, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the writings of the Hellenistic Jewish philosopher Philo, the rabbinical writings of the Talmudic period, and the esotericism of the Merkavah mystics. Schafer questions whether we can accurately speak of Jewish mysticism as a uniform, coherent phenomenon with origins in Judaism's mythical past. Rather than imposing preconceived notions about "mysticism" on a great variety of writings that arose from different cultural, religious, and historical settings, he reveals what these writings seek to tell us about the age-old human desire to get close to and communicate with God.

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Taking a fresh look at what the Greeks and Romans thought about Jews and Judaism, Peter Schäfer locates the origin of anti-Semitism in the ancient world. Judeophobia firmly establishes Hellenistic Egypt as the generating source of anti-Semitism, with roots extending back into Egypt’s pre-Hellenistic history.A pattern of ingrained hostility toward an alien culture emerges when Schäfer surveys an illuminating spectrum of comments on Jews and their religion in Greek and Roman writings, focusing on the topics that most interested the pagan classical world: the exodus or, as it was widely interpreted, expulsion from Egypt; the nature of the Jewish god; food restrictions, in particular abstinence from pork; laws relating to the sabbath; the practice of circumcision; and Jewish proselytism. He then probes key incidents, two fierce outbursts of hostility in Egypt: the destruction of a Jewish temple in Elephantine in 410 B.C.E. and the riots in Alexandria in 38 C.E. Asking what fueled these attacks on Jewish communities, the author discovers deep-seated ethnic resentments. It was from Egypt that hatred of Jews, based on allegations of impiety, xenophobia, and misanthropy, was transported first to Syria-Palestine and then to Rome, where it acquired a new element: fear of this small but distinctive community. To the hatred and fear, ingredients of Christian theology were soon added—a mix all too familiar in Western history.

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In this beautifully realized study, Peter Schafer investigates the origins of a female manifestation of God in Jewish mysticism. The search itself is a fascinating exploration of the idea of a feminine divinity. And Schafer's surprising but persuasive conclusions yield deeper understanding of the complex but frequently intimate relationship between Christianity and Judaism--and of the development of religious concepts more generally. Toward the end of the twelfth century, a small book titled the Bahir (Light) appeared in Provence. The first document of Judaism's emerging kabbalistic movement, it introduced a completely new view of God, one that included a divine potency that was essentially female. This female divinity was portrayed both as a mediator between Jews and God and as part of the Godhead itself. Examining Judaic history from the biblical Wisdom tradition to the Middle Ages, Schafer finds some precedents for the Kabbalah's feminine divinity. But he cannot account for her forceful appearance in twelfth-century southern France without reference to the immediate Christian environment, particularly the flourishing veneration of the Virgin Mary. Indeed, twelfth-century Jews and Christians were simultaneously rediscovering the feminine as an aspect of the Godhead after having abandoned it in favor of either an abstract, disembodied God or an exclusively male one. In proposing that the medieval cult of Mary--rather than eastern Gnosticism--is the appropriate framework for understanding the feminine elements in Jewish mysticism, Mirror of His Beauty represents a sea change in Kabbalah and Jewish-Christian cultural studies. It shifts our attention from the Byzantine East to the Latin Christian West. And in contrast to histories that treat the development of Judaism and Christianity in isolation, it leads us to a fuller understanding of Jews and Christians living in proximity, aware of each other.

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A book that challenges our most basic assumptions about Judeo-Christian monotheismContrary to popular belief, Judaism was not always strictly monotheistic. Two Gods in Heaven reveals the long and little-known history of a second, junior god in Judaism, showing how this idea was embraced by rabbis and Jewish mystics in the early centuries of the common era and casting Judaism's relationship with Christianity in an entirely different light.Drawing on an in-depth analysis of ancient sources that have received little attention until now, Peter Schäfer demonstrates how the Jews of the pre-Christian Second Temple period had various names for a second heavenly power—such as Son of Man, Son of the Most High, and Firstborn before All Creation. He traces the development of the concept from the Son of Man vision in the biblical book of Daniel to the Qumran literature, the Ethiopic book of Enoch, and the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria. After the destruction of the Second Temple, the picture changes drastically. While the early Christians of the New Testament took up the idea and developed it further, their Jewish contemporaries were divided. Most rejected the second god, but some—particularly the Jews of Babylonia and the writers of early Jewish mysticism—revived the ancient Jewish notion of two gods in heaven.Describing how early Christianity and certain strands of rabbinic Judaism competed for ownership of a second god to the creator, this boldly argued and elegantly written book radically transforms our understanding of Judeo-Christian monotheism.

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This volume continues the studies on the most important source of late antique Judaism, the Talmud Yerushalmi, in relation to its cultural context. The text of the Talmud is juxtaposed to archaeological findings, Roman law, and contemporary classical authors. The attitude of the Rabbis towards main aspects of urban society in the Mediterranean region of late antiquity is discussed. Hereby Rabbinic Judaism is seen as integrated in the cultural currents prevalent in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. From reviews of the first volume: "The essays in this volume do not seek to establish a global approach to the task, or any general methodological principles. Caution is everywhere apparent. ... This is an excellent beginning, and more is promised. It would be good if this initiative prompted more Talmudic scholars to take the Greek background of Palestinian rabbinism seriously, and finally put paid to the tendency to consider it as in some way separated from or in conflict with late antique Hellenism."N.R.M. De Lange in Bulletin of Judaeo-Greek Studies Winter 1998/99, no. 23, p. 24

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Unter dem hebräischen Titel Sefer ha-Razim ("Das Buch der Geheimnisse") sind zwei bis in die Spätantike zurückreichende Schriften bekannt, die überlieferungs- und redaktionsgeschichtlich eng mit einander verwandt sind. Beim Sefer ha-Razim I handelt es sich um ein magisches Handbuch, das eminent magisches Material in das traditionelle kosmologische Schema der sieben Himmel eingearbeitet hat. Die Erstedition durch Mordecai Margalioth (Jerusalem 1966) wurde heftig kritisiert, weil sie einen eklektischen Kunsttext kreierte, der die Grenzen zwischen den verschiedenen redaktionellen Bearbeitungen und ihren handschriftlichen Repräsentanten nivelliert. Charakteristisch für die Traditionsgeschichte des Sefer ha-Razim I ist aber gerade die wiederholte redaktionelle Neustrukturierung des überlieferten Materials, die zu verschiedenen Versionen führte. Die Grundlage der vorliegenden Edition konnte gegenüber der von Margalioth durch zahlreiche neu verifizierte Fragmente aus der Kairoer Geniza und Sammelhandschriften sowie durch die Einbeziehung jüdisch-arabischer und lateinischer Textzeugen erheblich erweitert werden.Der hier erstmals edierte Sefer ha-Razim II ist aus der Polemik der Karäer auch als Sefer Adam ("Buch des Adam") bekannt. In ihm dominieren angelologische Namenlisten, die den zwölf Monaten zugeordnet sind und für magische Zwecke verwendet werden sollen. Die verschiedenen Versionen bzw. Textzeugen von Sefer ha-Razim I und II werden in einer Spaltensynopse mit Variantenapparat und die Geniza-Fragmente zusätzlich separat ediert. Die Standardversion beider Makroformen wird jeweils übersetzt und ausführlich kommentiert.

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"Schäfer ist eine umfassende und überzeugende Darstellung der talmudischen Wahrnehmung Jesu gelungen."Christoph Stenschke in Theologische Beiträge 45 (2014), S. 118-119"[Ein] höchst lesenswertes und spannendes Buch, das zu weiteren Forschungen und Überlegungen reichen Anlass bietet."Werner Trutwin in Freiburger Rundbrief 20 (2013), S. 224-226"Mir ist dieses kenntnisreiche und spannend geschriebene Buch eine große Hilfe geworden. Äußerst gründlich arbeitet es übergangene Zusammenhänge auf und ist damit aus meiner Sicht eine wichtige und hilfreiche Bereicherung für das jüdisch-christliche Gespräch, das in unserer Zeit zu neuer Offenheit findet."Hans-Helmar Auel in Homiletische Monatshefte 90 (2014/15), Heft 4, S. 199"In seinem neuesten Buch [Jesus im Talmud] hat Schäfer sich nicht nur als ein grossartiger Erforscher antiker und mittelalterlicher jüdischer Texte erwiesen - das wurde bereits zur Genüge demonstriert -, sondern auch als ein talentierter Autor, aus dessen Händen der Text fliesst wie das Wasser, mit dem die Rabbinen die Torah verglichen haben."Galit Hasan-Rokem in Jewish Quarterly Review 99 (2009), S. 114"Schäfers faszinierende Studie demonstriert meisterhaft, dass der babylonische Talmud auf christliche Behauptungen über Jesus von Nazareth antwortet, [...] dass die Überlieferungen der babylonischen Rabbinen nicht die verqueren Phantasien bornierter Rabbinen [...] sind, sondern faszinierende "Rohdiamanten", kurze und oft brutale Meisterstücke, die historische Lektionen von entscheidender Bedeutung mitzuteilen haben."Richard Kalmin in Jewish Quarterly Review 99 (2009), S. 112"Nicht zuletzt mit der Klarheit in der Argumentation löst das Buch […] den Anspruch Schäfers, ein allgemeinverständliches Werk vorzulegen, überzeugend ein."S.O. in Herder Korrespondenz 62 (2008), S. 269"Zudem ist sein Werk - gerade in einer Zeit aufkommenden religiösen Fundamentalismus - auch für interessierte Laien mit Gewinn zu lesen, bietet es doch Einblicke in die Auseinandersetzungen von Spätantike und Frühmittelalter, die historisch einzuordnen Aufgabe unserer Zeit ist, damit ein angemessenes Nebeneinander der Religionen erreicht werden kann."Joachim Jeska in Biblische Zeitschrift 52 (2008), S. 297-298

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Joseph Dan, the Gershom Scholem Professor of Kabbalah Emeritus at the Hebrew University and long-time Professor of Jewish Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin, is one of the most influential figures in the fields of Jewish mystical thought, homiletical and ethical literature, modern Messianism and Hasidism, and contemporary 'belles-lettres'. His studies of the diverse aspects of Jewish creativity, with close attention to the dialectics of religious-cultural continuity versus historical innovation, provide a comprehensive overview of the complex history of Jewish thought and its multiple creative faces. It is precisely for this reason, to honor Joseph Dan's multifaceted research, that his many colleagues, students, and friends, scattered among universities around the world, have decided to focus their contributions in this Festschrift on the continuing process of creation and re-creation in Jewish thought throughout the centuries. Contributors: Philip Alexander, Dan Ben-Amos, Peter Schäfer, Margarete Schlüter, Bernard McGinn, Klaus Herrmann, Herbert Davidson, Annelies Kuyt, Haym Soloveitchik, Eli Yassif, Gerold Necker, Marc Saperstein, Giuseppe Veltri, Aviezer Ravitzky, Avinoam Rosenak, Kimmy Caplan, Saverio Campanini, Eric Jacobson, Yair Zakovitch, Rachel Elior, David Weiss Halivni, Avigdor Shinan, Avraham Grossman, Giulio Busi, Moshe Hallamish, Chava Turniansky, Jacob Elbaum, Hagit Matras, Joseph Hacker, Raya Haran, Arnold J. Band, Hamutal Bar Yosef, Miri Kubovy, Naama ben Shahar.

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Andreas Lehnardt legt die erste kommentierte Übersetzung des Traktates Pesahim (Pesahopfer) des Jerusalemer Talmud vor. Der Traktat Pesahim ist der dritte Traktat der zweiten Ordnung Mo´ed (Festzeiten). Er behandelt wie der gleichnamige Traktat der Mischna das Fest, das in der Tora (vgl. Ex 12; Num 9,1-14; Dtn 16,1-8) Pesah oder Fest der ungesäuerten Brote (Matzot) genannt wird und an den Auszug aus Ägypten erinnert. Wie die Mischna behandelt die Gemara vor allem die Themen Fortschaffen des Gesäuerten, Herstellung der Matzot-Brote, Zubereitung der Pesah-Opfer, Feier des Zweiten Pesah und Feier der Seder-Nacht. Neben langen Diskussionen der halakhischen Bestimmungen der Mischna finden sich in dem Traktat berühmte aggadische Stücke wie z.B. der Bericht über Hillels Aufstieg zur Macht (yPes 6,1 [33a]) und historisch relevante Nachrichten, wie z. B. die über Kontakte zwischen Samaritanern und Rabbinen (yPes 1,1[27b]).Die Übersetzung basiert auf der Edition Krotoszyn 1865/66, berücksichtigt werden jedoch auch die in der Synopse zum Talmud Yerushalmi edierten Handschriften und Drucke sowie einige indirekte Textzeugen und Geniza Fragmente. In einem ausführlichen Kommentar erläutert Andreas Lehnardt unter Berücksichtigung traditioneller Kommentare und Sekundärliteratur alle wichtigen Probleme der Interpretation und Übersetzung. Beigegeben sind eine Bibliographie und Erläuterungen zur Methodik. Ein Register der Bibelstellen, Parallelen in der rabbinischen Literatur, Rabbinennamen und Namen von sonstigen Personen und Orten schließt den Band ab.

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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.

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Over the past 30 years, scholars of early Jewish mysticism have, with increasing confidence, located the initial formation of Hekhalot literature in Byzantine Palestine and Sasanian or early Islamic Babylonia (ca. 500-900 C.E.), rather than at the time of the Mishnah, Tosefta, early Midrashim, or Palestinian Talmud (ca. 100-400 C.E.). This advance has primarily been achieved through major gains in our understanding of the dynamic and highly flexible processes of composition, redaction, and transmission that produced the Hekhalot texts as we know them today. These gains have been coupled with greater appreciation of the complex relationships between Hekhalot writings and the variegated Jewish literary culture of late antiquity, both within and beyond the boundaries of the rabbinic movement. Yet important questions remain regarding the specific cultural contexts and institutional settings out of which the various strands of Hekhalot literature emerged as well as the multiple trajectories of use and appropriation they subsequently travelled. In the present volume, an international team of experts explores—from a variety of disciplinary perspectives (e.g. linguistics, ritual and gender studies, intellectual history)—the literary formation, cultural meanings, religious functions, and textual transmission of Hekhalot literature.

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One of the most controversial books in history, Toledot Yeshu recounts the life story of Jesus from a negative and anti-Christian perspective. It ascribes to Jesus an illegitimate birth, a theft of the Ineffable Name of God, heretical activities, and, finally, a disgraceful death. Perhaps for centuries, the Toledot Yeshu circulated orally until it coalesced into various literary forms. Although the dates of these written compositions remain obscure, some early hints of a Jewish counter-history of Jesus can be found in the works of pagan and Christian authors of Late Antiquity, such as Celsus, Justin, and Tertullian. In the Middle Ages, the book became the object and tool of a most acrimonious controversy. Jews, Christians, and atheists - such as Ibn Shaprut, Luther, and Voltaire - quoted and commented on Toledot Yeshu, trying to disprove the beliefs of their opponents and revealing their own prejudices. Due to the offensive nature of the book, scholars have until recently paid little attention to Toledot Yeshu. In 2007, Peter Schäfer launched a project at Princeton University to prepare a scholarly edition with translation and commentary based on all the available manuscripts (about 150). Along with this project, Peter Schäfer, Michael Meerson, and Yaacov Deutsch organized an international conference, attended by the leading scholars of the subject, to discuss the present state of research. The conference contributions, published in this volume, mark a new stage in Toledot Yeshu research.

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Andreas Lehnardt legt die erste deutsche Übersetzung des Traktates Sheviʿit (Siebentjahr) samt eines kurzen Kommentares vor. Massekhet Sheviʿit ist der fünfte Traktat der ersten Ordnung, Zeraʿim (Saaten). Er behandelt die biblischen Gesetze des Siebentjahres gemäß Exodus 23,10-11, Levitikus 25,1-7 und Deuteronomium 15,1-3. Der Traktat ist ein Kommentar zum gleichnamigen Mischna-Traktat und folgt seinem Aufbau. Die Übersetzung basiert auf der Krotoszyn-Ausgabe von 1865/66, es wurden jedoch alle verfügbaren Textzeugen wie sie in der Synopse zum Talmud Yerushalmi herausgegeben wurden und zusätzliche Fragmente aus der Kairoer Genizah sowie ein neu entdecktes Einbandfragment berücksichtigt. Der deutsche Kommentar bedient sich sowohl traditioneller Auslegungswerke als auch moderner wissenschaftlicher Literatur und erörtert die wichtigsten Fragen der handschriftlichen Überlieferung sowie der Interpretation der Halakha. Der Band bietet eine Bibliographie sowie ein Verzeichnis biblischer Zitate, der Parallelen in der rabbinischen Literatur und Verzeichnisse von Personen und Ortsnamen.

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Die Frage nach dem Verhältnis zwischen Judentum und Christentum in den ersten Jahrhunderten hat man lange wie selbstverständlich so beantwortet, dass irgendwann im 1. oder 2. Jahrhundert eine bleibende Abgrenzung voneinander vollzogen worden sei. Inzwischen wird eine bereits so früh vollzogene Trennung der beiden Religionen vehement bestritten. Denn die Quellen lassen erkennen, dass sich dieser Prozess über einen deutlich längeren Zeitraum erstreckt hat. Er ist so sehr geprägt gewesen von wechselseitiger argumentativer Befruchtung, dass man wie von der "Geburt des Christentums aus dem Geist des Judentums" auch von der "Geburt des Judentums aus dem Geist des Christentums" sprechen muss. Peter Schäfer zeigt in einer spannenden Analyse der Überlieferungen und Deutungen des Patriarchen Henoch bzw. des höchsten Engels Metatron, wie Anziehung und Abstoßung zwischen Judentum und Christentum in den formativen ersten Jahrhunderten Gestalt gewonnen haben.

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