Download or read book Cosmos Chaos and the Kosher Mentality written by David Bryan and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-01-29 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is an innovative investigation of the puzzling animal imagery found in three 2nd-century BCE texts: the Animal Apocalypse (1 Enoch 85-90), the Testament of Naphtali and Daniel 7. It urges that a sense of cultural change is required to understand this well-known imagery, and argues in particular that the mentality underlying the kosher legislation played a significant, even if unconscious, role in the imagination of the various authors. A reading of the Animal Apocalypse is offered which argues that the author utilized the unclean precisely because they represent for him the forces of chaos set in opposition to God. Bryan acknowledges that the bizarre creatures of T. Naph. 5 and Daniel 7 belong to a different kind of imagery (Mischwesen), but argues that awareness of the influence of the kosher mentality opens up new explanations. As mixed creatures, they represent a radical break with order. They are an intense form of unclean creature, and those whom they represent are perceived to be living embodiments of the powers of chaos.
Download or read book Reading Daniel as a Text in Theological Hermeneutics written by Aaron B Hebbard and published by James Clarke & Company. This book was released on 2011-08-25 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Employing such disciplines as historical criticism, literary criticism, narrative theology, and hermeneutics, Reading Daniel as a Text in Theological Hermeneutics seeks to maintain an interdisciplinary approach to the Book of Daniel. Through this approach, the author sets out to understand and interpret the Book of Daniel as a narrative exercise in theological hermeneutics. Two inherently linked perspectives are utilised in this particular reading of the text: First is the perception that the character of Daniel is the paradigm of the good theological hermeneut; theology and hermeneutics are inseparable and converge in the character of Daniel. Second is the standpoint that the Book of Daniel on the whole should be read as a hermeneutics textbook. Readers are led through a series of theories and exercises meant to be instilled into their theological, intellectual, and practical lives. Attention to the reader of the text is a constant theme throughout this thesis. The author's concernis primarily with contemporary readers and their communities, and so greater emphasis is placed on what the Book of Daniel means for contemporary readers than on what it meant in its historical setting. However, sensible consideration is given to the historical readerly community with which contemporary readers find continuity. In the end, readers are left with difficult challenges, a sobering awareness of the volatility of the business of hermeneutics, and serious implications for readers to implement both theologically and hermeneutically.
Download or read book As it Was in the Beginning written by Mark D Owens and published by James Clarke & Company. This book was released on 2016-05-26 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The meaning of Paul's comments about the new creation in 2 Corinthians 5:17 and Galatians 6:15 has long been obscured. Debate has raged for years, with some arguing that the phrase new creation solely refers to the inward transformation believers have experienced through faith in Jesus Christ, and others that this phrase should be understood cosmologically and linked with Isaiah's new heavens and new earth. Still more advocate an ecclesiological interpretation of this phrase that centres Paul in the new community formed around Jesus Christ. In As It Was in the Beginning, Mark Owens argues that the concept of new creation should be understood within the realm of Paul's anthropology, cosmology, and ecclesiology. Paul's understanding ofnew creation belongs within an Urzeit-Endzeit typological framework, especially within 2 Corinthians 5-6 and Ephesians 1-2. Owens's reading of new creation gives due weight to the use of Isaianic traditions in Paul's letters, and to demonstrate that the vision of new creation in 2 Corinthians and Galatians is in striking harmony with that of Ephesians.
Download or read book Reading Phinehas Watching Slashers written by Brandon R. Grafius and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-03-20 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The tale of the “zeal” of Phineas, expressed when he killed an Israelite man and a Midianite woman having sex and thus stopped a “plague” of consorting with idolatrous neighbors in the Israelite camp (Numbers 25), has long attracted both interest and revulsion. Scholars have sought to defend the account, to explain it as pious fiction, or to protest its horrific violence. Brandon R. Grafius seeks to understand how the tale expresses the latent anxieties of the Israelite society that produced it, combining the insights of historical criticism with those of contemporary horror and monster theory. Grafius compares Israelite anxieties concerning ethnic boundaries and community organization with similar anxieties apparent in horror films of the 1980s, then finds confirmation for his method in the responses of Roman-period readers who reacted to the tale of Phineas as a tale of horror. The combination of methods allows Grafius to illumine the concern of an ancient priestly class to control unsettled and unsettling community boundaries‒‒and to raise questions of implications for our own time.
Download or read book Peter s Halakhic Nightmare written by John R.L. Moxon and published by Mohr Siebeck. This book was released on 2017-07-20 with total page 672 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Apocalypse Against Empire written by Anathea Portier-Young and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2014-01-09 with total page 487 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The year 167 B.C.E. marked the beginning of a period of intense persecution for the people of Judea, as Seleucid emperor Antiochus IV Epiphanes attempted -- forcibly and brutally -- to eradicate traditional Jewish religious practices. In Apocalypse against Empire Anathea Portier-Young reconstructs the historical events and key players in this traumatic episode in Jewish history and provides a sophisticated treatment of resistance in early Judaism. Building on a solid contextual foundation, Portier-Young argues that the first Jewish apocalypses emerged as a literature of resistance to Hellenistic imperial rule. In particular, Portier-Young contends, the book of Daniel, the Apocalypse of Weeks, and the Book of Dreams were written to supply an oppressed people with a potent antidote to the destructive propaganda of the empire -- renewing their faith in the God of the covenant and answering state terror with radical visions of hope.
Download or read book Daniel s Son of Man in Mark written by Robert Stirling Snow and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2016-10-21 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through the use of current intertextual methods and narrative criticism, this book offers a fresh examination of the Son of Man in Mark, developing the conclusions of Morna Hooker's 1967 work, The Son of Man in Mark: A Study of the Background of the Term "Son of Man" and Its Use in St. Mark's Gospel. Contrary to recent scholarship that argues Mark's Son of Man does not make any thematic or christological contribution to the Gospel and/or that the OT background of the Son of Man phrase is irrelevant, this work demonstrates that the Son of Man, when examined in light of Daniel 7, advances one of Mark's major themes: the transition of the locus of Yahweh's saving presence from the Jerusalem temple to a new covenant community that is not only founded on the Son of Man's sacrificial death but also is vindicated at his coming in the heavenly temple.
Download or read book Paul and the Gentile Problem written by Matthew Thiessen and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paul and the Gentile Problem provides a new explanation for the apostle Paul's statements about the Jewish law. Instead of understanding his arguments against circumcision to be criticisms of Judaism or the law, this book makes the case that Paul meant to oppose gentile judaizing.
Download or read book Revealed Histories written by Robert Hall and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-01-29 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ancient Jewish and Christian writers frequently sought to persuade by claiming to understand the past through revelation. Hall shows how the long recitals of past events often found in apocalypses are not to be seen as mere preludes to predictions, but prove integral to the author's argument. This original study concludes that many ancient Jews and Christians found claims to inspiration an acceptable basis for re-telling past events and that early Christian prophets consciously shaped not only the sayings of Jesus but the narrative structure in which the sayings occur.
Download or read book Purity and the Forming of Religious Traditions in the Ancient Mediterranean World and Ancient Judaism written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2012-11-01 with total page 617 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Purity is a cultural construct that had a central role in the forming and the development of religious traditions in the ancient Mediterranean. This volume analyzes concepts, practices and images associated with purity in the main cultures of Antiquity, and discusses from a comparative perspective their parallel developments and transformations. The perspective adopted is both synchronic and diachronic; the comparative approach takes into account points of contact and mutual influences, but also includes major transcultural trends. A number of renowned specialists contribute a large variety of perspectives and approaches, combining archaeology, epigraphy and social history; in addition, particular attention is given to concepts of purity in ancient Israel and early Judaism as a ‘test-case’ of sorts. Through its extensive coverage, the volume contributes decisively to the present discussion about the forming of religious traditions in the ancient Mediterranean world. Contributors include: Philippe Borgeaud, Beate Ego, Christian Frevel, Linda-Marie Günther, Michaël Guichard, Gudrun Holtz, Manfred Hutter, Albert de Jong, Michael Konkel, Bernhard Linke, Lionel Marti, Hans-Peter Mathys, Christophe Nihan, Joachim Friedrich Quack, Benedikt Rausche, Noel Robertson, Udo Rüterswörden, Ian Werrett, and Jürgen K. Zangenberg.
Download or read book From Slaves to Sons written by Sam Tsang and published by Peter Lang. This book was released on 2005 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Researchers on Greco-Roman slavery, formative Christianity, and New Testament theology will surely benefit from this groundbreaking book, a study of the Apostle Paul's slave metaphors in Galatians using the New Rhetoric Model as the lens of analysis. From Roman slave laws in the first century C.E. to the text of Galatians, this book provides an excellent test case for all other studies of first-century metaphors, parables, analogies, and other related genres. Moreover, this book demonstrates explicitly, using examples and a clear step-by-step method to clarify the meanings behind Paul's metaphors.
Download or read book The Background of the Gospels written by William Fairweather and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-01-29 with total page 485 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covering the period from the Maccabean revolt to the destruction of Jerusalem under Titus, Fairweather's impressive work should be an important point of reference for those wanting to develop their knowledge on the evolution of Judaism as a spiritual movement.
Download or read book The Boundaries of Jewishness in the Southern Levant 200 BCE 132 CE written by John van Maaren and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2022-05-23 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent research has considered how changing imperial contexts influence conceptions of Jewishness among ruling elites (esp. Eckhardt, Ethnos und Herrschaft, 2013). This study integrates other, often marginal, conceptions with elite perspectives. It uses the ethnic boundary making model, an empirically based sociological model, to link macro-level characteristics of the social field with individual agency in ethnic construction. It uses a wide range of written sources as evidence for constructions of Jewishness and relates these to a local-specific understanding of demographic and institutional characteristics, informed by material culture. The result is a diachronic study of how institutional changes under Seleucid, Hasmonean, and Early Roman rule influenced the ways that members of the ruling elite, retainer class, and marginalized groups presented their preferred visions of Jewishness. These sometimes-competing visions advance different strategies to maintain, rework, or blur the boundaries between Jews and others. The study provides the next step toward a thick description of Jewishness in antiquity by introducing needed systematization for relating written sources from different social strata with their contexts.
Download or read book Chronicles I and II written by Edward L. Curtis and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-01-29 with total page 563 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive examination of the Chronicles by Curtis and Madsen, including critical discussions on historical and religious value, variations of the text and the genealogy and history of David, Solomon and Judah.
Download or read book A Teacher for All Generations written by Eric Farrel Mason and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2011-10-28 with total page 1099 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays honors James C. VanderKam on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday and twentieth year on the faculty of the University of Notre Dame. An international group of scholars including peers specializing in Second Temple Judaism and Biblical Studies, colleagues past and present, and former students offers essays that interact in various ways with ideas and themes important in VanderKam's own work. The collection is divided into five sections spanning two volumes. The first volume includes essays on the Hebrew Bible and ancient Near East along with studies on Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Essays in the second volume address topics in early Judaism, Enoch traditions and Jubilees, and the New Testament and early Christianity.
Download or read book A Teacher for All Generations 2 vols written by Eric F. Mason and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2011-10-28 with total page 1098 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays honors James C. VanderKam on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday and twentieth year on the faculty of the University of Notre Dame. An international group of scholars—including peers specializing in Second Temple Judaism and Biblical Studies, colleagues past and present, and former students—offers essays that interact in various ways with ideas and themes important in VanderKam's own work. The collection is divided into five sections spanning two volumes. The first volume includes essays on the Hebrew Bible and ancient Near East along with studies on Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Essays in the second volume address topics in early Judaism, Enoch traditions and Jubilees, and the New Testament and early Christianity.
Download or read book Goy written by Adi Ophir and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-20 with total page 501 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Goy: Israel's Others and the Birth of the Gentile traces the development of the term and category of the goy from the Bible to rabbinic literature. Adi Ophir and Ishay Rosen-Zvi show that the category of the goy was born much later than scholars assume; in fact not before the first century CE. They explain that the abstract concept of the gentile first appeared in Paul's Letters. However, it was only in rabbinic literature that this category became the center of a stable and long standing structure that involved God, the Halakha, history, and salvation. The authors narrate this development through chronological analyses of the various biblical and post biblical texts (including the Dead Sea scrolls, the New Testament and early patristics, the Mishnah, and rabbinic Midrash) and synchronic analyses of several discursive structures. Looking at some of the goy's instantiations in contemporary Jewish culture in Israel and the United States, the study concludes with an examination of the extraordinary resilience of the Jew/goy division and asks how would Judaism look like without the gentile as its binary contrast.
