Download or read book Searching for Sarah in the Second Temple Era written by Joseph McDonald and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-02-20 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seeking to build upon recent scholarship based on Biblical women, Joseph McDonald uses a character-centered literary approach to read the story of Sarah as it was told and retold in the Second Temple period. McDonald offers an alternative to the usual approaches to “rewritten Bible” narratives, which often emphasize near-context, synoptic comparison of retold stories and their scriptural precursors, arguing that examination of retold narratives as narratives reveals important aspects of their internal literary effects, that may otherwise go unnoticed. Taken together, McDonald suggests that such readings reveal one of Sarah's trans-narrative or “deep traits,” as a curious, multi-faceted resemblance to the character of Abraham. The richness of her images, however, shows that this resemblance is not the ultimate distillation of Sarah, but a symptom of the kind of restriction that she consistently faces in this literature. McDonald concludes that creative readings of the narratives featuring Sarah in the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, the Genesis Apocryphon, and the Jewish Antiquities of Josephus illuminate Sarah as a complex and sometimes contradictory figure, whose individuality and agency often struggle to escape limitations placed upon her – both by other characters, such as Abraham and God, and by the narrators of her tales.

Download or read book Searching for Sarah in the Second Temple Era written by Joseph Loren McDonald and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Searching for Sarah in the Second Temple Era performs narrative-critical readings of the character of Sarah in the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, the Genesis Apocryphon, and the Jewish Antiquities of Josephus. Recent decades have seen a dramatic proliferation of literary and feminist investigations of female characters in the biblical materials, but this enthusiasm has largely failed to spread to readings of Second Temple Jewish literature. Moreover, most work on "rewritten Bible" compositions focuses on near-context, synoptic comparison of so-called derivative works with their scriptural precursors. This study seeks to extend the successes of readings of women in the Bible by focusing on Sarah in several Second Temple works, and it offers a new approach to these materials by applying a theoretically-informed mimetic poetics of character and characterization to her depictions in these narratives. My readings show that Sarah is a complex and sometimes contradictory figure whose individuality and agency often struggle to escape limitations placed upon her by other characters, such as Abraham and God, and by the narrators of her tales. I argue that one of Sarah's trans-narrative or "deep traits," a quality that is expressed in a variety of unique ways in each of these narratives, is a resemblance to the character of Abraham. This is not the ultimate distillation of Sarah, but symptomatic of the kind of restriction that her character faces in this literature. Throughout my study, I also contend, more broadly, that the preoccupation of rewritten Bible studies with the juxtaposition and contrast of retold narratives and their scriptural sources hinders linear readings of the rewritten works, thus obscuring important aspects of their internal narrative effects.

Download or read book Scriptural Tales Retold written by Erich S. Gruen and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2024-07-25 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Erich S. Gruen investigates a remarkable phenomenon in religious and literary history: the freedom with which Jewish writers in antiquity retold and recast, sometimes distorted or bypassed, biblical narratives that ostensibly had the status of sacred texts. Gruen asks the question of what prompted such tampering with tales that carried divine authority, and what implications this widespread practice of liberal revising had for attitudes toward the sacrality of the scriptures in general. Gruen focuses upon writings of the Second Temple period, an era of the deep integration of Jewish history and the Greco-Roman world. Gruen brings to the task the training of a classicist and ancient historian rather than that of a biblical textual critic or a rabbinics scholar, not pursuing the commentaries of the later rabbis with their very different approaches, methods, and goals. As such, Gruen's emphasis rests upon narrative rather than legal matters, the haggadic rather than the halakhic. The former lends itself most readily to the creative instincts of the re-tellers.

Download or read book Abraham in Jewish and Early Christian Literature written by Sean A. Adams and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-11-14 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is open access and available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by Knowledge Unlatched. Jewish and early Christian authors discussed Abraham in numerous and diverse ways, adapting his Old Testament narratives and using Abrahamic imagery in their works. However, while some areas of study in Abrahamic texts have received much scholarly attention, other areas remain nearly untouched. Beginning with a perspective on how Abraham was used within Jewish literature, this collection of essays follows the impact of Abraham across biblical texts–including Pseudigraphic and Apocryphal texts – into early Greek, Latin and Gnostic literature. These essays build upon existing Abraham scholarship, by discussing Abraham in less explored areas such as rewritten scripture, Philo of Alexandria, Josephus, the Apostolic Fathers and contemporary Greek and Latin authors. Through the presentation of a more thorough outline of the impact of the figure and stories of Abraham, the contributors to this volume create a concise and complete idea of how his narrative was employed throughout the centuries, and how ancient authors adopted and adapted received traditions.

Download or read book From Josephus to Yosippon and Beyond written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2024-06-13 with total page 684 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two millennia ago, the Jewish priest-turned-general Flavius Josephus, captured by the emperor Vespasian in the middle of the Roman-Jewish War (66–70 CE), spent the last decades of his life in Rome writing several historiographical works in Greek. Josephus was eagerly read and used by Christian thinkers, but eventually his writings became the basis for the early-10th century Hebrew text called Sefer Yosippon, reintegrating Josephus into the Jewish tradition. This volume marks the first edited collection to be dedicated to the study of Josephus, Yosippon, and their reception histories. Consisting of critical inquiries into one or both of these texts and their afterlives, the essays in this volume pave the way for future research on the Josephan tradition in Greek, Latin, Hebrew and beyond.

Download or read book Figures who Shape Scriptures Scriptures that Shape Figures written by Géza G. Xeravits and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2018-02-19 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The papers of the volume investigate how authoritative figures in the Second Temple Period and beyond contributed to forming the Scriptures of Judaism, as well as how these Scriptures shaped ideal figures as authoritative in Early Judaism. The topic of the volume thus reflects Ben Wright’s research, who—especially with his work on Ben Sira, on the Letter of Aristeas, and on various problems of authority in Early Jewish texts—creatively contributed to the study of the formation of Scriptures, and to the understanding of the figures behind these texts.

Download or read book WealthWarn written by Michael S. Moore and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2019-08-15 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like the first volume in this series (WealthWatch, Pickwick, 2011) this book attempts to do two things: (a) examine the primary socioeconomic motifs in the Bible from a comparative intertextual perspective, and (b) trace the trajectory formed by these motifs through Tanak into early Jewish and Nazarene texts. Where WealthWatch focuses on Torah, WealthWarn focuses on the single largest section of the Bible—the Prophets. Where the ancient Near Eastern texts surveyed in WealthWatch include the Epic of Gilgamesh, Atrahasis, and the Epic of Erra, the texts examined here include Inanna's Descent, the Babylonian Creation Epic (enūma elish), the Disappearance of Telipinu, and the Ba`al Epic. Where the Jewish texts surveyed in WealthWatch include historical and sectarian texts, the texts studied here include Ezra-Nehemiah, the Epistle of Jeremiah and Tobit. Where the Nazarene texts in WealthWatch focus on the stewardship parables found in the Gospel of Luke, the texts examined here focus on several prophetic vignettes from the Gospel of Matthew and Acts of the Apostles.

Download or read book The Character of David in Judaism Christianity and Islam written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-11-29 with total page 657 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most central figures in monotheistic traditions is King David. The volume takes a new, critical look at the process of biblical creation and exegetical transformation of this character in the intertwined words of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Download or read book Petitioners Penitents and Poets written by Timothy J. Sandoval and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2020-10-26 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume contributes to the growing interest in understanding the phenomenon of prayer and praying in the Hebrew Bible, Early Judaism, and nascent Christianity. Papers by the leading scholars in these fields revisit long-standing questions and chart new paths of inquiry into the nature, form, and practice of addressing the divine in the ancient world. The essays in this volume deal with particular texts of and about prayer, practices of prayer, as well as figures and locations (historical and literary) that are associated with prayer and praying. These studies apply a range of methods and theoretical approaches to prayer and the language of prayer in literatures of Early Judaism and Christianity. Some studies apply the classical methods of biblical studies to Second Temple texts of prayer, including form critical and text critical approaches; others engage in literary and narrative analysis of ancient works that recount discourse directed to the divine. Still other studies draw on anthropological and sociological analyses of prayer or marshal particular theories of discourse, ethics, and moral agency to offer fresh interpretations of address to God in the literature of Second Temple Judaism and earliest Christianity.

Download or read book Introducing a Hermeneutics of Cispicion written by Jo Henderson-Merrygold and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2024-06-13 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A hermeneutics of cispicion challenges cisnormative presuppositions that shape and, at times, occlude the variations in gender and sex exhibited by key characters in the ancestral narrative of Genesis 12–50. It charts the progression from Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutics of suspicion, through liberation, feminist and queer approaches. Focusing on Deryn Guest's queer and trans hermeneutics, Henderson-Merrygold then offers a new strategy for reading against fixed, binary gender assumptions, where a character's sex always matches that assigned at birth. The initial case study addresses Sarah, who is the proto-matriarch of the ancestral narratives in Genesis. Masculinities contrast with femininities, and Sarah's own agency makes the picture of a consistent gender hard to identify. By closely reading the text, different facets of Sarah's story emerge to emphasise how much the narrative directs the reader towards a cisnormative reading. However, Henderson-Merrygold shows it is not only the images of Sarah as feminine woman and mother that remain visible. The subject of the second case study, Esau, is regularly judged to be a hypermasculine character due to his bodily appearance, but repeatedly fails to fulfil the expectations related to that appearance. Though often condemned as a poor example of (hyper)masculinity, a cispicious reading identifies a richer and more nuanced figure. Attending to Esau's actions, his rejection of the gendered expectations appears intentional, allowing him to settle more comfortably into his own identity. This project advocates for, and demonstrates the value of, creative, interpretations of biblical texts that challenge both malestream and feminist gender assumptions.

Download or read book Dreams and Visions in the Bible and Related Literature written by Richard J. Bautch and published by SBL Press. This book was released on 2023-10-27 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essays in Dreams and Visions in the Bible and Related Literature focus on how the reading community interprets dreams or visions and what is at stake for whom in a dream or vision’s interpretation. Contributors explore the hermeneutics of readership, the relationship between reading and intertextuality, and the interplay of affect and emotion within dreams and visions in religious texts. A variety of methodologies are employed, including rhetorical analysis, critical theory, trauma studies, the analysis of space and society, and the history of emotions. Contributors are Richard J. Bautch, Genevive Dibley, Roy Fisher, Gina Hens-Piazza, Joseph McDonald, Deborah Prince, Jean-François Racine, Andrea Spatafora, and Rodney A. Werline.

Download or read book Jewish Writings of the Second Temple Period written by Michael E. Stone and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 1984-01-01 with total page 736 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume describes that part of the rich literary production of ancient Judaism which was not contained in the Hebrew Bible nor in rabbinic literature. These writings originated in the Second Temple period, which proved highly creative in the midst of strong external influences and internal movements.Prime example are the Dead Sea Scrolls, documents of an extremely separatist sect. Their discovery in 1947 revolutionized our understanding of Second Temple Judaism and its literature. The scrolls appear more or less related in spirit to a group of writings trasmitted by Christianity and known as the Pseudepigrapha. Yet another group are the Apocrypha, closely related to later biblical writings and incorporated within the Greek Old Testament. Finally, the encounter with Greek culture is documented by Jewish authors writing in Greek, notably Philo and Josephus.After a historical outline which sets the stage, the chapters of this book describe and analyse these documents. Selective bibliographies for further reading conclude the chapters.

Download or read book History of the Jewish People written by Hersh Goldwurm and published by Mesorah Publications. This book was released on 1982 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the first time, Jewish history is presented according to authentic Jewish sources; well researched and clearly illustrated with photos, charts, and maps. Vol. I: The Second Temple Era: The era of the Second Commonwealth from the Destruction of the First Temple to the Destruction of the Second.

Download or read book Normative and Sectarian Judaism in the Second Temple Period written by Moshe Weinfeld and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2005-06-20 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book brings together the essays on Second Temple Judaism by Moshe Weinfeld, one of the leading figures in comparative literature and the history of religion in ancient Near Eastern studies. This integrated collection centers on the religious debates within Second Temple Judaism between the sectarian Qumran community and the Pharisees. It examines topics such as liturgy, law, theology and ideology; issues that established Jewish religious forms for normative, Rabbinic Judaism. It also sets these debates in the broader context of texts and ideas from the Bible and ancient Near East texts on one hand and the New Testament and Rabbinic Judaism on the other. The book comprises four sections. The first, 'Prayer and Worship' analyzes constitutive ideas reflected in the definitive prayers of Qumran and Pharisaic liturgy. The second, 'The Qumran Scrolls' engages various legal and hermeneutic issues in the literature of the Qumran sect. Section three, 'Theology and Ideology' treats a group of foundational Jewish concepts from the historical point of view. The final section 'The New Testament' brings several basic concepts and conceptions of Judaism into New Testament context. This is volume 54 in the Library of Second Temple Studies series (formerly the Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha Supplement series).

Download or read book Imagining the Other and Constructing Israelite Identity in the Early Second Temple Period written by Ehud Ben Zvi and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-01-29 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume sheds light on how particular constructions of the 'Other' contributed to an ongoing process of defining what 'Israel' or an 'Israelite' was, or was supposed to be in literature taken to be authoritative in the late Persian and Early Hellenistic periods. It asks, who is an insider and who an outsider? Are boundaries permeable? Are there different ideas expressed within individual books? What about constructions of the (partial) 'Other' from inside, e.g., women, people whose body did not fit social constructions of normalness? It includes chapters dealing with theoretical issues and case studies, and addresses similar issues from the perspective of groups in the late Second Temple period so as to shed light on processes of continuity and discontinuity on these matters. Preliminary forms of five of the contributions were presented in Thessaloniki in 2011 in the research programme, 'Production and Reception of Authoritative Books in the Persian and Hellenistic Period,' at the Annual Meeting of European Association of Biblical Studies (EABS).

Download or read book The Targums in the Light of Traditions of the Second Temple Period written by Thierry Legrand and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2014-07-07 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although the Jewish Targums were written down only from the second century CE onward, and need to be studied against their Late Antique background, the issue of their connection to earlier sources and traditions is an important one. Do the existing Targums link up with an oral translation of Scripture and, if so, how far does it go back? Do the Targums transmit traditional exegetical material in a distinct form? What is the relation between the Targums and "parabiblical" literature of the Second Temple period (including the New Testament)? In the present volume, these and other questions are studied and debated by an international group of scholars including some of the best specialists of Targumic literature in all its diversity, as well as specialists of various Second Temple writings.

Download or read book Ancient Jewish Prayers and Emotions written by Stefan C. Reif and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2015-11-13 with total page 479 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Given the recent interest in the emotions presupposed in early religious literature, it has been thought useful to examine in this volume how the Jews and early Christians expressed their feelings within the prayers recorded in some of their literature. Specialists in their fields from academic institutions around the world have analysed important texts relating to this overall theme and to what is revealed with regard to such diverse topics as relations with God, exegesis, education, prophecy, linguistic expression, feminism, happiness, grief, cult, suicide, non-Jews, Hellenism, Qumran and Jerusalem. The texts discussed are in Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic and are important for a scientific understanding of how Rabbinic Judaism and Early Christianity developed their approaches to worship, to the construction of their theology and to the feelings that lay behind their religious ideas and practices. The articles contribute significantly to an historical understanding of how Jews maintained their earlier traditions but also came to terms with the ideology of the dominant Hellenistic culture that surrounded them.