Wisdom Literature of the Apocrypha and Related Compositions of the Second Temple Era

2021 ◽  
pp. 270-283
Author(s):  
John Kampen
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Wisdom Literature ◽  
Literary Production ◽  
Ben Sira ◽  
Wisdom Of Solomon ◽  
Jewish Writers

By examining the approaches to wisdom evident in its literary production, it is possible to get a glimpse of the diversity of Second Temple Jewish viewpoints. The identification of one trajectory is an attempt to describe and evaluate certain trends that are apparent in the literature without being able to make the claim that such an attempt is exhaustive. On the basis of the evidence available in one specific trajectory, Ben Sira and Wisdom of Solomon make the closest correlations between wisdom and Torah. While not providing evidence that the Torah was valued primarily as a collection of Pentateuchal law, it is apparent why these two compositions were valued by Jewish writers for whom this became the case.

Marduk’s Basket and the Heavenly Treasury: Comparing Charity in the Dialogue of Pessimism and Sirach

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-184
Author(s):  
Andrew Geist
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Wisdom Literature ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
Ben Sira ◽  
External Evidence ◽  
The Temple

Abstract The article treats the value of economic generosity (usātu) in the Babylonian Dialogue of Pessimism and compares it to almsgiving in the biblical book of Sirach. It attempts to resolve a longstanding obscurity: whether usātu is placed in Marduk’s “ring” (kippatu) or “basket” (qappatu). External evidence suggests that, while both readings have support and a similar theological significance, the reading “basket” (qappatu) is preferable and should be related to the temple quppu, “cash box,” used for collecting donations. The article then addresses the relevance of mortality to the Dialogue’s discussion of doing usātu. Appeal to other Akkadian wisdom literature suggests that doing usātu was connected with a reward of extra life. An analysis of the theological structure of usātu in the Dialogue and Akkadian wisdom literature leads to a comparison with the theology of almsgiving and the heavenly treasury in Ben Sira and other Second Temple Jewish literature.

What's Divine about Divine Law?

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Hayes
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Dissonance ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Philo Of Alexandria ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Western Idea ◽  
Jewish Writers ◽  
Divine Law

In the thousand years before the rise of Islam, two radically diverse conceptions of what it means to say that a law is divine confronted one another with a force that reverberates to the present. This book untangles the classical and biblical roots of the Western idea of divine law and shows how early adherents to biblical tradition—Hellenistic Jewish writers such as Philo, the community at Qumran, Paul, and the talmudic rabbis—struggled to make sense of this conflicting legacy. This book shows that for the ancient Greeks, divine law was divine by virtue of its inherent qualities of intrinsic rationality, truth, universality, and immutability, while for the biblical authors, divine law was divine because it was grounded in revelation with no presumption of rationality, conformity to truth, universality, or immutability. The book describes the collision of these opposing conceptions in the Hellenistic period, and details competing attempts to resolve the resulting cognitive dissonance. It shows how Second Temple and Hellenistic Jewish writers, from the author of 1 Enoch to Philo of Alexandria, were engaged in a common project of bridging the gulf between classical and biblical notions of divine law, while Paul, in his letters to the early Christian church, sought to widen it. The book then delves into the literature of classical rabbinic Judaism to reveal how the talmudic rabbis took a third and scandalous path, insisting on a construction of divine law intentionally at odds with the Greco-Roman and Pauline conceptions that would come to dominate the Christianized West. This book sheds critical light on an ancient debate that would shape foundational Western thought, and that continues to inform contemporary views about the nature and purpose of law and the nature and authority of Scripture.

The Chronological Development of Wisdom Literature

2021 ◽  
pp. 372-388
Author(s):  
Markus Saur
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Wisdom Literature ◽  
Short History ◽  
Ben Sira ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Individual

In this article, the historical localization of Hebrew Bible Wisdom Literature is discussed firstly with regard to the literary development of the books of Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes. By examining these books one can make several observations that help to reconstruct the history not only of the individual books, but also the history of Wisdom Literature as a whole. Wisdom Literature is understood in this context as the result of a process of discussion, interaction, and interdependence, and thus the documentation of a broader discourse surrounding Wisdom topics. This discourse is reflected in the whole of Wisdom Literature of the Hebrew Bible. From this point of view, the differentiation between the Wisdom books and some other Wisdom texts, such as the Wisdom Psalms or the book of Ben Sira, is finally placed within an era overview, and thus a short history of Wisdom Literature is presented.

The Apocrypha and Apocalypticism

2021 ◽  
pp. 218-252
Author(s):  
Lorenzo DiTommaso
Keyword(s):  
Diagnostic Tool ◽  
First Century ◽  
Ben Sira ◽  
Social Settings ◽  
Wisdom Of Solomon

AbstractThe apocalyptic revolution in Judaism in the period from Antiochus to Pompey left virtually no impression in the Apocryphal writings of that time. The corpus is devoid of apocalyptic texts, and no part of any Apocryphal writing is apocalyptic, despite claims to the contrary. Using the apocalyptic worldview as a diagnostic tool, this chapter examines the lack of apocalyptic speculation in the Apocryphal writings, with attention to the Additions to Esther A and F, 2 Maccabees, and Ben Sira. It then discusses the Wisdom of Solomon and 4 Ezra (2 Esdras 3-14), which were composed in the first century ce and are clearly apocalyptic. It concludes with observations on the Apocryphal writings in view of the Deuteronomic and apocalyptic worldviews, and questions on their social settings.

Epilogue

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John J. Collins
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Wisdom Literature ◽  
Place Of Residence ◽  
Native Population ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Cultural Traits

“The Deuteronomic entity called ‘Israel’ is not coterminous with Judah or its population,” writes Carly Crouch.1 The problem was not that some Judahites lived outside of Judah, but that some of the native population did not conform to Deuteronomic ideals. From the beginning, the Torah of Moses was an attempt to mold Judean identity in a particular way. There had been Judahites before Deuteronomy was composed, identified as such by their place of residence and political loyalty, and also by shared cultural traits including the (not necessarily exclusive) veneration of the God of the land, YHWH. There would still be Judeans well into the Second Temple period who did not define themselves by reference to the Torah (as seen in the earlier wisdom literature), and some even (in the case of Elephantine) who may not have been aware of its existence. Eventually, however, the composite Torah, which combined Deuteronomic and Priestly traditions, would come to be the dominant expression of Judean identity....

Jewish Religion in the Apocrypha

2021 ◽  
pp. 450-476
Author(s):  
Carla Sulzbach
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Early Judaism ◽  
Wisdom Of Solomon ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Jewish Religion

In this chapter, the Apocrypha are read through the lenses of Jewish observances in their original Second Temple era milieu, in their (dis-)continuity with biblical as well as post-Temple Rabbinic culture. This allows for these writings, all dating from the Graeco-Roman period, to be put on a trajectory from pre-exilic times (to which they were heir and to which they refer), through Second Temple times, to Rabbinic Judaism. The total known textual corpus dating from this period is much greater and also comprises the Pseudepigrapha, Qumran, and the Hellenistic-Jewish historians. Early Christian texts in their interaction with their Jewish subtexts, too, shed light on the development of Early Judaism of this period although these fall outside the purview of this article, which narrows its focus to a selection of representative examples, namely, 1 and 3 Maccabees, Tobit and Judith, the Additions to Daniel and to Esther, as well as the Wisdom of Solomon.

scholarly journals Pieter M. Venter’s contribution to Old Testament Studies – an appreciation

2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wouter C. Van Wyk
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Wisdom Literature ◽  
Interpretive Community ◽  
Second Temple Literature ◽  
Critical Theology ◽  
The Church ◽  
Old Testament Studies

The contribution that Professor Pieter M. Venter has made to the study of the Old Testament during his academic and ecclesiastic career is reviewed. After a brief biographical introduction, the article surveys the development of his research interests, focusing specifically on his contributions to the study of wisdom literature, narratives and narratology, second temple literature, the formation of the canon, and Old Testament Theology. The review concludes with reference to his way of practising critical theology, taking full cognisance of research into the linguistic, historical critical, narratological and ideological aspects of Old Testament texts, but always with a sensitivity for the needs of the church as interpretive community.

scholarly journals Flowers of evil: Constructing the wicked in Wisdom of Solomon

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 108-121
Author(s):  
Jiani Sun
Keyword(s):  
Mirror Effect ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Wisdom Literature ◽  
Divine Intervention ◽  
Divine Justice ◽  
Social Theories ◽  
Wisdom Of Solomon ◽  
Literary Device ◽  
Divine Mercy ◽  
The Relationship

The distinction between the good and the wicked is common in wisdom literature. Although the distinction can be viewed as ubiquitous, I would like to problematize it by considering the literary device deployed in constructing the archetypes of the good and the wicked. Specifically, I analyze the depiction of the wicked in chapters 1–6 in Wisdom of Solomon and argue that the construction of the wicked in Wisdom is indispensable in understanding how the righteous obtain wisdom through divine protection and acceptance of divine provision. First, I offer a close reading of the text, mainly Chapters 1–6, and parse out the ways of depicting the wicked in Wisdom of Solomon. In particular, I highlight the “collectivity” of the crowd, as opposed to a “single” righteous individual or group. Social theories of the crowd are critical to my formulation of the characteristics of the wicked. Second, I examine the relationship between the wicked and the righteous, and propose the idea of “a mirror effect” in these antithetical depictions. The mirror effect exhibits didactic values, as it instructs one to pursue righteousness and shun from evil. Third, I focus on the interaction between God, the righteous, and the wicked and suggest that divine intervention in helping the righteous stand firm among the wicked manifests both divine justice and divine mercy.

Jewish Literature of the Second Temple Period

2019 ◽  
pp. 277-293
Author(s):  
Karina Martin Hogan
Keyword(s):  
Human Person ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Second Temple Judaism ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Ben Sira ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Literary Environment ◽  
Book Of The Watchers

This essay showcases a sample of the diverse approaches to gender and sexuality that can be found in the literature of Second Temple Judaism. Within four of the major genres of Jewish literature during this period, it analyzes one example that makes particularly striking claims with respect to gender and sexuality: The Book of the Watchers, the Wisdom of Ben Sira, Jubilees, and Judith. Although all of the texts surveyed here come out of a culture with strong patriarchal tendencies, they do not all uphold patriarchal assumptions in equal measure or in the same ways. Taken together in their diversity, the texts demonstrate that the Jewish literary environment out of which the New Testament emerged was one in which sexuality was not a taboo subject but often provided an opportunity to reflect on the nature of the human person in relation to the divine.

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