Aquila

Author(s):  
Giuseppe Veltri ◽  
Alison G. Salvesen

Subsequent to its inclusion in Origen’s Hexapla, the text of the biblical translation ascribed to Aquila, who according to both patristic and rabbinic testimony was a convert to Judaism, has been transmitted only fragmentarily in Greek. Isolated readings from Aquila’s version are cited in Greek in the margins of LXX manuscripts and in patristic works, but also in Hebrew translation in rabbinic literature. The discoveries of the Cairo Genizah and of the Hebraizing recension reflected in the Naḥal Ḥever Minor Prophets scroll have made possible a fresh look at Aquila’s translational approach and the transmission of his version, as well as the history of its reception among both Jews and Christians.

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 451-469
Author(s):  
Gudrun Lier ◽  
Anna Fransina Van Zyl

The study of Aramaic Bible translations (Targumim) continues to be a valuable source of information, not only for uncovering the history of biblical interpretation but also for providing insights for the study of linguistics and translation techniques. In comparison with work done on the Pentateuchal Targumim and Targum Former Prophets, research on the individual books of Targum Minor Prophets has been scant. By providing an overview of selected source material this review seeks (i) to provide incentives for more focussed studies in the field of Targum Minor Prophets and (ii) to motivate new integrated research approaches which are now made possible with the assistance of highly developed software programmes.


Author(s):  
EVE KRAKOWSKI ◽  
SACHA STERN

Abstract Halper 331 is the fragment of a codex that has been styled the ‘oldest dated document of the Cairo Genizah’. It preserves the opening of a Jewish legal document dated to the year 1182 (Seleucid era), which appears to have been copied into this codex, probably as a formulary, not long after this date, in the late 9th century. In this article, the text of this fragment, in Aramaic and Hebrew, is edited, and its identification as the beginning of a marriage contract (ketubbah) is evaluated. Its Egyptian provenance is questioned, partly because the earliest evidence for the introduction of the Seleucid era by Jews in Egypt dates from the mid-10th century. The article surveys the history of Jewish dating methods in early medieval Egypt and the Near East, in an attempt to clarify this question. The specific date of the document deviates from the rabbinic calendar, but agrees with that of the contemporary Jewish Near Eastern sectarian groups of Abū ʿImrān al-Tiflīsī and Ismāʿīl al-ʿUkbarī; this document could thus uniquely attest one of these sectarian Jewish calendars.


1990 ◽  
Vol 83 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Swartz

The study of medieval Judaism was revolutionized by the late S. D. Goitein with A Mediterranean Society, his multilayered study of the medieval Jewish communities in Egypt based on the documents from the Cairo Genizah. For while previously the Genizah had been mined for important rabbinic documents and for the history of the philosophers and Geonim, Goitein's research sought to provide an account of the religion and life of all classes of society.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-55
Author(s):  
Doris Bachmann-Medick

Abstract Starting from the conviction that the study of culture(s) is much broader than a philosophizing history of ideas approach (one that often retains implicit Eurocentric assumptions), this article is a plea for a reorientation of the study of culture through the demonstration of a stronger commitment to a sociological, empirical and transcultural approach in the study of culture. Instead of focusing on cultural syntheses (i.e. along the main signatures and „Zeitgeist“ symptoms of epochs), my argument redirects attention to particularities, hidden dimensions, and the formation of differences, to cultural countermovements and contradictions. The article suggests a more complex and action-oriented „translational“ approach. It aims to foster a critical self-reflection of the research process of the study of culture itself with regard to its analytical concepts, its societal and ethical concerns, and its fruitful convergence of disciplines.


Author(s):  
W. Edward Glenny

This essay discusses the textual history of the Minor Prophets in the Hebrew manuscripts and the Versions, excluding Qumran. The most important textual tradition for the Minor Prophets is the Hebrew Masoretic Text tradition from the medieval period (MT), which continues the earlier proto-masoretic textual tradition that is represented in the Qumran scrolls and is the basis of the translations of the Targums and Peshitta. The Septuagint (LXX) is the most important ancient Version of the Hebrew Bible, because it was the first complete translation and because its Hebrew source differed considerably from the other textual witnesses. Other important Versions of the Hebrew Bible are the Targums, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Latin Vulgate.


Author(s):  
WILLIAM HORBURY

This chapter evaluates the use of rabbinic literature in the study of the history of Christianity in Roman Palestine. It explains that this issue goes back to medieval Jewish-Christian controversy and intertwines with the whole history of the reception of the Talmud in Europe and the western world. It suggests that the view that Christians are most often envisaged in the rabbinic references to minim is consistent with the likelihood that Christianity is envisaged in a number of rabbinic and targumic passages which do not mention minim.


Author(s):  
MOSHE LAVEE

This chapter examines the methodologies, new approaches, and challenges in the use of rabbinic literature to study the history of Judaism in late antiquity. It provides some examples that demonstrate some of the issues concerning the applicability of rabbinic literature to the study of Judaism in late-Roman Palestine. It concludes that rabbinic literature can serve as a historical source, especially when read indirectly and through the lens of well-defined theoretical frameworks, and when perceived as a rabbinic cultural product that reflects delicate, sophisticated and hardly recoverable relationships between text and reality.


Author(s):  
PHILIP ALEXANDER

This chapter examines problems concerning the use of rabbinic literature as a resource for studying the history of late-Roman Palestine. It discusses the rabbinic corpus, the composition and transmission of the texts, the language and the genres of rabbinic literature. It concludes that rabbinic literature requires very heavy processing before its potential as a historical source can be realised and it states that the extent to which scholars engaged with this literature have done the preliminary work remains patchy.


Author(s):  
Michal Oron

This chapter focuses on ba'alei shem, the primary representatives of Jewish magic in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It considers the ba'alei shem as the wonder-workers who employed the names of God or his angels through certain techniques, for various theurgic purposes. It also cites rabbinic literature that teaches of the existence and spread of the phenomenon among the sages in the Land of Israel and Babylonia despite biblical opposition to magic or sorcery and their practitioners. The chapter looks at the mystical heikhalot literature, which includes magical texts and descriptions of the qualities and aptitudes of the mystical elect that resemble and later characterize the ba'alei shem. It describes the mystics that possess knowledge of incantations and divine names that enable them to undergo mystical experiences and be in contact with the supernal spheres.


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