Present Affliction Affects the Representation of the Past: An Alternative Dating of the Levitical Prayer in Nehemiah 9

2013 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 605-626 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gili Kugler
Keyword(s):  
Historical Review ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
The Past ◽  
The People ◽  
Second Temple Literature ◽  
Babylonian Exile

Abstract This article examines a group of confessional prayers found in Second Temple literature uttered by known/identifiable figures that are characterized by an admission of guilt on the part of the speaker and a request for divine deliverance and redemption. In Nehemiah 9, these elements are very obscure, the passage also demonstrating linguistic and historical signs that suggest it does not belong to this group or the same date. On the basis of the disparity between the prayer and its introduction, an analysis of its content, linguistic elements, and the features stressed in the historical review, this paper proposes that the prayer belongs not to the Second Temple period but to the days prior to the Babylonian exile, when the people were under bondage to foreign kings in their own land.

A Short History of the People Israel from the Patriarchs to the Messiah

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-207
Author(s):  
Beth A. Berkowitz
Keyword(s):  
Early Period ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Sexual Practice ◽  
Short History ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Rich Variety ◽  
Political Status ◽  
Leviticus Rabbah ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of

This article addresses recent arguments that question whether “Judaism,” as such, existed in antiquity or whether the Jewishness of the Second Temple period should be characterized in primarily ethnic terms. At stake is the question of whether it is appropriate to speak of Judaism as an abstract system or religion in this early period. An appeal to the under-used collections of Midrash Aggadah provides the context for new insights, focused around a pericope in Leviticus Rabbah that is preoccupied with this very question. This parashah goes well beyond the ethnicity/ religion binary, producing instead a rich variety of paradigms of Jewish identity that include moral probity, physical appearance, relationship to God, ritual life, political status, economics, demographics, and sexual practice.

The Missing Goy in Second Temple Literature

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adi Ophir ◽  
Ishay Rosen-Zvi
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Discursive Formation ◽  
Second Temple Literature ◽  
Paul's Letters

This chapter examines a loose groups of texts from the Second Temple period, tracing some early and scattered evidence of an effort to abstract the biblical ethnic categories. It argues that the discursive formation that would later characterize the rabbinic goy cannot be found in any of the texts written before Paul’s letters. The goal of the chapter is twofold: first, to analyze the conceptual configurations through which the distinctions between Jews and their others were articulated in texts and compositions in which the concept of the goy is not yet the organizing principle. Second, to reconstruct discursive options that existed before the formation of the goy consolidated, and that disappeared after it took hold.

Conclusion

2019 ◽  
pp. 95-98
Author(s):  
Robert R. Cargill
Keyword(s):  
Extended Family ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Two Kingdoms ◽  
Changes Over Time ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Babylonian Exile

The conclusion summarizes the central arguments and evidence presented in the book. It demonstrates that the original purpose of Gen. 14 was that of a hero narrative, presenting the über-righteous Abram as a YHWH-empowered warrior who rescues his nephew, Lot, and returns the kidnaped and plundered Sodomite people and their goods to their homeland, without exacting a payment! Abram was to be depicted as the ultimate righteous hero, fighting the good fight on behalf of his extended family and demanding no payment in return. He is victorious in battle and generous in victory, “blessing those who bless him and becoming a curse to those who curse him.” However, as the history of Israel unfolded, parts of the Abram narrative required updating in the eyes of the Jerusalem priesthood. Given the sectarian political battles that came to shape Judean and Samaritan history in Israel following the collapse of the two kingdoms and the Babylonian exile, the Melchizedek encounter underwent small changes over time, each of which created new problems with each problem it solved. It was this redaction history of the Melchizedek encounter that created Melchizedek as an individual separate from the king of Sodom and gave rise to the varied Jewish interpretations of him in the late Second Temple period.

scholarly journals The Book of Ruth in the time of the Judges and Ruth, the Moabitess

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerda De Villiers ◽  
Jurie Le Roux
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Alternative Interpretation ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Biblical Hermeneutics ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Mixed Marriages ◽  
The People ◽  
The Law ◽  
Scholarly Attention ◽  
Foreign Wives

This article addresses two issues in the Book of Ruth that have not yet received much scholarly attention: why is the narrative plotted in the time of the judges, whilst the time of narration dates to the postexilic period, and why is one of the protagonists Ruth, the Moabitess, whilst the law in Deuteronomy 23:3�4 (HB 4�5) clearly forbids the presence of Moabitess and Ammonites in the community of YHWH? A suggestion is made that a possible explanation to both these questions may be found in tensions regarding Israel�s identity in the Second Temple period. Two different yet not completely opposite viewpoints are illuminated: that of the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah who envisioned an exclusive Israel that is construed along genealogical and religious lines, and that of the Book of Ruth where solidarity with the people of Israel and the worship of YHWH are embraced by foreigners. Both sides are concerned about the identity of Israel and loyalty to YHWH, yet they employ a different jargon in order to argue for the inclusion or exclusion of foreigners. Furthermore, Ezra and Nehemiah consider mixed marriages as a serious threat to Israel�s identity, and they justify the expulsion of foreign wives on the basis of the Book of Moses. According to the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses interpreted the Torah for the children of Israel at Mount Nebo in Moab: Moab thus functioned as an interpretive space for the Torah. The Book of Ruth proposes an alternative interpretation of the Torah, also from the plains of Moab and the exegesis comes in the person of Ruth, the Moabitess.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article challenges the point of view that the Book of Ruth is a charming narrative of loyalty and love. Research reveals that this Book is a polemic document and its main contribution is to the intradisciplinary field of biblical hermeneutics that requests a re-interpretation of texts for changing circumstances.

scholarly journals Reading for Resonance

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Annie Calderbank
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Divine Presence ◽  
The People ◽  
Hermeneutic Approach ◽  
Second Temple Literature ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
The Temple

Abstract This article offers a hermeneutic approach attentive to the tangled idiomatic and literary interconnections among biblical texts and other Second Temple literature. It focuses on the expressions of divine presence in the Temple Scroll and their prepositions; the divine presence is ‘upon’ the temple and ‘in the midst’ of the people. This prepositional rhetoric engages recurrences and interconnections within and beyond the Hebrew Bible. It thus evokes multiple interlocking resonances and offers a window onto concepts of temple presence across biblical texts and traditions.

scholarly journals Deuteronomy in the Second Temple period: Law and its developing interpretation

2013 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Paganini
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Fundamental Aspect ◽  
Ethical Life ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The People

A fulfilled ethical life is a desire that in Israel is closely integrated with the observance of laws and legal instructions. The specific way, in which this aspect is concretised, is not the fundamental aspect for the biblical authors. In Pentateuch there are in fact a lot of legal codes. In prophetical writings these are often called into question and in the Second Temple period there are also attempts to correct biblical legislation, which are not in our biblical canon like the qumranic Temple Scroll. The differences between legal codes in the Bible and in the writings of the Second Temple period are above all witnesses that it is possible to correct, to interpret, to actualise and to rewrite laws, which remains authoritative for the people or for a part of it.

scholarly journals Congruent ethos in the Second Temple literature of the Old Testament

2011 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pieter M. Venter
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Modus Operandi ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Second Temple Literature

Proposing the term ‘congruent ethos’ for studying Old Testament ethics, this article indicates (in line with existing research) that opposing ethical viewpoints are found in the Old Testament. The modus operandi followed was firstly to compare the penitential prayer in Daniel 9:4–19 with those in Ezra 9:6–15 and Nehemiah 9:6–37. This comparison shows that the phenomenon of conflicting ethics was present in Yehud during the Second Temple period. Whilst the Daniel text reflects a more universal attitude, the penitential prayers in Ezra and Nehemiah propose a nationalist view of God and an exclusivist identity for Israel. Although Daniel can be dated later than Ezra-Nehemiah, the tendency to juxtapose an exclusivist viewpoint with an inclusivist one was already present in the earlier period of the Second Temple. This is evidenced by the literature of Isaiah 56–66, Ruth, Jonah, Esther, Tobit, Judith and even Joshua.

Reforming History: The Hermeneutical Significance of the Books of Chronicles

2007 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Jonker
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
The Past ◽  
God's People

AbstractDifferent views have been expressed in past scholarship about the nature of the Books of Chronicles. Some regard the Chronicler to be an exegete, others see the Chronicler as theologian, and still others see the Chronicler as a historian. The opinion expressed in this article is that Chronicles could be characterized as "reforming history". The ambiguity of this designation is intentional. The Books of Chronicles are an attempt to reformulate and sanitize the past. It is, however, simultaneously an attempt to reformulate the identity of God's people during the Second Temple period. Such a "reforming history" forms a unique bridge between past and present. The focus of this article is therefore on the hermeneutical significance of the Books of Chronicles.

On Appeals to an Imperfect past in a Present Future: Remembering the Israelite Wilderness Generation in the Late Second Temple Period

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-142
Author(s):  
Daniel L. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
The Past ◽  
Damascus Document ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Communal Organization

The Damascus Document explicitly remembers the Israelite wilderness period as a time of disobedience and rebellion, with dire consequences that endured for generations. At the same time, the same text calls for a communal organization that mimics that of the Israelites during their wilderness period (Exod. 18.25; Deut. 1.15). This appeal to an imperfect past in a document that faces an imminent or even present eschaton finds close parallels among other texts from the latter half of the Second Temple period. This article argues that these similar strategies of remembering and re-deploying the past shed light on possible motivations for the Damascus Document's seemingly incoherent approach to Israel's past.

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