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.

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.

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.

Wisdom, Israel and Other Nations

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-26
Author(s):  
Marko Marttila ◽  
Mika S. Pajunen
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
Central Concept ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Ben Sira ◽  
One Step ◽  
Hereditary Nature ◽  
Lady Wisdom ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
The Way

Wisdom” is a central concept in the Hebrew Bible and Early Jewish literature. An analysis of a selection of texts from the Second Temple period reveals that the way wisdom and its possession were understood changed gradually in a more exclusive direction. Deuteronomy 4 speaks of Israel as a wise people, whose wisdom is based on the diligent observance of the Torah. Proverbs 8 introduces personified Lady Wisdom that is at first a rather universal figure, but in later sources becomes more firmly a property of Israel. Ben Sira (Sir. 24) stressed the primacy of Israel by combining wisdom with the Torah, but he still attempted to do justice to other nations’ contacts with wisdom as well. One step further was taken by Baruch, as only Israel is depicted as the recipient of wisdom (Bar. 3–4). This more particularistic understanding of wisdom was also employed by the sages who wrote the compositions 4Q185 and 4Q525. Both of them emphasize the hereditary nature of wisdom, and 4Q525 even explicitly denies foreigners’ share of wisdom. The author of Psalm 154 goes furthest along this line of development by claiming wisdom to be a sole possession of the righteous among the Israelites. The question about possessing wisdom has moved from the level of nations to a matter of debate between different groups within Judaism.

Comparing Matthew and Luke in the Light of Second Temple Jewish Literature

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-57
Author(s):  
George J. Brooke
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Reading Strategy ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
The Temple

This article argues that Luke provides a framework for his gospel narrative about Jesus that is based on the institution of the Temple but that the narrative as a whole is filled with instability marked by features of inclusiveness, whereas Matthew provides a framework of hope in the fulfilment of prophetic texts but that the central gospel narrative as a whole is marked by a restricted and restricting structure based on the Torah. As such the two gospels variously play with features of Jewish societal self-understanding that are also, at least partially, represented in 1 and 2 Maccabees, or in the sectarian scrolls found in the Qumran caves. The insights of C. Lévi-Strauss, as recently adapted for reading narratives by J.W. Rogerson, are used as the basis of a reading strategy.

Past Continuous: The Yerushalmi’s Account of Honi’s Long Sleep and Its Roots in Second Temple Era Literature

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 398-431
Author(s):  
Moshe Simon-Shoshan
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Original Work ◽  
Jewish Life ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
High Priest ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
Ben Sira ◽  
Long Sleep ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Temple

Abstract The Palestinian version of the seventy-year sleep of Honi Hamʿagel in y. Taʿanit 3:9 (66d), is an example of a rabbinic narrative deeply rooted in the culture of pre-rabbinic Judaism. Its authors were familiar with three distinct literary-historical traditions found in earlier texts: the depiction of Simon the high priest in Ben Sira; the account of Nehemiah hiding and restoring the fire of the temple altar in 2 Maccabees; and the story of Abimelech’s decades-long nap preserved in 4 Baruch and The History of the Babylonian Captivity. These three traditions were already connected to each other as part of a wider network of texts, traditions, and collective memory about the Babylonian exile and the return to Zion. The creators of the Honi story built on and extended this body of cultural materials, creating an original work about the continuity of Jewish life and tradition from the biblical era to their own.

The Attitude to Poverty and the Poor in Early Rabbinic Sources (70-250 ce)

2016 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 411-438
Author(s):  
B. Z. Rosenfeld ◽  
H. Perlmutter
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
The Other ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Wisdom Literature ◽  
Public Funds ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Community Responsibility ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Temple

This research examines the attitude of rabbinic literature to poverty and the poor after the destruction of the Second Temple. In the Hebrew Bible there are instructions to care for the poor and to be compassionate toward them. However, in Wisdom literature there is also criticism of the poor depicting them as lazy. The Torah obligates the individual Jew to support the poor though tithes from the produce of the fields, giving charity and free loans, but does not advocate establishing public funds for the relief of the poor. Rabbinic literature from after the destruction of the temple shows that the rabbis advocated community responsibility for helping the poor. It shows compassion toward the poor and encourages the Jews to support them through charity. They amended religious laws in order to enable the poor to have more to consume. This seems to be a change from the way the rabbis related to the poor prior to the destruction as is depicted by the New Testament. Examination of actions attributed to sages from before the destruction shows that the rabbis related positively primarily toward poor who were “sons of good” citizens. The other poor were “others” and were left to charity and tithes. After the destruction all poor are “ours,” sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

“Who is Rich”?

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-299
Author(s):  
Ben Zion Rosenfeld ◽  
Haim Perlmutter
Keyword(s):  
Wealth Distribution ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
Distribution Of Wealth ◽  
Jewish Society ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Second Temple Literature ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Roman Palestine

This article analyzes the wealthy strata of Jewish society in Roman Palestine in the first centuries after the destruction of the Temple in 70 C. E. It examines the use of the term “wealthy” in Jewish literature of the time, demonstrating that the authors of this literature used it differently than modern use. “Rich” for them is primarily “not poor,” and may reflect differing levels of property possession. One level is a person who is wealthy compared to his neighbors. Another use of the word relates to those perceived to be objectively wealthy. The use of the term in the Hebrew Bible and the Second Temple literature serves as a background for discussion of its use in the New Testament and in rabbinic literature. In addition, this article surveys the archaeological finds that help to determine the various kinds of “wealth” in contemporary society. This analysis aids in our understanding of the distribution of wealth in Roman Palestine and can even serve as a paradigm for wealth distribution elsewhere in the Roman East.

Going Through Hell; ΤΑΡΤΑΡΟΣ in Greco-Roman Culture, Second Temple Judaism, and Philo of Alexandria

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 352-378
Author(s):  
Clint Burnett
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Second Temple Judaism ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Philo Of Alexandria ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
Roman Culture ◽  
Greek Myths

This article questions the longstanding supposition that the eschatology of the Second Temple period was solely influenced by Persian or Iranian eschatology, arguing instead that the literature of this period reflects awareness of several key Greco-Roman mythological concepts. In particular, the concepts of Tartarus and the Greek myths of Titans and Giants underlie much of the treatment of eschatology in the Jewish literature of the period. A thorough treatment of Tartarus and related concepts in literary and non-literary sources from ancient Greek and Greco-Roman culture provides a backdrop for a discussion of these themes in the Second Temple period and especially in the writings of Philo of Alexandria.

Jewish Identity and the Intercommunal Links between Diaspora Jewish Communities in the Second Temple Period

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Jonathan R. Trotter
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Identity ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Jerusalem Temple ◽  
Shared Identity ◽  
The City ◽  
The Temple

Abstract Many diaspora communities identify not only with a distant homeland but also with others distant from the homeland. How exactly do these intercommunal connections take place and contribute toward a shared identity? What specific aspects of diasporan identity are created or strengthened? What practices are involved? This study will begin to answer these questions through investigating two practices which were widespread among diaspora Jewish communities during the last two centuries of the Second Temple period (1st cent. B.C.E.–1st cent. C.E.). First, we will show how sending offerings and making pilgrimages to the Jerusalem temple from these communities enabled regular intercommunal contact. Then, we will suggest some ways in which these voluntary practices reinforced a cohesive Jewish identity and the importance of the homeland, especially the city of Jerusalem and the temple, for many diaspora Jews, whether they lived in Alexandria, Rome, Asia Minor, or Babylonia.

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