Deeds, Reward, and Divine Mercy: Jewish Views and Pauline Passages

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-44
Author(s):  
Menahem Kister
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Jewish Thought ◽  
The Law ◽  
Divine Mercy ◽  
Inner Tension

Abstract The present article deals with a strand of ancient Jewish theological notions (in rabbinic literature, Fourth Ezra, and elsewhere) and Pauline ones. In these Jewish passages—sharing similar religious sensitivities and using similar terminology—human works stand vis-à-vis God’s mercy and his benevolence (צדקה). In some passages these categories turn out to be in tension in view of human sinfulness, since no human being can comply with the rigid standards of observing God’s commandments, resulting in the emphasis of divine mercy. Paul’s view, according to which “works (of the law)” and “grace” are mutually exclusive, is a radical intensification of this tension. Paul’s distinct ideas display the inherent dynamics of contemporary Jewish notions and reveal the inner tension within Jewish thought of the late Second Temple period, a tension that continued in Jewish writings (including rabbinic literature) after the Second Temple’s destruction.

Fellowship, Pharisees and the common people in early Rabbinic tradition

2005 ◽  
Vol 34 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 339-356
Author(s):  
Tracy Ames
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Common People ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
The Common

This paper explores the phenomenon of non-priestly purity within the ancient Jewish purity system and examines passages in Tannaitic literature that refer to p'rushim (Pharisees), haverim and ne'e-manim, all of whom have been associated with practising non-priestly purity laws during the Second Temple period. The 'am ha-aretz, people accused of non-compliance with ritual purity, are also a focus of the paper. An analysis of the terms p'rushim, haverim, ne'emanim and 'am ha-aretz reveals that variant meanings have been attached to these categories in different passages of rabbinic literature and that the terms are fluid and resist classification. The findings of this paper challenge some of the prevailing theories that attempt to explain the phenomenon of non-priestly purity in ancient Israel.

The Son of Man in the Vision of Daniel

2020 ◽  
pp. 19-24
Author(s):  
Peter Schäfer
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
Son Of Man ◽  
Book Of Daniel ◽  
The One ◽  
Point Of Departure

This chapter is devoted to the continuation of the Son of Man tradition in rabbinic Judaism. It explains how the Son of Man is virtually irrelevant among the rabbis of Palestine, in contrast to the Second Temple period. The point of departure of all binitarian speculations in Judaism is the enigmatic “Son of Man” in the biblical Book of Daniel. This book consists of various parts that were written at different times. It is certain that its final editing took place during the Maccabean period, which is in the first half of the second century BCE. The chapter also discusses who exactly is the Ancient One, who is the “one like a human being,” and who are the holy ones of the Most High.

The Origins of the Seder and Haggadah

2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-134
Author(s):  
Joshua Kulp
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Jerusalem Temple ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Last Supper ◽  
Death Of Jesus ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Temple

Emerging methods in the study of rabbinic literature now enable greater precision in dating the individual components of the Passover seder and haggadah. These approaches, both textual and socio-historical, have led to a near consensus among scholars that the Passover seder as described in rabbinic literature did not yet exist during the Second Temple period. Hence, cautious scholars no longer seek to find direct parallels between the last supper as described in the Gospels and the rabbinic seder. Rather, scholarly attention has focused on varying attempts of Jewish parties, notably rabbis and Christians, to provide religious meaning and sanctity to the Passover celebration after the death of Jesus and the destruction of the Temple. Three main forces stimulated the rabbis to develop innovative seder ritual and to generate new, relevant exegeses to the biblical Passover texts: (1) the twin calamities of the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and the Bar-Kokhba revolt; (2) competition with emerging Christian groups; (3) assimilation of Greco-Roman customs and manners. These forces were, of course, significant contributors to the rise of a much larger array of rabbinic institutions, ideas and texts. Thus surveying scholarship on the seder reviews scholarship on the emergence of rabbinic Judaism.

The Law in the Late Second Temple Period

2019 ◽  
pp. 366-382
Author(s):  
John J. Collins
Keyword(s):  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Roman Law ◽  
Jewish Tradition ◽  
Jewish Law ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Law

The Torah of Moses was recognized as the ancestral law of Judah from the time of Ezra. Its status was revoked briefly by Antiochus Epiphanes. In the Hasmonean era there was a turn to intensive halakhic discussion, attested in the Dead Sea Scrolls. This was a factor in the rise of sectarianism. The papyri from the early second century ce take a flexible attitude to laws, drawing on Jewish or Roman law as seemed advantageous. The literature from the Hellenistic Diaspora treats the law broadly as a summary of Jewish tradition. Despite some claims that the law functioned as a civic law in the Diaspora, there are only a few instances in the papyri where Jews base appeals on Jewish law, and we do not know what the judges decided in those cases.

The Shema in the Second Temple Period

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarit Kattan Gribetz
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Community Rule ◽  
Historical Moment ◽  
The Temple ◽  
At Home

The precise historical moment when Deut 6 (Shema Israel) was transformed into a prayer ritual is uncertain and a matter of scholarly debate. It is generally assumed that by the time of the Mishnah’s redaction (ca. 200 C. E.), the recitation of the Shema was already a standardized ritual because the Mishnah refers to it as a well-known practice. Indeed, the Mishnah takes for granted that its audience is so familiar with the prayer that it does not define it at all, but rather delves immediately into detailed discussions of its timing and exceptions that might arise in everyday life. Other sources from the Second Temple period, however, challenge the idea of the antiquity and ubiquity of such a standard prayer ritual composed of biblical verses from Deuteronomy and Numbers. This paper examines a number of key texts from the Second Temple period that seemingly refer to the recitation of the Shema prayer and that have been used by scholars to reconstruct the origins of this liturgical ritual. Through a close reading of four of these sources (the Letter of Aristeas, Philo, the Community Rule, and Josephus), I argue that they might not refer to the practice of the Shema recitation that we know from later rabbinic literature. Rather, they provide us with a lens into the diversity of ways that Deut 6:6–7 – “take to heart these instructions… impress them on your children… recite them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up” – was understood and fulfilled in the Second Temple period. The Letter of Aristeas describes an act of meditating on God’s works of creation; the Community Rule prescribes daily recitation of laws; Philo emphasizes the instruction of justice; and Josephus frames the obligation as a commandment to commemorate the deliverance out of Egypt twice daily. The particular framing of the Shema ritual that we come to know in the Mishnah might have appropriated and extended the practice of reciting the Shema in the temple (some evidence suggests that the Shema was recited in the temple), but this was only one of the ways in which Deut 6:7 was enacted and fulfilled in the pre-destruction period.

Sanitized Sacrifice in Aramaic Levi’s Law of the Priesthood

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-368
Author(s):  
Liane M. Feldman
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
The Law ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
The One ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Continuum

Abstract Most studies of the law of the priesthood in Aramaic Levi have focused on comparing its individual laws to those in the Torah/Pentateuch. This article argues that these types of comparisons are anachronistic and obscure the distinctive portrayal of sacrifice in Aramaic Levi. The law of the priesthood does not merely respond to, expand, or revise earlier ideas about sacrifice found in “biblical” texts. Rather, the practice and function of sacrifice in Aramaic Levi is constructed around the deity’s senses of sight and smell. Inasmuch as the law of the priesthood presents a fundamentally different idea of sacrifice than the one presented in Leviticus, it speaks to the continuum of distinct Jewish ideologies of sacrifice in the mid-Second Temple period.

The Sacrifice of the Souls of the Righteous upon the Heavenly Altar: Transformations of Apocalyptic Traditions in Medieval Ashkenaz

2018 ◽  
pp. 49-72
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Babylonian Talmud ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The Common ◽  
Common Era ◽  
The Sacrifice

This chapter describes the surprising motif found in early medieval rabbinic traditions that appears in some manuscripts of the Babylonian Talmud and concerns the sacrifice of 'the souls of the righteous' upon the heavenly altar. It compares the motif, background, and transmission of medieval rabbinic traditions with other traditions concerning the 'souls of the righteous' in rabbinic literature and with precedents in texts of the Second Temple period. The chapter outlines early Enochic traditions, apocalyptic texts of the Second Temple period, and early Christian cultural traditions and beliefs. It indicates the nexus between Christian and Byzantine Jewish traditions, which became manifest in the development of motifs and textual sources during the first centuries of the Common Era and later expressed in medieval Ashkenazi texts. It also provides evidence on cultural transmission between Byzantine works, traditions of the East, and the cultural milieu of medieval Ashkenaz.

scholarly journals ‘Die pen is magtiger as die swaard’: Oor skrifgeletterdheid, skrifgeleerdes en Israel se Tweede Tempeltydperk

2013 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerda De Villiers
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Near East ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
General Part ◽  
The Law

‘The pen is mightier than the sword’: Literacy and scribes in Israel during the Second Temple period. This article is divided in two parts. Part one examines scribal education and scribes in the ancient Near East and Israel. Although no real evidence exists for scribal schools and education in Israel, it is argued that some form of institutionalised training must have taken place in order to produce literary texts of such a high quality as are found in the Hebrew Bible. Comparative material from Mesopotamia serves to trace the education of scribes in general. Part two focuses on the Second Temple period in ancient Israel. Ezra the scribe emerges as a typical scribe from that era. Post-exilic Israel was grappling with its identity, and sought guidance from ַ [as was written in the Torah]. However, it appears that there were different interpretations of the written Law during this period. Scribes of the Ezra circle advocated a radical policy of exclusivity on the basis of what was written in the Law; others who wrote the texts of Trito-Isaiah and Ruth pleaded for a more inclusive attitude towards foreigners. The conclusion is that the battle was fought not with the sword, but with the pen, therefore: ‘The pen is mightier than the sword.’

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