“She is My Sister”: Sarai as Lady Wisdom in the Genesis Apocryphon

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 319-347
Author(s):  
Anthony I. Lipscomb
Keyword(s):  
Genesis Apocryphon ◽  
Wisdom Traditions ◽  
Lady Wisdom

AbstractThe Aramaic text from Qumran known to scholars as the Genesis Apocryphon (1Q20) stands out as one the earliest and most innovative examples of the retelling of Abram and Sarai’s sojourn in Egypt (Gen 12:10-20). To be sure, the terse nature of the Genesis account invited creative storytellers to fill in the gaps, but brevity yielded only half the impetus. Ancient storytellers were no less bothered by the inglorious portrayal of Abram and Sarai, for which there is no shortage of attempts to rescue their reputations. The Apocryphon shares several of the same recharacterization strategies as other ancient retellings, but it is nevertheless unique in its engagement with the tradition of personified wisdom. This article imagines the composer of the Apocryphon’s sojourn account in dialogue with ancient Jewish wisdom traditions and discerns an effort to redeem Sarai’s reputation from Genesis 12 by recasting her as an embodiment of Lady Wisdom.

Colloquium 4 Hermeneutical Platonism in Plutarch’s Isis and Osiris

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-122
Author(s):  
Mark Shiffman
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Wisdom Traditions ◽  
The Erotic ◽  
At Home

Abstract I here examine the underlying order of Plutarch’s Isis and Osiris, following compositional cues the author uses to highlight its themes, in order to draw out distinctive features of Plutarch’s philosophical agenda. After placing the text in the context of Plutarch’s general themes and his other main Platonic-hermeneutical works, I follow the indications of key framing devices to bring to the surface his structuring concerns first with the erotic character of the cosmos, in which human eros is at home, and second with the intentions of ancient lawgivers to civilize human communities, both of which he sees represented in the Isis myth. The text thus exemplifies both Plutarch’s recovery of the unity in Plato of metaphysics and political philosophy and his manner of achieving that recovery through a coordinated threefold hermeneutics of wisdom traditions and human and cosmic phenomena.

scholarly journals Beyond Combination: How Cosmic Consciousness Grounds Ordinary Experience

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 390-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
ITAY SHANI ◽  
JOACHIM KEPPLER
Keyword(s):  
Field Theory ◽  
Quantum Field Theory ◽  
Vacuum State ◽  
Present Approach ◽  
Quantum Field ◽  
Eastern Philosophy ◽  
Stochastic Electrodynamics ◽  
Ordinary Experience ◽  
Wisdom Traditions ◽  
Ordinary Consciousness

AbstractThe aim of this paper is twofold. First, our purpose is to propose and motivate a novel and scientifically informed variant of cosmopsychism, namely, the view that the experiences of ordinary subjects are ultimately grounded in an all-pervading cosmic consciousness. Second, we will demonstrate that this approach generates promising avenues for addressing familiar problems of phenomenal constitution. We use stochastic electrodynamics (SED) as the physical bedrock of our approach, supplementing it with key insights about the nature of consciousness long emphasized in eastern philosophy and other wisdom traditions. We proceed to show that our approach substantiates an intriguing way of thinking about the dynamical emergence of ordinary consciousness from cosmic consciousness, identifying the latter with the vacuum state of quantum field theory. Finally, we argue that the present approach is well suited to address problems of phenomenal constitution, in particular as they pertain to the qualities and structure of experience and to the generation of subjects.

Lamech’s Change of Mind: The Hellenistic Philosophy behind the Use of שנא in the Genesis Apocryphon and the Book of Daniel

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-66
Author(s):  
Laura Quick
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
The Other ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
Genesis Apocryphon ◽  
Book Of Daniel ◽  
Hellenistic Philosophy

This article seeks to establish that the ‘strong’ meaning of the verbal forms derived from שנא in the Genesis Apocryphon and the book of Daniel is of a dramatic, even violent, change; when used to denote a ‘change’ in mind or countenance, this refers to mental anguish, and so opens up a hitherto overlooked connection between this Jewish literature and the Hellenistic science of physiognomy. The semantic input of this Hellenistic context is important for a better understanding of the range of this Aramaic lexeme, and of the other lexeme employed to denote a ‘change’ by these two early Jewish texts, חלף. Thus this article will attempt to demonstrate the importance of the wider cultural context in which lexemes articulate their meaning.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document