scholarly journals Torah as Wisdom in 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Lydia Gore-Jones
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
Second Temple Judaism ◽  
Wisdom Tradition

Abstract This essay is concerned with the meaning of torah and its relationship with wisdom in late Second Temple Judaism. It has been previously argued that, as the Mosaic torah had gained dominance, the wisdom school absorbed and accommodated the Mosaic torah tradition, and yet maintained all the essential elements of the sapiential tradition. Through a study of two Jewish apocalypses, 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch, the essay discovers not only the sapientialization of the Mosaic torah, but also the total submission of the wisdom tradition under the authority of the Mosaic torah tradition to gain legitimacy. It argues that this is done through a submission of sapiential revelations to the Mosaic revelation received at Sinai, and a portrayal of wisdom recipients and apocalyptic visionaries as types of Moses. This process reflects religious innovation under the disguise of compliance with established, older traditions.

scholarly journals Wisdom in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Early Jewish Interpretation

2021 ◽  
pp. 140-154
Author(s):  
Arjen Bakker
Keyword(s):  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Second Temple Judaism ◽  
Wisdom Literature ◽  
Conceptual Frameworks ◽  
Hellenistic World ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Wisdom Tradition

This article argues that wisdom in the Dead Sea Scrolls is not a continuation of the biblical Wisdom tradition. What we see in the scrolls is rather a reinterpretation of biblical Wisdom Literature within new conceptual frameworks and within the broader context of the interpretive culture of Second Temple Judaism. One of the main aspects of this new version of wisdom is that it is hidden and not available to just anyone. The emphasis on mystery and the hidden structures of time is shared by Wisdom texts from Qumran and from the Hellenistic world. Wisdom is omnipresent across Jewish traditions as it is integrated with Torah, revelation, and prayer. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has made clear how deeply embedded wisdom was across genres and traditions.

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.

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