The Use of Numbers as an Editing Device in Rabbinic Literature

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-234
Author(s):  
Ariel Ram Pasternak ◽  
Shamir Yona
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Babylonian Talmud ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Rhetorical Device ◽  
Ben Sira ◽  
The Bible

In the first part of this paper (Review of Rabbinic Literature 19:2, pp. 202–244) we followed the use of numbers from the Bible and Ancient Near Eastern literatures through the book of Ben-Sira and ultimately into Rabbinic literature. We showed that the Rabbis were familiar with the Biblical use of numbers as a rhetoric device and used numbers in similar ways. In this conclusion of our paper we will show how the Rabbis used numbers as an editing device in the Mishnah, Tosefta and Babylonian Talmud. This use of the rhetorical device in question is only rarely attested in the Hebrew Bible.

Concatenation in Ancient Near East Literature, Hebrew Scripture and Rabbinic Literature

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-92
Author(s):  
Shamir Yona ◽  
Ariel Ram Pasternak
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Rhetorical Device ◽  
Ben Sira ◽  
Early Use ◽  
Hebrew Scripture

Abstract This paper follows the development of concatenation from its early use in Ancient Near Eastern literature through its use in the Hebrew Bible, in Hebrew Ben-Sira, and ultimately in Rabbinic literature. We demonstrate that the Rabbis adopted this rhetorical pattern for stylistic purposes and also used it as an editing device. The latter use of the rhetorical device in question is only rarely attested in the Hebrew Bible.

Numerical Sayings in the Literatures of the Ancient Near East, in the Bible, in the Book of Ben-Sira and in Rabbinic Literature

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-244
Author(s):  
Ariel-Ram Pasternak ◽  
Shamir Yona
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Ben Sira ◽  
Rhetorical Devices ◽  
The Bible

This paper follows the use of numbers from the Bible and Ancient Near Eastern literature, through the book of Ben-Sira, and ultimately to the Rabbinic literature. We show that the Rabbis were familiar with the Biblical use of numbers as rhetorical devices and used numbers in the same ways that the Bible did.

Qoheleth in the Writings

2018 ◽  
pp. 244-260
Author(s):  
Erhard S. Gerstenberger
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Ancient Judaism ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Literary Composition ◽  
Fundamental Values ◽  
Carpe Diem

Qohelet (Greek/Latin: Ecclesiastes) is a very enigmatic book in the Hebrew Bible. Its critical, sometimes ironic or depressive approach to fundamental values of daily life (property; honor; power; intelligence; reward), however, has antecedents and parallels in Ancient Near Eastern wisdom. Also, it is not foreign to other writings of the Bible. Disconcerting as the absence of JHWH’s name and salvific deeds for Israel may be, the booklet, eventually becoming the festive lecture at the autumnal Feast of Booths, came into being as a textbook in some educational or scholarly institution of ancient Judaism (third century bce), complementing the study of Torah. Vanity and carpe-diem motives permeate the collection. The anonymous author(s) partially speak(s) in the guise of Salomon. Today’s interpretations focus on literary composition, autobiographic experiences of one or more authors, communitarian debate, reactions to historical events or philosophical currents, general skepticism, and eruptive bliss as components of Jewish theology.

To Die For

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shmuel Shepkaru
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Jewish Tradition ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Noble Death

This chapter examines the development of early Jewish martyrdom from the Bible to late antiquity. The chapter argues that martyrdom does not exist in the Hebrew Bible and that the stories of Eleazar and the mother with her seven sons from 2 Maccabees are not indicative of an existing Hellenistic tradition of martyrdom. The Jewish concept of martyrdom started to develop in Roman times, due to the influence of the popular Roman idea of noble death. The Jewish acceptance of the Roman idea created also moral and theological dilemmas. The idea of noble death needed to be reconciled with a Jewish tradition that emphasized the holiness of life. These martyrological premises and predicaments continued to be developed in rabbinic literature. The end result was the presentation of a rabbinic martyrological genre that set the Jewish lore and law of kiddush ha-Shem.

Rethinking the Materiality of Biblical Texts: From Source, Tradition and Redaction to a Scroll Approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 132 (4) ◽  
pp. 594-621
Author(s):  
David M. Carr
Keyword(s):  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Limited Data ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Early Use ◽  
Biblical Texts

AbstractThis article shows how attention to the dynamics surrounding production and revision of ancient Near Eastern scrolls can help scholars develop better models for the development and early use of the Bible. Though pioneers pursing such a scroll approach were confined to limited data in the Bible and rabbinic literature, we now have a wealth of data on scrolls from Egypt, Levantine sites like Deir ʿAlla, and Qumran. After discussing the use of scrolls for ancient literary compositions, the article illustrates how this information can reframe and inform analysis of the Pentateuch’s formation.

Like a Hedge of Lilies

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Shai Secunda
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
The Other ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Jewish Women ◽  
Babylonian Talmud ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
Ancient Judaism ◽  
Male Dominated ◽  
The One

This chapter considers some of the challenges of studying late antique Jewish women and their practices through a text composed and transmitted in male-dominated contexts. It describes how menstruation made meaning through difference and differentiation in the Hebrew Bible, ancient Judaism, and rabbinic Literature. The chapter reviews new approaches to understanding the Babylonian Talmud as situated between classical (Palestinian) rabbinic literature, on the one hand, and its Sasanian context, on the other. It then closely analyzes a story about a rabbi and a heretic recorded at b. Sanhedrin 37a to illustrate the book’s main hermeneutical assumptions and potentialities.

The “Better” Proverb in Rabbinic Literature

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-40
Author(s):  
Ariel Ram Pasternak ◽  
Shamir Yona
Keyword(s):  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Rhetorical Features ◽  
Rhetorical Form

Abstract The “Better Proverb” is a rhetorical form found in ancient Near Eastern literatures, including the Bible, and in Rabbinic literature. In this paper we discuss the use of this form in Rabbinic literature, focusing on the developments and changes that occurred in the later literature. We will show that the rabbis were familiar with biblical rhetorical features, used them, and changed them if needed to meet their own rhetorical purposes and goals.

Possessing the Iconic Book

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 309-329
Author(s):  
Claudia V. Camp
Keyword(s):  
Second Century ◽  
Religious Literature ◽  
Ben Sira ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Iconic Status ◽  
The Voice ◽  
Woman Wisdom ◽  
Martin Marty

I propose that the notion of possession adds an important ideological nuance to the analyses of iconic books set forth by Martin Marty (1980) and, more recently, by James Watts (2006). Using the early second century BCE book of Sirach as a case study, I tease out some of the symbolic dynamics through which the Bible achieved iconic status in the first place, that is, the conditions in which significance was attached to its material, finite shape. For Ben Sira, this symbolism was deeply tied to his honor-shame ethos in which women posed a threat to the honor of his eternal name, a threat resolved through his possession of Torah figured as the Woman Wisdom. What my analysis suggests is that the conflicted perceptions of gender in Ben Sira’s text is fundamental to his appropriation of, and attempt to produce, authoritative religious literature, and thus essential for understanding his relationship to this emerging canon. Torah, conceived as female, was the core of this canon, but Ben Sira adds his own literary production to this female “body” (or feminized corpus, if you will), becoming the voice of both through the experience of perfect possession.

On Agricultural Imagery in Biblical Descriptions of Catastrophes

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-14
Author(s):  
Nili Samet
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Mass Killing ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Biblical Literature ◽  
Ancient Israel

This article examines the use of agricultural imagery in biblical literature to embody the destructive force of war and other mass catastrophes. Activities such as vintage, harvest, threshing, and wine-pressing serve as metaphors for the actions of slaughtering, demolition and mass killing. The paper discusses the Ancient Near Eastern origins of the imagery under discussion, and presents the relevant examples from the Hebrew Bible, tracing the development of this absorbing metaphor, and analyzing the different meanings attached to it in different contexts. It shows that the use of destructive agricultural imagery first emerges in ancient Israel as an instance of popular phraseology. In turn, the imagery is employed as a common prophetic motif. The prophetic books examined demonstrate how each prophet appropriates earlier uses of the imagery in prophetic discourse and adapts the agricultural metaphors to suit specific rhetorical needs.

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