Towards a More Precise Understanding of Pseudo-Jonathan’s Origins

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-120
Author(s):  
Leeor Gottlieb
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Precise Understanding ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Basic Facts ◽  
Land Of Israel

Abstract Many have assumed that Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (TgPsJ) is the product of first millennium Palestine. This study presents evidence suggesting that TgPsJ is neither from the first millennium, nor from Palestine. TgPsJ displays an unawareness of some basic facts with regard to the geography of the land of Israel, which makes the argument for its author being a native of Palestine unpersuasive. Excerpts from Even Bochan, a twelfth-century Hebrew lexicon written by Menachem ben Shelomo, the author of Sekhel Tov, exhibit textual similarities to statements found elsewhere only in TgPsJ. The nature of these statements lead to the conclusion that Even Bochan precedes TgPsJ and not vice versa. This suggests that the origins of TgPsJ are to be found in twelfth-century Italy.

Did the Anglo-Saxons Play Games of Chance? Some Thoughts on Old English Board Games

2006 ◽  
Vol 86 ◽  
pp. 330-345
Author(s):  
Ian Payne
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Board Game ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Board Games ◽  
Games Of Chance ◽  
First Millennium

H J R Murray, the distinguished board games historian, stated categorically in 1952 that the popular Germanic game of tæfl (more specifically referred to in a ninth- to twelfth-century Norse context as hnefatafl), a game entirely of skill, was the only board game played in Anglo-Saxon England. But Old English literary evidence might pose a challenge to Murray's thesis, and could be taken to suggest that the English also played games of chance (perhaps even tabula, an ancestor of backgammon) in the first millennium AD.

scholarly journals religion, Phoenician and Punic

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corinne Bonnet
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Middle Ground ◽  
Common Features ◽  
The Core ◽  
System A ◽  
Precise Understanding ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
City State ◽  
Different Cultures

The Phoenician and Punic religion was a polytheistic system, characterized by local specificities and some common features. It is attested in the whole Mediterranean basin throughout the first millennium bce, with significant evolutions since the Archaic period, due to frequent contacts with many different cultures, such as Greece, Egypt, Etruria, etc. Each kingdom or city-state (Arwad, Beirut, Byblos, Sidon, Sarepta, Tyre, to mention the most important) shapes its own pantheon, which becomes a crucial expression of micro-identities. However, many gods are shared and present both in Phoenicia and in the Mediterranean diaspora, where they undergo transformations and integrate multicultural environments. The absence of Phoenician and Punic literature is a huge obstacle to a precise understanding of the religious dynamics. Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Assyrian, and Egyptian sources fortunately provide a consistent body of evidence on gods, rituals, myths, or narratives, but they need to be accurately deciphered. The Phoenician and Punic religion appears as particularly open to foreign influences and borrowings; it often employs composite images between anthropomorphism and aniconism. As in many other religions, sacrifices represent the core of the ritual system, a “middle ground,” where gods and men interact.

70 CE–1492

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maristella Botticini ◽  
Zvi Eckstein
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Jewish Community ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Distinctive Feature ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
First Century ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Land Of Israel

This chapter describes how many Jews there were, where they lived, and how they earned their living from the time of the destruction of the Second Temple to the mass expulsion of the Jews from the Iberian Peninsula. During the six centuries between the time of Jesus and the time of Muhammad, the number of Jews declined precipitously. Throughout these six centuries, most Jews earned their living from agriculture, as farmers, sharecroppers, fixed-rent tenants, or wage laborers. During the first century, the largest Jewish community dwelled in the Land of Israel. By the mid-twelfth century, Jews could be found in almost all locations from Tudela in Spain to Mangalore in India. By then, their transition into urban skilled occupations was complete. Their specialization into these occupations remains their distinctive feature until today.

Introducing the Byzantine Nomocanon

2021 ◽  
pp. 17-30
Author(s):  
James Morton
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Source Material ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Basic Facts

Chapter 1 introduces the reader to the nomocanon, a type of Byzantine manuscript that serves as the primary source material for the book. Nomocanons are largely unknown among Byzantinists and medievalists, so this chapter explains the basic facts of what they are, how they are designed, and why they are historically significant. Beginning with the emergence of the corpus of Byzantine canon law in Late Antiquity, it outlines the development of the texts from the first systematic collections in the sixth century to the great Byzantine canonists of the twelfth century (Aristenos, Zonaras, and Balsamon). The chapter then describes the typical content and structure of a nomocanon, discussing the example of the eleventh-/twelfth-century manuscript BN II C 4. It closes with a discussion of the material and aesthetic qualities of nomocanons, arguing for the importance of studying the manuscripts not just as sources for textual editions but also as artefacts of specific socio-historical contexts.

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in Medieval Europe

2021 ◽  
pp. 78-99
Author(s):  
Ryan Szpiech
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Christian Belief ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Medieval Europe ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Fourth Lateran Council

This chapter discusses the interaction between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in medieval Europe. It considers the importance of Augustine’s doctrine of Jews as ‘witnesses’ to Christian truth in the formation of the medieval image of the ‘hermeneutical Jew’. Jews, who lived primarily in the Islamic world in the first millennium, began to migrate into Christian lands in greater numbers from the eleventh century. As Christian ideas about Judaism evolved in the twelfth century, culminating in the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, Jewish authors responded with detailed critiques of Christian belief. The simultaneous Christian engagement with Muslim sources led to a triangular encounter, especially significant in the Iberian Peninsula, between Jewish, Christian, and Muslim writers, reflected in numerous dialogues and polemics about prophecy and history. Beginning in the thirteenth century, mendicant friars, including converts, played a greater role in engagement with Islam and Judaism, taking on important roles as translators and inquisitors.

The Date and Provenance of Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: The Evidence of Pirqe deRabbi Eliezer and the Chronicles of Moses

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Gavin McDowell
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Italian Origin

Abstract The date of Targum Pseudo-Jonathan has been the occasion of much controversy, with propositions ranging from the Second Temple period to the time of the Crusades. Related to the Targum is the late midrashic work Pirqe deRabbi Eliezer (eighth century), but the nature of this relationship is disputed. The present article proposes that the Targum depends unilaterally on PRE, based on two principal arguments: 1. PRE does not refer to common Targumic traditions in Pseudo-Jonathan; and 2. Pseudo-Jonathan uses sources that post-date PRE, namely the Chronicles of Moses, which was written around the eleventh century. The Targum’s use of late sources places its redaction long after the conclusion of the first millennium. The author proposes a twelfth-century Italian origin, which corresponds to the earliest evidence for the Targum.

AL-MIKLĀTĪ, A TWELFTH CENTURY AŠʿARITE READER OF AVERROES

2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yamina Adouhane
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Prime Mover ◽  
Precise Understanding

AbstractThe aim of this article is to present a new witness of Averroes' reception in the Muslim world, in the years that immediately followed his death. Indeed Abū al-Ḥağğāğ al-Miklātī (d. 1237) is an Ašʿarite theologian, who was born in Fez. He is the author of aQuintessence of the Intellects in Response to Philosophers on the Science of Principlesin which he aims at refuting the Peripatetic philosophers in their own field, using their own weapons. This article will first attempt to draw the portrait of this atypical theologian. It will then focus on showing that al-Miklātī – although he never mentions his name – is a reader of Averroes and in particular, of hisTahāfut al-Tahāfut, of which he makes various and unexpected uses. A close look at these uses will enable us to better define the nature of al-Miklātī's work. More importantly, this article will try to prove that al-Miklātī provides us with a key passage of Averroes' lost treatiseOn the Prime Mover. At the heart of the Rushdian criticism of Avicenna's “metaphysical” proof, this passage should throw new light on Averroes' precise understanding of this proof.

Individual differences, social attention, and the history of the social motivation hypotheses of autism

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter C. Mundy
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Early Development ◽  
Emotional Development ◽  
Social Motivation ◽  
Social Attention ◽  
Social Emotional Development ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Precise Understanding ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of

Abstract The stereotype of people with autism as unresponsive or uninterested in other people was prominent in the 1980s. However, this view of autism has steadily given way to recognition of important individual differences in the social-emotional development of affected people and a more precise understanding of the possible role social motivation has in their early development.

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