The Temporal Turn in Ancient Judaism and Jewish Studies

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 332-395
Author(s):  
Sarit Kattan Gribetz ◽  
Lynn Kaye
Keyword(s):  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Jewish Studies ◽  
Second Temple Judaism ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ancient Judaism ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Current Article ◽  
The Relationship

Despite the apparent finality of Heschel’s pronouncement, in 1951, that Judaism is a ‘religion of time’, the past two decades have seen renewed scholarly interest in the relationship between time, time-keeping, and forms of temporality in Jewish culture. This vibrant engagement with time and temporality in Jewish studies is not an isolated phenomenon. It participates in a broader interdisciplinary examination of time across the arts, humanities and sciences, both in the academy and beyond it. The current article outlines the innovative approaches of this ‘temporal turn’ within ancient Judaism and Jewish studies and reflects on why time has become such an important topic of research in recent years. We address a number of questions: What are the trends in recent work on time and temporality in the fields of ancient Judaism and Jewish studies? What new insights into the study of Judaism have emerged as a result of this focus on time? What reasons (academic, historiographical, technological and geopolitical) underpin this interest in time in such a wide variety of disciplines? And finally, what are some new avenues for exploration in this growing field at the intersection of time and Jewish studies? The article identifies trends and discusses key works in the broad field of Jewish studies, while providing more specific surveys of particular developments in the fields of Second Temple Judaism, Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, rabbinic literature, and some medieval Jewish sources.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AND THE ACCOUNTING AND ECONOMIC PRACTICES OF A SOCIETY: EVIDENCE FROM THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

2013 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
David N. Herda ◽  
Stephen A. Reed ◽  
William F. Bowlin
Keyword(s):  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
First Century ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Economic Practices ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Primary Focus ◽  
The Relationship

This study explores the Dead Sea Scrolls to demonstrate how Essene socio-religious values shaped their accounting and economic practices during the late Second Temple period (ca. first century BCE to 70 CE). Our primary focus is on the accounting and commercial responsibilities of a leader within their community – the Examiner. We contend that certain sectarian accounting practices may be understood as ritual/religious ceremony and address the performative roles of the Essenes' accounting and business procedures in light of their purity laws and eschatological beliefs. Far from being antithetical to religious beliefs, we find that accounting actually enabled the better practice and monitoring of religious behavior. We add to the literature on the interaction of religion with the structures and practices of accounting and regulation within a society.

Second Temple Judaism

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette Yoshiko Reed
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Second Temple Judaism ◽  
Practice Research ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
The Dead

“Second Temple Judaism” is a common designation for the Jewish traditions that flourished between the return of exiles from Babylon and the rebuilding of the Jerusalem Temple under Persian patronage from 538 to 515 bce, and the destruction of the Temple by Roman forces in 70 ce. In practice, research on the period often focuses on the 4th century bce and following, and stretches into the 2nd century ce. Sometimes referred to erroneously as “intertestamental,” Second Temple Judaism has attracted sustained attention since the late 19th century as a transitional age between the ancient Israelite religion reflected in the early strata of the Hebrew Bible and the emergence of Christianity and classical rabbinic Judaism in their characteristically postsacrificial forms in late Antiquity. In relation to the former, it has been called “postexilic,” “post-biblical,” or “late Judaism,” and, in relation to the latter, “prerabbinic” or “early Judaism.” Particularly since the discovery and publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls, it has been studied increasingly for its own sake and on its own terms. By the 1970s, a nascent subfield was taking form, energized by a new emphasis on the diversity of the Judaism from within which Christianity arose. In the late 20th century, studies of the Dead Sea Scrolls revealed new insights into the significance of this period for the development of Judaism as well. Long deemed critical for Jewish engagement with Greek language and literature and for the spread of Jewish communities throughout the Mediterranean world, the Second Temple period has also become a new locus for research on halacha, purity, and biblical interpretation. In addition, its study continues to create a space for discussion and collaboration among specialists in the Hebrew Bible, Classics, New Testament, Jewish studies, and rabbinics. This entry focuses on the literary evidence for Second Temple Judaism, selectively treating themes and issues that cross the large span of periods and places encompassed by this scholarly designation; for material and documentary evidence for Jews in the Second Temple period, the reader is referred to the Oxford Bibliographies articles on specific locales and time periods. Please see also Inscriptions, Papyri, Coins, and Seals in the Oxford Bibliographies article Hellenistic Judaism.

Ritual and Worship at Qumran

2020 ◽  
pp. 363-377
Author(s):  
Eileen M. Schuller
Keyword(s):  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Second Temple Judaism ◽  
Ritual Practice ◽  
Specific Group ◽  
Written Texts ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Key Aspects

This chapter describes key aspects of the ritual and worship of a specific group within Second Temple Judaism, especially as can be known from the written texts preserved in the Dead Sea Scrolls. These manuscripts, discovered some seventy years ago in the caves near the site of Qumran, provide much previously unknown information, both descriptions about ritual practice and actual texts of many prayers, psalms, blessings, and liturgies that are known only because they were preserved in the caves. Many of these scrolls are very fragmentary, and any reconstruction of the details of worship practice must remain tentative. The Scrolls contain collections of set prayers for the days of the week, the days of the months, for feasts, songs for the Sabbath, a collection of Thanksgiving Psalms (Hodayot) that are expressive of the distinctive worldview and spirituality of this group, and liturgies for entrance into the community through a covenant renewal ceremony

Judaism

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Wheeler-Reed
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Second Temple Judaism ◽  
Sexual Ethics ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Sexual Ideology ◽  
The Dead

This chapter establishes that most of the sexual ethics of Second Temple Judaism are similar to the ideological sexual codes of the Roman Empire. It examines works as diverse as Tobit, the writings of Philo and Josephus, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. It contends that the dominant sexual ideology among Second Temple Jews is “Procreationism,” which maintains that sex is for reproduction and not for pleasure. Furthermore, it suggests that most of the Jewish literature of the Second Temple period upholds the same hegemonic ideology of the Augustan marriage legislation, except for the writings of the Essenes.

scholarly journals Measuring and weighing psychostasia in Q 6:37–38: Intertexts from the Old Testament

2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Llewellyn Howes
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Second Temple Judaism ◽  
Current Article ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Sayings Gospel Q

This article is the first of three on the relationship between the Sayings Gospel Q and the ancient concept of ‘psychostasia,’ which is the ancient notion that a divine or supernatural figure weighed people’s souls when judging them. The ultimate goal of all three articles is to enhance our understanding of Q 6:37–38, as well as of the Q document as a whole. In the current article, attention is focused on intertexts from the Old Testament, and the occurrences therein of the word ‘measure’ and the concept of ‘psychostasia’. The implications of these results for our interpretation of Q 6:37–38 are briefly noted. A second (future) article will focus on intertexts in apocryphal and pseudepigraphical writings from Second Temple Judaism dealing with ‘psychostasia’. A third study will ultimately spell out in more comprehensive detail the implications of the foregoing intertextual investigations on both our understanding of Q 6:37–38 and our understanding of the Sayings Gospel Q as a whole.

A New Theory on Aṣḥāb al-kahf (“The Sleepers of the Cave”) Based on Evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls (dss)

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-47
Author(s):  
Rashid Iqbal
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Second Temple Judaism ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Innovative Method ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Dead

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (dss) in 1947 substantially transformed ideas surrounding Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity. Up to now, Islamic scholars have paid little attention to dss, primarily because of the perception that dss are an exclusively Judeo-Christian matter. However, a common research field has grown out of dss, one that compels an Islamic response that will answer certain unaddressed queries. Therefore, in this hermeneutic synopsis, nature, history and an exposition of Aṣḥāb al-kahf are expounded in the light of references from dss, Second Temple Judaism, early Christian history, the history of the Roman Empire and astounding connections found in the Qurʾān. This delineated and innovative method may be called the “Five-Pronged Juxtaposing” approach, and it is entirely different from existing perspectives.1

A Contested Field: Half a Century of Study of Second Temple Judaism

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 437-459
Author(s):  
John J. Collins
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Cutting Edge ◽  
Second Temple Judaism ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Shed Light

AbstractThere has been an explosion of interest in Second Temple Judaism over the last fifty years. In the first half of the period under review, the Pseudepigrapha were at the cutting edge. This period culminated in the publication of the new enlarged edition of the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, edited by James H. Charlesworth. Beginning in the 1980s, interest shifted to the Dead Sea Scrolls, culminating in the rapid publication of the corpus under the editorship of Emanuel Tov. At the same time, new discoveries shed light on the encounter of Judaism with Hellenism, both in Judea in the Maccabean period and in the Egyptian diaspora. Few scholars would now defend an idea of “normative Judaism” in this period, but that idea still casts a shadow on the ongoing debates.

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.

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