Chapter 8. The Texture of Rituals in the Book of Numbers: A Fresh Approach to Ritual Density, the Role of Tradition, and the Emergence of Diversity in Early Judaism

2021 ◽  
pp. 188-214
Author(s):  
Christian Frevel
Keyword(s):  
Author(s):  
Judith H. Newman

This book reveals the landscape of scripture in an era prior to the crystallization of the Tanakh, the Jewish Bible, and before the canonization of the Christian Bible. Most accounts of the formation of the Hebrew Bible trace the origins of scripture through source-critical excavation of the archaeological “tell” of the Bible or the text-critical analysis of the scribal hand on manuscripts, but the discoveries in the Dead Sea Scrolls have transformed our understanding of scripture formation. The book focuses not on the putative origins and closure of the Bible but on the reasons scriptures remained open, with pluriform growth in the Hellenistic-Roman period. Drawing on new methods from cognitive neuroscience and the social sciences as well as traditional philological and literary analysis, the book argues that the key to understanding the formation of scripture is the widespread practice of individual and communal prayer in early Judaism. The figure of the teacher as a learned and pious sage capable of interpreting and embodying the tradition is central to understanding this revelatory phenomenon. The volume considers the entwinement of prayer and scriptural formation in five books reflecting the diversity of early Judaism: Ben Sira, Daniel, Jeremiah/Baruch, 2 Corinthians, and the Qumran Hodayot (Thanksgiving Hymns). While not a complete taxonomy of scripture formation, the book illuminates performative dynamics that have been largely ignored as well as the generative role of interpretive tradition in understanding how the Bible came to be.


Author(s):  
Mika S. Pajunen

Das Lob Gottes wurde schon immer als wichtigstes Element des liturgischen Lebens am 2. Tempel verstanden. Formkritiker haben dieses Moment der liturgischen Praxis vor allem durch die Analyse der Psalmen nachgezeichnet. Demgegenüber erscheint die Rolle der Klage zumindest in der späten Phase des 2. Temepls randständig. Allerdings fehlt ein Bindeglied zwischen der hellenistischen Phase der Liturgie und dem Lob in den Qumran Texten des 1 Jh. v. Chr. Der Blick auf das Motiv der Schöpfung erschließt dieses Bindeglied und erklärt zugleich, warum das Lob als Verpflichtung Gott gegenüber verstanden wurde.Praise of God has always been understood by scholars as a primary element of the liturgical life of the Second Temple period. Form-critics have situated the praises of God in the liturgical practice of the period most of all by analyzing the Psalms now in the MT Psalter. However, at least in the late Second Temple period the role of laments seems to be marginal. Thus far a link has been missing in scholarship between this centrality of praise perceivable in the liturgical practice of the Hellenistic period and the all-encompassing nature of praise in the texts of the Qumran movement from the first century BCE. This is a link that may in part explain why prayer, or during this time more properly praise, came to be seen in early Judaism as an obligation towards God. This question is explored by investigating how the Second Temple liturgy is in many texts from the second century BCE given an explicit basis in the creation, and how such traditions in turn served an important function in the composition of new liturgical texts.La louange de Dieu a toujours été comprise par les exégètes comme un élément essentiel de la vie liturgique de la période du Second Temple. A l’aide de la critique des formes, certains exégètes ont situé les louanges de Dieu dans la pratique liturgique de cette période, en analysant surtout les Psaumes actuellement présents dans le psautier du TM. Le rôle des lamentations, en revanche, semble marginal, au moins dans la période tardive du Second Temple. Jusqu’à présent la recherche n’a pas établi de lien entre la centralité de la louange perceptible dans la pratique liturgique de la période hellénistique et l’importancede la louange dans les textes qumrâniens du premier siècle av. J.-C. Ce lien pourrait expliquer, en partie, pourquoi la prière, ou à plus proprement parler la louange, a été de plus en plus perçue, durant cette période, comme une obligation envers Dieu dans le judaïsme primitif. Cette question est explorée à travers l’analyse de nombreux textes du deuxième siècle av. J.-C. qui montrent comment la liturgie du Second Temple a été basée explicitement sur la Création et comment de telles traditions ont occupé en retour une place importante dans la composition de nouveaux textes liturgiques.


2015 ◽  
Vol 108 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-234
Author(s):  
Bradley C. Gregory

Ben Sira, a Jewish sage who lived and worked in Jerusalem in the early second centuryb.c.e., takes up the topic of pride in a discussion of politics in order to indict those who behave proudly as betraying the created nature of humans. Within his reflections on anthropology he links pride and sin in Sir 10:13 and then proceeds to assure his students that God will surely punish the proud through humiliation and calamity. Yet, from its rather unassuming role in Ben Sira's discussion of power, the link between pride and sin in Sir 10:13 became a locus of scribal activity and interpretation in subsequent centuries. As the text was transmitted and translated in Second Temple Judaism and late antiquity the versions of this verse in the Greek, Syriac, and Latin texts show vividly the interdependence between textual transmission and theological tradition. When placed within their historical context, the transformations of Sir 10:13 found in the forms of the verse evidence a dialogical interaction with current discussions regarding virtues and vices in moral theology in early Judaism and Christianity. A significant historical turning point occurred when Augustine made the Vulgate version of Sir 10:13a, “pride is the beginning of every sin,” a key prooftext in his discussions of sin. Thereafter this verse came to play a central role in Western Christian hamartiology, especially as it was connected to the placement of pride at the head of the capital vices or “Seven Deadly Sins.” This article will begin with a discussion of the role of pride in Ben Sira and then trace the textual transmission of Sir 10:13 and the theological influences that shaped its transmission and translation. Additionally, the story of how Sir 10:13a became a central text in Western discussions of the nature of sin will be shown to have significant theological implications for an understanding of the relationship between canonical text and the development of theological traditions.


Textus ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 258-273
Author(s):  
Jonathan Vroom

AbstractThis article argues that the act of Vorlage-based copying involves a dynamic interplay between both memory and Vorlage. While numerous scholars argue that memory played a significant role in textual transmission in ancient Israel and early Judaism, few have explicitly discussed the role that memory plays in the act of copying a manuscript. This article identifies with greater precision the point in the copying process at which a scribe may rely on long-term memory, rather than his Vorlage. The article will examine three erasures in three Dead Sea scrolls that demonstrate the phenomenon of memory-cued errors, in which a scribe’s long-term memory caused mistakes in the copying process. Not only do these memory-cued errors illustrate the role of memory in the copying process, they also allow for a much clearer and more nuanced understanding of the nature of textual transmission.


Author(s):  
Ruth Nisse

This chapter examines Robert Grosseteste's 1242 translation of Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs from Greek to Latin. Grosseteste's translation appears at exactly the same time as another eschatological crisis was playing out: the invasion of eastern Europe by a Mongol army led by Chingiz (Genghis) Khan's descendants. According to the historian Matthew Paris, the Mongols were in fact the ten “lost tribes” of Jews, who had been locked away in Asia by Alexander the Great but were now free and being aided in their conquests by the Hebrew-speaking European Jews. The chapter considers how the medieval Christian reception and transmission of the Testaments is associatedwith shifting attitudes toward Jews not only as textual scholars but also literally as the twelve scattered tribes. It also discusses how the Testaments, for Grosseteste and Paris, offered a unique opportunity to reconstruct the role of early “Judaism” in Christian history.


JAMA ◽  
1966 ◽  
Vol 195 (12) ◽  
pp. 1005-1009 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. Fernbach
Keyword(s):  

JAMA ◽  
1966 ◽  
Vol 195 (3) ◽  
pp. 167-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. E. Van Metre

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Winnifred R. Louis ◽  
Craig McGarty ◽  
Emma F. Thomas ◽  
Catherine E. Amiot ◽  
Fathali M. Moghaddam

AbstractWhitehouse adapts insights from evolutionary anthropology to interpret extreme self-sacrifice through the concept of identity fusion. The model neglects the role of normative systems in shaping behaviors, especially in relation to violent extremism. In peaceful groups, increasing fusion will actually decrease extremism. Groups collectively appraise threats and opportunities, actively debate action options, and rarely choose violence toward self or others.


2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Arceneaux

AbstractIntuitions guide decision-making, and looking to the evolutionary history of humans illuminates why some behavioral responses are more intuitive than others. Yet a place remains for cognitive processes to second-guess intuitive responses – that is, to be reflective – and individual differences abound in automatic, intuitive processing as well.


2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefen Beeler-Duden ◽  
Meltem Yucel ◽  
Amrisha Vaish

Abstract Tomasello offers a compelling account of the emergence of humans’ sense of obligation. We suggest that more needs to be said about the role of affect in the creation of obligations. We also argue that positive emotions such as gratitude evolved to encourage individuals to fulfill cooperative obligations without the negative quality that Tomasello proposes is inherent in obligations.


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