scholarly journals Creation, Angels, and Gender in Paul, Philo, and the Dead Sea Scrolls

Open Theology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 248-255
Author(s):  
Janelle Peters
Keyword(s):  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
1 Corinthians ◽  
The Dead ◽  
And Gender

Abstract This article reads the veiling instructions in 1 Corinthians 11:1–16 through Paul’s appeal to creation. The letter positions both genders in God, and it follows contemporary Jewish literature in assigning angels to creation and gender interdependence. Ascetic, unmarried, and married persons found inclusion in this vision of the body of Christ.

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.

Members of His Body

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Will Stockton
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
1 Corinthians ◽  
The Winter's Tale ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
Winter's Tale ◽  
The Merchant Of Venice ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Plural Marriage

Through readings of Shakespeare and Paul, Members of His Body protests the Christian defense of marital monogamy. If the Paul who authors 1 Corinthians would prefer that unmarried believers remain single, the pseudonymous Paul of the epistle to the Ephesians argues that marriage affords the couple membership in the body of Christ. For neither Paul is plural marriage the antithesis of Christian marriage. For the Paul of Ephesians, plural marriage is rather the telos of Christian community. Building on scholarship regarding early modern sexualities, as well as on political-theological conversations about Pauline universalism, Members of His Body argues that marriage functions in The Comedy of Errors, The Merchant of Venice, Othello, and The Winter’s Tale as a contested vehicle of Christian embodiment. Shakespeare’s plays query the extent to which man and wife become “one flesh” through marriage, and the extent to which they share that fleshly identity with other Christians. These plays explore the racial, religious, and gender criteria for marital membership in the body of Christ. Finally, they suggest that marital jealousy and paranoia about adultery result in part from a Christian theology of shared embodiment. In the wake of recent arguments that expanding marriage rights to gay people will open the door to the cultural acceptance and legalization of plural marriage, Shakespeare’s plays remind us that much Christian theology already looks forward to this end.

“Four Kingdoms” in the Dead Sea Scrolls?

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-233
Author(s):  
Nadav Sharon
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
World History ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Ancient Near East ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
New Jerusalem ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Book Of Daniel

Abstract The “Four Empires” scheme appears in literature from around the ancient Near East, as well as in the biblical book of Daniel. Daniel’s scheme was adopted in subsequent Jewish literature as a basic division of world history. In addition, the book of Daniel appears to have had a prominent place in the Qumran library. Scholars have identified, or suggested, the existence of the “Four Empires” scheme in two texts found among the Qumran scrolls, the “New Jerusalem” text (4Q554), and, especially, in the so-called “Four Kingdoms”(!) text (4Q552–553). This paper will examine these texts, will argue that the “four empires” scheme is not attested in the Qumran scrolls (apart from Daniel), and will suggest alternative understandings of those two texts.

The Johannine Literature and Contemporary Jewish Literature

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jutta Leonhardt-Balzer
Keyword(s):  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Dead

This chapter provides an overview of research on the Johannine texts in their relationship with the Jewish literature of Second Temple times. While it cannot be said that the Gospel and Letters draw directly on any specific text, careful analysis demonstrates that they are aware of a wide range of Jewish traditions from very different backgrounds; links with Wisdom and Apocalyptic traditions have long been recognized, while more recently there has been much discussion of their relationship with the Dead Sea Scrolls, and even with later Palestinian Jewish literature, including exegetical traditions. Thus a comparison with a range of Jewish literature helps highlight the specifically Johannine perspective on concerns common in the Jewish traditions of their time.

Rabbinic and Post-Rabbinic Jewish

2019 ◽  
pp. 431-448
Author(s):  
Martha Himmelfarb
Keyword(s):  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Single Mode ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
The Other ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Mode Of Transmission ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Book Of Daniel

Of all the Jewish literature of the Second Temple period, only one work, the book of Daniel, reaches us because Jews chose to transmit it. The other Second Temple texts we know were transmitted to us by Christians or were not transmitted at all but found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Yet later Jewish literature provides evidence that medieval Jews had access to a variety of texts and traditions from the Second Temple period beyond Daniel. No single mode of transmission can account for all of the examples of later knowledge of Second Temple texts. In some instances, there is a compelling case for ongoing Jewish transmission, whereas in others borrowing back from Christians is the best explanation.

The Body in Qumran Literature: Flesh and Spirit, Purity and Impurity in the Dead Sea Scrolls

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-182
Author(s):  
Alexandria Frisch ◽  
Lawrence H. Schiffman
Keyword(s):  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
The Body ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Corporate Entity ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Purity And Impurity

This article examines the concept of the body within a wide range of Qumran literature. In a comparison with the biblical tradition, which does not evince a consistent and systematic idea of the body, this article demonstrates that the sectarians developed their own somatic model. The sectarian model, as revealed through a close reading of such texts as Hodayot, 1QS, 1QSa, CD and 1QM, is one that repeatedly emphasized the body as a corporate entity comprised jointly of flesh and spirit. This article then reexamines the same Qumran texts to show that this concept of the body explains the extreme focus on purity at Qumran, particularly the sectarian conflation of moral and ritual purification. A final comparison with Philo, who espoused a dualistic model of the body, underscores just how truly unique the sectarian view of the body and purity was among early Jews.

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