Epilogue

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John J. Collins
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Wisdom Literature ◽  
Place Of Residence ◽  
Native Population ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Cultural Traits

“The Deuteronomic entity called ‘Israel’ is not coterminous with Judah or its population,” writes Carly Crouch.1 The problem was not that some Judahites lived outside of Judah, but that some of the native population did not conform to Deuteronomic ideals. From the beginning, the Torah of Moses was an attempt to mold Judean identity in a particular way. There had been Judahites before Deuteronomy was composed, identified as such by their place of residence and political loyalty, and also by shared cultural traits including the (not necessarily exclusive) veneration of the God of the land, YHWH. There would still be Judeans well into the Second Temple period who did not define themselves by reference to the Torah (as seen in the earlier wisdom literature), and some even (in the case of Elephantine) who may not have been aware of its existence. Eventually, however, the composite Torah, which combined Deuteronomic and Priestly traditions, would come to be the dominant expression of Judean identity....

Recent Trends in the Study of Early Jewish Wisdom Literature: The Contribution of 4QInstruction and Other Qumran Texts

2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 376-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Goff
Keyword(s):  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Wisdom Literature ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Recent Trends ◽  
Wisdom Tradition

This essay reviews major trends in the study of the Qumran texts commonly identified as wisdom literature. Among these texts, 4QInstruction and the so-called book of Mysteries have received the most attention. These compositions are making a significant contribution to our understanding of the Jewish wisdom tradition during the late Second Temple period. A key achievement of recent scholarship on the Qumran wisdom literature is the recognition that Early Jewish sapiential texts could draw on traditions that have little to do with the older wisdom of Proverbs, including in particular apocalypticism and the Torah. The Dead Sea Scrolls illustrate that there is a wide range of diversity among the Early Jewish wisdom texts.

scholarly journals Old and New Discussions Regarding Authorship and Dating Psalm 118

2020 ◽  
pp. 186-208
Author(s):  
Ириней (Пиковский)
Keyword(s):  
Main Part ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Wisdom Literature ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
King David ◽  
Jerusalem Temple ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Psalm 118

В данной статье поднимается вопрос авторства и датировки псалма 118 (119 по еврейской традиции). Несмотря на то, что некоторые экзегеты Древней Церкви относили данный псалом к царю Давиду, большинство исследователей настоящего времени придерживаются более поздней датировки. Основанием для этого, как правило, служит близость данного псалма к литературе мудрости периода Второго Храма. При исследовании литургических особенностей 118 псалма в статье выдвигается гипотеза, что псалом исполнялся за богослужением в Иерусалимском храме и был не «учебником для Соломона», а поэтическим восхвалением Бога через созерцание мудрости в Его законе, словах, делах, путях, уставах и откровениях. Особенности древнееврейской лексики позволяют исследователю сделать вывод, что текст 118 псалма является вторичным по отношению к более ранним псалмам эпохи Давида. В то же время он написан в духе Давида и появился раньше основного корпуса литературы мудрости периода Второго Храма. This article raises the issue of authorship and dating of Psalm 119 (118 by Septuagint). Despite the fact that some exegetes of the Ancient Church attributed this psalm to King David, most scholars of the present time adhere to a later date. Quite often this assumption based on the proximity of this psalm to the wisdom literature of the Second Temple period. In the study of the liturgical features of 119 psalm, the author of this article hypothesizes that the psalm was performed during worship in the Jerusalem Temple and was not a «textbook for Solomon», but a poetic praise of God through contemplation of wisdom in His law, words, deeds, ways, charters and revelations. The peculiarities of the Hebrew vocabulary allow the researcher to conclude that the text of psalm 119 is secondary to the earlier psalms of the David era. At the same time, it was written in the David's style and spirit and came into existance before the main part of the wisdom literature of the Bible.

Going Through Hell; ΤΑΡΤΑΡΟΣ in Greco-Roman Culture, Second Temple Judaism, and Philo of Alexandria

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 352-378
Author(s):  
Clint Burnett
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Second Temple Judaism ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Philo Of Alexandria ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
Roman Culture ◽  
Greek Myths

This article questions the longstanding supposition that the eschatology of the Second Temple period was solely influenced by Persian or Iranian eschatology, arguing instead that the literature of this period reflects awareness of several key Greco-Roman mythological concepts. In particular, the concepts of Tartarus and the Greek myths of Titans and Giants underlie much of the treatment of eschatology in the Jewish literature of the period. A thorough treatment of Tartarus and related concepts in literary and non-literary sources from ancient Greek and Greco-Roman culture provides a backdrop for a discussion of these themes in the Second Temple period and especially in the writings of Philo of Alexandria.

A Short History of the People Israel from the Patriarchs to the Messiah

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-207
Author(s):  
Beth A. Berkowitz
Keyword(s):  
Early Period ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Sexual Practice ◽  
Short History ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Rich Variety ◽  
Political Status ◽  
Leviticus Rabbah ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of

This article addresses recent arguments that question whether “Judaism,” as such, existed in antiquity or whether the Jewishness of the Second Temple period should be characterized in primarily ethnic terms. At stake is the question of whether it is appropriate to speak of Judaism as an abstract system or religion in this early period. An appeal to the under-used collections of Midrash Aggadah provides the context for new insights, focused around a pericope in Leviticus Rabbah that is preoccupied with this very question. This parashah goes well beyond the ethnicity/ religion binary, producing instead a rich variety of paradigms of Jewish identity that include moral probity, physical appearance, relationship to God, ritual life, political status, economics, demographics, and sexual practice.

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.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill Hicks-Keeton
Keyword(s):  
Jewish History ◽  
Jewish People ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Joseph And Aseneth ◽  
Literary Phenomenon ◽  
Minor Character

The Introduction claims that the ancient romance Joseph and Aseneth moves a minor character in Genesis from obscurity to renown, weaving a new story whose main purpose was to intervene in ancient Jewish debates surrounding gentile access to Israel’s God. Aseneth’s story is a tale of the heroine’s transformation from exclusion to inclusion. It is simultaneously a transformative tale. For Second Temple-period thinkers, the epic of the Jewish people recounted in scriptural texts was a story that invited interpretation, interruption, and even intervention. Joseph and Aseneth participates in a broader literary phenomenon in Jewish antiquity wherein authors took up figures from Israel’s mythic past and crafted new stories as a means of explaining their own present and of envisioning collective futures. By incorporating a gentile woman and magnifying Aseneth’s role in Jewish history, Joseph and Aseneth changes the story. Aseneth’s ultimate inclusion makes possible the inclusion of others originally excluded.

Archaeology of the Postexilic Period and the Writings

2018 ◽  
pp. 48-64
Author(s):  
Benjamin D. Gordon
Keyword(s):  
Identity Politics ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Background Information ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Local Identity ◽  
Domestic Sphere ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Local Literatures ◽  
International Status

This chapter provides an overview of archaeological discoveries relevant to ancient Judean life in the postexilic or Second Temple period (late sixth century bce–70 ce). It seeks to provide background information on the main cultural developments that would have impacted the authors and audience of the Writings, both in Judea and Samaria. One such development is Persian provincialization, which had only modest impact on the local economy and culture. Another consists of processes of acculturation to foreign customs in the Hellenistic period, which would remain slow and largely limited to elite circles. Jerusalem’s rise to international status as a Jewish pilgrimage center under Herodian auspices likely impacted the dissemination of local literatures and sacred texts, the Writings among them. Contemporaneous architecture and artifacts from the domestic sphere can speak to religious diversity and local identity politics as the region began to shift its orientation to the West and the economy grew.

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