Chapter One The Evolution of Synagogue Textiles in Ancient and Medieval Times

2019 ◽  
pp. 3-40
Author(s):  
Bracha Yaniv
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
The Way

The evolution of ceremonial synagogue textiles is closely related to that of the Torah scroll, particularly the way in which it was wrapped and the space in which it was stored. This process of evolution began during the Second Temple period and came to an end in the early fifth century, when the method of writing Torah scrolls was set; it was then that the tradition of writing the Pentateuch on parchment in the form of a scroll became accepted as the method of writing Torah scrolls....

Reconsidering the Salvation of Israel in Luke–Acts

2020 ◽  
pp. 0142064X2096266
Author(s):  
Philip La G. Du Toit
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
The Way

In the prevalent interpretations of Israel’s salvation or restoration in Luke–Acts, Israel is understood as referring to descendants of ancient Israel who live in the present or beyond. In light of the predominant usage of the term ‘Israel’ in the second temple period, the prevalent interpretation of Israel’s salvation in Luke–Acts is reconsidered. This is done by mainly revisiting the realized language around Israel’s salvation in the Lukan corpus as well as the Old Testament context behind the language used. This re-evaluation also involves the way in which Israel’s forgiveness is presented, the involvement of the patriarchs in salvation, as well as the connection between Israel’s hope and their resurrection.

Wisdom, Israel and Other Nations

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-26
Author(s):  
Marko Marttila ◽  
Mika S. Pajunen
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
Central Concept ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Ben Sira ◽  
One Step ◽  
Hereditary Nature ◽  
Lady Wisdom ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
The Way

Wisdom” is a central concept in the Hebrew Bible and Early Jewish literature. An analysis of a selection of texts from the Second Temple period reveals that the way wisdom and its possession were understood changed gradually in a more exclusive direction. Deuteronomy 4 speaks of Israel as a wise people, whose wisdom is based on the diligent observance of the Torah. Proverbs 8 introduces personified Lady Wisdom that is at first a rather universal figure, but in later sources becomes more firmly a property of Israel. Ben Sira (Sir. 24) stressed the primacy of Israel by combining wisdom with the Torah, but he still attempted to do justice to other nations’ contacts with wisdom as well. One step further was taken by Baruch, as only Israel is depicted as the recipient of wisdom (Bar. 3–4). This more particularistic understanding of wisdom was also employed by the sages who wrote the compositions 4Q185 and 4Q525. Both of them emphasize the hereditary nature of wisdom, and 4Q525 even explicitly denies foreigners’ share of wisdom. The author of Psalm 154 goes furthest along this line of development by claiming wisdom to be a sole possession of the righteous among the Israelites. The question about possessing wisdom has moved from the level of nations to a matter of debate between different groups within Judaism.

Sculpture, Space and the Poetics of Idolatry in Josephus' Bellum Judaicum

2008 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-191
Author(s):  
Jason von Ehrenkrook
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Figurative Art ◽  
Rhetorical Function ◽  
Second Commandment ◽  
The Way ◽  
Shifting Attention

AbstractJosephus' writings depict a rather tumultuous relationship between Jews and figurative art, especially sculpture. When taken at face value, this material seems to indicate that Jews during the Second Temple period interpreted the second commandment as a prohibition against any form of figural representation, regardless of context or function. Using his Bellum Judaicum as a test case, I aim to complicate this picture by shifting attention away from the referential value of these so-called iconoclastic narratives to their rhetorical function, i.e. to the way in which these narratives are uniquely shaped to contribute to larger rhetorical themes in Bellum.

scholarly journals Judging the twelve tribes of Israel: Q 22:28, 30 in light of the Psalms of Solomon and the Community Rule

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Llewellyn Howes
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Current Article ◽  
Psalms Of Solomon ◽  
Community Rule ◽  
The Way

Attribution License. The current article considers two intertexts of Q 22:28, 30, namely the Psalms of Solomon and the Community Rule found in the first Qumran cave. Each of these documents is examined to understand its view of the restoration of Israel, the messianic age, the apocalyptic end and the final judgement. Additional attention is paid to the way in which these documents draw boundaries around their respective in-groups. By illustrating that these texts foresaw a process of judgement at the apocalyptic end that would entail both the liberation and the condemnation of greater Israel, the current article argues against the popular claim that a wholesale liberation of everyone in Israel was expected during the Second-Temple period. The broader context of this investigation is the attempted refutation of Horsley�s influential claim that, in Q 22:28�30, the verb κρίνω actually means �liberate� and not �judge�.Intradisciplinary and/or�interdisciplinary�implications: By illustrating that these texts foresaw a process of judgement at the apocalyptic end that would entail both the liberation and the condemnation of greater Israel, the current article argues against the popular claim that a wholesale liberation of everyone in Israel was expected during the Second-Temple period.

scholarly journals Two approaches to life in the Second Temple period: Deuteronomy and Qoholet

2009 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christo Lombaard
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
South African Context ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
The South ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
The Face ◽  
African Context ◽  
The Way

The prosaic Mosaic death in Deuteronomy 34 leaves the way of life [foreign font omitted] as constituted in [foreign font omitted]. That is, par excellence: Life [foreign font omitted] is found in words. In Qohelet, another kind of existentialism, in the face of death, is found, namely in the sensual life of enjoyment of food, drink and companionship. These two approaches constitute different, competing Second Temple period conceptions of how to live, despite death, coram Deo. These two conceptions indicate the existence of more than one ethos within ancient Judaic society – a dynamic often lacking in the South African context.

Introduction

2010 ◽  
pp. 2-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Levine
Keyword(s):  
Modern Society ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Orthodox Jewish ◽  
Jewish Tradition ◽  
Jewish Law ◽  
Abstract Form ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Legal Principles ◽  
Literary Sources

This book explores how Judaism, as a religion, and Jews, as people, relate to the economic sphere of life in modern society and how they did so in past societies. This article traces the major sources of Jewish Law beginning with the Pentateuch (i.e., the Five Books of Moses), which, according to orthodox Jewish tradition, was revealed by God to Moses at Mount Sinai (c.1312 bce).The authoritative literary sources dating from after the Pentateuch to the beginning of the second Temple period (fifth century bce) are the Prophets (Nevi'im) and the Hagiographia (Ketuvim). This article traces the codification of ancient Judaic texts such as the Talmud and Mishnah. The laws of the Mishnah are mostly presented in the form of factual cases rather than through simple statements of the legal principles in abstract form. The rest of the article explains the various Judaic eras beginning from Savoraim till Roshonim.

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.

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