Authoritative Scriptures in Ancient Judaism PDF Download

Author: Mladen Popović
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004190740
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
Many scholars of the Second Temple period have replaced the concept of canonization by that of canonical process. Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls has been crucial for this new direction. Based on this new evidence taxonomic terms like biblical, nonbiblical or parabiblical seem anachronistic for the period before 70 C.E. The notion of authoritative Scriptures plays an important part in the new paradigm of canonical process, but it has not yet been sufficiently reflected upon and is in need of clarification. Why were some texts more authoritative than others? For whom and in what contexts were texts authoritative? And what are our criteria to determine to what extent a text was authoritative? In short, what do we mean by “authoritative”? This volume focuses on specific texts or corpora of texts, and approaches the notion of authoritative Scriptures from sociological, cultural and literary perspectives.

Author: Timothy H. Lim
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300164343
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
DIVThe discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls provides unprecedented insight into the nature of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament before its fixation. Timothy Lim here presents a complete account of the formation of the canon in Ancient Judaism from the emergence of the Torah in the Persian period to the final acceptance of the list of twenty-two/twenty-four books in the Rabbinic period./divDIV /divDIVUsing the Hebrew Bible, the Scrolls, the Apocrypha, the Letter of Aristeas, the writings of Philo, Josephus, the New Testament, and Rabbinic literature as primary evidence he argues that throughout the post-exilic period up to around 100 CE there was not one official “canon” accepted by all Jews; rather, there existed a plurality of collections of scriptures that were authoritative for different communities. Examining the literary sources and historical circumstances that led to the emergence of authoritative scriptures in ancient Judaism, Lim proposes a theory of the majority canon that posits that the Pharisaic canon became the canon of Rabbinic Judaism in the centuries after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple./div

Author: Géza G. Xeravits
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110295539
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
The impact of earlier works to the literature of early Judaism is an intensively researched topic in contemporary scholarship. This volume is based on an international conference held at the Sapientia College of Theology in Budapest, May 18–21, 2010. The contributors explore scriptural authority in early Jewish literature and the writings of nascent Christianity. They study the impact of earlier literature in the formulation of theological concepts and books of the Second Temple Period.

Author: George W. E. Nickelsburg
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 9781451408485
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
In the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century, Christian scholars portrayed Judaism as the dark religious backdrop to the liberating events of Jesus' life and the rise of the early church. Since the 1950s, however, a dramatic shift has occurred in the study of Judaism, driven by new manuscript and archaeological discoveries and new methods and tools for analyzing sources. George Nickelsburg here provides a broad and synthesizing picture of the results of the past fifty years of scholarship on early Judaism and Christianity. He organizes his discussion around a number of traditional topics: scripture and tradition, Torah and the righteous life, God's activity on humanity's behalf, agents of God's activity, eschatology, historical circumstances, and social settings. Each of the chapters discusses the findings of contemporary research on early Judaism, and then sketches the implications of this research for a possible reinter-pretation of Christianity. Still, in the author's view, there remains a major Jewish-Christian agenda yet to be developed and implemented.

Author: John J. Collins
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN: 161164982X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Ancient Jewish and Christian Scriptures examines the writings included in and excluded from the Jewish and Christian canons of Scripture and explores the social settings in which some of this literature was viewed as authoritative and some was viewed either as uninspired or as heretical. John J. Collins, Craig A. Evans, and Lee Martin McDonald examine how those noncanonical writings demonstrate the historical, literary, and religious aspects of the culture that gave rise to the writings. They also show how literature excluded from the Jewish and Christian canons of Scripture remains valuable today for understanding the questions and conflicts that early Jewish and Christian faith communities faced. Through this discussion, contemporary readers acquire a broader understanding of biblical Scripture and of Jewish and Christian faith inspired by Scripture.

Author: Paula Fredriksen
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300164106
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
"Magisterial. . . . A learned, brilliant and enjoyable study."—Géza Vermès, Times Literary Supplement In this exciting book, Paula Fredriksen explains the variety of New Testament images of Jesus by exploring the ways that the new Christian communities interpreted his mission and message in light of the delay of the Kingdom he had preached. This edition includes an introduction reviews the most recent scholarship on Jesus and its implications for both history and theology. "Brilliant and lucidly written, full of original and fascinating insights."—Reginald H. Fuller, Journal of the American Academy of Religion "This is a first-rate work of a first-rate historian."—James D. Tabor, Journal of Religion "Fredriksen confronts her documents—principally the writings of the New Testament—as an archaeologist would an especially rich complex site. With great care she distinguishes the literary images from historical fact. As she does so, she explains the images of Jesus in terms of the strategies and purposes of the writers Paul, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John."—Thomas D’Evelyn, Christian Science Monitor

Author: Jonathan Vroom
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004381643
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
In The Authority of Law in the Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism, Vroom identifies a development in the authority of written law that took place in early Judaism. Ever since Assyriologists began to recognize that the Mesopotamian law collections did not function as law codes do today—as a source of binding obligation—scholars have grappled with the question of when the Pentateuchal legal corpora came to be treated as legally binding. Vroom draws from legal theory to provide a theoretical framework for understanding the nature of legal authority, and develops a methodology for identifying instances in which legal texts were treated as binding law by ancient interpreters. This method is applied to a selection of legal-interpretive texts: Ezra-Nehemiah, Temple Scroll, the Qumran rule texts, and the Samaritan Pentateuch.

Author: James H. Charlesworth
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0567372588
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
Over the past four decades, many scholars have focused on the expanding collection of alleged "extra-canonical" documents that were deemed inspired by God in numerous early Jewish and Christian groups. Eventually, these texts ceased to have an authoritative role in Judaism and Christianity and were branded "extra-canonical." Now, these documents, once considered sacred, are recognized as fundamental in understanding antiquity, and the development of the canon. Many scholars are now according an authority to some of these texts This volume draws attention to these ancient religious texts, especially the so-called "non-canonical" texts, by focusing on how they were used or functioned in early societies. The contributors also warn us about the assumed barriers between "canon" and "extra-canon," "texts" and "traditions," and they suggest that we should be careful with labels such as "Jewish" and "Christian." The contributors also indicate, intermittently or implicitly, the importance of combining disciplines that had been isolated, especially the study of texts, the exploration of the canonical process, and the relevance of sociology in studying ancient groups.

Author: Various Authors
Publisher: DigiCat
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 1697

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Book Description
Tanakh, or The Hebrew Bible, which is also sometimes called the Miqra, is the canonical collection of Hebrew scriptures, including the Torah. The form of this text that is authoritative for Rabbinic Judaism is known as the Masoretic Text. The Tanakh consists of twenty-four books: it counts as one book each Samuel, Kings, Chronicles and Ezra–Nehemiah and counts the Twelve Minor Prophets as a single book._x000D_ Table of Contents:_x000D_ The Torah (literally "teaching"), also known as the Pentateuch, or the "Five Books of Moses":_x000D_ Genesis_x000D_ Exodus_x000D_ Leviticus_x000D_ Numbers_x000D_ Deuteronomy_x000D_ Nevi'im (Prophets) is the second main division of the Tanakh, between the Torah and Ketuvim. It contains three sub-groups. This division includes the books which cover the time from the entrance of the Israelites into the Land of Israel until the Babylonian captivity of Judah._x000D_ The Former Prophets (Nevi'im Rishonim):_x000D_ Joshua_x000D_ Judges_x000D_ Samuel_x000D_ Kings_x000D_ The Latter Prophets (Nevi'im Aharonim):_x000D_ Isaiah_x000D_ Jeremiah_x000D_ Ezekiel_x000D_ The Twelve Minor Prophets, which are considered one book:_x000D_ Hosea_x000D_ Joel_x000D_ Amos_x000D_ Obadiah_x000D_ Jonah_x000D_ Micah_x000D_ Nahum_x000D_ Habakkuk_x000D_ Zephaniah_x000D_ Haggai_x000D_ Zechariah_x000D_ Malachi_x000D_ Ketuvim (Writings) consists of eleven books. They are also divided into three subgroups based on the distinctiveness of Sifrei Emet and Hamesh Megillot._x000D_ The three poetic books (Sifrei Emet):_x000D_ Psalms_x000D_ Proverbs_x000D_ Job_x000D_ The Five Megillot (Ḥamesh Megillot): These books are read aloud in the synagogue on particular occasions, the occasion listed below in parenthesis:_x000D_ Song of Songs (on Passover)_x000D_ Ruth (on Shavuot)_x000D_ Lamentations (on Tisha B'Av)_x000D_ Ecclesiastes (on Sukkot)_x000D_ Esther (on Purim)_x000D_ Other books:_x000D_ Daniel_x000D_ Ezra and Nehemiah_x000D_ Chronicles

Author: Jonathan Ben-Dov
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 147982304X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 275

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Book Description
Until very recently, the idea of ancient Jewish sciences would have been considered unacceptable. Since the 1990s, Early Modern and Medieval Science in Jewish sources has been actively studied, but the consensus was that no real scientific themes could be found in earlier Judaism. This work points them out in detail and posits a new field of research: the scientific activity evident in the Dead Sea Scrolls and early Jewish pseudepigrapha. The publication of new texts and new analyses of older ones reveals crucial elements that are best illuminated by the history of science, and may have interesting consequences for it. The contributors evaluate these texts in relation to astronomy, astrology, and physiognomy, marking the first comprehensive attempt to account for scientific themes in Second Temple Judaism. They investigate the meaning and purpose of scientific explorations in an apocalyptic setting. An appreciation of these topics paves the way to a renewed understanding of the scientific fragments scattered throughout rabbinic literature. The book first places the Jewish material in the ancient context of the Near Eastern and Hellenistic worlds. While the Jewish texts were not on the cutting edge of scientific discovery, they find a meaningful place in the history of science, between Babylonia and Egypt, in the time period between Hipparchus and Ptolemy. The book uses recent advances in method to examine the contacts and networks of Jewish scholars in their ancient setting. Second, the essays here tackle the problematic concept of a national scientific tradition. Although science is nowadays often conceived as universal, the historiography of ancient Jewish sciences demonstrates the importance of seeing the development of science in a local context. The book explores the tension between the hegemony of central scientific traditions and local scientific enterprises, showing the relevance of ancient data to contemporary postcolonial historiography of science. Finally, philosophical questions of the demarcation of science are addressed in a way that can advance the discussion of related ancient materials. Online edition available as part of the NYU Library's Ancient World Digital Library and in partnership with the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW).