The Formation of the 'Book' of Psalms

The Formation of the 'Book' of Psalms PDF

Author: David Willgren

Publisher: Mohr Siebeck

Published: 2016-09-30

Total Pages: 516

ISBN-13: 9783161547874

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By conceptualizing the 'Book' of Psalms as an anthology, and by inquiring into its poetics by means of paratextuality, David Willgren provides a fresh reconstruction of its formation and concludes that it preserves a selection of psalms that is best seen not as a book of psalms, but as a canon of psalms. - back of book.

Zodiac Calendars in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Their Reception

Zodiac Calendars in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Their Reception PDF

Author: Helen R. Jacobus

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2014-10-30

Total Pages: 555

ISBN-13: 9004284060

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The ancient mathematical basis of the Aramaic calendars in the Dead Sea Scrolls is analysed in this investigation. Helen R. Jacobus re-examines an Aramaic zodiac calendar with a thunder divination text (4Q318) and the calendar from the Aramaic Astronomical Book (4Q208 - 4Q209), all from Qumran. Jacobus demonstrates that 4Q318 is an ancestor of the Jewish calendar today and that it helps us to understand 4Q208 - 4Q209. She argues that these calendars were taught in antiquity as angelic knowledge described in 1 Enoch and the Book of Jubilees. The study also encompasses Babylonian, Hellenistic, Byzantine astronomy and astrology, and classical and Jewish writings. Finally, a medieval Hebrew zodiac calendar related to 4Q318 with an astrological text is published here for the first time.

Architecture and Utopia in the Temple Era

Architecture and Utopia in the Temple Era PDF

Author: Michael Chyutin

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2006-01-01

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 9780567030542

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Proposes a reconstruction of the Temple, which differs from conventional descriptions in Jewish literary sources during the First and Second Temple eras. This book examines the individual descriptions of the Temple and considers the influence of the descriptions on subsequent ones.

Clepsydra

Clepsydra PDF

Author: Sylvie Anne Goldberg

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2016-04-13

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 0804797161

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The clepsydra is an ancient water clock and serves as the primary metaphor for this examination of Jewish conceptions of time from antiquity to the present. Just as the flow of water is subject to a number of variables such as temperature and pressure, water clocks mark a time that is shifting and relative. Time is not a uniform phenomenon. It is a social construct made of beliefs, scientific knowledge, and political experiment. It is also a story told by theologians, historians, philosophers, and astrophysicists. Consequently, Clepsydra is a cultural history divided in two parts: narrated time and measured time, recounted time and counted time, absolute time and ordered time. It is through this dialog that Sylvie Anne Goldberg challenges the idea of a unified Judeo-Christian time and asks, "What is Jewish time?" She consults biblical and rabbinic sources and refers to medieval and modern texts to understand the different sorts of consciousness of time found in Judaism. In Jewish time, Goldberg argues, past, present, and future are intertwined and comprise one perpetual narrative.

Retribution or Reality?

Retribution or Reality? PDF

Author: Michael S. Moore

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2023-11-09

Total Pages: 187

ISBN-13: 166670735X

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The book of Job is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, literary accomplishments of the ancient world, yet in many ways it is just as relevant today as it was then. This book examines Job from a comparative theological perspective in order to help contemporary readers access it, learn from it, and apply its insights to contemporary life.

How God Interacts with the Physical World

How God Interacts with the Physical World PDF

Author: Timothy Wong

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2023-11-10

Total Pages: 85

ISBN-13: 1666785318

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This book distinguishes itself from traditional works on science and theology by not attempting to merge Christian faith with science or provide interpretations of the creation account in the book of Genesis. The focus lies on discerning God's providence through scientific insights, offering readers a deeper understanding of his interactions with the world. This book also addresses the issue of how God can maintain control while granting us free will. How does God influence the course of history and interact with us? A fresh model for understanding how God interacts with the physical world will be introduced.

Calendrical Variations in Second Temple Judaism

Calendrical Variations in Second Temple Judaism PDF

Author: Stéphane Saulnier

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2012-05-03

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 900422632X

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Starting from the seminal work of the French scholar Annie Jaubert on the date of the Last Supper, the present work revisits known - and identifies new - calendrical issues in the literature of Second Temple Judaism. The research supports the conclusion that all known calendrical traditions functioned on the tenet that orthopraxis in ancient Judaism meant close interconnection between cultic and agricultural cycles. From this perspective the book removes the calendrical objection leveled at the Jaubertian theory. Further, the research brings new light on current debates about Qumran calendrical documents and proposes the identification of a previously unknown calendrical polemic in the Astronomical Book of Enoch concerning the synchronization of the 364DY tradition with the lunar cycle.

Ethical Monotheism

Ethical Monotheism PDF

Author: Ehud Benor

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-12-15

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 1351263943

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The term Ethical Monotheism is an important marker in Judaism’s tumultuous transition into the modern era. The term emerged in the context of culture-wars concerning the question of whether or not Jews could or should become emancipated citizens of modern European states. It appeared in arguments whether or not Judaism could be considered a Religion of Reason—a symbolic, motivational representation of a universal morality, and in debates about whether or not Judaism could or should reform itself into a Religion of Reason. This book is both a decisive departure from such discussions and an attempt to add a further, post-modern, statement to their ongoing development. As departure, it refuses to take for granted a philosophical conception of Religion of Reason as the standard for Ethical Monotheism according to which Judaism was to be evaluated or reformed. As continuation, the book undertakes a phenomenology of Jewish modes of ethical religiosity that allows it to inquire what kind of ethical monotheism Judaism might be. Through sophisticated analysis of select "snapshots," or "fragments of a hologram," guided by a robust theory of religion, the author discloses Judaic ethical monotheism as an ongoing wrestling with the meaning of justice. By closely examining five main "snapshots" of this long process—the Bible, rabbinic Judaism, Maimonides, The Zohar, and the modern philosophers, Buber and Levinas—the author offers his own constructive philosophy of Judaism and his own distinctive philosophy of religion. Ethical Monotheism offers a new way to think about Judaism as a religion and as a coherent philosophical debate, and demonstrates the need to integrate philosophy, history, cognitive psychology, anthropology, theology, and history of science in the study of "religion."

Patterns of Daily Prayer in Second Temple Period Judaism

Patterns of Daily Prayer in Second Temple Period Judaism PDF

Author: Jeremy Penner

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2012-11-09

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 9004230335

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In Patterns of Daily Prayer in Second Temple Period Judaism, Jeremy Penner seeks to uncover the historical and social processes that underlie the origins and development of Jewish daily prayer practices, particularly the establishment of set times for daily prayer. Since daily prayer lacks explicit biblical warrant, this book seeks to explain how this custom was legitimized as divinely inspired. The importance of daily prayer was understood and experienced within a range of literary and social contexts, and thus different exegetical and etiological strategies develop at this time to legitimize its practice. In some cases daily prayer was coordinated with, and made analogous to, daily cultic sacrifice, in other cases, daily prayer was legitimized by identifying the origins of the practice in sacred scripture. Lastly, in some contexts daily prayer was coordinated with the cycles of celestial bodies in the heavens.

Biblical Interpretation at Qumran

Biblical Interpretation at Qumran PDF

Author: Matthias Henze

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 9780802839374

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The Dead Sea Scrolls are an invaluable source of information about Jewish biblical interpretation in antiquity. This volume by preeminent scholars in the field examines central aspects of scriptural interpretation as it was practiced at Qumran and discusses their implications for understanding the biblical tradition. While many of the forms of biblical interpretation found in the Scrolls have parallels elsewhere in Jewish literature, other kinds are original to the Scrolls and were unknown prior to the discovery of the caves. These chapters explore examples of biblical interpretation unique to Qumran, including legal exegesis and the Pesher. Readers will also find discussion of such fascinating subjects as the "rewritten Bible," views on the creation of humanity, the "Pseudo-Ezekiel" texts, the pesharim, and the prophet David. Contributors: Moshe J. Bernstein Shani Berrin Monica Brady George J. Brooke John J. Collins Peter W. Flint Matthias Henze Shlomo A. Koyfman Michael Segal James C. VanderKam