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Hebrew manuscripts are considered to be invaluable documents and artefacts of Jewish culture and history. Research on Hebrew manuscript culture is progressing rapidly and therefore its topics, methods and questions need to be enunciated and reflected upon. The case studies assembled in this volume explore various fields of research on Hebrew manuscripts. They show paradigmatically the current developments concerning codicology and palaeography, book forms like the scroll and codex, scribes and their writing material, patrons, collectors and censors, manuscript and book collections, illuminations and fragments, and, last but not least, new methods of material analysis applied to manuscripts. The principal focus of this volume is the material and intellectual history of Hebrew book cultures from antiquity to the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period, its intention being to heighten and sharpen the reader’s understanding of Jewish social and cultural history in general.
This book investigates the relationship between cult and ethics in the book of Isaiah. Part I attempts to revise some of the common Old Testament views on prophets and cult. After inspecting cultic concepts such as sacrifice, purity and impurity, holiness, and the Promised Land, it suggests that the priestly and prophetic understandings of the role of the Ancient Israelite cult were essentially the same. This general proposition is then tested on the book of Isaiah in Part II: each chapter there analyses the key passage on cult and ethics in the three main parts of the book, namely, Isa 1:10-17; 43:22-28; and 58:1-14 and concludes that, even though the role of cult and ethics in each part of...
In ancient Israelite literature Exile is seen as a central turning point within the course of the history of Israel. In these texts “the Exile” is a central ideological concept. It serves to explain the destruction of the monarchic polities and the social and economic disasters associated with them in terms that YHWH punished Israel/Judah for having abandoned his ways. As it develops an image of an unjust Israel, it creates one of a just deity. But YHWH is not only imagined as just, but also as loving and forgiving, for the exile is presented as a transitory state: Exile is deeply intertwined with its discursive counterpart, the certain “Return”. As the Exile comes to be understood as a necessary purification or preparation for a renewal of YHWH’s proper relationship with Israel, the seemingly unpleasant Exilic conditions begin, discursively, to shape an image of YHWH as loving Israel and teaching it. Exile is dystopia, but one that carries in itself all the seeds of utopia. The concept of Exile continued to exercise an important influence in the discourses of Israel in the Second Temple period, and was eventually influential in the production of eschatological visions.
The book of Ezekiel has long astonished its readership. In the history of exegesis, the book's (supposed) author has often been regarded as mad or ill, or as suffering from "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder" according to a recent diagnosis. The present study radicalizes this approach by investigating the book of Ezekiel as trauma literature. On the basis of a multi-faceted trauma hermeneutics the peculiarities as well as the inconsistencies of the book are shown to be material aspects of a fictionalised trauma process in the context of Israel's experiences of siege warfare and mass deportation in the early 6th century bce. The analysis demonstrates that the potential for violence inherent in t...
In Revelation 21-22, John offered a resplendent portrayal of a new Jerusalem without a temple, in which he seemed to reference the final chapters of Ezekiel. The puzzling issue for interpreters is why John chose to utilize Ezekiel's temple vision if he wanted to dispense with the temple. Andrea Robinson delves into the complex relationship between these two visions of heaven and earth, examining parallels between Revelation 21-22 and Ezekiel 40-48. In the process, Robinson also explores a variety of apocalyptic works from the Second Temple period to determine the tenor of thought in regard to the concepts of the temple and the messiah in John's day. Ultimately, she helps readers understand how John utilizes Ezekiel's imagery to portray Jesus Christ as the eschatological temple--the place where heaven and earth unite. By uncovering how original hearers would have understood John's visions, Robinson's insightful study helps modern readers appropriate the same hope of a glorious future with the Messiah.
The Yearbook mirrors the annual activities of staff and visiting fellows of the Maimonides Centre and reports on symposia, workshops, and lectures taking place at the Centre. Although aimed at a wider audience, the yearbook also contains academic articles and book reviews on scepticism in Judaism and scepticism in general. Staff, visiting fellows, and other international scholars are invited to contribute.
A new look at Rashi's innovative commentary that sheds unique light on medieval Jewish and Christian learning and Bible interpretation.
This book provides new perspectives on the formation of Western intellectual history by contextualizing both Christian and Jewish exegesis from Theodulf of Orléans to Rashi (800–1100).
Peter Schäfer who celebrated his 60th birthday on 29 June 2003 has left a decidedly firm imprint on the young discipline "Jewish Studies" in Germany, which could only be set up at a German university after the Shoah. For someone directing a “small” academic institution he has managed during his academic career to guide and influence a strikingly large number of students in their scholarly pursuits in the field. The collected essays of this volume encompass quite a variety of topics, whereby the focal points in Peter Schäfer’s own research are not difficult to recognize in the themes chosen by his former students: mysticism and magic are most conspicuous, followed by Rabbinic Judaism and the studies on the Middle Ages and the Early Modern and Modern Periods. Of note is also the fact that the methodological approaches of these contributions are no less manifold than their themes. Part of the contributions of this book were submitted in English, and all the German-language texts have an English summary or abstract.
This publication seeks to endeavour the relationship between material artefacts and reading practices in ancient and medieval cultures. While the acts of reception of written artefacts in former times are irretrievably lost, some of the involved artefacts are preserved and might comprise hints to the ancient reading practices. In form of case studies, the contributions to this volume examine various forms of written artefacts as to their implications on modes of reading. Analyzing different Qumran scrolls, codices, Tefillin, Mezuzot, magical texts, tablets, bricks, and statues as well as meta-textual and iconographic aspects, the articles inquire the possibilities of how to correlate material aspects to assumed modes of reception and practices of reading. The contributions stem from Egyptology, Papyrology, Qumran Studies, Biblical Studies, Jewish Studies, Ancient Christianity, and Islamic Studies. In total, this volume contributes to the research on practices of reception in times past and demonstrates the potential hidden in text-bearing artefacts.