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Now available in Open Access thanks to the support of the University of Helsinki. In this volume, Hanna Vanonen offers a fresh view to the Milhamah and Sefer ha-Milhamah manuscripts by producing a thorough close-reading analysis of them, paying attention not only to their contents but also to manuscripts as material artifacts. Vanonen demonstrates that studying the stability and instability of the War traditions does more justice to the complex material than a traditional chronological literary-critical model. In addition, Vanonen argues that at least liturgical use and study purposes may have created needs for producing different manuscripts that were simultaneously important.
"Few books were composed over a longer period of time and have exercised more cultural and religious influence than the Psalms, the longest and most complex collection in the Hebrew Bible and arguably one of the most illustrious and durable texts in history. This book is an introduction to the world of the Psalms that focuses on the content and the poetic forms that are encountered in the collection, guiding the reader toward an appreciation of the purposes of the Psalms, and the contribution to the Scriptures of Israel. There is also some background discussion on the development of the Psalms and an overview of the variety and genres of these poetic texts"--
Nineteen friends and colleagues present this Festschrift to Ellen van Wolde, honouring her life-long contribution to Biblical studies. The contributions focus on the major topics that define her research: the books of Genesis and Job, and the Hebrew language.
This book examines the collection of prayers known as the Qumran Hodayot (= Thanksgiving Hymns) in light of ancient visionary traditions, new developments in neuropsychology, and post-structuralist understandings of the embodied subject. The thesis of this book is that the ritualized reading of reports describing visionary experiences written in the first person "I" had the potential to create within the ancient reader the subjectivity of a visionary which can then predispose him to have a religious experience. This study examines how references to the body and the strategic arousal of emotions could have functioned within a practice of performative reading to engender a religious experience of ascent. In so doing, this book offers new interdisciplinary insights into meditative ritual reading as a religious practice for transformation in antiquity.
Recent Dead Sea Scrolls research pays much attention to the question which texts were seen as scriptures, in which forms scriptures as well as scriptural traditions were transmitted, how the scrolls can illuminate the gradual move from authoritative scriptural texts to canon, and which different kinds of scriptural interpretation are attested in the Dead Sea Scrolls. This volume contains twelve essays read at the seventh meeting of the International Organization for Qumran Studies that address these questions either broadly, or in relation to specific texts.
The Dead Sea Scrolls continue to shed ancient light on both the text and interpretation of the Hebrew Bible during the Second Temple period. Among the scrolls are several copies of Genesis dating from the first century BC to the mid-first century AD that contain portions of text from the creation account. These fragmentary copies have provided an unprecedented glimpse into the condition of the text in antiquity and have also provided a unique window into certain scribal practices in the copying of the text. In addition, several texts from Qumran contain the most ancient surviving interpretations of the Genesis creation account, dating from the mid-second century BC to the first century AD. A literary analysis of these texts reveals how ancient Jews interpreted and employed the creation account. These diverse texts address issues such as the creation of various entities (the universe, angels, Eden, humanity), Adam’s dominion and knowledge in Eden, God’s election of Israel on the first Sabbath, the prohibition in the garden and Adam’s rebellion, and the Garden of Eden as an archetype of the sanctuary.
"A book focusing on the nexus between language and literature in the Bible, with specific attention to how the former is used to create the latter; topics include wordplay, wordplay with proper names, alliteration, repetition with variation, dialect representation, intentionally confused language, marking closure, and more"--
A volume of texts and translations of canon-lists in early Christianity, specifically from the first four centuries CE on the grounds that this is the most formative period in the development of the early Christian canon.
‘Identity’ and ‘sectarianism’, two crucial and frequently used concepts in Qumran studies, are here problematized, appraised, and redefined. Two social-scientific theories inform the investigation of the serakhim (rule documents) and pesharim (commentaries). The sociology of sectarianism is presented in retrospect in order to identify appropriate methodological tools for speaking about sectarianism in the ancient context, and for comparing sectarian stances in the serakhim. Furthermore, a social-psychological perspective into identity is introduced for the first time for appreciating the dynamic and context-dependent nature of a person’s social identity. The final chapter takes a fresh approach to the study of the pesharim, arguing for the need to read each Pesher as a whole. It analyses the prototypical ‘teacher’ and brings forward new interpretations of this captivating and cloudy figure.
The New Testament writings allow only limited access to the interpretative traditions that lie beneath the claim that Jesus' resurrection took place according to Scripture. This book investigates the underlying principles of scriptural arguments in relation to Jesus' resurrection and the unstated interpretative moves that govern the selection and combination of texts relating to it. Novakovic's working hypothesis is that the Davidic tradition supplied the primary scriptural categories for the claim that Jesus was raised from the dead according to Scripture. This tradition was appropriated through two major thematic trajectories: resurrection as the fulfillment of Davidic promises and resurrection as the messianic enthronement. We can also identify several related thematic trajectories, such as the concept of the resurrection as the beginning of the new creation, resurrection as the prophetic authentication, and resurrection as the messianic rebuilding of the temple. Each thematic block is based on a specific use of Scripture for the purpose of explaining the significance of Jesus' resurrection.