The Book of Genesis in Late Antiquity


Book Description

The Book of Genesis in Late Antiquity: Encounters between Jewish and Christian Exegesis examines the relationship between rabbinic and Christian exegetical writings of Late Antiquity in the Eastern Roman Empire and Mesopotamia. The volume identifies and analyses evidence of potential ‘encounters’ between rabbinic and Christian interpretations of the book of Genesis. Each chapter investigates exegesis of a different episode of Genesis, including the Paradise Story, Cain and Abel, the Flood Story, Abraham and Melchizedek, Hagar and Ishmael, Jacob’s Ladder, Joseph and Potiphar and the Blessing on Judah. The book discusses a wide range of Jewish and Christian literature, including primarily rabbinic and patristic traditions, but also apocrypha, pseudepigrapha, Philo and Josephus. The volume sheds light on the history of the relationship between Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity, and brings together two scholars (of Rabbinics and of Eastern Christianity) in a truly collaborative work. The research was funded by an award from the Leverhulme Trust at the Centre for the Study of Jewish-Christian Relations, Cambridge, UK, and the Centre for Advanced Religious and Theological Studies of the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, UK.




God, Justice, and Society


Book Description

What is the real meaning of 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth'? Where did the idea for the 'Jubilee 2000' and 'Drop the Debt' campaigns come from? Here, Burnside looks at aspects of law and legality in the Bible, from the patriarchal narratives in the Hebrew Bible through to the trials of Jesus in the New Testament.




Theology in Action


Book Description

While in contemporary culture we tend to resort to a single, if broadly defined, range of discourse for the results of systematic thought about public matters of the social order, this is not the case in Rabbinic Judaism. Judaism's authoritative documents set forth the entire structure of belief and system of behavior in two distinct modes of discourse, Halakhic and Aggadic, or broadly construed, statements of law and lore. Theology in Action shows how the Talmud of Babylonia (a.k.a., the Bavli) account of normative action sets forth in a dual discourse the single, coherent theology of Rabbinic Judaism.




Beware the Evil Eye Volume 4


Book Description

This first full-scale study of the Evil Eye in the Bible and the biblical communities has traced in four volumes evidence of Evil Eye belief and practice in the ancient world from Mesopotamia (c. 3000 BCE) to Late Roman Antiquity (c. 600 CE). The fourth and final volume considers the literary and material evidence of the unabated thriving of Evil Eye belief and practice in Israel following the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 CE (chapter 1) and in early Christianity (chapter 2) through Late Antiquity (500-600 CE), with a brief reference to Evil Eye lore in early Islam. Numerous cross-references relate the subject matter of this volume to that of the previous three. A concluding Epilogue (chapter 3) offers some final thoughts on this survey of Evil Eye belief and practice in antiquity and their role in conceptualizing and combatting the pernicious forces of evil in daily life. Beside presenting the first full-scale monograph on the Evil Eye in the Bible and the biblical communities (volumes 3 and 4), the volumes summarize a century of research since the milestone two-volume study of Siegfried Seligmann, Der bose Blick und Verwandtes (1910), and they describe the ecological, historical, social, and cultural contexts within which the biblical texts are best understood. Throughout the study, the Evil Eye in antiquity is treated not as an instance of vulgar superstition or deluded magic, but as a physiological, psychological, and moral phenomenon whose operation was deemed explicable on rational grounds.




Hebrew-English Edition of the Babylonian Talmud


Book Description

1. Berakoth deals with the laws of blessings and prayer. 2 Mishnayoth Zera'im: the Mishnaic tractates of the Order of Zera'im, principally deal with laws pertaining to agriculture. 3. Shabbath discusses the laws of the Sabbath. 4. Erubin deals with the laws of domains as they relate to the observance of the Sabbath. 5. Pesahim deals with the laws of Passover and the Passover offering. 6. Bezah, Rosh Hashanah, Shekalim: these tractates deal respectively with the laws of the holidays, the laws of the New Year, and the laws of Temple donations. 7. Yoma discusses the laws of the holiday of Yom Kippur. 8. Sukkah and Moed Kattan deal with the laws of the holiday of Sukkoth and the laws of the intermediate days of the holidays, respectively. 9. Ta'anith, Megillah, and Hagigah deal with the subjects of fast days, the holiday of Purim, and the special holiday offering, respectively. 10. Yebamoth deals with the subject of levirate marriage. 11. Kethuboth: this volume deals with the laws of the kethubah, a document delineating a husband's obligations to his wife. 12. Nedarim deals with the subject of vows. 13. The tractate of Nazir deals with the subject of Nazarite vows; the tractate of Sotah addresses the laws pertaining to a wife suspected of adultery. 14. Gittin deals with the subject of divorce. 15. Kiddushin deals with the laws of marriage. 16. Baba Kamma deals with the laws of property damage, injury, and compensation for theft, robbery or violence. 17. Baba Metzia focuses on property ownership, wages, and civil law. 18. Baba Bathra deals with legal claims of rights of action or possession. 19. Sanhedrin deals with the subject of the Jewish court system. 20. Shevuoth deals with the subject of vows, while the tractate of Makkoth discusses the punishment of flagging and the crimes for which it is administered. 21. Abodah Zarah, Horayoth, Eduyyoth, Aboth: these tractates deal respectively with the laws of idolatry, the laws relating to erroneous court decisions, the recording of conclusive Rabbinic teachings, and general Jewish ethics and wisdom. 22. Zebahim deals with the subject of animal Temple offerings. 23. Menahoth deals with the laws of Temple flour offerings. 24. Hullin deals with the laws of slaughtering animals for consumption. 25. Bekoroth, Arakin detail the laws of firstborn animals and the evaluation of specific forms of vows. 26. Temurah, Keritoth, Meilah, Kinnim, Tamid, and Middoth deal with various subjects relating to the Temple and Temple offerings. 27. Niddah discusses the laws concerning menstruation and the monthly period of separation between husband and wife. 28. Mishnayoth Tohoroth: this volume contains all the Mishnaic tractates of the Order of Tohoroth, which principally deals with the laws of spiritual and ritual purity and impurity. 29. Minor Tractates: fifteen tractates in all, the Minor Tractates cover such wide-ranging subjects as: the laws pertaining to Torah scrolls and the scribes who write them, the laws of mourning and of marriage, the wisdom collected by Rabbi Nathan, moral and ethical principles, laws pertaining to converts, and more. 30. Index: this volume contains the complete index of the Talmud, includes a subject index, an index of Scriptural references, and an index of all the Rabbis quoted throughout the Talmud.




Shifting Images of the Hasmoneans


Book Description

The shifting image of the Hasmoneans in the eyes of their contemporaries and later generations is a compelling issue in the history of the Maccabean revolt and the Hasmonean commonwealth. Based on a series of six Jewish folktales from the Second Temple period that describe the Hasmonean dynasty and its history from its legendary founders, through achievement of full sovereignty, to downfall, this volume examines the Hasmoneans through the lens of reception history. On the one hand, these brief, colorful legends are embedded in the narrative of the historian of the age, Flavius Josephus; on the other hand, they are scattered throughout the extensive halakhic-exegetical compositions known as rabbinic literature, redacted and compiled centuries later. Each set of parallel stories is examined for the motivation underlying its creation, its original message, language, and the historical context. This analysis is followed by exploration of the nature of the relationship between the Josephan and the rabbinic versions, in an attempt to reconstruct the adaptation of the putative original traditions in the two corpora, and to decipher the disparities, different emphases, reworking, and unique orientations typical of each. These adaptations reflect the reception of the pristine tales and thus disclose the shifting images of the Hasmoneans in later generations and within distinct contexts. The compilation and characterization of these sources which were preserved by means of two such different conduits of transmission brings us closer to reconstruction of a lost literary continent, a hidden Jewish "Atlantis" of early pseudo-historical legends and facilitates examination of the relationship between the substantially different libraries and worlds of Josephus and rabbinic literature.




Revelation and the God of Israel


Book Description

Revelation and the God of Israel explores the concept of revelation as it emerges from the Hebrew Scriptures and is interpreted in Jewish philosophy and theology. The first part is a study in intellectual history that attempts to answer the question, what is the best possible understanding of revelation. The second part is a study in constructive theology and attempts to answer the question, is it reasonable to affirm belief in revelation. Here Norbert M. Samuelson focuses on the challenges given from a variety of contemporary academic disciplines, including evolutionary psychology, political ethics, analytic philosophy of religion, and source critical studies of the Bible. This important book offers a unique approach to theological questions and fresh solutions to them and will appeal to those interested in the history of philosophy, religious thought, and Judaism.