Judaism in Late Antiquity 3. Where we Stand: Issues and Debates in Ancient Judaism

Judaism in Late Antiquity 3. Where we Stand: Issues and Debates in Ancient Judaism
Author: Alan Avery-Peck
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2015-11-02
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 9004294171

What, in Judaism - a religion so concerned with social norms and public policy - can we possibly mean by "law"? That is the thoroughly fresh perspective with which this work commences. It proceeds with two chapters on Second Temple Judaism, and two on the special subject of the Dead Sea library. Learning withers when criticism is substituted by political consensus, and when other than broadly accepted viewpoints find a hearing only with difficulty, if at all. The editors, therefore, invited colleagues from the USA, Europe, and Israel to systematically outline their views in one account and set it alongside contrary ones. The several participants explain how, in broad and sweeping terms, they see the state of learning in their areas of special interest. The volume provides first an overview, followed by a systematic, critical account of the fading consensus. In a number of accounts, the different perspectives are presented in scholarly debate. Because of the willingness of contending parties to meet one another in a single frame of discourse, the work is able to portray with considerable breadth the presently contending viewpoints concerning the use of Rabbinical literature for historical purposes. Besides this sustained and vigorous debate, precipitated by historical-critical reading of the rabbinical literature, other issues have attracted attention, such as, for example, feminist interests.

Judaism in Late Antiquity 3. Where we Stand: Issues and Debates in Ancient Judaism

Judaism in Late Antiquity 3. Where we Stand: Issues and Debates in Ancient Judaism
Author: Jacob Neusner
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 191
Release: 2016-11-14
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 9004294058

This collection of systematic Auseinandersetzungen articulates difference and spells out what is at issue. Learning atrophies when political consensus substitutes for criticism, and when other than broadly-accepted viewpoints, approaches, and readings find a hearing only with difficulty, if at all. The editors therefore have invited colleagues systematically to outline their views in an Auseinandersetzung with contrary ones. The several participants explain how, in broad and sweeping terms, they see the state of learning in their areas of special interest. The editors invited leading players in the USA, Europe, and the State of Israel, in the study of ancient Judaism, both in Second Temple Times and after 70 C.E. The work commences with a thoroughly fresh perspective of a theoretical question: what, in a religion so concerned with social norms and public policy, can we possibly mean by "law" when we speak of law in Judaism. It then proceeds with two chapters on Second Temple Judaism, and two on the special subject of the Dead Sea library. The two papers in the present part provide an overview of matters and a systematic, critical account of the fading consensus, respectively. The next set of papers ought to stand as the definitive account of the diverse viewpoints on a basic question of method. Because of the willingness of contending parties to meet one another in a single frame of discourse, the work is able to portray with considerable breadth the presently-contending viewpoints concerning the use of Rabbinic literature for historical purposes. Then proceed a number of other accounts of how matters look from the perspective of major participants in scholarly debate. At the same time as the requirements of historical-critical reading of the Rabbinic literature precipitated sustained and vigorous debate, other problems have attracted attention. Among these a critical issue emerges in the hermeneutics to govern the reading of the documents for the purposes of other-than-historical study, feminist interests, for example.

Art and Architecture of the Synagogue in Late Antique Palestine

Art and Architecture of the Synagogue in Late Antique Palestine
Author: David William Milson
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 608
Release: 2006-12-31
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9047418719

This study examines the material evidence for synagogues and churches in the Holy Land from the age of Constantine in the fourth century CE to the Arab conquest of the eastern provinces in the seventh century CE. Whereas scholars once viewed the growth of the Byzantine empire as time of persecution, a re-evaluation of the archaeological evidence indicates that Jews prospered along with their Christian neighbours. What influence did Christian art and architecture have on ancient synagogues? In the sixth century, one-third of all known synagogues in Palestine bear features similar to early Byzantine churches: basilical layouts, mosaic floors, apses, and chancel screens. Focusing on these features sheds light on how Jewish communities met the challenges posed by the Church’s development into a major religious and political power. This book provides a critical analysis of the archaeological evidence as a basis for our better understanding of Jewish identity and community in late Antique Palestine.

Handbook for the Study of the Historical Jesus (4 vols)

Handbook for the Study of the Historical Jesus (4 vols)
Author: Tom Holmén
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 3739
Release: 2010-12-24
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004210210

A hundred years after A. Schweitzer's Von Reimarus zu Wrede, the study of the historical Jesus is again experiencing a renaissance. Ongoing since the beginning of the 1980's, this renaissance has produced an abundance of Jesus studies that also display a welcome diversity of methods, approaches and hypotheses. The Handbook of the Study of the Historical Jesus is designed to handle this diversity and abundance. Drawing from first-class scholarship throughout the world, the four large volumes of the Handbook offer a unique assembly of leading experts presenting their approaches to the historical Jesus, as well as a thought-out compilation of original studies on a large variety of topics pertaining to Jesus research and adjacent areas.

Excavations at Ancient Nabratein

Excavations at Ancient Nabratein
Author: Eric M. Meyers
Publisher: Eisenbrauns
Total Pages: 504
Release: 2009
Genre: History
ISBN:

The site of Nabratein is situated on a remote promontory in an extensive pine forest northeast of Safed. This report is the sixth and final volume of the Meiron Excavation Project. The discovery in 1981 of the pediment of a Holy Ark from the Nabratein synagogue coincided with the release of the film Raiders of the Lost Ark. That coincidence brought much unanticipated press coverage to the expedition and its senior staff, even though we insisted that the discovery of perhaps the earliest synagogue ark was not to be identified with the recovery of the biblical Ark of the Covenant. Although the media attention was totally unexpected, we all did our best to respond to the occasion with honesty and a bit of whimsy. Such coverage of the Nabratein excavation resulted in making many more people interested in archaeology, even if it didn't solve a biblical mystery. Now we hope that this full publication of the results of our work at the site will afford it a lasting place in the annals of the archaeology of Israel."--from the Preface

Ancient Synagogues - Archaeology and Art: New Discoveries and Current Research

Ancient Synagogues - Archaeology and Art: New Discoveries and Current Research
Author: Rachel Hachlili
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 772
Release: 2013-09-30
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 9004257721

Ancient Synagogues - Archaeology and Art. New Discoveries and Current Research presents archaeological evidence - the architecture, art, Jewish symbols, zodiac, biblical tales, inscriptions, and coins – which attest to the importance of the synagogue. When considered as a whole, all these pieces of evidence confirm the centrality of the synagogue institution in the life of the Jewish communities all through Israel and in the Diaspora. Most importantly, the synagogue and its art and architecture played a powerful role in the preservation of the fundamental beliefs, customs, and traditions of the Jewish people following the destruction of the Second Temple and the loss of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel. The book also includes a supplement of the report on the Qazion excavation.

Synagogues in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods

Synagogues in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods
Author: Lutz Doering
Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
Total Pages: 433
Release: 2020-12-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3647522155

The study of ancient Judaism has enjoyed a steep rise in interest and publications in recent decades, although the focus has often been on the ideas and beliefs represented in ancient Jewish texts rather than on the daily lives and the material culture of Jews/Judaeans and their communities. The nascent institution of the synagogue formed an increasingly important venue for communal gathering and daily or weekly practice. This collection of essays brings together a broad spectrum of new archaeological and textual data with various emergent theories and interpretative methods in order to address the need to understand the place of the synagogue in the daily and weekly procedures, community frameworks, and theological structures in which Judaeans, Galileans, and Jewish people in the Diaspora lived and gathered. The interdisciplinary studies will be of great significance for anyone studying ancient Jewish belief, practice, and community formation.

The Samaritans in Flavius Josephus

The Samaritans in Flavius Josephus
Author: Reinhard Pummer
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2009
Genre: History
ISBN: 9783161501067

The first-century C.E. Jewish historian Flavius Josephus is our main source of information for the early history of the Samaritans, a community closely related to Judaism whose development as an independent religion is commonly dated in the Hellenistic-Roman period. Josephus' two main works, Jewish War and Jewish Antiquities, contain a number of passages that purport to describe the origin, character and actions of the Samaritans. In composing his histories, Josephus drew on different sources, some identifiable others unknown to us. Contemporary Josephus research has shown that he did so not as a mere compiler but as a creative writer who selected and quoted his sources carefully and deliberately and employed them to express his personal views. Rather than trying to isolate and identify Josephus' authorities and to determine the meaning these texts had in their original setting, Reinhard Pummer examines what Josephus himself intended to convey to his audience when he depicted the Samaritans in the way he did. He attempts to combine composition criticism and historical research and argues that the differences in Josephus' portrayal of the Samaritans in War on the one hand and in Antiquities on the other are due to the different aims the historian pursued in the two works.

Ceramics in Transition

Ceramics in Transition
Author: Elisabeth Holmqvist
Publisher: Archaeopress Archaeology
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2019
Genre: Excavations
ISBN:

This book focuses on the utilitarian ceramic traditions during the socio-political transition from the late Byzantine into the early Islamic Umayyad and 'Abbasid periods, in southern Transjordan and the Negev. Production clusters, manufacturing techniques, distribution patterns, and material links between communities are analysed.