Theory and Practice in Essene Law

Theory and Practice in Essene Law

Author: Aryeh Amihay

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 0190631015

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This book offers a novel approach for the study of law in the Judean Desert Scrolls, using the prism of legal theory. Following a couple of decades of scholarly consensus withdrawing from the "Essene hypothesis," it proposes to revive the term, and suggests employing it for the sectarian movement as a whole, while considering the group that lived in Qumran as the Yahad. It further proposes a new suggestion for the emergence of the Yahad, based on the roles of the Examiner and the Instructor in the two major legal codes, the Damascus Document and the Community Rule. The understanding of Essene law is divided into concepts and practices, in order to emphasize the discrepancy between creed, rhetoric, and practices. The abstract exploration of notions such as time, space, obligation, intention, and retribution, is then compared against the realities of social practices, including admission, initiation, covenant, leadership, reproof, and punishment. The legal analysis yields several new suggestions for the study of the scrolls: first, Amihay proposes to rename the two strands of thought of Jewish law, formerly referred to as "nominalism" and "realism," with the terms "legal essentialism" and "legal formalism." The two laws of admission in the Community Rule are distinguished as two different laws, one of an association for a group as a whole, the other as an admission of an individual. The law of reproof is proven to be an independent legal procedure, rather than a preliminary stage of prosecution. The methodological division in this study of thought and practice provides a nuanced approach for the study of law in general, and religious law in particular.


Prose and Poetry through Time

Prose and Poetry through Time

Author: Stephen Huebscher

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2024-10-03

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 9004693696

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This is the first major study of the Biblical Hebrew verbal system of a prophetic book. It is also the first book-length study in over 60 years to focus on how genre affects the Hebrew verbal system. It advances a data-driven argument that Biblical Hebrew verb forms do not function one way in prose and another way in poetry. Lastly, the author addresses the diachronic development of Hebrew between the destruction of the First Temple and the writing of the Dead Sea Scrolls.


Texts and Contexts of the Book of Sirach / Texte und Kontexte des Sirachbuches

Texts and Contexts of the Book of Sirach / Texte und Kontexte des Sirachbuches

Author: Gerhard Karner

Publisher: SBL Press

Published: 2017-09-15

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 0884142299

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Now available from SBL Press Thirteen essays, some in German and others in English, tackle the complicated history of textual transmission of Sirach. This book presents the proceedings of an international conference held in 2014 in Eichstaett, Germany on the text of Ben Sira within its historical contexts.Contributors include James K. Aitken, Pierre-Maurice Bogaert, Franz Böhmisch, Anthony J. Forte SJ, Jan Joosten, Otto Kaiser, Siegfried Kreuzer, Jean-Sébastien Rey, Werner Urbanz, Knut Usener, Oda Wischmeyer, Markus Witte, Benjamin G. Wright, and Burkard M. Zapff. Features: A sociocultural and theological history of Sirach Philological and textual problems of the Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions Translation strategies based on Greek, Syriac, and Latin text traditions and related hermeneutical questions


The Reconfiguration of Hebrew in the Hellenistic Period

The Reconfiguration of Hebrew in the Hellenistic Period

Author: Jan Joosten

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2018-08-20

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 9004366776

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The present volume of proceedings offers cutting-edge research on the Hebrew language in the late Persian, Hellenistic and Roman periods. Fourteen specialists of ancient Hebrew illuminate various aspects of the language, from phonology through grammar and syntax to semantics and interpretation. The research furthers the exegesis of biblical and non-biblical texts, it helps determine the chronological outline of Hebrew literature, and contributes to a better understanding of the sociolinguistic aspects of the language in the period of the Second Temple. Hebrew did not die out after the Babylonian exile, but continued to be used in speaking and writing in a variety of settings.


Jewish Law and Early Christian Identity

Jewish Law and Early Christian Identity

Author: Yifat Monnickendam

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2020-01-09

Total Pages: 345

ISBN-13: 110857033X

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Ephrem, one of the earliest Syriac Christian writers, lived on the eastern outskirts of the Roman Empire during the fourth century. Although he wrote polemical works against Jews and pagans, and identified with post-Nicene Christianity, his writings are also replete with parallels with Jewish traditions and he is the leading figure in an ongoing debate about the Jewish character of Syriac Christianity. This book focuses on early ideas about betrothal, marriage, and sexual relations, including their theological and legal implications, and positions Ephrem at a precise intersection between his Semitic origin and his Christian commitment. Alongside his adoption of customs and legal stances drawn from his Greco-Roman and Christian surroundings, Ephrem sometimes reveals unique legal concepts which are closer to early Palestinian, sectarian positions than to the Roman or Jewish worlds. The book therefore explains naturalistic legal thought in Christian literature and sheds light on the rise of Syriac Christianity.


Studies in Classical Hebrew

Studies in Classical Hebrew

Author: Moshe Bar-Asher

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2014-08-22

Total Pages: 498

ISBN-13: 3110367823

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Professor Moshe Bar-Asher, Professor Emeritus at the Hebrew University and long-time president of the Academy of the Hebrew Language, has published more than 200 articles and sixteen books and edited aboout 90 books and collections. The vast majority of his work has been accessible, however, only to specialists who read modern Hebrew or French. Bar-Asher’s groundbreaking articles on the dialects of rabbinic literature are classics. In more recent years he has brought the same breadth and depth of grammatical knowledge, and philological acumen, to the study of older classical Hebrew texts, including literary and epigraphic texts. This volume presents studies of individual words and verses within the Bible, as well as broader thematic discussions of biblical language and its long reception-history, down through medieval scribes and modern lexicographers. Also represented are Bar-Asher’s penetrating studies of Qumran texts and languages, which illuminate both the linguistic traditions reflected in these texts and the scribal culture from which they emerged. The third section contains studies of Mishnaic Hebrew. There are both sweeping surveys of the field and its accomplishments and challenges, and studies of specific phonological, morphological, syntactic and lexical features.


Senses of Scripture, Treasures of Tradition

Senses of Scripture, Treasures of Tradition

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2017-09-04

Total Pages: 588

ISBN-13: 9004347402

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Senses of Scripture, Treasures of Tradition offers recent findings on the reception, translation and use of the Bible in Arabic among Jews, Samaritans, Christians and Muslims from the early Islamic era to the present day. In this volume, edited by Miriam L. Hjälm, scholars from different fields have joined forces to illuminate various aspects of the Bible in Arabic: it depicts the characteristics of this abundant and diverse textual heritage, describes how the biblical message was made relevant for communities in the Near East and makes hitherto unpublished Arabic texts available. It also shows how various communities interacted in their choice of shared terminology and topics, and how Arabic Bible translations moved from one religious community to another. Contributors include: Amir Ashur, Mats Eskhult, Nathan Gibson, Dennis Halft, Miriam L. Hjälm, Cornelia Horn, Naḥem Ilan, Rana H. Issa, Geoffrey K. Martin, Roy Michael McCoy III, Juan Pedro Monferrer-Sala, Meirav Nadler-Akirav, Sivan Nir, Meira Polliack, Arik Sadan, Ilana Sasson, David Sklare, Peter Tarras, Alexander Treiger, Frank Weigelt, Vevian Zaki, Marzena Zawanowska.


From Author to Copyist

From Author to Copyist

Author: Cana Werman

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2015-10-09

Total Pages: 415

ISBN-13: 1575063638

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Zipi Talshir’s work on the evolution, formation, and transmission of the Hebrew Bible throughout her academic career, her remarkable ability to integrate the Septuagint into this research, and her profound understanding of the late books of the Hebrew Bible and the process of canonization are well known and appreciated. In this volume, 21 of Talshir’s colleagues and students contribute essays in her honor on these topics that are so close to her heart. A bibliography of her publications and a short biography open and complete this compelling volume presented by renowned authors in the field from all over Europe, Israel, and the U.S.


Conquering the World

Conquering the World

Author: Brian Schultz

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 469

ISBN-13: 9004168206

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Unique in its genre and content, the War Scroll (1QM) presents a vision of an impending eschatological war. Although originally interpreted as being the product of a single author from the Qumran Sect, the composition's inconsistencies quickly led to the view that it is in fact an eclectic document with an elaborate compositional history. Yet all such theories were formulated prior to the publication of War Scroll-like texts from Caves 4 and 11. A careful re-examination of the War Scroll suggests instead that what began as a primitive and cohesive composition from the Hellenistic period about a two-stage conquest of the world was eventually updated in order to fit the new historical realities faced by the sectarians under Roman rule.