Praise Israel for Wisdom and Instruction
Praise Israel for Wisdom and Instruction

Author: Benjamin Wright

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2008-12-31

Total Pages: 380

ISBN-13: 9047443632

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This book brings together fifteen articles representing the major thrusts of Prof. Wright's work over the last decade. They focus on three interrelated themes in the study of Early Judaism. (1) Translation. Several essays treat Jewish translation strategies as well as some of the social frameworks within which translation took place. (2) Social Location. The effort to locate texts in their social landscapes has helped to break down many traditional scholarly categories. Especially pertinent are the ways that wisdom and apocalyptic relate to each other, and he explores how specific wisdom and apocalyptic texts relate. (3) Transmission of Tradition. Several articles focus on how traditional material was shaped and framed in order to ensure its successful transmission to subsequent generations.

The Wisdom Instructions in the Book of Tobit
The Wisdom Instructions in the Book of Tobit

Author: Francis M. Macatangay

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2011-03-29

Total Pages: 389

ISBN-13: 3110255359

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Despite the resurgence of scholarly interest in the Book of Tobit in recent years, an important aspect of this deuterocanonical book has been largely overlooked. Within it, there is an instruction manual for an effective way of being and living in exile, namely the wisdom instructions in Tobit 4. With glances at Tobit 12 and Tobit 14 where the wisdom instructions are repeated in shorter form, this monograph discusses the function of the wisdom discourse in the literary design of the narrative. Moreover, it examines how the wisdom instructions of Tobit demonstrate the vital role of the sapiential tradition in forming and maintaining Jewish identity in the Diaspora. Contextualizing the wisdom instructions not only within the narrative but also within the realities of Second Temple Judaism, it is argued that the author of Tobit saw the validity and employed the resources of the Jewish wisdom tradition in reinterpreting some of the traditional claims of covenant faith. Using the Sinaiticus as the textual basis of study, it shows that the lengthy wisdom lecture of Tobit displays an inner logic that structures the collection of seemingly unrelated sayings. The instructions reinterpret a major deuteronomic concern to remember the Lord always. For Tobit, the practice of righteousness, the practice of wise behavior, and the practice of prayer realize and concretize such remembrance. Addressed to those in the Dispersion, Tobit’s wisdom instructions are meant to foster and shape a distinct ethos of truth, righteousness and mercy.

The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Wisdom Literature
The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Wisdom Literature

Author: Samuel L. Adams

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2020-02-17

Total Pages: 516

ISBN-13: 1119158273

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A comprehensive introduction to ancient wisdom literature, with fascinating essays on a broad range of topics. The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Wisdom Literature is a wide-ranging introduction to the texts, themes, and receptions of the wisdom literature of the Bible and the ancient world. This comprehensive volume brings together original essays from established scholars and emerging voices to offer a variety of perspectives on the “wisdom” biblical books, early Christian and rabbinic literature, and beyond. Varied and engaging essays provide fresh insights on topics of timeless relevance, exploring the distinct features of instructional texts and discussing their interpretation in both antiquity and the modern world. Designed for non-specialists, this accessible volume provides readers with balanced coverage of traditional biblical wisdom texts, including Proverbs, Job, Psalms, and Ecclesiastes; lesser-known Egyptian and Mesopotamian wisdom; and African proverbs. The contributors explore topics ranging from scribes and pedagogy in ancient Israel, to representations of biblical wisdom literature in contemporary cinema. Offering readers a fresh and interesting way to engage with wisdom literature, this book: Discusses sapiential books and traditions in various historical and cultural contexts Offers up-to-date discussion on the study of the biblical wisdom books Features essays on the history of interpretation and theological reception Includes essays covering the antecedents and afterlife of the texts Part of the acclaimed Wiley Blackwell Companions to Religion series, the Companion to Wisdom Literature is a valuable resource for university, seminary and divinity school students and instructors, scholars and researchers, and general readers with interest in the subject.

For Wisdom's Sake
For Wisdom's Sake

Author: Nuria Calduch-Benages

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2021-03-08

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 3110492318

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This volume brings together twenty-four articles of Prof. Calduch-Benages' work on the book of Ben Sira over the last two decades. Some were written originally in English and others have been translated from Spanish and Italian originals. They are divided in three groups: introductory, thematic, and exegetical essays. The exegetical articles offer a detail study of several passages of the book, some of them pivotal in the structure of the book (Sir 2,1; 4,11-19; 6,22; 22,27–23,6; 23,27; 24,22; 27,30–28,7; 34,1-8; 34,9-12; 42,15–43,33; 43,27-33). The thematic essays deal with important theological issues such as canon and inspiration, wisdom, fear of the lord, trial, cult, prayer, forgiveness, and creation. Other no less important issues such as power and authority, dreams, travels, perfumes, animals and garments are discussed as well. Special attention is given to topics related with women, for instance, Ben Sira’s classification of wives, divorce, polygamy, and the absence of named women in the Praise of the Ancestors (Sir 44–50).

The Formation of the Jewish Canon
The Formation of the Jewish Canon

Author: Timothy H. Lim

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2012-09-15

Total Pages: 508

ISBN-13: 0300164955

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The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls provides unprecedented insight into the nature of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament before its fixation. Timothy Lim here presents a complete account of the formation of the canon in Ancient Judaism from the emergence of the Torah in the Persian period to the final acceptance of the list of twenty-two/twenty-four books in the Rabbinic period. Using the Hebrew Bible, the Scrolls, the Apocrypha, the Letter of Aristeas, the writings of Philo, Josephus, the New Testament, and Rabbinic literature as primary evidence he argues that throughout the post-exilic period up to around 100 CE there was not one official "canon" accepted by all Jews; rather, there existed a plurality of collections of scriptures that were authoritative for different communities. Examining the literary sources and historical circumstances that led to the emergence of authoritative scriptures in ancient Judaism, Lim proposes a theory of the majority canon that posits that the Pharisaic canon became the canon of Rabbinic Judaism in the centuries after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple.

Israel's Wisdom Literature
Israel's Wisdom Literature

Author: Dianne Bergant

Publisher: Fortress Press

Published:

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 9781451406597

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This series looks at various sections of the Old Testament from the perspective of a worldview in which various groups of humans, and other parts of the natural world, are considered in a relational way. Covers all the wisdom books of the Hebrew Bible and the Greek Apocrypha.

Wisdom, Cosmos, and Cultus in the Book of Sirach
Wisdom, Cosmos, and Cultus in the Book of Sirach

Author: A. Jordan Schmidt

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2019-03-04

Total Pages: 520

ISBN-13: 3110600226

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Despite the attention that has already been paid to the theme of creation in the book of Sirach, scholarship has yet to provide a comprehensive analysis of Ben Sira's instruction regarding the cosmic order and its role in the divine bestowal of wisdom upon human beings. This book, which consists of two parts, fills a lacuna in scholarship by offering such an analysis. The first part of this study examines Ben Sira's three main treatments of the created world, thus providing a comprehensive description and synthesis of Ben Sira's doctrine concerning the created order of the cosmos. The second part of this work analyzes the place of human beings in general, and the Jewish people in particular, within the cosmic order. This second part includes an analysis of the role of the created order in Ben Sira's wisdom instruction in 1:1-10 and 24:1-34 as well as an elucidation of the way in which his treatments of various kinds of people—civic leaders, wives, doctors, manual laborers, scribes, and cultic personnel—are integral to Ben Sira's doctrine of creation. This study demonstrates that the created order is a fundamental category that Ben Sira relies upon in articulating his instructions about wisdom and wise behavior.

The Literary Imagination in Jewish Antiquity
The Literary Imagination in Jewish Antiquity

Author: Eva Mroczek

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 0190279834

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How did Jews understand sacred writing before the concepts of "Bible" and "book" emerged? The Literary Imagination in Jewish Antiquity challenges anachronistic categories to reveal new aspects of how ancient Jews imagined written revelation-a wildly varied collection stretching back to the dawn of time, with new discoveries always around the corner.

The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Wisdom Literature
The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Wisdom Literature

Author: Katherine J. Dell

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2022-06-09

Total Pages: 533

ISBN-13: 1108665810

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Study of the wisdom literature in the Hebrew Bible and the contemporary cultures in the ancient Near Eastern world is evolving rapidly as old definitions and assumptions are questioned. Scholars are now interrogating the role of oral culture, the rhetoric of teaching and didacticism, the understanding of genre, and the relationship of these factors to the corpus of writings. The scribal culture in which wisdom literature arose is also under investigation, alongside questions of social context and character formation. This Companion serves as an essential guide to wisdom texts, a body of biblical literature with ancient origins that continue to have universal and timeless appeal. Reflecting new interpretive approaches, including virtue ethics and intertextuality, the volume includes essays by an international team of leading scholars. They engage with the texts, provide authoritative summaries of the state of the field, and open up to readers the exciting world of biblical wisdom.

Wisdom’s Root Revealed
Wisdom’s Root Revealed

Author: Greg Schmidt Goering

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2009-09-30

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 9004190716

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This monograph interprets the theme of election in the book of Sirach. Previous scholarship has often understood Ben Sira’s worldview to be dualistic, and has approached the sage's correlation of Wisdom and Torah as either a nationalization of Wisdom or a universalization of Torah. By probing Ben Sira’s ideas about election, this book suggests that Ben Sira does not collapse the traditional sapiential dichotomy wisdom/folly into a dualistic worldview, and that his understanding of the relation between Wisdom and Torah proves to be far more subtle than previous interpretations have allowed. The study demonstrates that the concept of election enables a profitable discussion of the relation of Wisdom and Torah in the thought of this pivotal Second Temple sage.