Studies in Early Jewish Epigraphy

Studies in Early Jewish Epigraphy

Author: Pieter W. van der Horst

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2018-12-10

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 900433274X

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This volume contains the papers of a workshop on Jewish epigraphy in antiquity organized at Utrecht University in 1992. Among the participants were collaborators of the Cambridge Jewish Inscriptions Project and of the Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients project. Important aspects of ancient Jewish inscriptions are highlighted in the papers, like the connection between documentary and literary texts. Several papers focus on aspects of the history of Jewish communities in the diaspora. Specialists in Jewish epigraphy will find surveys of parts of the corpus of Jewish inscriptions (curse inscriptions, metrical epitaphs, alphabet-inscriptions) and discussions of some fixed opinions, and Jewish inscriptions are discussed in a wider literary and historical contexts as well.


Studies in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity

Studies in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity

Author: Pieter W. van der Horst

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2014-03-13

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 9004271112

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Over the past 45 years Professor Pieter W. van der Horst contributed extensively to the study of ancient Judaism and early Christianity. The 24 papers in this volume, written since his early retirement in 2006, cover a wide range of topics, all of them concerning the religious world of Judaism and Christianity in the Hellenistic, Roman, and early Byzantine era. They reflect his research interests in Jewish epigraphy, Jewish interpretation of the Bible, Jewish prayer culture, the diaspora in Asia Minor, exegetical problems in the writings of Philo and Josephus, Samaritan history, texts from ancient Christianity which have received little attention (the poems of Cyrus of Panopolis, the Doctrina Jacobi nuper baptizati, the Letter of Mara bar Sarapion), and miscellanea such as the pagan myth of Jewish cannibalism, the meaning of the Greek expression ‘without God,’ the religious significance of sneezing in pagan antiquity, and the variety of stories about pious long-sleepers in the ancient world (pagan, Jewish, Christian).


Saxa Judaica Loquuntur

Saxa Judaica Loquuntur

Author: Pieter Willem van der Horst

Publisher: Brill Academic Pub

Published: 2014-10-28

Total Pages: 191

ISBN-13: 9789004282834

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This volume demonstrates the relevance of early Jewish inscriptions by highlighting areas of research for which they provide us with information not found in literary sources. It also contains a selection of 50 inscriptions, with English translation and explanatory notes.The text of this book originated as a series of three lectures given at the Radbouw University of Nijmegen on April 16, 2014.


Halakhah in Light of Epigraphy

Halakhah in Light of Epigraphy

Author: Albert I. Baumgarten

Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9783525550175

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This volume contains the proceedings of the conference entitled "Halakhah in Light of Epigraphy" held on 29 May, 2008 under the auspices of the David and Jemima Jeselsohn Center for Epigraphy at Bar-Ilan University. Epigraphic finds, here interpreted broadly to include papyri, scrolls, and the like, have immeasurably enriched our knowledge of the ancient Jewish past while at the same time posing a challenge to modern scholarship: how does one integrate old knowledge, based on previously known sources, with new information? We now recognize that Rabbinic texts are normative: they tell us how their authors believed life should be lived, rather than the details of ordinary, everyday, experience. What weight, then, should be given to traditional halakhic texts in evaluating the contents of newly discovered written remains? And what light can be shed by these new finds, especially those inscriptions and documents that record small moments of ancient Jewish life, upon the long-familiar normative texts? The conference on Halakhah in Light of Epigraphy was intended to generate discussion on these broad issues, as well as to provide a forum for exploration of specific matters of Halakhah reflected in the epigraphic sources. The papers in this volume tend to emphasize the centrality of Halakhah in ancient Judaism. The first section of the volume is devoted to Halakhah in the Dead Sea Scrolls, with contributions by Moshe Benovitz, Vered Noam, Eyal Regev, Lawrence Schiffman, and Aharon Shemesh. These papers examine diversity in halakhic positions, in terms of both exegesis and practice (e.g., festival rituals, dietary laws, and sexual relationships), exploring evidence of halakhic development over the course of the Second Temple period, and halakhic variety among different groups. The second section relates to quotidian documents, and contains Hanan Eshel's survey of the legal documents found in the refuge caves; Steven Fraade's examination of the parnas; Shamma Friedman's analysis of the Jewish bill of divorce; and David Goodblatt's discussion of dating formulae. The final section of the volume examines a variety of epigraphic sources, and includes the following articles: Yonatan Adler on tefillin; Chaim Ben David on synagogue inscriptions; Tal Ilan on burial practices; Ze'ev Safrai and Hannah Safrai on an early Christian text; and Guy Stiebel on food at Masada.


Studying the New Testament Through Inscriptions

Studying the New Testament Through Inscriptions

Author: D. Clint Burnett

Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers

Published: 2020-01-01

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 1683071379

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Studying the New Testament through Inscriptions is an intuitive introduction to inscriptions from the Greco-Roman world. Inscriptions can help contextualize certain events associated with the New Testament in a way that many widely circulated literary texts do not. This book both introduces inscriptions and demonstrates sound methodological use of them in the study of the New Testament. Through five case studies, it highlights the largely unrecognized ability of inscriptions to shed light on early Christian history, practice, and the leadership structure of early Christian churches, as well as to solve certain New Testament exegetical impasses. Key points and features: No other book like this on the market--this is the first of its kind!A practical and much-needed tool for graduate students, seminarians, and pastorsShowcases five detailed case studies, designed to show students exactly how to use inscriptionsIncludes 20+ black and white photosThree appendices provide additional information for those who want to learn more


Ancient Manuscripts in Digital Culture

Ancient Manuscripts in Digital Culture

Author: David Hamidović

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2019-05-20

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 9004399291

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Ancient Manuscripts in Digital Culture presents an overview of the digital turn in Ancient Jewish and Christian manuscripts visualisation, data mining and communication. Edited by David Hamidović, Claire Clivaz and Sarah Bowen Savant, it gathers together the contributions of seventeen scholars involved in Biblical, Early Jewish and Christian studies. The volume attests to the spreading of digital humanities in these fields and presents fundamental analysis of the rise of visual culture as well as specific test-cases concerning ancient manuscripts. Sophisticated visualisation tools, stylometric analysis, teaching and visual data, epigraphy and visualisation belong notably to the varied overview presented in the volume.


Writing on the Wall

Writing on the Wall

Author: Karen B. Stern

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2020-11-03

Total Pages: 310

ISBN-13: 0691210705

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What ancient graffiti reveals about the everyday lives of Jews in the Greek and Roman world Few direct clues exist to the everyday lives and beliefs of ordinary Jews in antiquity. Prevailing perspectives on ancient Jewish life have been shaped largely by the voices of intellectual and social elites, preserved in the writings of Philo and Josephus and the rabbinic texts of the Mishnah and Talmud. Commissioned art, architecture, and formal inscriptions displayed on tombs and synagogues equally reflect the sensibilities of their influential patrons. The perspectives and sentiments of nonelite Jews, by contrast, have mostly disappeared from the historical record. Focusing on these forgotten Jews of antiquity, Writing on the Wall takes an unprecedented look at the vernacular inscriptions and drawings they left behind and sheds new light on the richness of their quotidian lives. Just like their neighbors throughout the eastern and southern Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, Arabia, and Egypt, ancient Jews scribbled and drew graffiti everyplace--in and around markets, hippodromes, theaters, pagan temples, open cliffs, sanctuaries, and even inside burial caves and synagogues. Karen Stern reveals what these markings tell us about the men and women who made them, people whose lives, beliefs, and behaviors eluded commemoration in grand literary and architectural works. Making compelling analogies with modern graffiti practices, she documents the overlooked connections between Jews and their neighbors, showing how popular Jewish practices of prayer, mortuary commemoration, commerce, and civic engagement regularly crossed ethnic and religious boundaries. Illustrated throughout with examples of ancient graffiti, Writing on the Wall provides a tantalizingly intimate glimpse into the cultural worlds of forgotten populations living at the crossroads of Judaism, Christianity, paganism, and earliest Islam.


Wisdom Literature

Wisdom Literature

Author: Leo G. Perdue

Publisher: Presbyterian Publishing Corp

Published: 2007-01-01

Total Pages: 430

ISBN-13: 0664229190

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The Old Testament's wisdom literature offers one of the most intriguing collections of biblical books (Proverbs, Job, the Psalms about Torah and wisdom, Ecclesiastes, Qoheleth, Ben Sira, and the Wisdom of Solomon). In this magisterial textbook, preeminent wisdom scholar Leo G. Perdue sets each book of wisdom in its historical context, examining the conditions that produced the book and shaped its thinking. This allows him to show how wisdom thought changed over time in response to shifting historical and social conditions. In addition to analyzing the historical setting of wisdom, Perdue discerns the theological themes and theological developments within this rich literature.


In the Shadow of the Caesars: Jewish Life in Roman Italy

In the Shadow of the Caesars: Jewish Life in Roman Italy

Author: Samuele Rocca

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2022-09-19

Total Pages: 359

ISBN-13: 9004525629

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This volume presents a refreshing and comprehensive study of the history of the Jews living in Rome and in Roman Italy, focusing on a diachronic study of Jewish society and its interaction with its immediate social and cultural surroundings.