The importance of Leviticus for the Jews of the post-biblical period cannot be exaggerated. Leviticus contains laws which regulated almost al aspects of communal and individual life. These targums shed light on how Leviticus was understood and its laws practiced.
The importance of Leviticus for the Jews of the post-biblical period cannot be exaggerated. Leviticus contains laws which regulated almost all aspects of communal and individual life. These targums shed light on how Leviticus was understood and its laws practiced.
The importance of Leviticus for the Jews of the post-biblical period cannot be exaggerated. Leviticus contains laws which regulated almost al aspects of communal and individual life. These targums shed light on how Leviticus was understood and its laws practiced.
The Book of Exodus speaks of central events in Jewish self-understanding: the Exodus from Egypt, the covenant with Moses, and the giving of the Law. It is part narrative, part religious law. This translation of the Palestinian Targums of Exodus will assist in understanding this biblical book which is, in itself, an elaborate redaction of the Jewish faith.
Why Jesus was put to death remains a pivotal issue in New Testament scholarship. The Marcan account of the Jewish examination of Jesus lies at the heart of the debate. Darrell Bock defends the historical-cultural veracity of Mark's portrayal through a careful study of the Jewish views on blasphemy and exaltation.
The relevance of the Targums (Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Bible) for the understanding of the New Testament has been a matter of dispute over the past three hundred years, principally by reason of the late date of the Targum manuscripts and the nature of the Aramaic. The debate has become more focused by reason of the Qumran finds of pre-Christian Aramaic documents (1947) and the identification of a complete text of the Palestinian Targum of the Pentateuch in the Vatican Library (Codex Neofiti, 1956). Martin McNamara traces the history of the debate down to our own day and the annotated translation of all the Targums into English. He studies the language situation (Aramaic and Greek) in New Testament Palestine and the interpretation of the Scriptures in the Targums, with concepts and language similar to the New Testament. Against this background relationships between the Targums and the New Testament are examined. A way forward is suggested by regarding the tell-like structure of the Targums (with layers from different ages) and a continuum running through for certain texts.
This study uses early Jewish sources to analyze the significance of Day of Atonement and High Priest imagery in the narrative of Simon Peter’s threefold denial of Jesus. It then describes the influence of other early Jewish sources on Jesus’ commissioning his main disciple Simon Peter as his own successor in John 21:15-19. Aus relates this event to Moses’ commissioning his main disciple Joshua as his successor.
In a career spanning over fifty years, the questions Jacob Neusner has asked and the critical methodologies he has developed have shaped the way scholars have come to approach the rabbinic literature as well as the diverse manifestations of Judaism from rabbinic times until the present. The essays collected here honor that legacy, illustrating an influence that is so pervasive that scholars today who engage in the critical study of Judaism and the history of religions more generally work in a laboratory that Professor Neusner created. Addressing topics in ancient and Rabbinic Judaism, the Judaic context of early Christianity, American Judaism, World Religions, and the academic study of the humanities, these essays demarcate the current state of Judaic and religious studies in the academy today.