Purity and Identity in Ancient Judaism

Purity and Identity in Ancient Judaism
Author :
Publisher : Indiana University Press
Total Pages : 286
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780253067739
ISBN-13 : 0253067731
Rating : 4/5 (39 Downloads)

Synopsis Purity and Identity in Ancient Judaism by : Yair Furstenberg

The concern for purity was the cornerstone of the religious culture of ancient Judaism. Purity and Identity in Ancient Judaism explores how this concern shaped the worldview of Jews during the Second Temple period as well as their daily practices and social relations. It examines how different groups offered competing visions and methods for living a life of purity, which embodied a promise for personal and cosmic salvation and at the same time determined the degree of sectarian separation. Purity and Identity in Ancient Judaism offers a comprehensive description of the world of purity among the Jews of the Second Temple period in general and within the tradition of the Pharisees in particular. Yair Furstenberg explores the language of purity that provided Jews in antiquity a powerful tool for organizing legal, social, and ideological boundaries, and its study is therefore pertinent for understanding the powers that shaped the varieties of Second Temple Judaism and their later offshoots: Early Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism. Purity and Identity in Ancient Judaism offers new methods for carefully integrating the New Testament, Qumran literature, and early rabbinic sources into a comprehensive history of purity laws from the world of the Second Temple and the Pharisees to the later rabbinic movement, allowing the reader to trace the emergence of new religious sensibilities within changing social and cultic circumstances.

Purity, Community, and Ritual in Early Christian Literature

Purity, Community, and Ritual in Early Christian Literature
Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Total Pages : 303
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780198791959
ISBN-13 : 019879195X
Rating : 4/5 (59 Downloads)

Synopsis Purity, Community, and Ritual in Early Christian Literature by : Moshe Blidstein

This study examines how early Christian writers drew on ancient Jewish and Greco-Roman traditions to develop their own ideas about purity, purification, defilement, and disgust.

Purity and the Forming of Religious Traditions in the Ancient Mediterranean World and Ancient Judaism

Purity and the Forming of Religious Traditions in the Ancient Mediterranean World and Ancient Judaism
Author :
Publisher : BRILL
Total Pages : 618
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9789004232105
ISBN-13 : 9004232109
Rating : 4/5 (05 Downloads)

Synopsis Purity and the Forming of Religious Traditions in the Ancient Mediterranean World and Ancient Judaism by : Christian Frevel

Focusing on concepts, practices and images associated with purity in the ancient Mediterranean, this volume contributes new aspects to the current discussion about the forming of religious traditions, from a comparative perspective that acknowldges individual developments, mutual exchanges, as well as transcultural processes.

Gentile Impurities and Jewish Identities

Gentile Impurities and Jewish Identities
Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Total Pages : 324
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780198034469
ISBN-13 : 0198034466
Rating : 4/5 (69 Downloads)

Synopsis Gentile Impurities and Jewish Identities by : Christine E. Hayes

In ancient Jewish culture the ideas of purity and impurity defined the socio-cultural boundaries between Jews and Gentiles. Hayes argues that different views of the possibility of conversion, based on varying ideas about Gentile impurity, were the key factor in the formation of Jewish sects in the second temple period, and in the separation of the early Christian Church from what later became rabbinic Judaism.

Josephus and the Theologies of Ancient Judaism

Josephus and the Theologies of Ancient Judaism
Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Total Pages : 392
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780199928613
ISBN-13 : 0199928614
Rating : 4/5 (13 Downloads)

Synopsis Josephus and the Theologies of Ancient Judaism by : Jonathan Klawans

Though considered one of the most important informants about Judaism in the first century CE, the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus's testimony is often overlooked or downplayed. Jonathan Klawans's Josephus and the Theologies of Ancient Judaism reexamines Josephus's descriptions of sectarian disagreements concerning determinism and free will, the afterlife, and scriptural authority. In each case, Josephus's testimony is analyzed in light of his works' general concerns as well as relevant biblical, rabbinic, and Dead Sea texts. Many scholars today argue that ancient Jewish sectarian disputes revolved primarily or even exclusively around matters of ritual law, such as calendar, cultic practices, or priestly succession. Josephus, however, indicates that the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes disagreed about matters of theology, such as afterlife and determinism. Similarly, many scholars today argue that ancient Judaism was thrust into a theological crisis in the wake of the destruction of the second temple in 70 CE, yet Josephus's works indicate that Jews were readily able to make sense of the catastrophe in light of biblical precedents and contemporary beliefs. Without denying the importance of Jewish law-and recognizing Josephus's embellishments and exaggerations-Josephus and the Theologies of Ancient Judaism calls for a renewed focus on Josephus's testimony, and models an approach to ancient Judaism that gives theological questions a deserved place alongside matters of legal concern. Ancient Jewish theology was indeed significant, diverse, and sufficiently robust to respond to the crisis of its day.

The Hasmoneans

The Hasmoneans
Author :
Publisher : Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
Total Pages : 342
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9783647550435
ISBN-13 : 3647550434
Rating : 4/5 (35 Downloads)

Synopsis The Hasmoneans by : Eyal Regev

The first two chapters discuss the religious practices of the Hasmoneans. Chapter 1 explores why the Maccabees regarded Hanukkah as a festival of renewal, specifically of those traditions related to the Temple cult. Chapter 2 examines the manner in which the Hasmoneans used the protection and maintenance of the Jewish Temple to legitimize their rule—and how they worked to place the Temple at the center of the Jewish religion. Chapters 3–5 deal with different perspectives in the Hellenistic world on the role of government and royal ideologies. Specifically, chapter 3 explores both the Hellenistic and Jewish contexts for Hasmonean government and kingship. Regev shows how the Hasmonean dynasty built up its religious (in contrast to political) authority, suggesting that the Hasmonean state was not a conventionally Hellenistic one, but rather a 'national' monarchy, closer to Macedonian in type. Chapter 4 attempts to decipher the meaning of the symbols and epigraphs on Hasmonean coins, and examines how both Hellenistic symbols and Jewish concepts were employed to reinforce the dynasty's authority and introduce Jewish 'national' ideas into the populace. Chapter 5 then undertakes a comparative social-archaeological analysis of the Hasmonean palaces in Jericho in an effort to gain insight into their royal ideology. The author compares the Hasmonean palaces to other Hellenistic palaces – especially the Herodian palaces. Finally, the concluding chapter integrates the previous findings into a new understanding of and appreciation for the Hasmoneans' creation of an innovative Jewish corporal identity, one whose echoes we can still hear today.

Menstrual Purity

Menstrual Purity
Author :
Publisher : Stanford University Press
Total Pages : 348
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0804745536
ISBN-13 : 9780804745536
Rating : 4/5 (36 Downloads)

Synopsis Menstrual Purity by : Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert

This book offers a new perspective on the extensive rabbinic discussions of menstrual impurity, female physiology, and anatomy, and on the social and religious institutions those discussions engendered. It analyzes the functions of these discussions within the larger textual world of rabbinic literature and in the context of Jewish and Christian culture in late antiquity.

Women and Water

Women and Water
Author :
Publisher : Brandeis University Press
Total Pages : 292
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781611688702
ISBN-13 : 1611688701
Rating : 4/5 (02 Downloads)

Synopsis Women and Water by : Rahel Wasserfall

The term Niddah means separation. During her menstrual flow and for several days thereafter, a Jewish woman is considered Niddah -- separate from her husband and unable to practice the sacred rituals of Judaism. Purification in a miqveh (a ritual bath) following her period restores full status as a wife and member of the Jewish community. In the contemporary world, debates about Niddah focus less on the literal exclusion of menstruating women from the synagogue, instead emphasizing relations between husband and wife and the general role of Jewish women in Judaism. Although this has been the law since ancient times, the meaning and practice of Niddah has been widely contested. Women and Water explores how these purity rituals have affected Jewish women across time and place, and shows how their own interpretation of Niddah often conflicted with rabbinic views. These essays also speak to contemporary feminist issues such as shaping women's identity, power relations between women and men, and the role of women in the sacred.

Purity and Danger

Purity and Danger
Author :
Publisher : Routledge
Total Pages : 202
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781136489273
ISBN-13 : 1136489274
Rating : 4/5 (73 Downloads)

Synopsis Purity and Danger by : Professor Mary Douglas

Purity and Danger is acknowledged as a modern masterpiece of anthropology. It is widely cited in non-anthropological works and gave rise to a body of application, rebuttal and development within anthropology. In 1995 the book was included among the Times Literary Supplement's hundred most influential non-fiction works since WWII. Incorporating the philosophy of religion and science and a generally holistic approach to classification, Douglas demonstrates the relevance of anthropological enquiries to an audience outside her immediate academic circle. She offers an approach to understanding rules of purity by examining what is considered unclean in various cultures. She sheds light on the symbolism of what is considered clean and dirty in relation to order in secular and religious, modern and primitive life.

Impurity and Sin in Ancient Judaism

Impurity and Sin in Ancient Judaism
Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages : 262
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780195177657
ISBN-13 : 0195177657
Rating : 4/5 (57 Downloads)

Synopsis Impurity and Sin in Ancient Judaism by : Jonathan Klawans

Jonathan Klawans shows how the link between moral impurity and physical defilement, as understood by the ancient Hebrews, can be followed through to St Paul and the Christian era when the need for ritual purity was finally rejected.