Η ιουδαϊκή πηγή της "Συνοπτικής Αποκάλυψης" / The Jewish roots of the "Synoptic Apocalypse"

Scrinium 11 (2015)

Basil Lourié, "The 'Synoptic Apocalypse' (Mt 24–25 Par.) and Its Jewish Source," 87-108

Ένα νέο βιβλίο για την Ανάληψη Ησαΐα / A new book on The Ascension of Isaiah

Κυκλοφόρησε από τον εκδοτικό οίκο Peeters ένας συλλογικός τόμος για το απόκρυφο κείμενο Ανάληψις Ησαΐου. Πρόκειται για ένα κείμενο, το οποίο καταλαμβάνει σημαντική θέση στην αρχαία χριστιανική γραμματείας εξαιτίας της δυσκολίας προσδιορισμού της προέλευσής του αλλά και της σημασίας που έχει όσον αφορά στον αυτοπροσδιορισμό των Χριστιανών έναντι των Ιουδαίων σε αυτή την πρώιμη περίοδο. Στα πρώτα κεφάλαια του τόμου παρουσιάζονται τα προβλήματα της χρονολόγησης, προέλευσης, του φιλολογικού είδους και της ερμηνείας του έργου καθώς κι η πιθανή σχέση του με τον Μαρκίωνα. Στη συνέχεια παρουσιάζονται διάφορα χαρακτηριστικά του, όπως ο μυστικός χαρακτήρας, οι χρησμοί που περιέχει, τα στοιχεία από την ιωάννεια παράδοση, η κοσμολογία του, η κάθοδος του Χριστού, η εσχατολογία του κι η εκ παρθένου σύλληψη. Στην τελευταία μελέτη παρουσιάζεται ο P.Amh. I 1, που είναι ο ελληνικός μάρτυρας του κειμένου. 

J.N. Bremmer, T.R. Karmann, T. Nicklas, The Ascension of Isaiah. Studies on Early Christian Apocrypha, 11. Leuven: Peeters 2016
ISBN: 978-90-429-3199-2
XVI-418 p.
58 EURO

Στα δύο τελευταία τεύχη τους PRSt / In the two recent issues of PRSt

Perspectives in Religious Studies 42:3 (2015)

Eric A. Seibert, "Preaching from Violent Biblical Texts: Helpful Strategies for Addressing Violence in the Old Testament," 247–257

Many pastors and priests are uncomfortable preaching from violent Old Testament texts. Therefore, they routinely ignore them. Yet it is imperative for the clergy not only to preach from these texts, but to do so in an ethically responsible manner. This is particularly true when preaching from passages containing “virtuous” violence, where violence is portrayed positively, as something acceptable and even praiseworthy. This article discusses a number of practical strategies designed to help preachers deal more responsibly and effectively with these challenging biblical passages in their sermons. These strategies enable preachers to be honest about the problems these texts raise, and to critique the violence in them, while still preaching from these texts in ways that are positive and constructive.

Hector Avalos, "Circumcision as a Slave Mark," 259–274

Circumcision may be one of the most widespread forms of violence on the globe. Although the reasons for circumcision are variegated, the form best known in Abrahamic traditions probably originated in the violent institution of slavery. A master tested the loyalty of slaves by requiring them to perform an action to which one is normally adverse. Circumcision, which involves the painful removal of the foreskin of the penis, would have been a very effective test of loyalty and marker of ownership. If slaves performed that procedure, a master could be assured of absolute obedience. Children were circumcised because they were considered part of the property of the divine master, Yahweh.

Kathryn M. Lopez, "Telling and Retelling the Story of Dinah: Violent Storytelling as Social Formation," 275–282

Rewritten Torah flourished in the Second Temple period, but many details changed in the retelling. Certain stories, such as Dinah’s rape and the subsequent slaughter of the men of Shechem in Genesis 34, almost reverse themselves in the retelling. Levi shifts from the villain who placed the family of Jacob in danger to the hero whose commitment to the purity of God’s people is exemplified by his violent action against the Shechemites. This reversal is particularly apparent in those retellings that are associated with the Levi-Priestly tradition. This article explores how a story of such violence became the basis for the elevation of Levi in Second Temple period writings and operated to form the social identity of the group that stands behind the Levi-Priestly tradition.

Amanda C. Miller, "Wrestling with Rome: Imperial Violence and Its Legacy in the Synoptic Gospels," 283–294

This essay offers a foundation from which the church of the twenty-first century might construct a theology of evangelism and mission that returns it to the ancient perspective of the earliest Christians and that moves it beyond the dichotomy between evangelism and social ministry that characterized much of Christian mission in the twentieth century. This theological understanding was first articulated in 1904 by Walter Rauschenbusch and achieved its most recent expression in the document Evangelii Gaudium, written by Pope Francis I in 2013. Properly understood, it offers a holistic approach to mission that transforms not only individuals, but also the communities to which they belong.

Greg Carey, "Revelation’s Violence Problem: Mapping Essential Questions," 295–306

The book of Revelation frequently deploys language and imagery related to violence and destruction, often attributed to God and the Lamb. This theological and ethical problem preoccupies scholarly and popular interpreters alike, but few pause to articulate its various literary and theological dimensions. Readers of Revelation must navigate the questions of whether its violence is justifiable, whether Revelation attributes violence to God and to the Lamb, whether Revelation’s rhetoric solicits a desire for violence, whether the book realistically reflects its violent historical context, and whether texts can “do violence” through rhetoric and symbolism. In the end, this essay proposes that Revelation celebrates and endorses violence even as it calls its audience to abstain from violent action. Revelation models for its readers how the longing for justice often mingles with a desire for vindication and revenge.

Karen L. King, "Engaging Diverse Early Christian Responses to Violence in Persecution," 307–317

The response of early Christians to persecution under Rome is often represented in contemporary church histories as a heroic story in which martyrs willingly confess Christ and face torture and death. The evidence, however, shows that Christians struggled to understand what was happening and what they should do. In so doing, they raise foundational theological questions about the nature of God and the meaning of suffering. This essay examines three works recently discovered in Egypt which offer new perspectives and which argue variously for non-violence, pacifism, and/or withdrawal: The Testimony of Truth, The Letter of Peter to Philip, and The (First) Apocalypse of James.

Perspectives in Religious Studies 42:4 (2015)

John C. Peckham, "Theopathic or Anthropopathic? A Suggested Approach to Imagery of Divine Emotion in the Hebrew Bible," 341–355

This article critically examines the view that figurative anatomical expressions of divine emotion should be dismissed as non-descriptive of God and suggests an alternative approach. First, since all available language is human language, the dismissal of figurative language for this reason is self-defeating. Second, the interpreter should not presume what God is like independent of the biblical data. Third, attention to the idiomatic usage of figurative anatomical expressions demonstrates that such idioms are not dependent upon the anatomical referent. Therefore, the interpreter should maintain the well-known meaning of an idiom as an analogical reference to God’s emotions (theopathism).

Rebecca W. Poe Hays, "Divine Extortion and Mashal as a Polysemic Pivot: The Strategy of Complaint in Joel 2:12–17," 357–370

Joel 2:12–17 unfolds a desperate argument beginning with repentance but reinforcing this incentive by combining a description of YHWH’s character with the nations’ imagined derision. The persuasive force resides in a pivot device playing upon the two mashal roots (“be like” and “rule”). The threat is not merely that Judah will suffer mockery but that the nations will equate Judah’s situation with YHWH’s status and character. Strategically, the Joel 2:12–17 complaint utilizes extortion wherein the priests present YHWH with a threat to his character, which mashal’s polysemy enhances, as a means of incentivizing YHWH to reverse Judah’s fortunes.

David Lertis Matson, " 'Eating and Drinking Whatever They Provide' (Luke 10:5–7): Luke’s Household Mission of the Seventy(-Two) in Light of the Philip Esler/E. P. Sanders Debate," 371–389

Scholars have long noted the prominence of table fellowship in the writings of Luke. But as the Christian mission gradually expands to include Gentiles, exactly what kind of table fellowship does Luke envision taking place? In mixed eucharistic settings, do Jews eat separately from Gentiles, bring their own food, or share in common provisions with Gentiles? Against the backdrop of an intense debate in New Testament scholarship, particularly between Philip F. Esler and E. P. Sanders, this article develops a distinctively Lukan model based on the indiscriminate household mission of the Seventy(-two) that supports Esler’s definition of table fellowship as personalized eating rather than the parallel eating model assumed by Sanders. That Luke uses food to symbolize the breaking down of barriers between people groups, however, is not without its problems in this postcolonial age.

O Daniel Boyarin για τον ιστορικό Metatron / Daniel Boyarin on historical Metatron

Στην ιστοσελίδα του Yale Divinity School έχουν "ανεβεί" οι τρεις διαλέξεις του καθηγητή Daniel Boyarin για την εμφάνιση του Μετατρόν στον ραββινικό Ιουδαϊσμό ;

"Enoch or Jesus? The Quest of the Historical Metatron" 

Συνέδριο με θέμα τη σχέση των χειρογράφων του Κουμράν και του Ελληνισμού / Conference on DSS and Hellenism

Το Ινστιτούτο του Κουμράν στο Πανεπιστήμιο του Groningen σε συνεργασία με το Πανεπιστήμιο του Leuven διοργανώνουν την πέμπτη διεθνή συνάντηση Groningen - Leuven με αφορμή τα 55 χρόνια λειτουργίας του Ινστιτούτου του Κουμράν. Το συνέδριο θα λάβει χώρα από τις 13 έως τις 14 Απριλίου 2016.

Το πρόγραμμα της συνάντησης:

Programme

Wednesday 13.4.2016

8:30h   Coffee and Tea

• 9:00     Elmer Sterken, Rector Magnificus, University of Groningen: opening of the meeting
• 9:15h   John Collins (Yale University): Workshop I: “The Impact of Hellenism in Judah”
• 10:45h Coffee Break
• 11:00h Workshop I continues
• 11:30h Short papers by Dirk Smilde Research Seminar students
• 12:20h Jürgen Zangenberg (University of Leiden): Announcement on the forthcoming publication Humbert, Chambon, and Mlynarczyk Qumran IIIA of Roland de Vaux’s excavations of Khirbet Qumran

12:30h Lunch Break

• 13:30h Vasile Babota (Pontifical Gregorian University & Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas): “The Hasmonean High Priesthood, the Opposition(s) Groups, and the Composition of Some Dead Sea Scrolls”
• 14:15h Albert I. Baumgarten (Bar-Ilan University): “Challenging the Authorities: Looking for Trouble”
• 15:30h Coffee Break
• 16:15h Justin David Strong (University of Notre Dame): “Jubilees and Hellenistic Physiognomy”
• 17:00h Dennis Mizzi (University of Malta): “Conceptualizing a ‘Library’ at Qumran: A Material Perspective on the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Light of Papyrological Evidence from the Graeco-Roman Mediterranean”

18:30h Dinner

Thursday 14.4.2016

9:00h   Coffee and Tea

• 9:15h   Benjamin Wright (Lehigh University): Workshop II: “Were the Qumran Sectarians Hellenistic Jews?”
• 10:45h Coffee Break
• 11:00h Workshop II continues
• 11:30h  Meike Christian (Georg-August Universität, Göttingen): “Lowliness and Election in 4QInstruction and the Hodayot”
• 12:15h  Francis Borchardt (Lutheran Theological Seminary Hong Kong/ Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence: Changes in Sacred Texts and Traditions): “4QMMT and the Heroic Figure in Hellenistic Judaism”

13:00h Lunch Break

• 14:00h Atar Livneh (University Ben Gurion of the Negev): “Brief Accounts of Israelite History in the Qumran Scrolls: Biblical Patterns and Hellenistic Influence”

14:45h Coffee Break

• 15:00h Shira J. Golani (KU Leuven): “The Use of Lists in the Dead Sea Scrolls within their Hellenistic Post-Biblical Setting”
• 15:45h  Patrick Pouchelle (Centre Sevres, Paris): “Are there grecisms in Qumran Hebrew and how could we detect them?”
• 16:30h  Pieter B. Hartog (KU Leuven): “The Greek Bible in the Dead Sea Scrolls and The Early History of the Septuagint”
• 17:15h  Hanna Tervanotko (University of Helsinki & KU Leuven) and Mladen Popović (Qumran Institute, University of Groningen): Closing Remarks

18:00h Dinner

Οι γυναίκες στο βιβλίο της Γένεσης / Women in the book of Genesis

Στην γνωστή ιστοσελίδα The Bible and Interpretation έχει αναρτηθεί ένα σύντομο κείμενο του David J. Zucker για τις γυναίκες που εμφανίζονται στο βιβλίο της Γένεσης:

The Matriarchs of Genesis: Seven Women, Five Views

H πρόσληψη της βιβλικής εικόνας της Βαβυλώνας στην πολιτική και κοινωνική σκέψη των ΗΠΑ / The reception of the biblical image of Babylon in political and social thought of USA

Μία ενδιαφέρουσα βιβλιοκρισία του βιβλίου του Erin Runions, The Babylon Complex: Theopolitical Fantasies of War, Sex, and Sovereignty, Fordham University Press, 2014 από τον Phillip M. Sherman έχει αναρτηθεί στην γνωστή ιστοσελίδα Marginalia: 

Babylon’s Imperial Allure – By Phillip M. Sherman

Ένα νέο βιβλίο για το την εκκλησία της Dura-Europos / A new book on the Dura-Europos church

Από τις εκδόσεις του Yale University κυκλοφόρησε μία νέα μελέτη για την αρχαιότερη εκκλησία στην Dura-Europos. O συγγραφέας του, Michael Peppard, δίνει τις σχετικές ιστορικές πληροφορίες και σχολιάζει θεολογικά την εκκλησία του 3ου αι. μ.Χ. που βρέθηκε στην Dura-Europos της Συρίας. Παρέχει νέες ερμηνείες των εικονογραφικών παραστάσεων κι απομακρύνεται έτσι από τις κυριαρχούσες στην έρευνα θέσης:

Michael Peppard, The World's Oldest Church: Bible, Art, and Ritual at Dura-Europos, Syria, Sykrisis Series, New Haven / London: Yale University Press, 2016

336 pages

ISBN: 978-0300213997

50.00 $

Ένα νέο βιβλίο για την Κυριακή Προσευχή / A new book on Lord's Prayer

Από τον εκδοτικό οίκο Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht κυκλοφόρησε στη μνήμη του πρόσφατα εκλιπόντος καθηγητή της Καινής Διαθήκης Eduard Lohse ένας ενδιαφέρων τόμος για την κατανόηση κι ερμηνεία της Κυριακής Προσευχής μέσα στην ιουδαϊκή της και αρχαία χριστιανική συνάφεια, καθώς και τις δύο εκδοχές παράδοσής της:

Florian Wilk (Ed.), Das Vaterunser in seinen antiken Kontexten: Zum Gedenken an Eduard Lohse, FRLAN, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2016

199 pages 

ISBN 978-3-525-54052-7

hardcopy 65,00 € / pdf 54,99 €

Στο τρέχον τεύχος του JAJ / In the current issue of JAJ

Journal of Ancient Judaism 6:1 (2015)

Eva Mroczek, "The Hegemony of the Biblical in the Study of Second Temple Literature," 2-35 

Despite growing recognition that early Jewish culture was far broader than the Bible, the biblical retains its hegemony in the study of early Jewish literature. Often, non-biblical materials are read either as proto-biblical, para-biblical, or biblical interpretation, assimilated into an evolutionary narrative with Bible as the telos. But ancient Jewish literature and culture are far more than proto-biblical. Through a case study of psalmic texts and Davidic traditions, this article illustrates how removing biblical lenses reveals a more vibrant picture of the resources and interests of early Jews. First, it discusses evidence showing that despite a common perception about its popularity, the “Book of Psalms” was not a concrete entity or well-defined concept in Second Temple times. Instead, we find different genres of psalm collection with widely varied purposes and contents, and a cultural consciousness of psalms as an amorphous tradition. Second, it demonstrates how David was remembered as an instructor and founder of temple and liturgy, rather than a biblical author, a notion that, despite common assumptions, is not actually attested in Hellenistic and early Roman sources. Third, it reconsiders two Hellenistic texts, 4QMMT and 2 Maccabees, key sources in the study of the canonical process that both mention writings linked with David. While their value to the study of the canon has been challenged, the assumption that they use “David” to mean “the Psalms” has remained largely unquestioned. But when we read without assuming a biblical reference, we see a new David, and the possibility that the ancient writers were alluding to other discourses associated with him – namely, his exemplary, liturgical, and calendrical legacy – that better fit their purposes. Early Jews were not marching toward the biblical finish line, but lived in a culture with diverse other traditions and concerns that cannot always be assimilated into the story of scripture. Recognizing this fact allow us to see Second Temple literature more clearly on its own terms.

Karin Finsterbusch, Norbert Jacoby, "Völkergericht und Fremdvölkersprüche," 36-57

It is well known that (the Hebrew Vorlage of) LXX-Jer and MT-Jer differ in their arrangement of the oracles against the nations and in the order of the nations. However, no attention has been paid to the fact that the communication of the oracles differs significantly in both books: in MT-Jer, the book narrator introduces the oracles. In the (Hebrew Vorlage of the) LXX-Jer it is mainly Jeremiah in the world of the book, who tells his addressees of the oracles. This presentation will argue that the structure of communication in the Hebrew Vorlage of the LXX-Jer is the original one. 

Sarit Kattan Gribetz, "The Shema in the Second Temple Period," 58-84

Atar Livneh, "The 'Beloved Sons' of Jubilees," 85-96 

This paper focuses on the Jubilean portrayal of Shem, Isaac, and Jacob as beloved sons. In all three cases, their parents’ affection for their scions is modeled on Jacob’s favoring of Joseph, thus indicating that Shem, Isaac, and Jacob were loved more than their brothers. The themes of human parental love, divine election, birthright, and inheritance being interwoven in all three cases, human parental love functions primarily to signal the status of those sons who form the heirs through whom the Israelite line will be maintained. Their characterization as “beloved” also highlights Israel’s prominence amongst the nations – their siblings, in contrast, being destined to become the fathers of the gentile nations. On basis of the fact that the biblical texts relate the image of God as father to His love for and election of His children, Jubilees also presents human parental love as following (upon) God’s election of a favored son. The combination of the motif of God as a loving father with the verse that “Because He loved your fathers, He chose their heirs after them” (Deut 4:37) appears to have led the Jubilean author to assume that the Israelites’ ancestors were the object of divine parental love. He then takes this idea one step further, presenting patriarchal parental love as paralleling God’s love/election. 

Heidi Wendt, "Iudaica Romana," 97-126

This article situates expulsions of Jews/Judeans from Rome within a broader pattern of legislation aimed at freelance experts in foreign or otherwise novel religious teachings and practices. Such experts proliferated in the early imperial period and seem to have spurred an escalation in the frequency and severity of measures issued to suppress their activities. However, whenever Judeans appear in this context, scholars tend to attribute the incidents not to the activities of individual specialists, but to concerns about Judaism or the Roman Jewish community. In this article I argue, to the contrary, that freelance experts in Judean religion were the intended recipients of these expulsions and proscriptions, an interpretation that locates some Judeans within a salient and multi-ethnic class of activity and contributes to a more diversified picture of Judean religiosity in the first century. 

Peter Kovacs, Péter Prohászka et al., "A Gold Lamella for Migraine from Aquincum," 127-142

This article reconsiders the transcription and interpretation of a gold lamella from Aquincum, Pannonia. Although the lamella was lost sometime after World War II, recent research in the Archives of the Hungarian National Museum has revealed photographs and reports from the 1930s. This newly-discovered material allows for a re-reading of the lamella and a better understanding of some of its contents. 

Arnon Atzmon, "'In the Third Month'," 143-156 

The question of the Sitz im Leben of Pesikta de-Rav Kahana and how it affected its redaction and formulation is one of the most fascinating issues in the study of the aggadic midrashim. In this article, I conduct a detailed analysis of the piska referred to as “In the Third Month,” elucidating its character and nature primarily by comparing it to passages found in parallel midrashim. This analysis reveals that the extant piska was created in a two-stage process. First, the original darshan or redactor created midrashic material pertaining to the Shavuot Torah reading from Exod 19–20, the revelation of the Torah at Sinai which had recently replaced the older Shavuot reading connected to the agricultural aspect of the festival. Subsequently a later redactor of the Pesikta augmented the original piska by adding two midrashic passages drawn from the Tanhuma literature. Analysis of the dynamics involved in the creation and redaction of this particular piska sheds light not only on this text but on the connection between the liturgical and literary processes at work in this period as a whole. Most importantly, it affords us a glimpse into the link between the midrashim and actual synagogue life in the amoraic period.