Academic literature on the topic 'Divinity ; Hebrews'
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Journal articles on the topic "Divinity ; Hebrews"
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Scharbach Wollenberg, Rebecca. "אני יי רפאך: A Short Note on ἐγώ εἰµι Sayings and the Dangers of a Translation Tradition." Novum Testamentum 59, no. 1 (January 5, 2017): 20–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15685365-12341550.
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It is sometimes debated whether the absolute “I am” sayings in the Gospel of John should be read as a claim to divinity, in light of their similarity to the Hebrew text of Exod 3:14. What has not been recognized is that the Johannine “I am” sayings with predicate nominatives also echo the Hebrew Bible text, which includes an extensive collection of verses in which God uses the phrase “I am” with a predicate nominative. This essay offers an analysis of a selection of these Hebrew Bible parallels and proposes an explanation for why this connection has gone unremarked until now.
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Santos, João Batista Ribeiro. "The God’s aesthetics: material exchanges in the theological construction of the idea of divinity in ancient Israel." Caminhando 25, no. 2 (September 29, 2020): 27–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.15603/2176-3828/caminhando.v25n2p27-53.
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The characterization of the sacred space in ancient Israel makes it possible to highlight the dimensions of the religious phenomenon, and thus identify the divinity of the place. Using the literary sources of the Hebrew Bible and images we will demonstrate that space was constitutive of divinity; moreover, the foundational institutions of the people are based on ritual practices. This paper presents evidence of the process of objective elaboration of the divinity – its presence – considering the peculiarities of ancient Israel. Our hypothesis is that in ancient Israel, religious presentness should be researched in the context of multicultural relations – almost always conflicting – between northern Israelites and the Arameans peoples. Theoretically, Yahweh’s aesthetics, originating from warrior deities, exalts the monarchical period. During this period, political conflicts have the same intensity as conceptual conflicts involving cultural agents. Thus, situated in symbolic environments, ritualistic art stands out strongly.
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Lynch, Matthew J. "Mapping Monotheism: Modes of Monotheistic Rhetoric in the Hebrew Bible." Vetus Testamentum 64, no. 1 (January 20, 2014): 47–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15685330-12341141.
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Abstract Several biblical traditions give expression to Yhwh’s sole divinity in ways utterly unlike the “classic” expressions of monotheism in Deuteronomy, Deutero-Isaiah, or Jeremiah. Priestly literature, for example, does not deny explicitly the existence of other gods, or assert Yhwh’s sole existence. Instead, priestly writers portray a world in which none but Yhwh could meaningfully exist or act. While some biblical scholars have recognized this “implicit” mode of monotheistic rhetoric, the implications of this and other modes of monotheistic rhetoric for a broader understanding of biblical monotheism have gone unappreciated. In this article, I create a taxonomy of various “explicit” and “implicit” modes of monotheizing in the Hebrew Bible. Then, I consider several implications of these diverse modes for understanding the variegated shape of biblical monotheism, and for using the Hebrew Bible to reconstruct monotheism’s history.
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Roger, Kenner R. C. "Bíblia Hebraica e os discursos sobre a divindade. Quando o outro me ensina sobre Deus..." REFLEXUS - Revista Semestral de Teologia e Ciências das Religiões 8, no. 11 (March 5, 2015): 13. http://dx.doi.org/10.20890/reflexus.v8i11.181.
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RESUMO: Os estudos culturais revelaram nos últimos anos a dinâmica da cultura. Sabe-se que suas fronteiras são porosas, permitindo trocas e circularidades desde as relações culturais mais antigas. Por isso, acreditamos que os discursos sobre a divindade e as teologias que dão vida a fé do povo de Israel não são criações autônomas. Neste texto, mostraremos como os discursos sobre a divindade na Bíblia Hebraica são resultado da circularidade cultural. Assim, pretende-se mostrar que na dinâmica da formação das tradições do (s) judaísmo (s) antigo (s) Israel construiu seus discursos teológicos em diálogo com as culturas do Mundo Antigo. A partir deste dado, afirmar-se-á a postura de tolerância e respeito diante das plurais maneiras de conceber o Divino. Palavras-chave: Pluralidade. Mundo Antigo. Divindade. Bíblia Hebraica. ABSTRACT: Cultural studies in recent years have revealed the dynamics of the culture. It is known that its borders are porous, allowing exchanges and roundness from the oldest cultural relations. Therefore, we believe that the discourse on the divinity and theologies that enliven the faith of the people of Israel are not autonomous creations. In this paper, we show how the discourses on the deity in the Hebrew Bible are the result of cultural circularity. Thus, it is intended to show that the dynamics of the formation of traditions of Ancient Judaism in Israel built his theological discourses in dialogue with the cultures of the Ancient World. Based on this information, the paper will defend the stance of tolerance and respect in the face of many ways of thinking about the divine. Keywords: Plurality. Ancient World. Divinity. Hebrew Bible.
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Lee, Lydia. "The Tyrian King in MT and LXX Ezekiel 28:12b–15." Religions 12, no. 2 (January 29, 2021): 91. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel12020091.
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The biblical prophecy in Ezekiel 28:11–19 records a dirge against the king from Tyre. While the Hebrew Masoretic Text (MT) identifies the monarch as a cherub, the Greek Septuagint (LXX) distinguishes the royal from the cherub. Scholarly debates arise as to which edition represents the more original version of the prophecy. This article aims to contribute to the debates by adopting a text-critical approach to the two variant literary editions of the dirge, comparing and analyzing their differences, while incorporating insights gleaned from the extra-biblical literature originating from the ancient Near East, Second Temple Period, and Late Antiquity. The study reaches the conclusion that the current MT, with its presentation of a fluid boundary between the mortal and divine, likely builds on a more ancient interpretation of the Tyrian king. On the other hand, while the Hebrew Vorlage of LXX Ezekiel 28:12b–15 resembles the Hebrew text of the MT, the Greek translator modifies the text via literary allusions and syntactical rearrangement, so that the final result represents a later reception that suppresses any hints at the divinity of the Tyrian ruler. The result will contribute to our understanding of the historical development of the ancient Israelite religion.
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Tuori, Riikka. "The Ten Principles of Karaite Faith in a Seventeenth-Century Hebrew Poem from Troki." Acta Orientalia Vilnensia 13 (April 13, 2017): 79–98. http://dx.doi.org/10.15388/aov.2016.13.10639.
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The ten principles of Karaite faith were originally compiled by medieval Byzantine Karaite scholars to sum up the basics of the Karaite Jewish creed. Early modern Karaites wrote poetic interpretations on the principles. This article provides an analysis and an English translation of a seventeenth-century Hebrew poem by the Lithuanian Karaite, Yehuda ben Aharon. In this didactic poem, Yehuda ben Aharon discusses the essence of divinity and the status of the People of Israel, the heavenly origin of the Torah, and future redemption. The popularity of Karaite commentaries and poems on the principles during the early modern period shows that dogma―and how to understand it correctly―had become central for the theological considerations of Karaite scholars. The source for this attentiveness is traced to the Byzantine Karaite literature written on the principles and to the treatment of the Maimonidean principles in late medieval rabbinic literature.
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Greenstein, Edward L. "The Formation Of The Biblical Narrative Corpus." AJS Review 15, no. 2 (1990): 151–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0364009400002932.
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Following the lead of Spinoza, most of us have come to regard the sequence of Hebrew narrative from Genesis through Kings as a unified literary composition. It tells the story of Israel and its God from the creation of sky and land through the exile of Israel from its particular land. Although the anonymous narrator focuses on the fate of his people, he virtually always tries to identify with YHWH's point of view. For this reason, and possibly others, the narrator submerges his own identify and background. Unlike his near-contemporary Herodotus, who begins his Histories by introducing himself and his explicit agenda, the Hebrew author speaks from a perspective as wide as the cosmos. He would seem to assume the authority of God and give voice to a divinely certified account of his people's historical experience to (one assumes) his own community.
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Uusimäki, Elisa. "Mapping ideal ways of living: Virtue and vice lists in 1QS and 4Q286." Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 30, no. 1 (September 2020): 35–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0951820720948616.
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This article analyses virtue and vice lists in ancient Hebrew literature, specifically focusing on those found in 1QS and 4Q286. It is argued that these texts from Qumran offer distinctive evidence for extended lists of virtues and vices. Apart from illustrating ideals of the yaḥad movement, the sources invite us to consider what counted as ethical to ancient Jews and whether the texts indicate any attempt to organize ethical concerns. The authors lacked a meta-category denoting “virtue” (cf. ἀρετή in Greek or virtus in Latin), but they discussed a myriad of specific virtues and vices by way of listing and grouping (un)desirable qualities that can be characterized as moral, intellectual, and ritual. It is also likely that the authors regarded the qualities of wisdom and truth as elevated “master virtues” of some kind. The article ends with reflections on the types of ethics attested in 1QS and 4Q286. Drawing on anthropological research, the texts are argued to primarily promote what could be called “ethics of divinity.”
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Rosales Acosta, Dempsey. "Recovering the semantic connotations of the verb Áman (ןַ אמ in Qal." Helmántica 67, no. 198 (January 1, 2016): 123–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.36576/summa.45291.
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The biblical study of faith implies an understanding of the diverse semantic levels expressed in the Hebrew vocabulary within their respective literary contexts. Hence, the field of study is theological and philological. The source of Revelation manifests itself in a privileged form in the divinely inspired Scripture. For this reason a believer can speak of the double dimension of its authorship: the divine and the human1 . The human author communicates his or her experience of faith in the sacred text through the cultural and linguistic limitations, typical of the Semitic culture of ancient times. The Scripture, therefore, articulates in a theological manner diverse phenomenological manifestations of conviction and security derived from a personal relationship with God2
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Kaminsky, Joel, and Mark Reasoner. "The Meaning and Telos of Israel’s Election: An Interfaith Response to N.T. Wright’s Reading of Paul." Harvard Theological Review 112, no. 04 (September 11, 2019): 421–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0017816019000221.
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AbstractN. T. Wright offers a systematic and highly influential metanarrative to account for Paul’s theology of Israel. However, Wright overlooks or underemphasizes important dimensions of Paul’s thinking, leading to problematic distortions. Thus, Wright claims that God rejected the historic people of Israel due to their failure to missionize the gentile nations, an idea not easily found in the Hebrew Bible texts Paul utilizes or in Paul’s own statements concerning his fellow Jews. Wright relies heavily on the diatribe of Rom 2 to build a Pauline theology of Israel, but he downplays the many positive things Paul says elsewhere about Israel’s status. Particularly troubling is Wright’s use of Rom 5 to argue that Paul characterizes Torah as divinely intended to draw sin onto Israel, with the expected consequence that human sin would reach its zenith within Israel, a view that moves Wright toward the very supersessionism against which Paul cautioned his gentile followers. These exegetical decisions, which form a tightly structured messiah-oriented understanding of Israel’s election, ignore what the Hebrew Bible and Paul affirm: while God accomplishes certain larger aims through Israel, God’s election of Israel is ultimately grounded in God’s inalienable love for Israel and Israel’s ancestors.
Dissertations / Theses on the topic "Divinity ; Hebrews"
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Allen, David Mark. "Deuteronomic re-presentation in a word of exhortation : an assessment of the paraenetic function of Deuteronomy in the Letter to the Hebrews." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/2232.
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Scholarly study of the Letter to the Hebrews over the last century has devoted a great deal of attention to the use of the Old Testament within the Christian text. Such attention has focused upon diverse issues such as the source Vorlage available to the author, his exegetical and hermeneutical methodologies, and his treatment of themes such as priesthood, covenant, cult, rest or eschatology. Occasionally, scholars have produced substantive analysis of the use of particular texts, such as Ps 110, or Jer 31, but comparatively little attempt has yet been made to assess how an entire narrative or book functions within the letter. Bearing this in mind, this thesis examines the way in which the book of Deuteronomy operates within the paraenetic sections of Hebrews, both at a micro-level (in terms of citation or allusion to the prior text) and at a macro-level (how broad Deuteronomic themes are treated within the discourse). There is extensive treatment of Deuteronomic quotations and echoes, as well as analysis of Hebrews’ borrowing of Deuteronomy’s covenantal blessing/cursing imagery. The thesis also focuses on the way in which Hebrews shares Deuteronomy’s sermonic tone and paraenetic urgency, and how both texts rhetorically position their audience at the threshold of entry into their salvation goal, typified by the promised land. It discusses how Hebrews replays Deuteronomy’s use of the wilderness generation as the paradigm of covenantal disobedience and how both texts exhibit a complex interweaving of the past, present and future moments. Finally, it examines the extent to which Hebrews stands in the tradition of ‘re-presentations’ of Deuteronomy, echoing the way in which other 2nd Temple Jewish texts alluded to it for the purposes of their respective communities.
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Feitosa, Darlyson Moysés Alves. "Epístola aos Hebreus: bases textuais para um neomonoteísmo cristão." Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Goiás, 2012. http://localhost:8080/tede/handle/tede/745.
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Previous issue date: 2012-08-24The present research examines the various statements about the figure originally introduced as the 'Son' in the book of the Bible known as the Epistle to the Hebrews. The Son is identified as being Jesus Christ, described by the author of the epistle with attributes previously designated only to God, the Father, in a concomitant non-parallel perspective. The qualifications of the Son are in the intersection with the Father's attributes, and constitute the basis for the divine conception of the Son. Given the socio-religious implications, this process of deification is best unders - tood in the Jewish period of national crisis that follows the events of 70 AC, where intra-Jewish conflicts arose. And compared to the monotheistic concept according to Old Testament tradition, the deification of Jesus based on the Epistle to the Hebrews presents theological elements that suggest new monotheistic concepts, referred to in the research as neomonotheism.
A presente pesquisa analisa as diversas declarações sobre o personagem inicialmente apresentado como o 'Filho' no livro da Bíblia hoje conhecido como Epístola aos Hebreus. O Filho é identificado como sendo Jesus Cristo, qualificado pelo autor da epístola com atributos antes designados somente para Deus, o Pai, numa perspectiva concomitante e não paralela. As qualificações do Filho estão em interseção com atributos do Pai, e se constituem a base para a concepção divina do Filho. Em virtude das implicações sociorreligiosas, esse processo de divinização é melhor compreendido no período de crise nacional judaica que se sucede aos eventos de 70 d.C., onde os conflitos intrajudaicos afloraram. E, comparativamente à concepção monoteísta segundo a tradição veterotestamentária, a divinização de Jesus com base na Epístola aos Hebreus apresenta elementos teológicos que sugerem novos conceitos monoteístas, denominados na pesquisa como neomonoteísmo.
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Feitosa, Darlyson Moysés Alves. "EPÍSTOLA AOS HEBREUS: UMA PERSPECTIVA TEOCÊNTRICA DARLYSON MOYSÉS ALVES FEITOSA." Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Goiás, 2009. http://localhost:8080/tede/handle/tede/790.
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Previous issue date: 2009-06-29Epistle to the Hebrews: a theocentric perspective is a dissertation which treats of the various affirmations about God in the biblical book known today as the Epistle to the Hebrews. This Epistle has been traditionally studied from the Christological point of view, due to the strong emphasis in the book on Christology; however, this present study considers the epistle from another perspective, due basically to one reason: the author refers to God in every section of this work. The Greek text was used as the basis from which the various declarations about God were extracted, while Portuguese versions of the Bible served as references for a better comprehension of the various possibilities of translations.
Epístola aos Hebreus: Uma Perspectiva Teocêntrica é uma dissertação que trata de apresentar as diversas declarações sobre Deus no livro da Bíblia hoje conhecido como Epístola aos Hebreus. Esta Epístola tem sido tradicionalmente estudada a partir da forte ênfase na cristologia, de modo que a presente pesquisa a considera a partir de uma outra perspectiva, devido basicamente a uma razão: o autor se refere a Deus em todas as seções desta obra. As diversas menções sobre Deus foram extraídas do texto grego, sendo que as versões da Bíblia em português serviram sempre de referencial para uma melhor compreensão das diversas possibilidades de tradução.
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Wood, Alice. "Of wings and wheels." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/2022.
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What are the biblical cherubim? In the Hebrew Bible, the physical appearance and cultic role of the cherubim are never explicitly elucidated. Largely, the authors assume their audience is familiar with the form and function of these heavenly beings. Yet the portrayal of the cherubim varies from text to text and, sometimes, we are given conflicting information. Previous studies of the cherubim have placed too great an emphasis on archaeological and etymological data. This thesis presents a new synthetic study which prioritises the evidence supplied by the biblical texts. Biblical exegesis, using literary and historical-critical methods, forms the large part of the investigation (chapter 2). The findings arising from the exegetical discussion provide the basis upon which comparison with etymological and archaeological data is made (chapters 3 and 4). It is argued that, with the exception of the book of Ezekiel, the biblical texts are quite consistent in their portrayal of the cherubim. Cherubim are intimately connected with the manifestation of Yahweh and have an apotropaic function in relation to sacred space. They are envisaged with one face and one set of wings. Ps 18:11 = 2 Sam 22:11 suggests that they are quadrupedal. The traditions in the final form of Ezekiel 1-11 mark a shift in the conception of the biblical cherubim. Physically, the cherubim are transmogrified and become enigmatic beasts with four faces and four wings. Their function also changes. Depicted elsewhere as menacing guardians, in Ezekiel they become agents of praise. The results suggest that traditions envisaging the cherubim as tutelary winged quadrupeds were supplanted by traditions that conceived of them as more enigmatic, obeisant beings. In the portrayal of the cherubim in Ezekiel and Chronicles, we can detect signs of a conceptual shift that prefigures the description of the cherubim in post-biblical texts, such as The Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice and the Enochic texts.
Books on the topic "Divinity ; Hebrews"
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Asherah: Goddesses in Ugarit, Israel and the Old Testament. Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997.
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Legaspi, Michael C. Wisdom and Knowledge in the Hebrew Bible. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190885120.003.0003.
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In the Hebrew Bible, wisdom is distinguished from knowledge. As a form of understanding that corresponds, necessarily, to the knower, the knowledge that humans gain is limited by who and what humans are. Though a divinely ordered world is indeed intelligible to humans, it is only partially so. Inasmuch as wisdom is a program for life ordered to an account of the whole—a whole that confounds our inescapably subjective judgments—it must be based on a holistic form of understanding that guides and directs in the face of ignorance and deep existential uncertainty. Instead of knowledge, then, wisdom identifies this form of understanding with the recognition of metaphysical vulnerability. Wisdom is based on fear. Yet because it is based on fear of one who is the author of a “good” creation, wisdom is closely allied with piety and the pious person’s hope for a just and blessed life.
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Diamond, James A. Biblical Questioning. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198805694.003.0003.
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Questions posed by God and biblical characters in the Hebrew Bible are often philosophically empowering moments. They transpire from the very inception of human history, according to the Bible’s own reconstructed version of it. Rather than divinely imposed law, biblical questioning is a vital tool initiating the decisive biblical way toward truth through independent investigation. Questions then recur throughout various biblical narratives, revealing the Bible’s philosophical dimension. As such, they may indicate the Bible’s conception of the essential expression of humanity, or where the Bible locates the beginning of serious thought, and how it suggests proceeding in the search for truth and the highest good. This chapter explores specific episodes where questions are posed, beginning with the Garden of Eden and ending with the book of Job.
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(Editor), John O. Johnston, and Robert J. Wilson (Editor), eds. Life Of Edward Bouverie Pusey V1: Doctor Of Divinity, Canon Of Christ Church, Regius Professor Of Hebrew In The University Of Oxford. Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2007.
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(Editor), John O. Johnston, ed. Life Of Edward Bouverie Pusey V1: Doctor Of Divinity, Canon Of Christ Church, Regius Professor Of Hebrew In The University Of Oxford. Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2007.
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The Cult of Asherah in Ancient Israel and Judah: Evidence for a Hebrew Goddess (University of Cambridge Oriental Publications, Vol. 57). Cambridge University Press, 2000.
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Binger, Tilde. Asherah: Goddesses in Ugarit, Israel & the Old Testament (JSOT Supplement). Sheffield Academic Press, 1997.
Find full textBook chapters on the topic "Divinity ; Hebrews"
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Leo, Russ. "Greek Tragedy and Hebrew Antiquity in John Milton’s 1671 Poems." In Tragedy as Philosophy in the Reformation World, 207–40. Oxford University Press, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198834212.003.0005.
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Chapter 5 examines Milton’s detailed engagements with Reformation poetics that render tragedy a precise philosophical and theological resource. In his 1671 poems Paradise Regain’d and Samson Agonistes Milton responds directly to Reformed poetics, pointing methodically to the limits of tragedy, exposing the extent to which divinity and its agencies exceed and confound the philosophical vision of the Poetics. In Paradise Regain’d, for instance, Milton’s Jesus relocates the birth of tragedy from Athens to the Levant, claiming that tragedy belongs first to the Hebrews. Greek tragedy is thus derivative and degraded; Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristotle, to say nothing of the traditions to which they gave rise, appropriated tragic forms and resources from Hebrew antiquity. Milton advances Pareus’ theses on tragedy and Scripture beyond the scope of Pareus’ own text, arguing for a more comprehensive Christian archive of tragedy as well as a daring account of tragedy’s sacred origins.
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Lewis, Theodore J. "The Iconography of Divinity: Yahweh." In The Origin and Character of God, 287–426. Oxford University Press, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190072544.003.0007.
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Chapter Seven explores the ways in which Yahwistic divinity was represented in text and object. Whether Yahweh was embodied anthropomorphically or theriomorphically (with bulls and lions) or taking up residence in solid stone is situated within the broader philosophical debate coming from ancient Israel’s well-known aniconic traditions that advocated that the image of God cannot and must not be fashioned. Anthropologically, here we come up against Rudolph Otto’s theories that humans can be fascinated by the irresistible appeal of the numinous while at the same time standing in utter dread of the danger, even lethality, of the sacred. The ubiquity of anthropomorphic language used of Yahweh resides on the pages of the Hebrew Bible alongside multiple traditions that represented Yahweh abstractly. These include (a) the use of fire, (b) a notion of abstract “radiance” (Hebrew kābôd), (c) the Deuteronomic/Deuteronomistic Name (šēm) Theology, and (d) portraying Yahweh invisibly.
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Haberman, David L. "A Tale of Two Mountains." In Loving Stones, 156–93. Oxford University Press, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190086718.003.0006.
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This chapter investigates the history of the application of the concept of idolatry as an interpretive strategy in the comparative study of religions—particularly as it has been applied to the worship of material forms such as mountains or stones. It also considers more productive ways of regarding religious interaction with material forms of divinity. The roots of the concept of idolatry can be traced back to the times of the Hebrew Bible and theological reflections of Jewish thinkers like Maimonides. However, in the sixteenth century, Europe witnessed enormous changes wherein this concept came to overshadow much thought and action. Application of the concept of idolatry became the crucial concern, and was employed in a much stricter and more extensive manner.
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Lewis, Theodore J. "The History of Scholarship on Ancient Israelite Religion: A Brief Sketch." In The Origin and Character of God, 17–47. Oxford University Press, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190072544.003.0002.
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In order to study the broad topic of divinity, it is essential to survey the history of scholarship, especially to understand the foundation of views inherited by modern scholars. The Enlightenment is chosen as a starting point due to the growth of the critical study of the Bible during these times. Germanic scholarship of the Hebrew Bible in nineteenth century is articulated as a critical turning point. Subsequent developments include the emergence of sociological methods, the “history of religion” comparative approach, and the “myth-and-ritual” school of thought. Newly discovered archaeological remains caused yet another shift, with scholars now debating whether ancient Israel’s religion was in fact as unique as confessional traditions taught. More recently, varying methodological approaches have exploded on the scene including epigraphy, socio-historical linguistics, revisionist historical hermeneutics, feminist approaches, intertextuality, and iconographic studies together with the maturing of the fields of archaeology and sociology.
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Hayes, Christine. "Introduction." In What's Divine about Divine Law? Princeton University Press, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.23943/princeton/9780691165196.003.0001.
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This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to explore the concept of divine law. More precisely, it labors to make sense of the explosive confrontation of radically diverse conceptions of divine law in the Mediterranean and Near Eastern world in the thousand-year period prior to the rise of Islam. Divine law can be minimally defined as the idea that the norms that guide human actions are somehow rooted in the divine realm—a concept common to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. A robust notion of divine law—in which divinity applies in some manner to the law itself—first appears in ancient Greece and in the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament). The Greek and the biblical conceptions of the divine are radically different. To the extent that the two cultures conceived of the divine in radically different ways, their notions of divine law would also diverge dramatically, a fact with serious consequences for those who feel compelled to negotiate the claims of both traditions. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.
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Murphy, Kelly J. "Mighty Warriors?" In Rewriting Masculinity, 37–66. Oxford University Press, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190619398.003.0003.
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Chapter 2 focuses on how the construction of masculinity is created through comparisons of men, including within the biblical texts and in later interpretations of these texts. First, the chapter introduces key ideas including hegemonic masculinity and multiple masculinities. Second, the chapter traces how Gideon is introduced as a “mighty warrior,” though later readers often find such a title ironic. Third, the chapter examines clues left in the texts of Judg 6:11–24, 25–32, and 33–35 that indicate these passages were rewritten by various editors, whose ideas of how a divinely appointed “mighty warrior” might act differed from the hegemonic fighting male of the Hebrew Bible. Finally, the chapter examines how select Jewish interpretations rewrote Gideon to align him with their own understanding of the ideal man as moderate, family oriented, and focused on serving God.
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Fraade, Steven D. "Texts, Translations, Notes, and Commentary." In The Damascus Document, 23–156. Oxford University Press, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198734338.003.0002.
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The chapter provides a critical representation of the text(s), based on manuscript comparison and consulting of digital images, an English translation that cleaves to the original Hebrew while rendering it in accessible prose. Critical Notes to both the Hebrew text and its English translation, and a Commentary that seeks to highlight and interconnect the overarching themes and rhetorical strategies of the text, as it might have been communally performed in the intellectual and ritual life of the Qumran community (or communities). Suggestions for Further Reading are incorporated into each section. The Notes, which form the largest part of this chapter, identify and analyze the plenitude of both explicit (citation) and implicit (allusion) scriptural interpretation, both legal and non-legal, as well as convergences and divergences with a panoply of ancient Jewish sources, including, in addition to the Hebrew Bible, other scrolls, other second temple Jewish literature, New Testament, and early rabbinic sources, the last of which is a particular feature of this commentary in comparison to its antecedents (see Ancient Source indices). These cross-references will serve to better understand and appreciate the Damascus Document in its broader historical and cultural contexts. The Comments on each editorial unit seek to frame the text in relation to broader consideration of the identity formation, reinforcement, and transmission of both individuals and communities, of both veteran members and novices. Particular attention is given to the seeming polemical nature of much of the text, as well as its intra-mural educational purposes. The commentary takes seriously the self-designation of the community, through this text (CD [MS B] 20:10, 13), as a studying and practicing community, “the house of the Torah.” Another important feature of the Damascus Document, and hence its commentary, is the different types and functions of human leadership of the community which sees both it leaders and itself as divinely elect and in possession of esoteric wisdom and discernment.