Washing in Water: Trajectories of Ritual Bathing in the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Literature. By Jonathan D. Lawrence. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2006. Pp. xi + 294. $47.95 (paperback).

2011 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 344-345
Author(s):  
Jeremiah Cataldo
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Biblical Literature ◽  
Second Temple Literature

Hannah at Pentecost

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-258
Author(s):  
Reed Carlson
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Psychological State ◽  
Samuel 1 ◽  
Biblical Literature ◽  
Biblical Allusion ◽  
1 Samuel ◽  
Book Of Acts ◽  
Old Greek

This essay argues that Hannah’s story in 1 Samuel 1–2 is an example of a ‘spirit phenomenon’ in the Hebrew Bible. The story displays an uncanny sensitivity to Hannah’s psychological state, which is consistent with how spirit language is used as self-language in biblical literature. Hannah describes herself as a ‘woman of hard spirit’ (1 Sam. 1.15) and engages in a kind of trance, which is disruptive enough to draw the attention of Eli. Through inner-biblical allusion and intentional alterations in the Old Greek and Dead Sea Scroll versions of 1 Samuel, Hannah comes to be associated with other prophetic women in biblical literature. Several Second Temple Jewish interpreters read Hannah as a prophetess and as a practitioner of spirit ecstasy, culminating in Philo’s association of Hannah with Bacchic possession and in Hannah’s experience at Shiloh serving as a model for Pentecost in the book of Acts.

scholarly journals Reading for Resonance

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Annie Calderbank
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Divine Presence ◽  
The People ◽  
Hermeneutic Approach ◽  
Second Temple Literature ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
The Temple

Abstract This article offers a hermeneutic approach attentive to the tangled idiomatic and literary interconnections among biblical texts and other Second Temple literature. It focuses on the expressions of divine presence in the Temple Scroll and their prepositions; the divine presence is ‘upon’ the temple and ‘in the midst’ of the people. This prepositional rhetoric engages recurrences and interconnections within and beyond the Hebrew Bible. It thus evokes multiple interlocking resonances and offers a window onto concepts of temple presence across biblical texts and traditions.

Angels

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Angel ◽  
Matthew Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
English Word ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Biblical Literature ◽  
Jewish Heritage

Angels are supernatural beings who serve a variety of functions in biblical literature. The term most often used to denote angels in the Hebrew Bible, mal’ak, means “messenger.” The Septuagint frequently translates mal’ak with the Greek angelos, from which the English word “angel” derives. While angels are mentioned several times in the earlier writings of the Hebrew Bible, in the literature of the Second Temple period a veritable explosion of interest in them is found. Jewish writings of this era exhibit a sustained interest in identifying the various ranks and orders of the angels as well as in naming individual angels and delineating their specific functions. The extensive angelological speculation of this period deeply influenced later forms of Judaism and as well as constituting an important element of the Jewish heritage of early Christianity.

The Hebrew Bible and/as Second Temple Literature: Methodological Reflections

2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 349-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Teeter
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
History Of Exegesis ◽  
Second Temple Literature ◽  
Important Sense ◽  
History Of ◽  
Artificial Nature ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This essay offers methodological reflections on the relationship between studies of the Dead Sea Scrolls and studies of the Hebrew Bible. These reflections center around three main claims: (1) that the Hebrew Bible is Second Temple literature; (2) that the internal development of the Hebrew Bible is, in a specific and important sense, a history of exegesis; and (3) that Second Temple interpretation outside of the scriptural corpus is inseparable from the history of exegesis within it. These claims all point to the problematic and artificial nature of the boundaries between the two disciplines; and they illustrate how both fields require each other in order to understand their respective objects of inquiry in a rigorous and historically appropriate manner.

Bavli Menaḥot 29b and the Diminution

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-105
Author(s):  
Azzan Yadin-Israel
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Second Temple Literature ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
Interpretive Authority

The first part of this essay offers a new interpretation of the narrative in b. Men. 29b that sees Moses travel forward in time to Rabbi Akiva’s bet midrash. Though this passage has been discussed extensively, I argue that scholars have failed to note the overriding significance of the corresponding mishnah (m. Men. 3.7) for the interpretation of the Bavli. To wit, the tale of God delaying the completion of the Torah in order to append crowns to the letter, is a narrative midrash on the phrase כתב אחד מעכב in the Mishnah. In the second part of the essay, I examine the image of Rabbi Akiva as one who is able to bring to light the interpretive secrets hidden in the Torah. I argue that this view represents the return of a model of interpretive authority that enjoyed great prominence in Second Temple literature but lost favor in Tannaitic sources.

On Agricultural Imagery in Biblical Descriptions of Catastrophes

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-14
Author(s):  
Nili Samet
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Mass Killing ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Biblical Literature ◽  
Ancient Israel

This article examines the use of agricultural imagery in biblical literature to embody the destructive force of war and other mass catastrophes. Activities such as vintage, harvest, threshing, and wine-pressing serve as metaphors for the actions of slaughtering, demolition and mass killing. The paper discusses the Ancient Near Eastern origins of the imagery under discussion, and presents the relevant examples from the Hebrew Bible, tracing the development of this absorbing metaphor, and analyzing the different meanings attached to it in different contexts. It shows that the use of destructive agricultural imagery first emerges in ancient Israel as an instance of popular phraseology. In turn, the imagery is employed as a common prophetic motif. The prophetic books examined demonstrate how each prophet appropriates earlier uses of the imagery in prophetic discourse and adapts the agricultural metaphors to suit specific rhetorical needs.

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