Stefan C. Reif

Renate Egger-Wenzel

Dionisio Candido

This set of varied and stimulating papers, by an international group of younger as well as senior scholars, examines the manner in which peoplehood was understood by the Jewish communities of the Second Temple period and by the religious traditions that emerged from those communities and later flourished in Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism. The Hebrew and Greek terms for "people" and "nation" and the name "Israel" are closely analyzed, especially in forays into wisdom literature, Jewish apologetic and the Dead Sea Scrolls, and their uses are related to geographical, political and theological developments, as well as statehood, authority and rulership in the Persian world, Hasmonean times and Ptolemaic Egypt. Especially interesting are the carefully argued and documented suggestions about how Jewish peoplehood expressed itself with regard to charitable behavior, pagan deities, and marital regulations. Those interested in the history of cultural and theological tensions will be intrigued by the studies centered on how the opponents of Jews behaved towards "the people of God", how Hellenistic Jewish culture located the Jews on the Roman rather than on the Greek side, and how early Christian discourse saw the mission among the peoples and interpreted earlier sources accordingly. The idea of the Jewish "way of life" is seen to have influenced the writer of the longer Greek version of Esther and works of fiction are shown to have had important historical data within them. Modern social theory also has its say here in a careful consideration of Cognitive theory of ethnicity and the dynamic of ethnic boundary-making.

Early Jewish Ideas of Peoplehood and Their Evolving Impact

What Makes a People?

Ingrid Krammer

In der Reihe Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (BZAW) erscheinen Arbeiten zu sämtlichen Gebieten der alttestamentlichen Wissenschaft. Im Zentrum steht die Hebräische Bibel, ihr Vor- und Nachleben im antiken Judentum sowie ihre vielfache Verzweigung in die benachbarten Kulturen der altorientalischen und hellenistisch-römischen Welt.

Der Einzelne und seine Gemeinschaft bei Ben Sira

Karin Schöpflin

Johannes Diehl

As a commemorative gift for the 65th birthday celebration of the Salzburgian Old Testament scholar Friedrich V. Reiterer, whose research on Biblical wisdom literature has been devoted primarily to the book of Ben Sira, his colleagues and students presented him with this “bouquet” of studies related to Professor Reiterer’s areas of interest. In addition to Ben Sira, these studies examine the part played by Wisdom in subsequent Late-Biblical texts, and in intertestamental and New Testament texts.

Weisheit als Lebensgrundlage

Die Rede von Gott im Buch Ben Sira wird vor alt- und neutestamentlichem Hintergrund beleuchtet. Der Tagungsband enthält sowohl übergreifende als auch exegetische Einzeluntersuchungen zur Thematik. Ein Ausblick auf die jüdische Wirkungsgeschichte rundet das Bild ab. Der Anhang bietet neben Einzeluntersuchungen auch diverse Berichte im Zusammenhang des Buches Ben Sira und eine Corrigendaliste zur Textausgabe von P.C. Beentjes.

Proceedings of the International Ben Sira Conference, Durham - Ushaw College 2001

Ben Sira's God

Ben Sira's God: Proceedings of the International Ben Sira Conference, Durham, Upshaw College 2001 (Beihefte Zur Zeitschrift Für Die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft)

Michael W. Duggan

This volume contains essays by some of the leading scholars in the study of the Jewish religious ideas in the Second Temple period, that led up to the development of early forms of Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity. Close attention is paid to the cosmological ideas to be found in the Ancient Near East and in the Hebrew Bible and to the manner in which the translators of the Hebrew Bible into Greek reflected the creativity with which Judaism engaged Hellenistic ideas about the cosmos and the creation. The concepts of heaven and divine power, human mortality, the forces of nature, combat myths, and the philosophy of wisdom, as they occur in 2 Maccabees, Ben Sira, Wisdom of Solomon and Tobit, are carefully analysed and compared with Greek and Roman world-views. There are also critical examinations of Dead Sea scroll texts, early Jewish prayers and Hebrew liturgical poetry and how they these adopt, adapt and alter earlier ideas. The editors have included appreciations of two major figures who played important roles in the study of the Second Temple period and in the history and development of the ISDCL, namely, Otto Kaiser and Alexander Di Lella, who died recently and are greatly missed by those in the field.

Renate Egger-Wenzel

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