Issues of Impurity in Early Judaism

Issues of Impurity in Early Judaism PDF Author: Thomas Kazen
Publisher: BoD - Books on Demand
ISBN: 9188906167
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 214

Get Book Here

Book Description
While Jesus and Purity (2002, corrected reprint 2010, 2021) aimed to present an unfolding argument, this volume does not aspire at such coherence. It consists of articles and papers on various issues of impurity in early Judaism. A few of these have been previously published, the rest not. Some chapters develop and further expand on topics discussed in Jesus and Purity and much focus lies on questions of the impurity of discharges and the practice of hand-washing before meals. Both literary and historical methods are used, as well as approaches based on cognitive science. The analysis covers texts from the Pentateuch, Qumran, the New Testament, and some Jewish Hellenistic authors. By bringing these articles together, they are made available and can be easily found by potential readers. Together with the recently published collection Impurity and Purification in Early Judaism and the Jesus Tradition (SBL Press, 2021), Issues of Impurity represents Kazen's continuous work on purity issues through two decades. The reader of both volumes will see how the author's views have gradually evolved through the years.

Issues of Impurity in Early Judaism

Issues of Impurity in Early Judaism PDF Author: Thomas Kazen
Publisher: BoD - Books on Demand
ISBN: 9188906167
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 214

Get Book Here

Book Description
While Jesus and Purity (2002, corrected reprint 2010, 2021) aimed to present an unfolding argument, this volume does not aspire at such coherence. It consists of articles and papers on various issues of impurity in early Judaism. A few of these have been previously published, the rest not. Some chapters develop and further expand on topics discussed in Jesus and Purity and much focus lies on questions of the impurity of discharges and the practice of hand-washing before meals. Both literary and historical methods are used, as well as approaches based on cognitive science. The analysis covers texts from the Pentateuch, Qumran, the New Testament, and some Jewish Hellenistic authors. By bringing these articles together, they are made available and can be easily found by potential readers. Together with the recently published collection Impurity and Purification in Early Judaism and the Jesus Tradition (SBL Press, 2021), Issues of Impurity represents Kazen's continuous work on purity issues through two decades. The reader of both volumes will see how the author's views have gradually evolved through the years.

Purity, Sacrifice, and the Temple

Purity, Sacrifice, and the Temple PDF Author: Jonathan Klawans
Publisher:
ISBN: 0195395840
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 385

Get Book Here

Book Description
Ancient Jewish sacrifice has long been misunderstood. Some find in sacrifice the key to the mysterious and violent origins of human culture. Others see these cultic rituals as merely the fossilized vestiges of primitive superstition. Some believe that ancient Jewish sacrifice was doomed from the start, destined to be replaced by the Christian eucharist. Others think that the temple was fated to be superseded by the synagogue. In Purity, Sacrifice, and the Temple Jonathan Klawans demonstrates that these supersessionist ideologies have prevented scholars from recognizing the Jerusalem temple as a powerful source of meaning and symbolism to the ancient Jews who worshiped there. Klawans exposes and counters such ideologies by reviewing the theoretical literature on sacrifice and taking a fresh look at a broad range of evidence concerning ancient Jewish attitudes toward the temple and its sacrificial cult. The first step toward reaching a more balanced view is to integrate the study of sacrifice with the study of purity-a ritual structure that has commonly been understood as symbolic by scholars and laypeople alike. The second step is to rehabilitate sacrificial metaphors, with the understanding that these metaphors are windows into the ways sacrifice was understood by ancient Jews. By taking these steps-and by removing contemporary religious and cultural biases-Klawans allows us to better understand what sacrifice meant to the early communities who practiced it. Armed with this new understanding, Klawans reevaluates the ideas about the temple articulated in a wide array of ancient sources, including Josephus, Philo, Pseudepigrapha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, New Testament, and Rabbinic literature. Klawans mines these sources with an eye toward illuminating the symbolic meanings of sacrifice for ancient Jews. Along the way, he reconsiders the ostensible rejection of the cult by the biblical prophets, the Qumran sect, and Jesus. While these figures may have seen the temple in their time as tainted or even defiled, Klawans argues, they too-like practically all ancient Jews-believed in the cult, accepted its symbolic significance, and hoped for its ultimate efficacy.

Purity and Danger

Purity and Danger PDF Author: Professor Mary Douglas
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136489274
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 202

Get Book Here

Book Description
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 PDF Author: Jonathan Klawans
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195177657
Category : Bibles
Languages : en
Pages : 262

Get Book Here

Book Description
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.

Law and Lawlessness in Early Judaism and Early Christianity

Law and Lawlessness in Early Judaism and Early Christianity PDF Author: David Lincicum
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783161567094
Category : Jewish law
Languages : en
Pages : 243

Get Book Here

Book Description
According to a persistent popular stereotype, early Judaism is seen as a "legalistic" religious tradition, in contrast to early Christianity, which seeks to obviate and so to supersede, annul, or abrogate Jewish law. Although scholars have known better since the surge of interest in the question of the law in post-Holocaust academic circles, the complex stances of both early Judaism and early Christianity toward questions of law observance have resisted easy resolution or sweeping generalizations. The essays in this volume aim to bring to the fore the legalistic and antinomian dimensions in both traditions, with a variety of contributions that examine the formative centuries of these two great religions and thier legal traditions. They explore how law and lawlessness are in tension throughout this early, formative period, and not finally resolved in one direction or the other.

Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement in Early Judaism and Christianity

Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement in Early Judaism and Christianity PDF Author: Henrietta L. Wiley
Publisher: SBL Press
ISBN: 088414190X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 451

Get Book Here

Book Description
Critical and creative studies that offer fresh perspectives on ancient ideas and practices The contributions to this volume deal in various ways with the cult at the Jerusalem Temple that epitomized the religious, cultural, and socio-political identity of Judaism for many centuries. Some essays examine ancient constitutive practices and concepts, such as purification rituals, sacrifices, atonement, or sacred authorities at the temple, with the goal of interpreting their meanings for modern readers. Other essays explore alternatives to ancient cultic meaning and practice. Essays critique established traditions, attempt to renegotiate them, or use metaphor and spiritualization to expand the potential of these phenomena to serve as terminological and ideological resources. Thus they examine and affirm the continuing relevance of ancient Jewish cultic notions long after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. An international group of scholars representing different fields and diverse religious backgrounds A thorough examination of traditions as through the lens of contemporaneous interpretive traditions such as Jewish prophecy, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Early Christian literature Examination of topics such as purification, sacrifice, and atonement, and the depiction and development of sacred authority throughout the Bible

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 PDF Author: Christian Frevel
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004232109
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 618

Get Book Here

Book Description
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.

Jesus and Purity Halakhah

Jesus and Purity Halakhah PDF Author: Thomas Kazen
Publisher: BoD - Books on Demand
ISBN: 9188906140
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 417

Get Book Here

Book Description
This study traces Jesus' attitude to impurity within the historical context at the end of the Second Temple period, when practices of ritual purity came to play an increasing role in Jewish society and an expansionist trend gained in influence and support. The traditional focus on sayings material and criteria of authenticity in historical Jesus-research is modified, narrative traditions with implicit purity issues are appealed to, and extra-canonical traditions are included. The main areas examined are the most important "fathers" of impurity: "leprosy" (skin diseases), genital discharges, and corpse-contamination. Jesus is found to have acted in ways that could have been understood by some of his contemporaries as indifference to these types of impurity. His behaviour is shown on several points to clash with current purity halakhah and dominant expansionist ideals. In an attempt to interpret his actions within the Jewish context and culture of the Second Temple period, three explanatory models are provided. Jesus' attitude can be seen as part of a moral trajectory in Judaism. It can be understood as a response to a regional, Galilean dilemma. It can be viewed in a power perspective as an expression of Jesus' eschatological struggle against demonic evil. The result is that Jesus may be understood as operating within the purity paradigm of his time, yet seemingly indifferent in the eyes of some, pushing it to the breaking point. Such a reconstruction makes subsequent developments intelligible, in which various Christian currents drew conflicting conclusions. Those looking to Jesus' behaviour for some sort of guidance today may perhaps find contemporary analogies.

Gentile Impurities and Jewish Identities

Gentile Impurities and Jewish Identities PDF Author: Christine E. Hayes
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198034466
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 324

Get Book Here

Book Description
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.

Ritual and Morality

Ritual and Morality PDF Author: Hyam Maccoby
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521093651
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 244

Get Book Here

Book Description
The book explains clearly the ritual purity system of the Hebrew Bible. Maccoby focuses on the various human conditions (corpse impurity, menstruation, childbirth, sexual intercourse, and certain diseases), which are not sinful, but which disqualify Israelites from entering the Temple unless they have been purified. Various recent theories of the origin and meaning of the rules of ritual purity are discussed, and common misconceptions are corrected. New solutions are proposed for various problems. This is the first book on the subject that is accessible to the specialist and nonspecialist reader alike.