Author: John C. Reeves
Publisher: Hebrew Union College Press
ISBN: 0878201319
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 273
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Book Description
A work entitled the "Book of Giants" figures in every list of the Manichaean "canon" preserved from antiquity. Both the nature of this work and the intellectual baggage of the third-century Persian prophet to whom it is ascribed remained unknown to scholars until 1943, when fragments of several Middle Iranian versions of the Book of Giants were published by W. B. Henning. Twenty-eight years later, at Qumran, J. T. Milik discovered several copies of a fragmentary Aramaic work which is unquestionably the precursor of the later Manichaean recension. One other important work, Mani's "autobiography," the so-called Cologne Mani Codex, was brought to scholarly attention in 1970 with evidence that Mani spent his youth among the Elchasaites, a Judeo-Christian sect that observed the Sabbath, strict dietary laws, and rigorous purification practices. Although leading Orientalists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have consistently stressed the Iranian component in Mani's thought, Reeves argues, in the light of evidence drawn from the above-mentioned discoveries and from a rich panorama of other textual sources, that the fundamental structure of Manichaean cosmogony is ultimately indebted to Jewish exegetical expansions of Genesis 6:1-4. Reeves begins with an examination of the ancient testimonies about the contents of Mani's Book of Giants. Then, using documents from Second Temple Judaism, classical Gnostic literature, Christian and Muslim heresiological reports, Syriac texts, and Manichaean writings, he provides a detailed analysis of both the Qumran and Manichaean rescensions of the work, demonstrating additional interdependencies and suggesting new narrative arrangements. He addresses a series of quotations from an unnamed Manichaean source found in a paschal homily of the sixth-century Monophysite patriarch Severus of Antioch and a narrative from Thoeodore bar Konai. In sum, Reeves demonstrates that the motifs of Jewish Enochic literature, in particular those of the story of the Watchers and Giants, form the skeletal structure of Mani's cosmological teachings, and that Chapters 1 to 11 of Genesis fertilized Near Eastern thought, even to the borders of India and China.
Author: John C. Reeves
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780814327302
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 272
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Book Description
Author: Christoph Auffarth
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004126686
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 313
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Book Description
Fall of the Angels focuses on a biblical tradition whose significance has been recognised, elaborated and explored in literature and art outside the Bible. Its extensive influence on religion and culture during the last two millenia is reflected in the wide variety of interpretations of this tradition among communities as they came to terms with religious identity in the face of opposition.
Author: Lester L. Grabbe
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0567700712
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 663
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Book Description
This is the fourth and fi nal volume of Lester L. Grabbe's four-volume history of the Second Temple period, collecting all that is known about the Jews during the period in which they were ruled by the Roman Empire. Based directly on primary sources such as archaeology, inscriptions, Jewish literary sources and Greek, Roman and Christian sources, this study includes analysis of the Jewish diaspora, mystical and Gnosticism trends, and the developments in the Temple, the law, and contemporary attitudes towards Judaism. Spanning from the reign of Herod Archelaus to the war with Rome and Roman control up to 150 CE, this volume concludes with Grabbe's holistic perspective on the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period.
Author: Lester L. Grabbe
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 9780567085061
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 148
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Book Description
A comprehensive and readable introduction to the Judaism of the Second Temple period.
Author: Iain Gardner
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521568227
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 342
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Book Description
This 2004 book is a single-volume collection of sources for Manichaeism, a world religion founded by Mani, the Syrian visionary.
Author: Lester L. Grabbe
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0567381749
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 545
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Book Description
This is the second volume of the projected four-volume history of the Second Temple period. It is axiomatic that there are large gaps in the history of the Persian period, but the early Greek period is possibly even less known. This volume brings together all we know about the Jews during the period from Alexander's conquest to the eve of the Maccabaean revolt, including the Jews in Egypt as well as the situation in Judah. Based directly on the primary sources, which are surveyed, the study addresses questions such as administration, society, religion, economy, jurisprudence, Hellenism and Jewish identity. These are discussed in the context of the wider Hellenistic world and its history. A strength of the study is its extensive up-to-date secondary bibliography (approximately one thousand items).
Author: James C. VanderKam
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 9781451403091
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 312
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Book Description
The question of apocalyptic influence on Jesus and early Christianity is again strongly contested. The issues connected with this question include terminology, genre, historical reconstruction, sectarian self-definition, and many others. This book provides a fresh assessment of the nature and significance of early Christian appropriation of Jewish apocalyptic material.
Author: Moshe Idel
Publisher: Central European University Press
ISBN: 9789637326035
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 264
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Book Description
Ascensions on high took many forms in Jewish mysticism and they permeated most of its history from its inception until Hasidism. The book surveys the various categories, with an emphasis on the archetectural images of the ascent, like the resort images of pillars, lines, and ladders.
Author: Lutz Doering
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
ISBN: 9783161522369
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 628
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Book Description
The author provides the most extensive analysis available of ancient Jewish letter writing from the Persian period until the early rabbinic literature. In addition, he demonstrates the significance of Jewish letters for the development of early Christian letter writing.
