Oral-Scribal Dimensions of Scripture, Piety, and Practice

Oral-Scribal Dimensions of Scripture, Piety, and Practice PDF Author: Werner H. Kelber
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1498236707
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 356

Get Book

Book Description
In April 2008 a conference was convened at Rice University that brought together experts in the three monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The papers discussed at the conference are presented here, revised and updated. The thirteen contributions comprise the keynote address by John Miles Foley; three essays on Judaism and the Hebrew Bible; three on the New Testament; three on the Qur'an; and two summarizing pieces, by the Africanist Ruth Finnegan and the Islamicist William Graham respectively. The central thesis of the book states that sacred Scripture was experienced by the three faiths less as a text contained between two covers and a literary genre, and far more as an oral phenomenon. In developing the performative, recitative aspects of the three religions, the authors directly or by implication challenge their distinctly textual identities. Instead of viewing the three faiths as quintessential religions of the book, these writers argue that the religions have been and continue to be appropriated not only as written but also very much as oral authorities, with the two media interpenetrating and mutually influencing each other in myriad ways.

Oral-Scribal Dimensions of Scripture, Piety, and Practice

Oral-Scribal Dimensions of Scripture, Piety, and Practice PDF Author: Werner H. Kelber
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1498236707
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 356

Get Book

Book Description
In April 2008 a conference was convened at Rice University that brought together experts in the three monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The papers discussed at the conference are presented here, revised and updated. The thirteen contributions comprise the keynote address by John Miles Foley; three essays on Judaism and the Hebrew Bible; three on the New Testament; three on the Qur'an; and two summarizing pieces, by the Africanist Ruth Finnegan and the Islamicist William Graham respectively. The central thesis of the book states that sacred Scripture was experienced by the three faiths less as a text contained between two covers and a literary genre, and far more as an oral phenomenon. In developing the performative, recitative aspects of the three religions, the authors directly or by implication challenge their distinctly textual identities. Instead of viewing the three faiths as quintessential religions of the book, these writers argue that the religions have been and continue to be appropriated not only as written but also very much as oral authorities, with the two media interpenetrating and mutually influencing each other in myriad ways.

Oral-Scribal Dimensions of Scripture, Piety, and Practice

Oral-Scribal Dimensions of Scripture, Piety, and Practice PDF Author: Werner H. Kelber
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1498236693
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 356

Get Book

Book Description
In April 2008 a conference was convened at Rice University that brought together experts in the three monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The papers discussed at the conference are presented here, revised and updated. The thirteen contributions comprise the keynote address by John Miles Foley; three essays on Judaism and the Hebrew Bible; three on the New Testament; three on the Qur'an; and two summarizing pieces, by the Africanist Ruth Finnegan and the Islamicist William Graham respectively. The central thesis of the book states that sacred Scripture was experienced by the three faiths less as a text contained between two covers and a literary genre, and far more as an oral phenomenon. In developing the performative, recitative aspects of the three religions, the authors directly or by implication challenge their distinctly textual identities. Instead of viewing the three faiths as quintessential religions of the book, these writers argue that the religions have been and continue to be appropriated not only as written but also very much as oral authorities, with the two media interpenetrating and mutually influencing each other in myriad ways.

Text and Ritual in the Pentateuch

Text and Ritual in the Pentateuch PDF Author: Christophe Nihan
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 1646021576
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 349

Get Book

Book Description
The first five books of the Hebrew Bible contain a significant number of texts describing ritual practices. Yet it is often unclear how these sources would have been understood or used by ancient audiences in the actual performance of cult. This volume explores the processes of ritual textualization (the creation of a written version of a ritual) in ancient Israel by probing the main conceptual and methodological issues that inform the study of this topic in the Pentateuch. This systematic and comparative study of text and ritual in the first five books of the Hebrew Bible maps the main areas of consensus and disagreement among scholars engaged in articulating new models for understanding the relationship between text and ritual and explores the importance of comparative evidence for the study of pentateuchal rituals. Topics include ritual textualization in ancient Anatolia, Egypt, Greece, and Mesopotamia; the importance of archaeology and materiality for the study of text and ritual in ancient Israel; the relationship between ritual textualization and standardization in the Pentateuch; the reception of pentateuchal ritual texts in Second Temple writings and rabbinic literature; and the relationship between text and ritual in the Dead Sea Scrolls. In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume include Dorothea Erbele-Küster, Daniel K. Falk, Yitzhaq Feder, Christian Frevel, William K. Gilders, Dominique Jaillard, Giuseppina Lenzo, Lionel Marti, Patrick Michel, Rüdiger Schmitt, Jeremy D. Smoak, and James W. Watts.

Hear Ye the Word of the Lord

Hear Ye the Word of the Lord PDF Author: D. Brent Sandy
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 151400299X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 160

Get Book

Book Description
Long before the words of the Bible were written, God's communication through the spoken word rang out loud and clear. Jesus in particular commissioned representatives to speak on his behalf even during the time of his earthly ministry. And yet today we are a reading culture. It is easy for modern Christians to take for granted that the Bible was handed down in written form, but the way we receive God's message is far different from how the original hearers would have heard it. These differences not only shape the way that we hear God's message to his people, but they put us at risk of misunderstanding his revelation. In Hear Ye the Word of the Lord, biblical scholar D. Brent Sandy explores how oral communication shaped the ways that biblical writers received God's message—and even more importantly, how the ancient and modern faithful receive it through hearing. Filled with helpful biblical insights related to oral communication and constructive ways for modern readers to become better hearers and performers of Scripture, Hear Ye the Word of the Lord provides a constructive way forward for readers interested in exploring how we can better hear God's Word.

Bridges in New Testament Interpretation

Bridges in New Testament Interpretation PDF Author: Neil Elliott
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1978702175
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 325

Get Book

Book Description
The field of New Testament studies often appears splintered into widely different specializations and narrowly defined research projects. Nevertheless, some of the most important insights have come about when curious men and women have defied disciplinary boundaries and drawn on other fields of knowledge in order to gain a more adequate view of history. The essays in Bridges in New Testament Interpretation offer surveys of the current scholarly discussion in areas of New Testament and Christian origins where cross-disciplinary fertilization has been decisive and describe the role that interdisciplinary 'bridges,' especially as led by Richard A. Horsley, have been decisive. Topics include the socioeconomic history of Roman Palestine; the historical Jesus in political and media contexts; communication media, orality, and social context in the study of Q; the Gospels in the context of oral culture, performance, and social memory; reading Paul’s letters in the context of Roman imperial culture; the narrativization of early Christianity in relation to the ancient media environment; and the role of power in shaping our understanding of history, as evident in 'people’s history;' the historical agency of subordinate classes; and the role of public and 'hidden transcripts' in contexts shaped by power relations. Essays also address the role of the interpreter as engaged with the social and political concerns of our time. The sum is even greater than the parts, presenting a powerful argument for the value of further exploration across interdisciplinary bridges.

The Closed Book

The Closed Book PDF Author: Rebecca Scharbach Wollenberg
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691243301
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Get Book

Book Description
A groundbreaking reinterpretation of early Judaism, during the millennium before the study of the Bible took center stage Early Judaism is often described as the religion of the book par excellence—a movement built around the study of the Bible and steeped in a culture of sacred bookishness that evolved from an unrelenting focus on a canonical text. But in The Closed Book, Rebecca Scharbach Wollenberg argues that Jews didn’t truly embrace the biblical text until nearly a thousand years after the Bible was first canonized. She tells the story of the intervening centuries during which even rabbis seldom opened a Bible and many rabbinic authorities remained deeply ambivalent about the biblical text as a source of sacred knowledge. Wollenberg shows that, in place of the biblical text, early Jewish thinkers embraced a form of biblical revelation that has now largely disappeared from practice. Somewhere between the fixed transcripts of the biblical Written Torah and the fluid traditions of the rabbinic Oral Torah, a third category of revelation was imagined by these rabbinic thinkers. In this “third Torah,” memorized spoken formulas of the biblical tradition came to be envisioned as a distinct version of the biblical revelation. And it was believed that this living tradition of recitation passed down by human mouths, unbound by the limitations of written text, provided a fuller and more authentic witness to the scriptural revelation at Sinai. In this way, early rabbinic authorities were able to leverage the idea of biblical revelation while quarantining the biblical text itself from communal life. The result is a revealing reinterpretation of “the people of the book” before they became people of the book.

Performing Early Christian Literature

Performing Early Christian Literature PDF Author: Kelly Iverson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1009033859
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Get Book

Book Description
Scholars of early Christian literature acknowledge that oral traditions lie behind the New Testament gospels. While the concept of orality is widely accepted, it has not resulted in a corresponding effort to understand the reception of the gospels within their oral milieu. In this book, Kelly Iverson reconsiders the experiential context in which early Christian literature was received and interpreted. He argues that reading and performance are distinguishable media events, and, significantly, that they produce distinctive interpretive experiences for readers and audiences alike. Iverson marshals an array of methodological perspectives demonstrating how performance generates a unique experiential context that shapes and informs the interpretive process. Iverson's study explores the dynamic oral environment in which ancient audiences experienced the gospel stories. He shows why an understanding of oral performance has important implications for the study of the NT, as well as for several issues that are largely unquestioned by biblical scholars.

Imprints, Voiceprints, and Footprints of Memory

Imprints, Voiceprints, and Footprints of Memory PDF Author: Werner H. Kelber
Publisher: Society of Biblical Lit
ISBN: 1589838939
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 531

Get Book

Book Description
Jesus and his followers defined their allegiances and expressed their identities in a communications culture that manifested itself in voice and chirographic practices, in oral-scribal interfaces, and in performative activities rooted in memory. In the sixteen essays gathered in Imprints, Voiceprints, and Footprints of Memory, Werner Kelber explores the verbal arts of early Christian word processing operative in a media world that was separated by two millennia from our contemporary media history. The title articulates the fact that the ancient culture of voiced texts, hand-copying, and remembering is chiefly accessible to us in print format and predominantly assimilated from print perspectives. The oral-scribal-memorial-performative paradigm developed in these essays challenges the reigning historical-critical model in biblical scholarship. Notions of tradition, the fixation on the single original saying, the dominant methodology of form criticism, and the heroic labors of the Quest—stalwart features of the historical, documentary paradigm—are all subject to a critical review. A number of essays reach beyond New Testament texts, ranging from the pre-Socratic Gorgias through medieval manuscript culture on to print’s triumphant apotheosis in Gutenberg’s Vulgate, product of the high tech of the fifteenth century, all the way to conflicting commemorations of Auschwitz—taking tentative steps toward a history of media technologies, culture, and cognition of the Christian tradition in the West.

Values, Truth, and Spiritual Danger

Values, Truth, and Spiritual Danger PDF Author: Edward G. Simmons
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1666708860
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 284

Get Book

Book Description
In a series of ruminations, Edward G. Simmons brings a lifetime’s experiences, along with biblical and historical insights, to the ethical problems faced by Christians living under the impact of President Trump. Teaching values and respect for truth to college students and Christians of all varieties, he sometimes lectures on the Bible and sometimes writes sermons full of conviction. His combination of history, science, and biblical information is stimulating, encouraging, and often provocative for young and mature readers.

Qumran Wisdom and the New Testament

Qumran Wisdom and the New Testament PDF Author: Benjamin Wold
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1009305034
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 249

Get Book

Book Description
In this book, Benjamin Wold builds on recent developments in the study of early Jewish wisdom literature and brings it to bear on the New Testament. This scholarship has been transformed by the discovery at Qumran of more than 900 manuscripts, including Hebrew wisdom compositions, many of which were published in critical editions beginning in the mid-1990s. Wold systematically explores the salient themes in the Jewish wisdom worldview found in these scrolls. He also presents detailed commentaries on translations and articulates the key debates regarding Qumran wisdom literature, highlighting the significance of wisdom within the context of Jewish textual culture. Wold's treatment of themes within the early Jewish and Christian textual cultures demonstrates that wisdom transcended literary form and genre. He shows how and why the publication of these ancient texts has engendered profound shifts in the study of early Jewish wisdom, and their relevance to current controversies regarding the interpretation of specific New Testament texts.