Ancient Jewish sciences and the history of knowledge in Second Temple literature / editors Jonathan Ben-Dov and Seth Sanders.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Ben-Dov, Jonathan, editor.

Sanders, Seth L., editor.

Language:

English

Hebrew

Subjects (All):

Science, Ancient--History.

Science, Ancient.

Astronomy, Ancient.

Astrology, Hebrew.

Judaism and science.

Physiognomy--Religious aspects--Judaism.

Physiognomy.

History.

Physical Description:

275 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : New York University Press : Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, 2014.

Language Note:

Text in English and Hebrew.

Summary:

Until very recently, the idea of ancient Jewish sciences would have been considered unacceptable. Since the 1990's, Early Modern and Medieval Science in Jewish sources has been actively studied, but the consensus was that no real scientific themes could be found in earlier Judaism. This work points them out in detail, and posits a new field of research: the scientific activity evident in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Early Jewish Pseudepigrapha. The publication of new texts and new analyses of older ones reveals crucial elements that are best illuminated by the history of science, and may have interesting consequences for it. The contributors evaluate these texts in relation to astronomy, astrology and physiognomy, marking the first comprehensive attempt to account for scientific themes in Second Temple Judaism. They investigate the meaning and purpose of scientific explorations in an apocalyptic setting. An appreciation of these topics paves the way to a renewed understanding of the scientific fragments scattered throughout rabbinic literature. The book first places the Jewish material in the ancient context of the Near Eastern and Hellenistic worlds. While the Jewish texts were not on the cutting edge of scientific discovery, they find a meaningful place in the history of science, between Babylonia and Egypt, in the time period between Hipparchus and Ptolemy. The book uses recent advances in method to examine the contacts and networks of Jewish scholars in their ancient setting. Second, the essays here tackle the problematic concept of a national scientific tradition. Although science is nowadays often conceived as universal, the historiography of ancient Jewish sciences demonstrates the importance of seeing the development of science in a local context. The book explores the tension between the hegemony of central scientific traditions and local scientific enterprises, showing the relevance of ancient data to contemporary postcolonial historiography of science. Finally, philosophical questions of the demarcation of science are addressed in a way that can advance the discussion of related ancient materials.

Contents:

Introsuction / Jonathan Ben-Dov and Seth L. Sanders

Enoch and the Beginnings of Jewish interest in natural science / Phillip Alexander

Enoch's science / James VanderKam

"I was shown another calculation": the language of knowledge in Aramaic Enoch and priestly Hebrew / Seth L. Sanders

Philological and Epistemological remarks on Enoch's Science: response to papers buy Seth L. Sanders and James VanderKam / Loren Stuckenbruck

Ideals of science: the infrastructure of scientific activity in apocalyptic literature and in the Yahad / Jonathan Ben-Dov

Networks of scholars: the transmission of astronomical and astrological learning between Babylonians, Greeks, and Jews / Mladen Popović

"Ancient Jewish sciences" and the historiography of Judaism / Annette Yoshiko Reed.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781479823048

147982304X

9781479873975

1479873977

9781479863983

147986398X

OCLC:

825046310

Publisher Number:

99958484862

40023551726