What Makes a People? : Early Jewish Ideas of Peoplehood and Their Evolving Impact / Dionisio Candido, Renate Egger-Wenzel, and Stefan C. Reif.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Candido, Dionisio, editor.

Egger-Wenzel, Renate, editor.

Reif, Stefan C., editor.

Series:

Deuterocanonical and cognate literature yearbook ; Volume 2022/2023.

Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature Yearbook Series ; Volume 2022/2023

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jewish literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (330 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Berlin, Germany : Walter de Gruyter GmbH, [2023]

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Intro

Preface

Contents

Social Conflicts in the Persian Period: Yehud, Elephantine and Samaria

What Makes a People According to Israel's Wisdom Literature? ἔθνος and ἔθνη in Proverbs, Wisdom of Sirach and Wisdom of Solomon

Laos in the First Book of Maccabees: A Hasmonean Perspective in the Context of Limited Statehood

Sociology of Ben Sira's Patriarchal Society: Textual and Papyrological Perspectives

Ben Sira's Catalogue of Generosity (Sir 7:32‒36)

"When one is wise to his people's advantage" (Sir 37:23): Political Intelligence in the Book of Ben Sira

Konfrontationen. Die Kontrahenten des Volkes im Buch der Weisheit

Die jüdische Lebensweise in den griechischen Versionen des Buches Esther

The Identity of "Israel" in the Book of Tobit: How to Create an ethnos?

The Heroes of the Book of Tobit as Figures of the Assyrian Diaspora

"For we are the sons of the prophets": The Idea of a People in the Book of Tobit

Which Idols? The Criticism of Idolatry in the Epistle of Jeremiah (Bar 6)

What Makes a People in the Dead Sea Scrolls?

Entangled Jewish Identities in Rome. The Case of "Barbarians" in Philo and Josephus

μαθητεύσατε πάντα τὰ ἔθνη (Matt 28:19): Jesus's Cosmocracy and the Universalization of Discipleship-an "Inclusive" Reading

The Mixed Marriage Crisis (Ezra 9‒10, Nehemiah 13), and Its Resonance in Jewish Law and Lore

The Notion of the Nation: How Hebrew Terminology Has Adjusted to Changing Circumstances-A Tale of Cultural Semantics

List of Contributors

Index of Subjects

Index of Modern Authors

Index of Sources.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

3-11-133780-4