A life of psalms in Jewish late antiquity / A. J. Berkovitz.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Berkovitz, Abraham Jacob, author.

Series:

• Jewish culture and contexts.
• Jewish Culture and Contexts Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Judaism--Customs and practices--History--To 1500.
• Jews--Books and reading--History--To 1500.
• Jews--Antiquities.
• Bible. Psalms--Criticism, interpretation, etc., Jewish.
• Bible. Psalms--Devotional use--History--To 1500.
• Bible. Psalms--Reading--History--To 1500.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (275 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2023]

Summary:

The Bible shaped nearly every aspect of Jewish life in the ancient world, from activities as obvious as attending synagogue to those which have lost their scriptural resonance in modernity, such as drinking water and uttering one's last words. And within a scriptural universe, no work exerted more force than the Psalter, the most cherished text among all the books of the Hebrew Bible.A Life of Psalms in Jewish Late Antiquity clarifies the world of late ancient Judaism through the versatile and powerful lens of the Psalter. It asks a simple set of questions: Where did late ancient Jews encounter the Psalms? How did they engage with the work? And what meanings did they produce? A. J. Berkovitz answers these queries by reconstructing and contextualizing a diverse set of religious practices performed with and on the Psalter, such as handling a physical copy, reading from it, interpreting it exegetically, singing it as liturgy, invoking it as magic and reciting it as an act of piety. His book draws from and contributes to the fields of ancient Judaism, biblical reception, book history and the history of reading.

Contents:

• Frontmatter
• Contents
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Holding the Scrolls of Psalms
• Chapter 2 Reading a Material Psalter
• Chapter 3 Singing Psalms
• Chapter 4 Reciting Psalms in Piety and Magic
• Conclusions and Prospects. The Other Lives of Psalms
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Acknowledgments

Notes:

• Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.
• Description based upon print version of record.
• Description based on print version record.
• Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

• 9781512824193
• 1512824194

OCLC:

1369640323