Chronoi - Topoi : Concepts of Time and Space as Literary Devices in Second Temple Judaism / Alexandra Grund-Wittenberg, Martina Kepper.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Grund-Wittenberg, Alexandra, editor.

Kepper, Martina, editor.

Series:

Chronoi , 2701-1453 ; 24

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (206 p.)

Place of Publication:

Berlin Boston De Gruyter, [2026]

Language Note:

In English.

Biography/History:

Alexandra Grund-Wittenberg , Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany; Martina Kepper , Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany.

Summary:

Jewish authoritative writings of the Second temple Period had to adopt to total different religious as well as political circumstances their adressees had to face. Inspired by the idea of Paul Kosmin, that the imposture of a total new imperial time regime by the Seleucid rulers provoked autochthonous reorientations in means of time and space, the contributions of this volume examine if this holds true to the writings that circulated during the contemporary Second Temple Period. The methodological approach for the examination is the concept of space-time, or chronotope, already developed by Michail Bakthin for 20 th century literature. Focusing on Judaism of the Second Temple turned out to be very fruitful, as we can distinguish between distinct religious-sociologically formed Jewish groups under different spatial conditions (for example "diaspora" vs. core land). They all produced literature in order to cope with the traumatizing experiences of the loss of sacred spaces as well as the transformation processes that, due to the loss of "Jerusalem" as the spatial anchor point, endangered their religious and national identity. Documents of so-called Hellenistic Judaism in the form of the Septuagint as well as of Palestinian Judaism, which becomes tangible in the texts of Qumran, or in the texts of Elephantine all show signs of increased interest in temporal and spatial orientation, remembering or adopting the already known, as well as inventing new anchor points as their special "chronotope". In sum, by establishing their own chronotopes, Judaism in Persian and Hellenistic-Roman times gained resilience and developed strategies to redefine its own identity.

Contents:

Frontmatter

VPreface

VIIWelcome Address / Menahem Ben-Sasson

IXWelcome Address / Angela Standhartinger

Contents

XIIIAuthors

1Introduction / Alexandra Grund-Wittenberg, Martina Kepper

15From the Mythification of History to the Transcending of Empires / Alexandra Grund-Wittenberg

39Chronotopoi and the Making of a Calendar in the Book of Judith / Lucas Brum Teixeira, Barbara Schmitz

55Time and Space in the Aramaic Documents from Elephantine / Bob Becking

75Ambiguous Spaces and Timeless Ideas: On the Openness of Time and Space in the Book of Ecclesiastes / Moritz F. Adam

97עולם in the Book of Ben Sira and Its Translations / Frank Ueberschaer

119The Chronotopes of Ezechiel, Baruch, and Sapientia. Three Case Studies / Martina Kepper

141Time of Preparing the Way in the Desert: Prayer and Wilderness in the Dead Sea Scrolls / Daniel K. Falk

159Apocalyptic Visions and Historical Revisions: Time in the Book of Daniel / Sarah Wisialowski

181A Sundial from the Southern Wall Excavations, Jerusalem: The Historical-Cultural Context / Jonathan Ben-Dov

Index

Notes:

This eBook is made available Open Access under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed August 05 2026)

ISBN:

9783112240366