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Journal articles on the topic 'Post-Biblical Hebrew'
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1
Fassberg, Steven E. "What is Late Biblical Hebrew?" Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 128, no. 1 (January 20, 2016): 1–15. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/zaw-2016-0002.
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AbstractLate Biblical Hebrew is the literary language preserved in the post-exilic books of the Hebrew Bible. It differs from the literary Hebrew of the First Temple period, Classical Biblical Hebrew, in several orthographic, grammatical, syntactic, and lexical features. The distinction between pre-exilic and post-exilic language in the Hebrew of the Bible contradicts the assertion of the minimalists, who argue for the late date of the composition of the Hebrew Bible. The linguistic examination of Biblical Hebrew reveals an unmistakable difference between the language of the First Temple period and the language of the Second Temple period.
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Al Tawee, Solaf. "NAMES OF PRECIOUS STONES IN BIBLICAL, POST-BIBLICAL, MEDIEVAL AND MODERN HEBREW." RSUH/RGGU Bulletin. "Literary Theory. Linguistics. Cultural Studies" Series, no. 3 (2021): 115–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2021-3-115-124.
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The article examines the Hebrew names of precious stones that are mentioned in the Bible in the books of Exodus (28:17-20 and 39:10-13), Ezekiel (27:16; 18:13), partly in Job (28:2-19) and in other passages of the Bible. Those names are characterized by the fact that they do not have an exact meaning in the biblical language and today they differ from the original language and do not mean the same realities as in the Biblical era. The purpose of the article is to explore the names of precious stones in Biblical, postBiblical, medieval, and modern Hebrew. The study of precious stones in different epochs of the development of the Hebrew language is a significant issue for Semitic philology, since many of them still do not have a clear gemological identification. That study was carried out on the material of text corpora in Hebrew of different epochs of the language development in the contextual, semantic, philological (word origin) and comparative (comparisons between translations of different epochs) aspects. The study used descriptive and comparative-historical methods.
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Glinert, Lewis H. "Did pre-Revival Hebrew literature have its own langue? Quotation and improvization in Mendele Mokher Sefarim." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 51, no. 3 (October 1988): 413–27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0041977x0011643x.
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In the history of Hebrew letters, few dates have so cavalierly been invested with literary and linguistic significance as 1886/7, the publication date of Mendele's short story BeSeter Ra'am.Such scholars of literature as Ravnitzki, Klausner and Werses have hailed its style as the pointer or veritable trigger to a redeployment of the traditional ‘synthetic’ (composite Biblical/post-Biblical) Hebrew style—instead of being confined to the registers of non-fiction, it now rose to supplant Biblical Hebrew as the standard for narrative prose. Some historians of language have gone so far as to present it as a total innovation (for its time) in that the aforegoing Haskalah writers had adhered almost exclusively to a Biblical manner.
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Murray, Luke. "Jesuit Hebrew Studies After Trent: Cornelius a Lapide (1567–1637)." Journal of Jesuit Studies 4, no. 1 (November 30, 2017): 76–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/22141332-00401004.
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This essays studies the biblical hermeneutics of Cornelius a Lapide, focusing on his knowledge of Hebrew. After reviewing a post-Tridentine bias against Catholic biblical studies, the essay is divided in three parts. The first part is a brief introduction to a Lapide’s life; the second part addresses his position on the Vulgate and its relationship to the original languages of scripture; and the third part presents key passages from a Lapide on the Hebrew language, drawn from his biblical commentaries. In the end, I argue that regardless of a Lapide’s imperfect knowledge of Hebrew, he still shows that Catholic scholars could engage in a close study of scripture’s original languages after Trent’s decree on the Vulgate, and could incorporate works from across confessional boundaries.
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Reif, S. C., M. A. Friedman, A. Tal, and G. Brin. "Studies in Talmudic Literature, in Post-Biblical Hebrew and in Biblical Exegesis." Vetus Testamentum 35, no. 1 (January 1985): 124. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1517888.
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Schwarzwald, Ora (Rodrigue). "Spanish and Ladino Versions of The Song of Songs." Meldar: Revista internacional de estudios sefardíes, no. 4 (December 15, 2023): 71–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.46661/meldar.8435.
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The biblical Song of Songs has undergone numerous translations into Spanish and Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) since the Middle Ages. While some translations exclusively feature the original biblical text, others also incorporate translations of the Aramaic interpretations found in Midrash Shir Hashirim. A comparison of these translations highlights a distinction in orthography between medieval and post-medieval renditions. The former are exclusively rendered in Latin letters, whereas the latter are presented in either Hebrew or Latin script. Medieval, and pre-17th century Ladino translations, encompass solely the biblical renderings, whereas post-medieval translations, dating from the 17th century onwards, encompass the translations of both the biblical text and the Aramaic interpretations. This paper specifically examines and contrasts the first three verses of the initial chapter, analyzing translations from three medieval sources and six post-medieval sources. The observed variations in these translations can be attributed to factors such as orthographic conventions, chronological influences, and the geographical locations of publication. Through these comparative analyses, it becomes evident that Ladino translations of biblical texts tend to adhere more closely to the original Hebrew source and maintain a stricter fidelity to established norms when compared to translations of the Aramaic texts.
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Goldstein, Ronnie. "Jeremiah between Destruction and Exile: From Biblical to Post-Biblical Traditions." Dead Sea Discoveries 20, no. 3 (2013): 433–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15685179-12341285.
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Abstract This article focuses on the affinities and divergences between the processes that the traditions about Jeremiah underwent within extra-biblical literature and those that occurred within the Hebrew Bible itself. The narratival frameworks of many of the pseudepigraphical stories about Jeremiah focus on the period following the destruction of the city and the traditions regarding Jeremiah’s fate in the wake of the destruction take a fluid form in post-biblical literature. Accordingly, the article deals particularly with the fate of the prophet by the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem; the traditions about Jeremiah in chains; the historization process linking Jeremiah and Gedaliah; the different geographical traditions regarding the location of Jeremiah after the exile; the development of the traditions regarding Jeremiah and his relation to Baruch; and the portraying of prophecy as needing preparation.
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Ал, Тавил Солаф. "PLANT NAMES IN ANCIENT AND MODERN HEBREW." Bulletin of the Chuvash State Pedagogical University named after I Y Yakovlev, no. 4(109) (January 26, 2021): 3–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.37972/chgpu.2020.109.4.001.
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В статье рассматриваются названия растений в древнееврейском языке (включая библейский, постбиблейский и средневековый) и в современном иврите. Цель данной статьи заключается в том, чтобы исследовать названия растений, упоминаемых в Библии, и их семантические изменения в постбиблейской и средневековой еврейской литературе и в современном иврите. Исследование ботанических терминов осуществлялось на материале текстовых корпусов на иврите разных эпох развития языка в контекстном, семантическом и сравнительном аспектах. Как известно, библейская лексика в части названий растений является динамичной, поскольку большинство фитонимов в библейском языке не имеет однозначной ботанической идентификации, и многие неясности остаются до сих пор. В современном иврите многие из библейских названий растений изменили свои значения с течением времени и сегодня отличаются от исходных. Кроме того, многие растения, упомянутые в Библии, не произрастают сегодня в ареале Ближнего Востока, или, наоборот, появились новые виды растений, которые не были известными ранее. Таким образом, исследование ботанических терминов в разные эпохи развития еврейского языка дает нам представление о развитии семантики данных терминов и о факторах, влияющих на него. The article discusses the names of plants in ancient Hebrew (biblical, post-biblical, and medieval) and modern Hebrew. The purpose of this article is to investigate the names of plants mentioned in the Bible and their semantic changes in post-biblical, in medieval Jewish literature, and in modern Hebrew. The study of botanical terms was carried out on the material of text corpora in Hebrew of different epochs of the language development in contextual, semantic and comparative aspects. It is a common fact that the biblical vocabulary of plant names is dynamic, since most plant names in the biblical language do not have a clear botanical identification, and many of them remain in question until now. In modern Hebrew, many of the biblical names of plants have changed their meanings over time and they differ today from the ancient language. In addition, many plants mentioned in the Bible do not exist today in the realities of the Middle East, or vice versa, new plant species have appeared that were not known before. Thus, the study of botanical terms in different epochs of the development of the Hebrew language gives the information on the semantic development of these terms and the factors that affect them.
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Fassberg, S. E. "The Development of the Syntax of Post-Biblical Hebrew." Journal of Semitic Studies 47, no. 2 (September 1, 2002): 318–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jss/47.2.318.
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Young, Ian. "Is the Prose Tale of Job in Late Biblical Hebrew?" Vetus Testamentum 59, no. 4 (2009): 606–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/004249309x12493729132673.
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AbstractAn influential article published in 1974 by Avi Hurvitz argues that the language of the Prose Tale of Job (Job 1:1-2:13; 42:7-17) is incompatible with a date prior to the exile. Hurvitz's suggested Late Biblical Hebrew (LBH) linguistic forms are examined, and while some forms are rejected, Hurvitz's judgement that the Prose Tale contains LBH linguistic elements is found to be correct. However, these do not occur in a sufficient accumulation for the text to be considered LBH according to Hurvitz's own methodology, but rather the accumulation is consistent with a classification as Early Biblical Hebrew (EBH). This conclusion has no chronological implications, however, since EBH and LBH represent not two chronological phases but co-existing styles of Hebrew in the post-exilic and quite possibly pre-exilic periods.
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Jac. van Bekkum, Wout. "Qumran Poetry and Piyyut: Some Observations on Hebrew Poetic Traditions in Biblical and Post-Biblical Times." Zutot 2, no. 1 (2002): 26–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/187502102788638941.
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Kahn, Lily. "Nominal possessive constructions in the early modern Hasidic Hebrew tale." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 76, no. 2 (May 21, 2013): 271–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0041977x13000050.
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AbstractThis paper constitutes the first linguistic analysis of nominal possessive constructions in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Hasidic Hebrew hagiographic tales. Such analysis is necessary because it sheds much-needed light on the grammatical structure of this prominent but largely unstudied early modern Eastern European form of Hebrew. Hasidic Hebrew possessive constructions exhibit a variety of noteworthy features, namely non-standard uses of the construct chain including definiteness of the construct noun, double definiteness, and split construct chains; construct chains with adjectives in the absolute position; the productiveness and widespread use of the construct chain; the tendency to favour the post-Biblical Hebrew possessive particle שלshelonly in certain syntactic contexts; and the employment of the Aramaic particle ד-de-specifically to express geographical and temporal relationships. These phenomena reflect a mix of various strata of Hebrew as well as Aramaic, Yiddish, and independent elements that combine to form a unique system distinct from other varieties of Hebrew.
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Lemos, T. M. "The Apotheosis of Rage." biblical interpretation 23, no. 1 (December 24, 2015): 101–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15685152-00231p05.
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Recent psychological research on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has demonstrated that one of the most common symptoms of the disorder is heightened or even uncontrollable anger. In the past decade, various works in biblical studies have assessed the effects of trauma on the ancient Israelites and on the texts of the Hebrew Bible, but these have not fully explored either the connection between anger and PTSD or that between anger in the Hebrew Bible and Israelite trauma. This article seeks to demonstrate the close relationship between trauma and rage, and argues that biblical authors often locate their own traumatized rage in the figure of Yahweh. The emotional response of Yahweh toward the Israelites is frequently presented as one of rage, blame, and contempt – a trio of socially distancing emotions. This depiction of Yahweh results in a “theology of distance” wherein Yahweh’s furious emotionality negates the sympathy of audiences toward the traumatized Israelites.
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Miller II, OFS, Robert D., and Jonathon Riley. "Eastern Light on Jerusalem." Avar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Life and Society in the Ancient Near East 3, no. 2 (July 23, 2024): 253–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.33182/aijls.v3i2.2857.
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If the Post-Exilic period is now held to be the main phase of scribal production for the Hebrew Bible, understanding education in the Persian Empire is essential. Biblical scholarship has largely depended on evidence from earlier (Babylonian) or later (Hellenistic) periods, which is not applicable. This essay draws on direct evidence of Persian education in the eastern provinces to suggest a model of broader Persian scribalism.
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Dean, Richard. "ARAMAISMS: NOT WHAT THEY USED TO BE." Journal for Semitics 25, no. 2 (May 10, 2017): 1080–103. http://dx.doi.org/10.25159/1013-8471/2570.
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For approximately two centuries scholars have sought to identify “Aramaisms” in Biblical Hebrew texts and utilise their presence as evidence for a post-exilic date of composition. In this article it is demonstrated that many features which have historically been identified as Aramaisms were not stable during the transmission of the Bible, as the presence or absence of Aramaic elements varies between the Masoretic Text and the biblical Dead Sea Scrolls. It is thus argued that the presence of Aramaisms is not a reliable criterion for linguistic dating as Aramaisms could often reflect Aramaic influence during a stage of the text’s transmission, rather than the time of its composition.
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MARROW, STANLEY B. "AΘANAΣIA / ANAΣTAΣIΣ: THE ROAD NOT TAKEN." New Testament Studies 45, no. 4 (October 1999): 571–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0028688598000575.
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In this essay in speculative biblical theology on immortality/resurrection, the anthropological presuppositions need to be examined in both Hebrew and Greek usages, requiring an understanding of the absolute nature of death in its biblical context. While the notion of the resurrection took hold in post-Exilic Palestine, Socrates exulted in the immortality of his soul and the body–soul dichotomy, in terms of which early Christianity read the NT. Yet the NT itself neither teaches nor presupposes this immortality of the soul, but rather that identifiably the same ‘I’, who dies wholly and totally, is raised up to a newness of life, a new creation.
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Gruseke, Alison Acker. "Convivial Gardens: Genesis 2–3 in Agrarian and Space-Critical Perspective." Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology 77, no. 1 (December 25, 2022): 18–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00209643221127324.
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Genesis 2–3 is among the most beloved yet misunderstood texts in the Hebrew Bible. Many biblical and post-biblical interpretations focus on themes of sin, death, and God’s banishment of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. These have fostered misapprehensions regarding the value of God’s creation and the dangerous image of an “Old Testament God of wrath.” This essay uses space-critical analysis to focus on the spaces of Eden—from ground to bodies to gardens—to show that Ivan Illich’s notion of “conviviality” best captures Eden’s true ethic of cooperation, environmental caretaking, and the positive portrait a gentle God who makes humans by hand.
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Vermes, Geza. "Genesis 1-3 in Post-Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic Literature before the Mishnah." Journal of Jewish Studies 43, no. 2 (October 1, 1992): 221–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.18647/1650/jjs-1992.
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Trimm, Charlie, Brittany Kim, and Carmen Joy Imes. "Black Readings of Exodus." Currents in Biblical Research 23, no. 1 (October 2024): 80–99. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1476993x241258233.
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Most academic study of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament in North America has been done from a White European or North American perspective. Post-graduate schools have predominantly required students to read works written by White authors, and the vast majority of professors are White. However, the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament also has a long history of interpretation by non-White and Majority World thinkers, and their contributions need to be more widely acknowledged and employed in studying the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. This article surveys the contributions of Black Hebrew Bible/Old Testament scholars on the book of Exodus. Black scholars employ a variety of methods and approaches as they engage with the biblical text. We consider these approaches by category, beginning with textual criticism and translation before exploring works that focus on Africa in the Bible, those that draw on African or African American context, and those that highlight issues of gender or the perspectives of liberation theology. We conclude with those employing multi-faceted or integrative approaches.
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McAffee, Matthew. "The Influence of Post-biblical Hebrew and Aramaic on the Translator of Septuagint Isaiah." Bulletin for Biblical Research 27, no. 4 (January 2017): 562–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.5325/bullbiblrese.27.4.0562.
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Rugwiji, Temba T. "REREADING TEXTS OF MUSIC AND DANCE IN THE HEBREW BIBLE: THE SPIRITUALITY OF MUSIC AND DANCE IN ZIMBABWE." Journal for Semitics 25, no. 1 (May 9, 2017): 72–98. http://dx.doi.org/10.25159/1013-8471/2527.
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The Hebrew Bible depicts that music and dance formed part of worship and reverence of Yahweh in which various musical instruments were played during ancient biblical times. In the modern post-biblical world, music and dance characterise every context of human existence either in moments of love, joy, celebration, victory, sorrow or reverence. In Zimbabwe, music — which is usually accompanied by dance — serves various purposes such as solidarity towards or remonstration against the land reform, despondency against corruption, celebration, giving hope to the sick, worship as in the church or appeasing the dead by those who are culturally-entrenched. Two fundamental questions need to be answered in this article: 1) What was the significance of music and dance in ancient Israel? 2) What is the significance of music and dance in Zimbabwe? In response to the above questions, this essay engages into dialogue the following three contestations. First, texts of music, musical instruments and dance in the Hebrew Bible are discussed in view of their spiritual significance in ancient Israel. Second, this study analyses music and dance from a faith perspective because it appears for the majority of Gospel musicians the biblical text plays a critical role in composing their songs. Third, this article examines music and dance in view of the spirituality which derives from various genres by Zimbabwean musicians in general. In its entirety, this article attempts to show that the Zimbabwean society draws some spirituality from music and dance when devastated by political, cultural or socio-economic crises.
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Levinson, Bernard M. "Strategies for the reinterpretation of normative texts within the Hebrew Bible." International Journal of Legal Discourse 3, no. 1 (August 28, 2018): 1–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/ijld-2018-2001.
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Abstract Contemporary constitutional theory remains divided between competing approaches to the interpretation of normative texts: between originalism or original intent, on the one hand, and living constitution approaches, on the other. The purpose of this article is to complicate that problematic dichotomy by showing how cultures having a tradition of prestigious or authoritative texts addressed the problem of literary and legal innovation in antiquity. The study begins with cuneiform law from Mesopotamia and the Hittite Empire, and then shows how ancient Israel’s development of the idea of divine revelation of law creates a cluster of constraints that would be expected to impede legal revision or amendment. The well-known Decalogue, or Ten Commandments, provides a valuable test-case, with its normative statement that God punishes sinners across generations (vicariously extending the punishment due them to three or four generations of their progeny). A series of inner-biblical and post-biblical responses to that rule demonstrates, however, that later writers were able to criticize, challenge, reject, and replace it with the alternative notion of individual accountability. The article will provide a series of close readings of the texts involved, drawing attention to their legal language and hermeneutical strategies. The conclusions stress the remarkable freedom to modify ostensibly normative statements available to ancient judicial interpreters, despite the expected constraints of a formative religious canon attributed to divine revelation.
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Van De Water, Rick. "Early Rabbinic Judaism and the Danger in Ezekiel 1." Review of Rabbinic Judaism 20, no. 2 (August 3, 2017): 168–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700704-12341326.
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Rabbinic tradition indicates a revision of the text of the Book of Ezekiel in the first century ce and suggests the rationale behind it. Hanania ben Hezeqiah is said to have “harmonized” Ezekiel with the Torah shortly before the first Jewish revolt, to save the book from suppression by the rabbis. Hasty redaction, followed by immediate standardization, offers the best explanation for the atrocious grammar, orthography, and syntax of the received Hebrew text, along with the plethora of words and expressions common to post-biblical Hebrew. The goal of Hanania’s project was to discourage the conflation of the enthroned figure in Ezek. 1 with the “one like a son of man” in Dan. 7:13 and thus combat the “two Powers heresy.” His project is related to the outburst of speculation on the throne of yhwh and the merkabah in the mid-first century ce
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Thiel, Nathan. "“Israel” and “Jew” as Markers of Jewish Identity in Antiquity: The Problems of Insider/Outsider Classification." Journal for the Study of Judaism 45, no. 1 (February 11, 2014): 80–99. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700631-00000395.
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Abstract Building on K. G. Kuhn’s TWNT entry on the names “Israel” and “Jew” in post-Hebrew Bible Jewish literature, many scholars have claimed that the two ethnonyms can be classified as insider and outsider designations respectively. This essay nuances that categorization. While Kuhn and subsequent scholars have rightly noted the uneven distribution of the names, the exceptions to an insider/outsider model are too numerous to maintain it without modification. Both “Israel” and “Jew” were insider names whose usage in Jewish literature was influenced by the speech situation of the author as well as by consciousness of the biblical narrative.
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VAN HENTEN, JAN WILLEM. "THE FIRST TESTING OF JESUS: A REREADING OF MARK 1.12–13." New Testament Studies 45, no. 3 (July 1999): 349–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s002868859800349x.
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Readings of Mark 1.12–13 which focus on Jesus as the second Adam or Israel's antitype are problematic. Mark 1.13's semantic field links up with passages in the Jewish Bible referring to episodes of Israel's period in the wilderness after the exodus. In Mark 1.13 the testing motif seems not to be applied to the people, but to Jesus, who may be understood as the leader of the people. Similar adaptations of the testing motif focusing upon the people's leader can be observed already in passages of the Hebrew Bible and post-biblical Jewish literature.
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Macuch, Rudolf. "Some lexiographical problems of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 55, no. 2 (June 1992): 205–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0041977x00004572.
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Previous dictionaries of Jewish Aramaic (JA) have pursued practical rather than strictly linguistic aims and tried to include lexical material from the whole of Rabbinic literature written in East and West Aramaic as well as in post-Biblical Hebrew. Given that (1) Rabbinic literature is thoroughly infused with Hebrew passages and words commonly used in JA, (2) that the Jewish literary ‘diglossia’ in (East and West) Aramaic may even have developed into ‘pentaglossia’ (i.e. two spoken and literary Aramaic dialects and Hebrew), (3) and that Jewish copyists were more used to the language of the Talmudic Babylonian Aramaic (TBA) and altered many original Palestinian forms accordingly—to mention just three main reasons—it is obvious that earlier lexicographers of JA were entangled in a complex of problems which they were forced to solve practically rather than linguistically. Their works will stand as the great achievements of JA lexicography before the later classifications of JA dialectology took effect.The Altmeister of Aramaic studies, Th. Nöldeke, who is quoted by Michael Sokoloff, author of this first dictionary of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic (JPA), said more than a century ago:One could doubt the propriety of a dictionary of the entire old Rabbinic literature. Namely, it is anathema for linguists to find Hebrew and Aramaic together in one lexicon. But on the other hand, this entire literature, as diverse as it is, stands together.
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Kalimi, Isaac. "Furcht vor Vernichtung und der ewige Bund: Das Buch Ester im Judentum und in jüdischer Theologie." Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistesgeschichte 62, no. 4 (2010): 339–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157007310793352241.
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AbstractAlthough for some reasons the book of Esther is missing from among the biblical manuscripts of the Dead Sea Scrolls, it has a unique place in Judaism and Jewish theology and thought. A large number of exegetes, ballads, poems, essays, arts, etc. have been composed on it, in all times and places, alongside the Jewish history and culture. Esther expresses one of the worst fears of the Jewish people: fear for complete annihilation, which is also well documented in the Hebrew Bible as well as in some extra-biblical sources (e.g., "Israel Stele", Moabite Stone). Esther replies to that fear, and forwards the theological message that God never leaves Israel. He is the faithful God "who maintains covenant loyalty with those who love him and keep his commandments". Yet, the historical reality of the Jewish Diaspora shows differently. The article discusses, therefore, also this theology, history and us, as post-Sho'ah readers of Esther.
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Barzilai, Maya. "“One Should Finally Learn How to Read This Breath”: Paul Celan and the Buber-Rosenzweig Bible." Comparative Literature 71, no. 4 (December 1, 2019): 436–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/00104124-7709613.
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Abstract This article examines Paul Celan’s use of the terms cola and breath-unit in his notes for the 1960 “Meridian” address. In the 1920s, Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig developed their “colometric translation” of the Bible, using the breath-unit to capture, in German, the spoken qualities of the Hebrew Bible by allowing the human breath to dictate line divisions. Celan repurposed the breath-unit for his post-Shoah poetics: it registered, for him, a further disruption of the Hebrew-German translational link, following the demise of the Jewish community of readers. Celan’s breath-unit became a measure of silence, marking the pauses between poetic lines as sites of interrupted breathing, which entail a painful encounter with deformation and murder. Furthermore, if Buber and Rosenzweig used their breath-inspired cola to bypass the traditional line divisions of biblical verse, Celan’s radicalized breath-unit can be understood as a response to the musicality attributed to his earlier poetry; he drew on the singularity of the breath to forge ever shorter lines and vertical, severed poems that culminate in the lost or buried word.
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Smith‐Christopher, Daniel L. "Hebrew Satyagraha: The politics of biblical fasting in the post‐exilic period (sixth to second century B.C.E.)." Food and Foodways 5, no. 3 (April 1993): 269–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07409710.1993.9962008.
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Donnelly, Steven. "The Forging of a Tradition: The Hebrew Bible, Ezra the Scribe, and the Corruption of Jewish Monotheism According to the Writings of al-Ṭabarī, al-Thaʿlabī, and Ibn Ḥazm." Biblical Annals 13, no. 2 (April 26, 2023): 225–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.31743/biban.14511.
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A widely distributed religious legend maintains that Ezra the scribe rewrote the Hebrew Bible sometime during the post-exilic period. The story is interpreted differently among its varying iterations. Some accounts view Ezra’s recovery of the Scriptures as an act of divine wonder while other versions insist that Ezra’s hand distorted the biblical text. Both outlooks are present in medieval Islamic writings. This article considers the polemical approach of three Muslim authors (e.g., al-Ṭabarī, al-Thaʿlabī, and Ibn Ḥazm) and their portraits of Ezra, including his role that led to a purported compromise of Jewish monotheism. The article explores Ibn Ḥazm’s claim that Ezra the scribe corrupted the biblical text. Several sources are examined (e.g., 4 Ezra, Porphyry, Justin Martyr, a Samaritan liturgical imprecation, and diverse rabbinic traditions) as plausible support for the charge that Ezra corrupted the Scriptures. A tale from Avot d’Rabbi Natan that features Ezra’s alleged scribal dots is posited as a reasonable source for the comment. Given Ibn Ḥazm’s interpretive outlook and Ezra’s prominent role in the story, the dots offer a new and sensible explanation.
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Grozea, Lucian. "Gods and Idols. Representations and Symbolizations of the Divinity in the Religions of Ancient Israel (IIa). Idolatry and Iconoclasm." SAECULUM 56, no. 2 (December 1, 2023): 174–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/saec-2023-0026.
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Abstract This article represents the first section of the second part of the study Gods and Idols. Representations and Symbolizations of the Divinity in the Religions of Ancient Israel. The subjects addressed for analysis are idolatry and iconoclasm in the context of Levantine iconography, seen from the perspective of the biblical authors, a totally tendentious, aggressive and contrary vision, in particular, to the archaeological discoveries. The Hebrew lexical fund of the MT was very rich and, later, almost doubled by the Greek version of the Old Testament text translated into the LXX (Septuagint) translation, regarding the denomination of foreign gods, idols and other representations. However, the “de facto tradition” of the Israelites contained a plastic iconography, idolatry and iconoclasm being phenomena that appeared in the post-exile period and called by scientific research “programmatic tradition”.
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Gvaryahu, Amit. "Usury and Poverty: A Case Study of the Post-Rabbinic Moment in Midrash and Piyyut." Harvard Theological Review 114, no. 1 (January 2021): 72–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0017816021000067.
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AbstractThe Hebrew Bible prohibits lending at interest. This is usually linked to care for the poor. A similar connection is found in post-biblical literature as well. In Deut 23:20–21, however, usury is disconnected from the poverty laws. Classical rabbinic literature (second to sixth centuries) follows Deuteronomy in sharply de-coupling usury from poverty: the usury prohibition in that corpus regulates commerce and property, and is not intended to benefit the poor. In a sharp break with classical rabbinic tradition, the usury prohibition is reassociated with the poor in piyyut and in the Tanhuma midrashim, two late antique genres of Jewish literature associated but not entirely contiguous with classical rabbinic literature. Both genres bring this tradition to the fore through the use of earlier rabbinic materials, which do not espouse it. This combination of usury and care for the poor mirrors fourth-century Christian writings on usury.
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van Peursen, Wido. "BMH as Body Language: A Lexical and Iconographical Study of the Word BMH When Not a Reference to Cultic Phenomena in Biblical and Post-Biblical Hebrew." Journal for the Study of Judaism 41, no. 3 (2010): 370–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157006310x503658.
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Lemański, Janusz. "Ephod – What Was It and What Was Its Use? A Question About the Potential Way Forward in the Development of Its Role in the Old Testament Texts." Verbum Vitae 42, no. 4 (December 19, 2024): 981–95. https://doi.org/10.31743/vv.17263.
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In biblical texts, ephod appears most often as part of priestly garb. In the statements of nonpriestly authors (before the Babylonian Exile), the linen ephod symbolizes priestly ministry in general. Sometimes, it is also regarded as an object of illicit worship (a practice condemned by the Deuteronomist) or an instrument necessary for divination practices (a symbol of priestly ministry). In these cases, the verb used indicates not so much a garment as an object. For the post-exile priestly authors, the richly woven and decorated ephod is henceforth exclusively part of the high priestly garb. This change in the role of the ephod represents the only discernible path of “evolution” in the use of ephod in the Hebrew Bible. One can only speculate about its possible earlier uses, such as garment put on statues of deities, based on the suggested (Akkadian, Ugaritic; cf. Isa 30:22) etymology of the word.
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Notarius, Tania. "Just a Little Bend on the S-Curve: The Rise and Fall of Linguistic Change in Post-Classical Biblical Hebrew." Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament 32, no. 2 (July 3, 2018): 201–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09018328.2018.1470846.
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Lemański, Janusz. "Pit, Spirit, Necromancer or Instrument Used in Necromancy? The Problem of Finding the Correct Meaning of the Hebrew Word אוב (’ôḇ)." Biblical Annals 14, no. 4 (October 29, 2024): 567–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.31743/ba.16681.
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Various meanings are attributed to the word אוֹב: pit, spirit, necromancer, instrument for divining the future with the help of the dead. Thus, in some cases, it is difficult to decide on the right word to translate it. This article attempts a diachronic analysis of biblical texts and, based on it, traces the potential semantic development from the original sense of “pit”, “instrument used in necromancy” (1 Sam 28:7–8), through the sense of “spirit of the dead” (Isa 8:19; 19:3; 29:4) to the post-exilic use in the sense of “necromancer/medium” (Lev 19:31; 20:6, 27). Deuteronomistic narratives (2 Kgs 21:6; 23:24) and the later list of forbidden practices in Deut 18:10–11 may indicate the timing of this semantic transformation.
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Feldman, Yael S. "Deconstructing the Biblical Sources in Israeli Theater:Yisurei Iyovby Hanoch Levin." AJS Review 12, no. 2 (1987): 251–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0364009400002038.
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When in 1981 the Israeli Cameri Theater performed The Passion of Job, written and directed by Hanoch Levin, the leading avant-garde playwrightin Israel (viewed by some as “the bad boy of the modern Israeli stage”),1 public outrage reached unprecedented heights.The scandal was partially provoked by Levin′s staging.His taste for the carnal and the cruel was much too unpalatable for many stomachs to digest.“People actually walked out, while others covered their eyes,” reported a review in the Jerusalem Post.2 No less detrimental, however, was the specific angle from which Levin th? playwright elected to retell the biblical story.For although the Hebrew title of the play, Yisurei Iyov, may be literally rendered as “Job′s Afflictions,” our translation was advisedly chosen: In his version, Levin catapults Job from the fictional land of Uz to Palestine of the Roman era, thereby embedding Job′s ordeal in that later agon between man and God–the passion of Christ.Accordingly, this dramatized Job does not live to hear an answer from the whirlwind, nor does he see his life redeemed.With a dramatic sleight of hand he is, paradoxically enough, the only character in the play who refuses to deny the existence of God–thus condemning himself to the stake.
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Bembry, Jason A. "BMH as Body Language: A Lexical and Iconographical Study of the Word BMH When Not a Reference to Cultic Phenomena in Biblical and Post-Biblical Hebrew (review)." Hebrew Studies 52, no. 1 (2011): 424–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/hbr.2011.0040.
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Katz, Steven B. "Sonic Rhetorics as Ethics in Action: Hidden Temporalities of Sound in Language(s)." Humanities 9, no. 1 (January 29, 2020): 13. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/h9010013.
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Sonic rhetorics has become a major area of study in the field of rhetoric, as well as composition and literature. Many of the underlying theories of sonic rhetorics are based on post-Heideggerian philosophy, new materialism, and/or posthumanism, among others. What is perhaps similar across these theories of sonic rhetoric is their “turn” from language and the human in general. This short essay explores sonic rhetorics by examining three temporal dimensions found in language. Specifically, the essay focuses on the more obvious sonic dimensions of time in prosody, and then at deeper levels temporal dimensions in a couple of brief but revealing examples from ancient languages (classical Greek, and Biblical Hebrew). Further, this essay suggests some ways in which time is related to ethics in practice and action. For example, just as time is involved in the continuous creation of our increasingly vast, expanding, infinite but bounded universe, Levinas might say that time is necessary to create the ethical space, or perhaps “hypostasis,” one needs for the possibility to encounter “l’autre”—the Other. Beyond prosody, propriety, even kairos, are hidden temporal dimensions of language that may render sonic rhetorics forms of ethical practice.
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Cohn, Haim H. "German Christian Contributions to Jewish Law." Israel Law Review 33, no. 4 (1999): 733–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0021223700016162.
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I have chosen for my subject some of the contributions made to Jewish law — in its widest sense — by German Christian scholars of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Some sixty years or more ago I became acquainted with the writings of John Selden, the 17th century English lawyer, parliamentarian and antiquarian, whose books on the Uxor Hebraica and De successionibus ad legem Ebraeorum, and De synedriis, were a revelation to me: for a non-Jewish scholar of that period to be capable of delving into biblical, talmudical and post-talmudical sources and to compare them with other ancient systems of law, was an unexpected feat. It is not only the impeccable command of Hebrew and Aramaic that excites wonder: it is also a sincere and genuine endeavour to comprehend and describe the workings of Jewish law objectively and without religious bias. We shall see that not all theologians always succeeded in suppressing their innate prejudices; there were even a good many who conducted their Judaistic research for hostile purposes (and with those I shall not deal). Even of Selden it was said that he had voiced now and then some antisemitic remarks, but there is no trace of any personal animus in his books on Jewish law.
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Rigal-Cellard, Bernadette. "Korean Messiahs: Victory Altar and the Koreanization of Protestantism." Religions 15, no. 12 (November 27, 2024): 1438. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel15121438.
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This paper analyses the indigenization or Koreanization of Protestantism in South Korea in the late 20th century through a study of an original messianic and millenarian movement, Victory Altar. The group was founded in 1981 by Cho Hee-Seung in the biblical tradition, with references to Korean spiritual traditions as well. Its most salient feature is the self-consecration of Cho Hee-Seung as “Victor Christ and God”, the unique universal Messiah. In order to show the correlation between this spiritual movement, Protestantism, and Korean culture, I survey the recent history of South Korea and its staunch nationalism largely spurred by Protestant missionaries at the turn of the 20th century. I then present the core teachings of Cho the Messiah: the biological immortality of neohumans, the Hebrew genealogy of the Koreans thanks to the saga of the Lost Tribe of Dan from Israel to Korea, and his major vows to protect South Korea. An assessment of the heritage of Protestantism in this movement is then offered through the perspective of post-colonialism since Victory Altar sees itself and its Messiah/God as far superior to the God and Messiah of the Western powers that brought Christianity to Korea without really understanding it.
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Albanese, Matt. "Book Review: The Linguistic Milieu of Septuagint Isaiah: Seulgi L. Byun, The Influence of Post-Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic on the Translator of Septuagint Isaiah." Expository Times 129, no. 1 (October 2017): 47–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0014524617710361.
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Doedens, Jaap. "The Fruits without the Roots? Postmodern Group-Identity in the Light of Biblical Anthropology." Biblical Annals 12, no. 2 (April 28, 2022): 309–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.31743/biban.13184.
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The origins of modern western societies are indubitably rooted in Judeo-Christian values that generated a unique form of civilization over the course of almost two-thousand years. These values have as their core-belief that humans are created in the image of God. This notion deeply influenced views on human identity and on human rights. Since the rise of modernity, these religious roots of the western world-view have eroded gradually as a consequence of secularization. While society increasingly became cut off from its own roots, the fruits of the former world-view were still accepted as desirable. However, emerging post-modernity appears to be in the process of not only losing the roots, but also rejecting the fruits of Judeo-Christian values. As a consequence, human identity is evermore perceived as consisting of – often conflicting – group-identities. The aim of this study is to discover whether biblical anthropology can shed light on the functions of groups within a given society. Being aware of the fact that the way how ancient Israel dealt with minority groups and how this is reflected within the Hebrew Bible is not automatically applicable for present-day societies, we still might be able to glean insights for our present world. In order to attain such, this study first analyzes shortly the post-modern societal situation pertaining to group-identities. Subsequently, the focus will be on how Israel’s self-understanding as “chosen people” is approached critically by some parts within the Old Testament. Following that, the study concentrates on how concrete social and religious minority groups were viewed: the sojourners, the poor, the slaves. Within this approach also the “sons of the prophets” and the Rechabites will be reviewed. The study suggests that the Christian church might have an own alternative narrative within a postmodern world by emphasizing that identity should have a transcendent side, by seeing that the individual is the proper level of identity, and by proclaiming that individuals are called to function with responsibility within communities.
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Mazza, George J. "Catholic Preaching on Jews and Judaism: The Challenge from Surveyed Good Friday Homilies." International Journal of Evangelization and Catechetics 4, no. 2 (2024): 141–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/jec.2024.a939336.
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Abstract: To assess the reception in the American Catholic Church of the significant shift in Catholic doctrine on Jews and Judaism since the promulgation of Nostra Aetate at Vatican II, a study was conducted of a dataset of thirty-two Catholic Good Friday homilies from a sermons database that the Pew Research Center collected from the Internet in 2019. Relying on conciliar and post-conciliar Catholic teaching documents and using deductive qualitative content analysis, the survey analyzed the texts based on their treatment of six issues: (1) the Jewish identity of Jesus and his disciples, (2) respect for the Jewish people and their religious heritage, (3) the role Jews had in Jesus’ passion and death, (4) the reading from the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament, (5) the Pharisees, and (6) the gospel reading. The survey found that none of the homilies directly addressed the ahistorical, negative treatment of “the Jews” in John’s Gospel. None of the homilies commented on the Jewish identity of Jesus and his disciples. Only two homilies mentioned the Pharisees, one in a positive way and another in a negative way. As to respect for the Jewish people and their religious heritage, most homilists were silent on this matter, although some still trafficked in Jewish stereotypes, claiming, for example, that Jewish pride was evident at the crucifixion. As to Jewish responsibility for Jesus’ death, most homilists said that the sins of humanity brought Jesus to the cross, but some homilists still claimed that Jews were responsible for the crucifixion in direct contradiction to modern Church teaching. Of the homilists who referred to the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament, most read them in a typological way, not showing any concern for the texts in their historical context. As to the treatment of the Gospel of John, most homilists who commented on it showed little awareness of contemporary biblical scholarship, reading the text in a literalist way.
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Jefferson, Rebecca. "Dangerous Liaisons in Cairo: Reginald Q. Henriques and the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Manuscript Collection." Judaica Librarianship 20, no. 1 (December 31, 2017): 21–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.14263/2330-2976.1212.
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When Solomon Schechter published his opus magnum, the co-edited volume of The Wisdom of Ben Sira, in 1899, he took the trouble to express his gratitude towards one Reginald Q. Henriques for his help in the past and still ongoing. This article attempts to answer the question: who was this Mr. Henriques and what was the nature of his connection to Schechter? Using previously unpublished archival evidence, this question is explored in depth, as well as the question of why Schechter chose to acknowledge this individual precisely at that point. It also provides an in-depth account, together with transcriptions of original letters, of the activities of the various genizah manuscript collectors operating in Cairo during the late 1890s and the unspoken race to recover the original Hebrew version of the Book of Ben Sira. These activities are viewed against the backdrop of an all-pervasive scholarly culture that was critical of post-biblical Judaism, as well as prevailing Cairene attitudes and behaviors towards those engaged in the recovery and export of antiquities, and the varying (often arbitrary) authorizations and restrictions exercised by Cairo's European and Egyptian administrators. Finally, it takes a closer look at the contents of today's Taylor-Schechter Genizah Collection at Cambridge University Library in an attempt to discover greater details about its exact provenance.
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Knowles, Clare V. "The Influence of Post-Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic on the Translator of Septuagint Isaiah, Seulgi L. Byun, Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2017 (ISBN 978-0-5676-7238-4), xiv + 272 pp., hb £90." Reviews in Religion & Theology 25, no. 3 (July 2018): 451–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/rirt.13290.
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Sweeney, Marvin A. "Reconceiving the Paradigms of Old Testament Theology in the Post-Shoah Period1." Biblical Interpretation 6, no. 2 (1998): 142–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156851598x00372.
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AbstractThis paper examines the changed situation in the field of Christian Old Testament theology in the aftermath of the Shoah or Holocaust. It begins by pointing to the paradigm shift now taking place in the field as it moves from Enlightenment epistemological paradigms of historical objectivity and universality to postmodern paradigms that emphasize the subjectivity of the interpreter and the validity of particularistic truth claims in a pluralistic world. It points to the dominance of Protestant theology and theologians in the field during the Enlightenment and the impact that Protestant Christianity had in presenting its own subjective theological views of the Old Testament as objective and universal, often with anti-Jewish overtones. With the emergence of Jews and other previously marginalized groups in the field of biblical studies since the end of World War II, the time has come to recognize that Jews are legitimate theological interpreters of the Bible and that the specific concerns of Judaism and the Jewish people are valid topics for theological reflection in the field of Christian Old Testament theology. This new situation has tremendous implications for the theological interpretation of biblical writings in that issues and writings that were previously overlooked, ignored, or rejected must come to the forefront. Two examples, the book of Amos and the book of Esther, demonstrate the potential for such change. Recognition of Amos' particular national identity as a Judean points to his partisan nature as an advocate of a vassal state of Judah that is subject to the control of the northern kingdom of Israel. The absence of G-d in the book of Esther points to the human responsibility to take action when confronted with evil. Altogether, this points to the possibility of more comprehensive theological reading of the Hebrew Bible.
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Walsham, Alexandra. "Miracles in Post-Reformation England." Studies in Church History 41 (2005): 273–306. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0424208400000267.
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To speak of miracles in post-Reformation England may seem like something of an oxymoron. The sense of internal contradiction in my title springs from the fact that sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Protestant ministers consistently maintained that this category of extraordinary events had long since ceased. They did not deny that supernatural acts of this kind had taken place in biblical times. As set down in the books of the Old Testament, God had vouchsafed many wonders to His chosen people, the Hebrews, including the parting of the Red Sea, the raining of manna from heaven, and the metamorphosis of Aaron’s rod into a serpent. Equally, the New Testament recorded the prodigious feats performed by Christ and his apostles to convince the disbelieving Gentiles and Jews: from the raising of Lazarus and the transformation of water into wine at the marriage at Cana to curing lepers of their sores and restoring sight to the blind, not to mention the great mysteries of the Incarnation and Resurrection. But dozens of sermons and tracts reiterated the precept that God no longer worked wonders above, beyond, or against the settled order and instinct of nature – the standard definition of miracle inherited from the scholastic writings of St Thomas Aquinas. Such special dispensations were the ‘seales and testimonials’ of the Gospel. They had been necessary to sow the first seeds of the faith, to plant the new religion centring on the redemption of mankind by Jesus of Nazareth. But this gift, stressed John Calvin and his disciples, was only of ‘temporary duration’. Miracles were the swaddling bands of the primitive Church, the mother’s milk on which it had been initially weaned. Once the Lord had begun to feed His people on the meat of the Word, he expected them to believe the truth as preached and revealed in Scripture rather than wait for astonishing visible spectacles to be sent down from heaven. Although there was some uncertainty about exactly when such wonders had come to an end, Protestant divines were in general agreement that, as a species, miracles were now extinct. Christians could and should not expect to see such occurrences in the course of their lifetimes.
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Bardenstein, Ruti. "The cyclic nature of negation." Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA), April 5, 2023. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/prag.21062.bar.
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Abstract The Hebrew negation adverbial bilti ‘not’ seems to function very differently in Biblical Hebrew than it does in Contemporary Hebrew. This paper addresses this difference and discusses its evolution. The main question addressed in this paper is: How has Hebrew bilti, originally an exceptive marker (with sentential scoping), ended up functioning solely as a privative in contemporary Hebrew? First, this paper argues that the biblical usage of bilti was expanded and turned into a polyfunctional (or ‘polysemous’) item. This happened via a constructionalization process which led to grammatical changes (‘grammaticalization’): The initially implicated negation (via a generalized implicature) turned explicit (semantic). In addition, in Hebrew’s later periods, the usage of bilti was narrowed and it became a privative. Thus, firstly, a pragmatically motivated path of constructionalization of bilti in Biblical Hebrew is suggested. That is, the “pragmatic negation” that arose via a generalized implicature shifted to the semantic level (performing semantic negation, explicit negation). Secondly, bilti’s functions in post-biblical Hebrew periods are outlined, tracing its narrowing functions until its fixation in Contemporary Hebrew as a privative.
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Joosten, Jan. "The participle as a component of the verbal system in Biblical Hebrew." Brill’s Journal of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics, June 8, 2020, 1–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/18776930-20201001.
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Abstract In Biblical Hebrew, the active participle has, as may be expected, a number of nominal and adjectival functions. However, it also, in certain contexts, exerts a verbal meaning. In the latter function, the participle is part of the verbal paradigm, expressing a range of nuances some of which—notably the expression of the “real present”—cannot be expressed by any other verbal form. The main verbal functions of the participle are exemplified in the paper. Also a diachronic trajectory of syntactic change is described leading from the “classical” Biblical Hebrew of the monarchic period (tenth to seventh centuries BCE) to early post-biblical Hebrew (first century BCE).