Abstract
Anderson, Gary A., Ruth A. Clements and David Satran (eds.), New Approaches to the Study of Biblical Interpretation in Judaism of the Second Temple Period and in Early Christianity (STDJ, 106; Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2013), pp. xiv + 302. €123.00/ $171.00. ISBN 978-90-04-20743-1 (print), 978-90-04-24500-6 (e-book); ISSN 0169-9962.
This edited volume of the proceedings of the 11th International Symposium of the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature, jointly sponsored by the Hebrew University Center for the Study of Christianity in 2007, represents the fruit of the collaboration of 11 scholars on a variety of themes. The volume is divided into three parts: M.E. Stone's offering is a sharp introduction to the material under consideration, looking at the categories of ‘canon’, ‘Bible’ and ‘Apocrypha’. In the first section M. Segal (‘ “For From Zion Shall Come Forth Torah…” (Isaiah 2:3): Biblical Paraphrase and the Exegetical Background of Susanna’), G.E. Sterling (‘Different Traditions or Emphases? The Image of God in Philo's De Opificio Mundi’), M.R. Niehoff (‘The Implied Audience of the Letter of James’) and S. Ruzer (‘James on Faith and Righteousness in the Context of a Broader Jewish Exegetical Discourse’) explore the rich interpretative traditions of their chosen text. In a second section, G. Anderson (‘You Will Have Treasure in Heaven’), M. Kister (‘Allegorical Interpretations of Biblical Narratives in Rabbinic Literature, Philo, and Origen: Some Cases’), N. Koltun-Fromm (‘Hermeneutics of Holiness: Syriac-Christian and Rabbinic Constructs of Holy Communion and Sexuality’) and R.A. Clements (‘The Parallel Lives of Early Jewish and Christian Texts and Art: The Case of Isaac the Martyr’) focus on a broad range of comparative material. The third section offers two papers: R.A. Layton (‘Didymus the Blind and the Philistores: A Contest over Historia in Early Christian Exegetical Argument’) and S. La Porta (‘Exegeting the Eschaton: Dionysius the Aeropagite and the Apocalypse’) explore ‘interpretative trajectories’ through Genesis 1, Job and Revelation. By extending the chronological boundaries to early Christianity, this volume offers a broad interpretative canvas in which the growing study of Jewish literature of the Second Temple period can be creatively pursued.
Ann Jeffers
Bilde, Per, Collected Studies on Philo and Josephus (ed. Eve-Marie Becker, Morten Hørning Jensen and Jacob Mortensen; Studia Aarhusiana Neotestamentica, 7; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2016), pp. 316. €75.00. ISBN 978-3-525-54046-6; ISSN 2364-2165.
This collection of essays by the late Professor Bilde of Aarhus University will be most welcome to students of Philo and Josephus. The subjects of the 11 essays are as follows (two in German, the rest in English): Gains Caligula's attempt to erect his statue in the temple; the causes of the Jewish War according to Josephus; Testimonium Flav-ianum; the geographical excursuses in Josephus; Josephus's view of his own work in the context of the canon (C. Apion. 1.28-56); the Essenes in Philo and Josephus; Josephus and Jewish apocalypticism; what Josephus said about the synagogue (in German); the Jews in Alexandria in 38-41 ce; Philo as a polemicist and political apologist: an investigation of Against Flaccus and The Embassy to Gaius; the conflict between Gains Caligula and the Jews over the placing of a statue of Caesar in the Jerusalem temple (in German). There is an essay by Steve Mason on Bilde's place in Josephus research, and one by Mogens Müller on messianic figures in Josephus and their impact on Bilde's understanding of the historical Jesus. There are no indexes.
Lester L. Grabbe
Böhler, Dieter, 1 Esdras (IECOT; Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2016), pp. 260. €84.00. ISBN 978-3-17-029800-2 (print), 978-3-17-029802-6 (e-book).
This commentary series aims to be international, ecumenical and contemporary. In keeping with the commentary aims, each section has both a ‘synchronic analysis’ and a ‘diachronic’ analysis; however, the focus is on explaining the text, not in explicit comment relating to modem life. B. considers 1 Esdras as a systematic and complete narrative, not a fragment of a chronistic historical work. He applies the text-critical principles laid down in his earlier work Die heilige Stadt in Esdras a und Esra-Nehemia (Göttingen, 1997; reviewed in B.L. 1999, pp. 96-97) to reconstruct what he sees as an anti-Hasmonaean history (versus the pro-Hasmonaean writing in Ezra-Nehemiah). He argues that both the original text of 1 Esdras (which was Hebrew/Aramaic) and that of Ezra-Nehemiah depend on a ‘Proto-Ezra’ narrative (though 1 Esdras is less reworked). In the Seleucid/Hasmonaean period, (pro-Hasmonaean) Ezra-Nehemiah was created by combining Proto-Ezra with the Memoirs of Nehemiah, while (anti-Hasmonaean) 1 Esdras was created from Proto-Ezra, combined with 2 Chronicles 35-36 and the story of the bodyguards (in 1 Esd. 3.1-5.6). Rather than being just a derivative book, 1 Esdras stands as an independent witness to the Zerubabbel and Ezra traditions. Although my analysis of 1 Esdras differs in some details from B.'s, I agree with him about the originality and independence of 1 Esdras from Ezra-Nehemiah. This is a challenge for those who argue that 1 Esdras is simply derivative from our present Ezra-Nehemiah and 2 Chronicles texts.
Lester L. Grabbe
Collins, John J., The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic Literature (Third Edition) (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2016), pp. xiv + 456. $38.00/£25.99. ISBN 978-0-8028-7279-1. [Distributed in the UK by Alban Books.]
C.'s contribution to the field of eschatology and apocalyptic is made evident in his three editions of The Apocalyptic Imagination beginning some thirty years ago. The third edition is thoroughly reworked, with specifics and additional material, and updated with the latest findings. C.'s authoritative insights along the extensive coverage of the apocalyptic literature have made this edition not only informative but also a pleasant read. Chapter 5, ‘The Dead Sea Scrolls’ (previously ‘Qumran’), has an expanded introduction largely due to the author's documentation of the continual sprouting of new scholarship as shown in the footnotes. The epilogue deserves mention: here C. steers away from the traditional closing to popular thoughts on apocalypticism and rightly pinpoints the weakness in some American writers' understanding of mythic symbolism. The bibliography is comprehensive and uses discussions on the Kingdom of God, Jesus, and Paul. A small criticism may be made, however, in that the occasional incomplete piece of bibliographical information, probably due to the publisher's style, will likely cause inconvenience particularly to students referring to this work for further research. Nonetheless, this edition, like the previous ones, provides the best survey of apocalyptic material and will be a useful guide to students and scholars.
Hedy Hung
Collins, John J. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Apocalyptic Literature (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), pp. xiv + 546. $160.00/£105.00. ISBN 978-0-19-985649-7.
The publisher has declined to make a review copy of this volume available to the B.L., and so no assessment of the work can be made here, but it is understood that the volume contains the following contributions: J.J. Collins, ‘What Is Apocalyptic Literature?’; S.L. Cook, ‘Apocalyptic Prophecy’; H. Najman, ‘The Inheritance of Prophecy in Apocalyptic’; M. Goff, ‘Wisdom and Apocalypticism’; A.P. Jassen, ‘Scriptural Interpretation in Early Jewish Apocalypses’; R. Boustan and P.G. McCullough, ‘Apocalyptic Literature and the Study of Early Jewish Mysticism’; F. Flannery, ‘Dreams and Visions in Early Jewish and Early Christian Apocalypses and Apocalypticism’; P.P. Esler, ‘Social-Scientific Approaches to Apocalyptic Literature’; A. Portier-Young, ‘Jewish Apocalyptic Literature as Resistance Literature’; S.J. Friesen, ‘Apocalypse and Empire’; D.L. Smith-Christopher, ‘A Postcolonial Reading of Apocalyptic Literature’; C.A. Newsom, ‘The Rhetoric of Jewish Apocalyptic Literature’; G. Carey, ‘Early Christian Apocalyptic Rhetoric’; E. Runions, ‘Deconstructing Apocalyptic Literalist Allegory’; M. Popovic, ‘Apocalyptic Determinism’; J. Frey, ‘Apocalyptic Dualism’; D.C. Allison, ‘Apocalyptic Ethics and Behavior’; M. Henze, ‘Apocalypse and Torah in Ancient Judaism’; A. Y. Collins, ‘Apocalypticism and Christian Origins’; J.N. Bremmer, ‘Descents to Hell and Ascents to Heaven in Apocalyptic Literature’; D.M. Burns, ‘Apocalypses among Gnostics and Manichaeans’; S. Beyerle, ‘The Imagined World of the Apocalypses’; M. Inbari, ‘Messianism as a Political Power in Contemporary Judaism’; C. Rowland, ‘Apocalypticism and Radicalism’; C. Wessinger, ‘Apocalypse and Violence’; A.J. Frykholm, ‘Apocalypticism in Contemporary Christianity’; D. Daschke, ‘Apocalypse and Trauma’; and L. DiTommaso, ‘Apocalypticism and Popular Culture’.
(Book List Editor)
Finney, Mark T., Resurrection, Hell and the Afterlife: Body and Soul in Antiquity, Judaism and Early Christianity (BibleWorld; New York and London: Routledge, 2016), pp. viii + 203. £85.00. ISBN 978-1-138-64765-7 (hardback), 978-1-315-62688-8 (e-book).
This very recent contribution to the complex subject of the hereafter is a bold attempt at re-evaluating scholarly understandings of the concepts of resurrection and afterlife in relation to the body and soul. F.'s thesis largely opposes the consensus that Jewish resurrection constitutes a return to actual bodily existence. He reads passages such as Dan. 12.1-3, for instance, as envisaging a resurrection and immortalization of the soul and not the physical body (pp. 32-33). He also asserts that the presumed distinctions between the Graeco-Roman view (disembodied immortality) and the Jewish view (re-embodied immortality) are rather the reverse. He opens his book with a compelling discussion of the Graeco-Roman literature, and then explores death and afterlife in the HB. Regarding the biblical material, however, F. relies heavily on the LXX in his analysis, whereas Hebrew is largely ignored. This is problematic for his overall thesis, as the distinctions in usage between Hebrew words and their Greek counterparts in the LXX, such as nefesh and psuchē, require much closer attention. That being said, F. has certainly given us much to think about. His assertion that Paul's afterlife is consistent with his exposition of Second Temple literature in ch. 3, as well as the opposition he sees between Paul's resurrected Christ as a ‘glorified spiritual entity’ and the resurrected fleshly body of Christ in the Gospels of Luke and John, is well argued. However, a closer analysis of the relevant biblical passages with greater attention given to Hebrew, would have strengthened his thesis.
Seth Cole
Förster, Niclas and Jacobus Cornelis de Vos (eds.), Juden und Christen unter römischer Herrschaft. Selbstwahrnehmung und Fremdwahrnehmung in den ersten beiden Jahrhunderten n.Chr. (Schriften des Institutum Judaicum Delitzschianum, 10; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2015), pp. 224. €90.00 (print), €74.99 (PDF). ISBN 978-3-525-54209-5 (print), 978-3-647-54209-6 (PDF).
This collection of essays derives from a 2012 symposium held in Münster to honour Professor Folker Siegert on his 65th birthday, after 16 years as the director of the Institutum Judaicum Delitzschianum. H. Lichtenberger writes on Jewish and Christian self-perceptions under Roman rule. T. Witulski considers integration and separation in 4 Maccabees. M. Vogel wonders about the mutual attitudes of the Jesus communities and Baptist groups. N. Förster gives a close reading of P.Oxy. 840 on cultic purity and wonders about the identity of the likely traditors of such a set of Jesus traditions. J.C. de Vos expounds the ambivalent relationship of Matthew to his Jewish background through a fresh look at the scribes and Pharisees. D. Dormeyer describes the Roman punishment of Jews according to the Passion Narratives and Josephus. G. Schimanowski looks at religious identity in the writings of Philo. J. Sievers engages with the non-Jewish authors in Josephus's historical writings. J.W. van Henten reassesses the demolition of Herod's eagle which he understands as a symbol both of Herod's royal power and of his loyalty to Rome. D.R. Schwartz identifies the translator of a Breslau translation of Josephus's minor works as Manuel Joël (1826-90), a rabbi and historian of Jewish philosophy; and the anonymous introduction to the translation he plausibly ascribes to H. Graetz. There are full indexes.
George J. Brooke
Götte, Monika Elisabeth, Von den Wächtern zu Adam. Frühjüdische Mythen über die Ursprünge des Bösen und ihre frühchristliche Rezeption (WUNT, II/426; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2016), pp. xiv + 356. €89.00. ISBN 978-3-16-154847-5; ISSN 0340-9570.
This is a revised Zürich PhD (supervisor Samuel Vollenweider). As the subtitle suggests, it is primarily an investigation of the origins and concept of evil in early Judaism and its reception into Christianity. It suggests a number of models for the origins of evil (including the ‘two spirits teaching’ in 1QS 3.13-4.26), but concentrates on (1) the model of the fallen angels/Watchers and (2) the model of the fall of Adam. Interestingly, in contrast to Isa. 45.1-8, both models distance God somewhat from evil, even if the deity is ultimately responsible in some sense. First, the Watchers narrative is investigated in 1 Enoch 1-36, then its reception in other early Jewish works, including elsewhere in 1 Enoch, Jubilees, Qumran, and so on, and finally its reflection in various NT and early patristic writings. Next, the fall of Adam is considered, beginning with Genesis 3, then in various early Jewish writings (especially the Apocalypse of Moses and the Vita Adae et Euae), and finally the NT and patristic writings. Joining these two models is that of the hubris and fall of Satan (with some features in common with the fall of the Watchers but also significant differences). No single ‘dogmatic master-narrative’ on the origin of evil occurred either in early Judaism or in Christianity. This creates an interesting hermeneutical situation in which evil is relative and contextual rather than dogmatically defined. G. has provided a helpful discussion of an important question.
Lester L. Grabbe
Grabbe, Lester L., Gabriele Boccaccini and Jason M. Zurawski (eds.), The Seleucid and Hasmonean Periods and the Apocalyptic Worldview (LSTS, 88; London/ New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2016), pp. viii + 261. £75.00/$128.00 (print); £74.99/$96.99 (PDF). ISBN 978-0-567-66614-7 (print), 978-0-567-66615-4 (PDF).
This volume collects the papers from a 2012 ‘small-size international seminar’ in Italy derived from the ongoing work of the Enoch Seminar, and exploring historical and sociological aspects of apocalyptic. There is a high level of interaction between the papers, resulting in nuanced discussion of several key issues. In particular one finds here continued dissatisfaction with the 1979 SBL group definition of ‘apocalyptic’ but difficulty in agreeing on specific further refinements. There is willingness to accommodate apocalyptic as some form of prophecy, rather than an alternative to it. Also prominent is the question of how far apocalyptic is a literary form generated by sociologically examinable conditions or how far it seeks an alternative to the worldview of its day. Paul Hanson's well-known ‘collapse of prophecy’ model is just one approach faulted for relying on conceptual plausibility (which it has), but not actual evidence (which remains at the level of hermeneutical conjecture). Grabbe's opening piece helpfully maps out terminological issues, and then turns to a lucid survey of Hasmonean history, rehearsing six points at which crisis or semi-crisis might have encouraged an apocalyptic reaction. This is a fine orientation to what follows. He also offers an introduction surveying all the papers. The essays are presented in four parts as follows, with all the main essays in parts II and III also having their own (sometimes brief) response papers from other participants. Part I (Introductory Essays): Introduction’ (Lester L. Grabbe); ‘The Seleucid and Hasmonean Periods and the Apocalyptic Worldview—An Overview’ (Lester L. Grabbe); ‘Non-Apocalyptic Responses to Apocalyptic Events: Notes on the Sociology of Apocalypticism’ (Gabriele Boccaccini). Part II (Major Papers and Responses): ‘Understanding the Relationship between the Apocalptic Worldview and Jewish Sectarian Violence: The Case of the War between Alexander Jannaeus and Demetrius III’ (Kenneth Atkinson); ‘Was the Maccabean Revolt an Apocalyptic Movement?’ (Gerbern S. Oegema); ‘Apocalyptic Worldviews—What They Are and How They Spread: Insights from the Social Sciences’ (Anathea E. Portier-Young); ‘Overall Response to the Main Papers’ (Erich Gruen). Part III (Short Papers): ‘The Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls and the Historical Development of Jewish Apocalyptic Literature’ (Daniel A. Machiela); ‘An Unlikely Mixture: Seleucids and Lagids in Daniel and in Persian Apocalyptic’ (Vicente Dobroruka); ‘Texts on Messianic Reign from the Hasmonean Period: 4Q521 as Interpretation of Daniel 7’ (Torleif Elgvin); ‘4QApocryphon of Daniel AR (4Q246) and the Book of Daniel’ (Årstein Justnes); ‘The Paradox of Midrash and the Apocalyptic Author: From Mesopotamian Divination to Rabbinic Midrash, through Qumran and Apocalypse’ (Paul Mandel); ‘Apocalyptic Elements in Hasmonean Propaganda: Civic Ideology and the Struggle for Political Legitimation’ (Yonder Moynihan Gillihan); ‘Some Afterthoughts’ (Michael E. Stone). Part IV (Conclusions): ‘Perspectives on Apocalyptic in the Hasmonean Period’ (Lester L. Grabbe). Overall this volume offers a clear guide to the state of several interlocking discussions, and provides useful focus concerning some rather underdetermined issues.
Richard S. Briggs
Gregg, Robert C., Shared Stories, Rival Tellings: Early Encounters of Christians, Jews, and Muslims (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), pp. xviii + 721. 56 illustrations. £25.99. ISBN 978-0-1902-3149-1.
G. surveys the development of biblical tradition in Jewish, Christian and Muslim sources from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. He weaves into his exposition a variety of literary and visual sources from the three faiths, exploring points of cultural contact, interaction and developments (shared or otherwise) in narrative traditions that find their origin in popular biblical narratives. The book is structured by the examination of five narrative traditions: (1) the story of Cain and Abel and the first murder; (2) Sarah and Hagar; (3) Joseph's temptation by Potiphar's wife; (4) the prophet Jonah; and (5) the figure of Mary. Each of these is examined in groupings of three chapters, one for each of the three faiths, bookended by introductory and concluding statements. In these chapters, G. outlines the development of these narratives in literary and visual sources, summarizing key themes and introducing the reader to a variety of primary sources in translation. The presentation risks intra-religious syncretism, where traditions are presented as part of continuing development within the framework of one of the three faiths under discussion, without adequate nuance to evaluate the place of particular texts within the development of the broader faith tradition. This book will appeal to a general academic audience interested in gaining an orientation in the interaction between Jewish, Christian and Muslim tradition. It would provide suitable readings for introductory undergraduate courses in biblical and religious studies. It will also appeal to the interested public.
Katharina E. Keim
Gribetz, Sarit Kattan, David M. Grossberg, Martha Himmelfarb and Peter Schäfer (eds.), Genesis Rabbah in Text and Context (Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism, 166; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2016), pp. ix + 288. €129.00. ISBN 978-3-16-154702-7.
The studies in this collection explore the textual transmission and content of Genesis Rabbah, as well as various historical and religious contexts out of which this rabbinic collection emerged. An introduction from Sarit Kattan Gribetz and David M. Grossberg helpfully situates the current state of scholarship on Genesis Rabbah. Michael Sokoloff then brings his expertise to bear on ‘The Major Manuscripts of Genesis Rabbah’, followed by Kattan Gribetz's insightful comparative exploration of the Sabbath, entitled ‘Between Narrative and Polemic: The Sabbath in Genesis Rabbah and the Babylonian Talmud’. Peter Schäfer investigates ‘Genesis Rabbah's Enoch’, with engaging analysis on possible connections to Christian rhetoric, while Chaim Milikowsky compares Genesis Rabbah and Leviticus Rabbah and suggests rethinking the priority of these traditions. The next two chapters take Abraham as their starting point, with Martha Himmelfarb analysing ‘Abraham and the Messianism of Genesis Rabbah‘, and Carol Bakhos exploring the complex portrayal of ‘The Family of Abraham in Genesis Rabbah’. Maren Niehoff next looks at ‘Origen's Commentary on Genesis as a key to Genesis Rabbah’, unpacking contextual and hermeneutical points of contact, while Laura Lieber explores alternative forms of interpretation in her essay ‘Stage Mothers: Performing the Matriarchs in Genesis Rabbah and Yannai’. Joshua Levinson investigates ‘Composition and Transmission of the Exegetical Narrative in Genesis Rabbah’, and David Grossberg then examines stability and fluidity in rabbinic traditions with his contribution, ‘On Plane Trees and the Palatine Hill: Rabbi Yishmael and the Samaritan in Genesis Rabbah and the later Palestinian Rabbinic Tradition’. In the final two chapters, Martin Lockshin looks at ‘Peshat in Genesis Rabbah’ in light of broader medieval views on the matter, while Marc Hirshman investigates ‘The Final Chapters of Genesis Rabbah” and interpretive questions that surround the ending of the collection. This is an informative and valuable volume that will be of interest to both newcomers and seasoned scholars, and the stimulating contributions highlight the fact that there is room for further research on this unique and important collection of rabbinic commentary.
Bradford A. Anderson
Gruenwald, Ithamar, Apocalyptic and Merkavah Mysticism (Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity, 90; Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2nd edn, 2014), pp. x+ 317. €126.00/$163.00. ISBN 978-90-04-13602-1 (print), 978-90-04-27920-9 (e-book); ISSN 1871-6636.
This is the second edition of the 1980 original (reviewed in B.L. 1981, p. 117), some 60 pages longer and with a new introductory chapter ‘The Quest for Mystical Reality: Reflections of the Ontological Provenance of the Hekhalot Hymns and Visions’, and a new concluding chapter ‘When Magical Techniques and Mystical Practices become Neighbours: Methodological Considerations’. The shape of the rest of the book is unchanged though updated: the development of Merkavah mysticism from its roots in late biblical and postbiblical apocalyptic into the Talmudic era, and then a summary and comparison of the individual Merkavah texts. Interest in this subject has grown greatly in the years between the two editions of this work, not least because of P. Schäfer's Hekhalot Literatur (Tübingen, 1981-88) which appeared just after the first edition of this volume, and this second edition went to press just before the publication of J.R. Davila's Hekhalot Literature in Translation: Major Texts of Merkavah Mysticism (Brill, 2013). This is a useful book especially for anyone new to the field, but given that it is part of a series on Christianity and Judaism, the treatment of Christian materials is rather poor: brief and almost dismissive. ‘It is quite difficult to decide if the Christian author was aware of the Jewish sources he used or not [in the Ascension of Isaiah]’ (p. 100); ‘[the book of Revelation] is an interesting example of how Jewish Merkavah material was recast in the new Christian environment’ (p. 101, my emphases). Since G. dates the oldest known Hekhalot text to the second century ce (p. 176), one wonders what date he assigns to Revelation. Caveat lector.
Margaret Barker
Hays, Richard B., Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2016), pp. xix+ 504. $49.95. ISBN 978-1-48130-491-7.
OT specialists often approach studies of intertextuality between the OT and NT with caution—the OT has not always fared well in such studies. However, H.'s new book is to be welcomed. His Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul (Yale University Press, 1989) is a classic and this volume, the culmination of his life's work and already previewed in Reading Backwards: Figural Christology and the Fourfold Gospel Witness (Baylor University Press, 2014), brings his attention to the gospels. He is, of course, primarily an NT scholar and his orientation is fundamentally christological. His approach is informed by his conviction that only figural interpretation (‘a reading that grasps patterns of correspondence between temporally distinct events, so that these events freshly illuminate each other’, p. 358) can make sense of John's assertion that the Scriptures bear witness to Jesus Christ. H. explores OT ‘quotations’, ‘allusions’ and ‘echoes’ in each gospel in turn, presenting four extended and distinctive portraits of the Evangelists’ use of Scripture. For an OT specialist much of his discussion is fascinating, even if only because H. is working with patterns and methodologies of intertextuality that are already present within the Hebrew Scriptures. H. is not unaware of this, but he does not (in an already lengthy book) discuss these methodological roots. Some exploration of these may have complemented his overall argument and further underlined his clear respect for the OT, already very much in evidence. This new book will be required reading for NT scholars, and is highly recommended for their OT colleagues also.
Megan Warner
Langer, Gerhard,Midrasch (Jüdische Studien, 1; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2016), pp. xi+ 368. €27.99. ISBN 978-3-8252-4675-4.
This is the first volume of a new series published by Mohr Siebeck that aims at providing detailed introductions to central topics in Jewish Studies. The individual volumes will not only focus on the ancient and medieval world but also treat subjects like Jewish Philosophy and Art, Holocaust Studies, and Zionism. L.'s introduction to Midrash is joined by further works on Chassidism (S. Talabardon) and Qumran (D. Stökl Ben Ezra—see below, p. 194). In 14 chapters the reader is informed extensively about the major aspects of Midrash and midrashic interpretation and the hermeneutics of rabbinic exegesis. There are chapters on Midrash as text as well as on the forms used and on redaction history. L. further looks at issues relating to Midrash and exegesis, Halakhah, Haggadah, liturgy, and history (including modem forms of midrashim). Keywords in the margin help the reader to quickly find what one is looking for, making the volume very user-friendly. A short characterization of important midrashim, a detailed bibliography and several detailed indexes conclude the book. The volume is a very fine opening of an exciting new series that will quickly become an indispensable tool.
Anselm C. Hagedorn
Milgram, Jonathan S., From Mesopotamia to the Mishnah: Tannaitic Inheritance Law in its Legal and Social Contexts (Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism, 164; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2016), pp. xxiii + 201. €114.00. ISBN 978-3-16-154021-9.
This comparative account of inheritance law in the Tannaitic period, from c. 70 bce until 200 CE, provides a valuable analysis of the legal and social cultures which informed its profile in Graeco-Roman Palestine. The author examines gifting and inheriting throughout the ancient world, focusing upon the inheritance of firstborn (males), daughters, wives, and advance bequests in contemplation of death. Here the model presented in the patriarchal narratives, of an extended family in an agrarian economy, is replaced in Mishnaic sources with nuclear households, populating urban environments. Likewise, in archival sources (from Elephantine and the Judean desert) and literary constructs (in the writings of Philo, Josephus, and the books of Job, Tobit and Judith), the distinct features of biblical laws are absent. Substantial care is taken to acknowledge that the varied socio-economic causes and transmission processes remain obscure, including those relating to parallels in the Greek diathéké and the Tannaitic יקיתײד, i.e. written depositions in case of death. The study further demonstrates that the inventive flights of fancy which typify rabbinic (aggadic) midrash are not present in these innovations. This is particularly significant in view of the absence of hermeneutic underpinnings for these rabbinic innovations, which appeared contemporaneously with the growth of the early Christian movement, whose apostles characterized the (pre-rabbinic) Pharisees by their legal inflexibility.
Sandra Jacobs
Mroczek, Eva, The Literary Imagination in Jewish Antiquity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), pp. xi + 269. £64.00. ISBN 978-0-19-027983-7.
M. argues that the study of early Jewish literature is constrained by the anachronisms of ‘Bible’ and ‘book’, leaving the Jewish literary landscape beyond the canonical ‘books’ misconceived and devalued. She redefines concepts of ‘canonicity' and ‘authorship’ and postulates a wider literary world transcending these concepts. Three illustrative examples are offered: Psalms, Ben Sira and Jubilees. There is, maintains M., no ‘book of Psalms’ during the Second Temple period, while David and Ben Sira are constructed textual figures; Jubilees opens a door to a vista of stories and figures beyond Genesis and Enoch and is not ‘midrash’. There was no scriptural canon before 70 ce. Specialists would agree with some of this, even where it is overstated. But there remain issues misconstrued or ignored. M.'s argument needs reinforcement and precision by adding to the literary world (of which the author ‘dreams’) the real world of writers, authors, libraries, schools and collectors. Most Jewish readers read Greek and Aramaic texts, including philosophy and historiography, Jewish and non-Jewish. Jeremiah's burnt scroll, Ezekiel's eaten scroll, and the torn and burnt books in 1 Maccabees prefigure the rabbinic ‘defiling of hands’, and show that a ‘book’ can be a sacred object. The distinction between lists of compositions, attributions, precise contents and textual forms is quite important in canonizing, as is the significance of the notion of a fixed canon (regardless of number) as attested in Josephus and 4 Ezra. An ambitious book, but not ambitious enough.
Philip R. Davies
Najman, Hindy, Losing the Temple and Recovering the Future: An Analysis of 4 Ezra (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014), pp. xiv + 193. 1 plate. $99.99/£64.99. ISBN 978-1-107-00618-8.
This monograph elucidates the role of 4 Ezra as a work ameliorating the feelings of loss arising from exile and destruction of the Temple with an apocalyptic vision of the future resulting from Ezra's dialogues with the angel Uriel. N. introduces innovative contemporary imagery to illustrate her approach, such as comparisons with the experiences of Crow Indians and the loss of their homelands, or ‘rebooting’ the text based on literary models of Superman and Spiderman, while also drawing upon theories of Max Weber and Walter Benjamin. Key points are that Ezra in this pseudepigraphon is an amalgam of biblical figures (Ezekiel, Job, Daniel, Moses), the Temple is hardly mentioned, and the primary location is the wilderness as a suitable landscape for revelation. Some apocryphal intertextuality is not discussed, e.g. the primary role of Uriel in 4 Ezra alludes to this angel's function as Enoch's guide in the heavens, and that revelation will come in the form of esoteric books, which in Enoch's case are 366 (suggesting calendrical associations), whereas in 4 Ezra the puzzling number of books is 24+ 70. While 24 most likely refers to the OT canon, N. considers but doubts whether 70 may signify the Oral Law; she also refers to Tertullian's idea that these include Enoch, but suggests that 70 could merely be symbolic. Nevertheless, an allusion to the LXX would be plausible as an example of ‘new age’ literature, since N. argues that 4 Ezra anticipates both Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism.
Florentina Badalanova Geller
Porter, Stanley E., with a chapter by Bryan R. Dyer, Sacred Tradition in the New Testament: Tracing Old Testament Themes in the Gospels and Epistles (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2016), pp. xxiv + 310. $40.00. ISBN 978-0-8010-3077-2.
This prolific author has added another volume to the lively debate about the relation of the OT to the NT. In his two opening chapters he seeks to clarify the terminological issues involved in this debate, drawing attention, for example, to such problematic terms as ‘intertextuality’. In the following chapters he insists on addressing the use made by the NT authors of themes from the sacred tradition of the OT (and in some cases from the secular Hellenistic world also) rather than employing the more conventional method of analysing particular verses cited from the OT. Thus the appellations Son of Man, Suffering Servant, Son of God and Messiah are discussed with reference to Jesus, whose own creative use of them is generally promoted, and then the Passover in John's Gospel and Psalm 22 in relation to Jesus’ passion are scrutinized. Finally, P. turns his attention to a key text for Paul and James, Gen. 15.6, and to Paul's Christology, including those OT passages about Yahweh which are applied to Christ. D. demonstrates in an additional chapter how Romans and Hebrews have drawn on two different Jewish interpretations of Esau. The origin of this book in papers given to lay audiences helps to explain its accessibility to readers of all levels. The very wide range of secondary sources adduced will please the more scholarly reader. However, the contributions of Dodd on the contexts of OT quotations in the NT and of Moule on the divinity of Jesus in Paul are absent. There is also a tendency to exaggerate the novelty of P.'s own contribution to the discussion of these issues, e.g. in the case of the influence of Passover imagery on John.
John Tudno Williams
Reynolds, Bennie H., III, Between Symbolism and Realism: The Use of Symbolic and Non-Symbolic Language in Ancient Jewish Apocalypses 333-63 B.C.E. (JAJSup, 8; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2011), pp. 1-421. €89.99. ISBN 978-3-525-55035-9 (print), 978-3-647-55035-0 (e-book).
Studies regarding apocalyptic literature have abounded in recent years, with many of them discussing its genre, social background, function and identity. R.'s contribution majors on a thorough analysis of the language (‘structuralist poetics’) of apocalypses, an aspect which is often missing from the discussions. The author's main contribution lies in his methodology, based on authors ancient and modem, including Artemidorus of Daldis, Ferdinand de Saussure, Charles Peirce, Leo Oppenheim, Claude Lévi-Strauss, and Umberto Eco. The texts under scrutiny are divided up into two categories: ‘symbolic’ and ‘non-symbolic’ apocalypses. In the first group, Daniel 2, 7 and 8 form the bulk of the analysis while the Animal Apocalypse (1 En. 85-90), 4QFour Kingdoms and the Book of the Word of Noah (1QapGen) provide more examples of the complexity of the use of language. Non-symbolic apocalypses include Daniel 10-12 and the Apocryphon of Jeremiah C. After an introduction covering methodological questions, a history of research, and an analysis of the symbolic material with reference to ancient dream reports, the bulk of the thesis is that the study of the language of apocalyptic literature from Qumran changes our perception. The results may be somewhat surprising: non-symbolic language may be used among a more restricted audience while symbolic language seems to be addressed to a larger audience. Tables of symbols are useful and show a certain stability in literary contexts. I would recommend this study as it significantly furthers our understanding of apocalyptic language.
Ann Jeffers
Samely, Alexander, in collaboration with Philip Alexander, Rocco Bernasconi and Robert Hayward, Profiling Jewish Literature in Antiquity: An Inventory, from Second Temple Texts to the Talmuds (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), pp. xvi + 459. £100.00. ISBN 978-0-1996-8432-8.
This book offers a full explanation of the ‘Inventory of Structurally Important Literary Features of the Anonymous and Pseudepigraphic Jewish Literature of Antiquity’, a descriptive system which was developed as part of an AHRC-funded project at Manchester and Durham (2007-11). It is a deductive approach, based on features encountered in a corpus of nearly 100 texts from c. 200 bce to c. 700 ce (listed as Table 1). It aims to remedy three frequently encountered weaknesses in scholarly practice: the unsatisfactory labelling of literary genres, a tendency to analyse a text in isolation, and a focus on disunity, which testifies to a lack of intuition for reading the text as a whole. Rather than applying a genre label, insight into what kind of text one is dealing with is gained by considering the combination of literary features encountered in the text. The features (‘points’) in the Inventory deal with all key aspects of a text. The application of these points to a text results in a ‘profile’, a complete literary description of a text. Hundreds of profiles have been created and published in an online database. The book is logically structured. Part 1 explains the approach, Part 2 contains the full text of the Inventory, Part 3 comments in detail on each of its sections, and Part 4 contains four sample profiles (Jubilees, Temple Scroll, Mishnah and Genesis Kabbah). A real understanding of the Inventory might not be obtainable by reading the book alone, but might require an attempt to apply it to a text.
Maria Cioată
Sheaffer, Andrea M., Envisioning the Book of Judith: How Art Illuminates Minor Characters (The Bible in the Modern World, 64; Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2014), pp. xii + 156. 29 figures. £50.00/€60.00/$80.00. ISBN 978-1-909697-50-8; ISSN 1747-9630.
In this intriguing interdisciplinary study S. combines literary and visual analysis to provide fuller pictures than hitherto of the minor characters in the book of Judith. The study begins with a review of scholarship, as befits its origins as a dissertation, and then goes on in subsequent chapters to treat Achior, Judith's maidservant, the Israelite crowd, Holofernes’ eunuch Bagoas, and Holofernes himself For each character, S. carries out both a textual/historical analysis and a visual analysis based on one or more paintings of the character in question. The images discussed range in date from late fifteenth to early twentieth centuries, and are a powerful illustration of the appeal and significance of this narrative across time and culture. A concluding chapter draws together the conclusions from the foregoing individual analyses, showing how the combined methodology has enabled a much better appreciation of the roles played by the minor characters and highlighted unexpected aspects of their contribution to the plot-line. This fits with and expands the narrative's overall theme of God working through the underdog, which begins with Judith herself who is a (mere) widow. S.'s study is a fine example of how considering the re-presentation of a biblical text in other non-textual media can give the reader a greater understanding of the text, even though the re-presentations may postdate the text by centuries, even millennia.
Deborah W. Rooke
Tervanotko, Hanna, Denying her Voice: The Figure of Miriam in Ancient Jewish Literature (JAJSup, 23; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2016), pp. 354. €80.00. ISBN 978-3-52555-105-9.
This fine monograph (revised from the author's doctoral dissertation) examines the characterization of Miriam in biblical and subsequent Second Temple sources, including the LXX, the DSS, the writings of Ezekiel the Tragedian, Demetrius, Philo and Josephus. Its strength lies in its careful attention to the nuances of the biblical texts and in their revisions by Judaean and Egyptian writers, which has generated penetrating insights regarding the marginalization of women in the Hellenistic period: the aversion of male scribes to portray women as independent female figures; the sexual threat of unmarried women (where Amram's brother Uzziel is identified as Miriam's husband in 4Q543/5); the stereotypical ideal of married women exclusively as child bearers; the presumed inferiority of women; and as Miriam's role as a leader and prophetess is minimized in texts where the political influence of the Levitical authorities was apparent. There are few errors, although the references to Talmudic citations are not always clear (e.g. b. Šebu p. 64, n. 80). The volume is particularly important for its exposure of the literary bedrock upon which early rabbinic (including midrashic) exegetes built their negative portrayals of women, in order to justify the exclusion of women from public life. It is also an exceptionally rich study of the complexity and diversity of reception histories in Jewish antiquity, and one that is highly recommended.
Sandra Jacobs
Theobald, Michael, Israel-Vergessenheit in den Pastoralbriefen. Bin neuer Vorschlag zu ihrer historisch-theologischen Verortung im 2. Jahrhundert n. Chr. unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Ignatius-Briefe (Stuttgarter Bibelstudien, 229; Stuttgart: Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk, 2016), pp. 428. €38.00. ISBN 978-3-4600-3294-1.
The range covered by this volume is more extensive, and potentially more important, than the title might suggest. Its provocation is the absence from the Pastoral Epistles of any concern for the status of Israel and her place in God's purposes, and equally of Jerusalem as central to ‘Paul's’ understanding of his mission, both key themes in Romans on which the Pastorals are inter-textually dependent. This ‘Israel-forgetting’, also evident in other contemporary gentile Christian texts, is to be contrasted with those for which Israel, the Scriptures, or the covenant constitute fundamental, largely negatively or polemically framed, theological trajectories. T.'s investigation, which presupposes their pseudepigraphic character and a date in the 120s-140s, encompasses studies of the reworking in the Pastorals of the key relevant passages from Romans and other Pauline letters, of the history of a Pauline letter corpus with the inclusion of the Pastoral collection, and evidence of knowledge of it, of their influence on the Ignatian corpus (whose authentic early second-century date is, as in other recent German scholarship, rejected), and of their similarities with the Acts of Paul. T.'s goal is both historical—to locate this distinctive ‘remembered Paul’ in Asia Minor—and theological—to consider the hermeneutical consequences of the canonical status of the Pastoral Epistles as part of the Pauline corpus, particularly in the light of the Second Vatican Council's concern with the Church's relationship with Israel and with other religions. The careful analysis and succinct interaction with scholarship contribute to a stimulating argument.
Judith M. Lieu
Wacker, Marie-Theres, Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah (Wisdom Commentary, 31; Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2016), pp. xlvi+ 157. $39.95. ISBN 978-0-8146-8155-8.
In the format common to this series (the same ‘Foreword’ and only a few minor changes to the ‘Editor's Introduction’), which seeks to provide serious feminist engagement with the whole text, W. comments on Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah. Following her ‘Author's Introduction’ and a brief introduction to Baruch, the text is discussed in four sections: l.l-15a (‘Connecting Babylon and Jerusalem’); 1.15b-3.8 (‘The Exiles’ Prayer’); 3.9-4.4 (‘Where Wisdom is to be Found’); and 5.5-5.9 (‘Jerusalem, Woman-City and Mother of Israel’); these are followed by a chapter reflecting as a feminist reader on these five chapters. The Letter of Jeremiah (otherwise, Bar. 6.1-73), which constitutes a sustained polemic belittling the cult of inanimate objects, is discussed in a chapter subtitled ‘A Deconstruction of Images’. The book ends with a very brief ‘final personal conclusion’, a list of works cited, an index of Scripture and other ancient texts and one of subjects. The nrsv translation is accompanied by numerous textual notes to help the reader to a clearer understanding of what the Greek text says (W. argues that the translators too often took recourse to a hypothetical Semitic original in correcting the Greek), while grey-scale insets provide the contributions of W.'s dialogue partners. The cormnentary is written at a level that should be accessible to most readers and is well footnoted for those who would want to pursue further study of these books. Among its strengths is its identification of a great many intertextual relationships with biblical literature, while it argues clearly Baruch's identification with Torah. Discussion of gendered language and other feminist concerns does not obtrude and the cormnentary may be recommended as a useful guide to these texts, helpful not least to those whose tradition does not regard Baruch or the Letter of Jeremiah as Scripture.
George Nicol
Whitmarsh, Tim and Stuart Thomson (eds.), The Romance between Greece and the East (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015), pp. xiv + 396. $44.99/£27.99. ISBN 978-1-107-54300-3 (paperback).
This is a handsome paperback edition of a pathbreaking collection of 20 accomplished essays, first published in hardback in 2013 but not reviewed in the B.L. at that time. Tim Whitmarsh is an outstanding scholar of Greek culture, especially of the later period, and he is a leading voice in pressing for a much more inclusive view than customary of who might count as Greeks and how we should define Greekness. The title is a pun, clearly intended both to point to the (literary) relationship between Greeks and a wide variety of oriental cultures, and to delimit the subject matter under consideration to romance in the literary sense, that is to say ‘fiction-like’ literature (as the editors describe it). This kind of literature, whether written or oral, is of course a prime area for cultural exchange, for the migration of genres, themes and stories across language barriers, and for hybridization. Here the focus is on written texts. As far as readers of the B.L. are concerned, the two contributions of most obvious interest form half of the third section (of five) in the book, devoted to Jews and Phoenicians. Emily Kneebone studies Josephus's transmutation of the Greek Esther in terms of Diaspora Jewish cultural self-definition, while Jenny Barbour, a biblical scholar, interprets a fictional element within a wisdom text, Qohelet, in terms of the tropes about oriental kings. Her approach is also in terms of internal Jewish self-scrutiny. Whitmarsh's introduction extends its review to other Hellenistic Jewish works, including the remarkable (and undateable) Joseph and Asenath, which, as he admits, might have had its own study, and also to some pertinent comments on the Alexandrian Greek Bible translation as, in effect, a new creation of integrationist literature. The Jewish-Greek interaction may not be paradigmatic of all ancient biculturalisms and bilingualisms—there was indeed no one model—but we have by far the most information about it, as Whitmarsh is well aware. Here he has deliberately focused on less familiar areas. Nonetheless, many of the other essays will also be of great interest to those whose primary concern is to understand the biblical world, and they will gain much from this exploration of a selection of fascinating literary artefacts (or what remains of them), that somehow mesh Greek culture with other traditions, ranging from Egypt, to Persia, and from Anatolia to Mesopotamia.
Tessa Rajak
Note also the following books reviewed in other sections of this, Book List:
De Lange, Nicholas, Japheth in the Tents of Shem: Greek Bible Translations in Byzantine Judaism — see p. 44
Kleinert, Ulfried, Das Rätsel der Königin von Saba. Geschichte und Mythos — see p. 119
Taschl-Erber, Andrea and Irmtraud Fischer (eds.), Vermittelte Gegenwart. Konzeptionen der Gottespräsenz von der Zeit des Zweiten Tempels bis Anfang des 2. Jahrhunderts n. Chr. — see p. 155