Marie Noonan Sabin
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195143591
- eISBN:
- 9780199834600
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195143590.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
Knowing that the earliest Jesus traditions took shape in a Jewish milieu, Sabin sets the composition of the earliest gospel in the context of the theological discourse of first‐century Judaism. That ...
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Knowing that the earliest Jesus traditions took shape in a Jewish milieu, Sabin sets the composition of the earliest gospel in the context of the theological discourse of first‐century Judaism. That discourse took the form of an exchange between current events and Scripture: contemporary persons and events were understood through the lens of the Hebrew Bible, while at the same time, the biblical word was reopened – i.e., reinterpreted – so as to reveal its relevance to the present faith community. Applying this kind of compositional process (which is related to Midrash) to the Gospel of Mark, Sabin uncovers a fresh reading of the Seed, Fig Tree, and Vineyard parables; of the various Temple scenes; of the foolish disciples and the wise women; and of the gospel's open‐ended ending. She highlights the results of her findings by juxtaposing them with interpretations of the same passages by various church fathers as well as by readings from modern critics. Sabin sees Mark as an original theologian shaping his material out of two primary Jewish traditions: the Wisdom traditions, with their emphasis on God's presence in daily life, and Creation theology, which imagined the End Time not as a catastrophe but as a return to the Garden. She thus offers a new way of understanding Mark's use of Scripture, his eschatology, and his presentation of Jesus. In conclusion, she argues that retrieving Mark's voice in the context of Early Judaism brings with it insights much needed in our day: of God's presence in the ordinary, of God's image reflected in female as well as male, of watchfulness as the way of wisdom, and of God's revelation as ongoing.Less
Knowing that the earliest Jesus traditions took shape in a Jewish milieu, Sabin sets the composition of the earliest gospel in the context of the theological discourse of first‐century Judaism. That discourse took the form of an exchange between current events and Scripture: contemporary persons and events were understood through the lens of the Hebrew Bible, while at the same time, the biblical word was reopened – i.e., reinterpreted – so as to reveal its relevance to the present faith community. Applying this kind of compositional process (which is related to Midrash) to the Gospel of Mark, Sabin uncovers a fresh reading of the Seed, Fig Tree, and Vineyard parables; of the various Temple scenes; of the foolish disciples and the wise women; and of the gospel's open‐ended ending. She highlights the results of her findings by juxtaposing them with interpretations of the same passages by various church fathers as well as by readings from modern critics. Sabin sees Mark as an original theologian shaping his material out of two primary Jewish traditions: the Wisdom traditions, with their emphasis on God's presence in daily life, and Creation theology, which imagined the End Time not as a catastrophe but as a return to the Garden. She thus offers a new way of understanding Mark's use of Scripture, his eschatology, and his presentation of Jesus. In conclusion, she argues that retrieving Mark's voice in the context of Early Judaism brings with it insights much needed in our day: of God's presence in the ordinary, of God's image reflected in female as well as male, of watchfulness as the way of wisdom, and of God's revelation as ongoing.
Judith Lieu
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- July 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199262892
- eISBN:
- 9780191602818
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199262896.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
Early Christianity took shape through its texts, and is only available to us in the earliest centuries through its texts. Using contemporary models of how identity is constructed, the construction of ...
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Early Christianity took shape through its texts, and is only available to us in the earliest centuries through its texts. Using contemporary models of how identity is constructed, the construction of Christian identity through texts of the first two centuries can be placed alongside that of Greeks, Romans, and Jews. Particularly important are a sense of history, defining boundaries, a distinctive practice, conceptualized space to inhabit, constructions of gender, the use of ethnic categories, and the manipulation of ‘the other’, alongside the explicit development of a technical terminology. Close analysis demonstrates the strong continuities in strategies in identity-construction between overtly Christian texts and those of their contemporaries, and provides a clearer framework for considering texts and situations that resist easy categorization. This approach offers a radical alternative to explanations of the development of early Christianity through the growth of institutions, doctrine or ritual, and allows exploration of diversity without prejudice regarding orthodoxy or canonicity. It also offers a way forward towards an understanding of the continuities of Christianity across time and place.Less
Early Christianity took shape through its texts, and is only available to us in the earliest centuries through its texts. Using contemporary models of how identity is constructed, the construction of Christian identity through texts of the first two centuries can be placed alongside that of Greeks, Romans, and Jews. Particularly important are a sense of history, defining boundaries, a distinctive practice, conceptualized space to inhabit, constructions of gender, the use of ethnic categories, and the manipulation of ‘the other’, alongside the explicit development of a technical terminology. Close analysis demonstrates the strong continuities in strategies in identity-construction between overtly Christian texts and those of their contemporaries, and provides a clearer framework for considering texts and situations that resist easy categorization. This approach offers a radical alternative to explanations of the development of early Christianity through the growth of institutions, doctrine or ritual, and allows exploration of diversity without prejudice regarding orthodoxy or canonicity. It also offers a way forward towards an understanding of the continuities of Christianity across time and place.
Abed Azzam
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231169318
- eISBN:
- 9780231538978
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231169318.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter explains how Nietzsche’s pre-Christian history includes Judaism as a second path leading to Christianity. His historical conception of Judaism results in Judaism being divided into three ...
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This chapter explains how Nietzsche’s pre-Christian history includes Judaism as a second path leading to Christianity. His historical conception of Judaism results in Judaism being divided into three phases: Early Judaism, Priestly Judaism, and Diaspora Judaism. The chapter focuses on Nietzsche’s treatment of the first two phases of Judaism. The parallels established between ancient Greek religion and Early Judaism follow the claim that Nietzsche’s conception of Early Judaism is a Dionysian one. Nietzsche characterizes Early Judaism in the same way he characterizes ancient Greek religion: in terms of a religion of thankfulness. Nietzsche conceives of the Antichrist as primary in relation to the Dionysian, in which it becomes clear how his revelation of the Dionysian origin grants the Antichrist the legitimacy it requires. This Nietzschean strategy resembles Paul’s legitimization of the Christian faith through the original faith of Abraham.Less
This chapter explains how Nietzsche’s pre-Christian history includes Judaism as a second path leading to Christianity. His historical conception of Judaism results in Judaism being divided into three phases: Early Judaism, Priestly Judaism, and Diaspora Judaism. The chapter focuses on Nietzsche’s treatment of the first two phases of Judaism. The parallels established between ancient Greek religion and Early Judaism follow the claim that Nietzsche’s conception of Early Judaism is a Dionysian one. Nietzsche characterizes Early Judaism in the same way he characterizes ancient Greek religion: in terms of a religion of thankfulness. Nietzsche conceives of the Antichrist as primary in relation to the Dionysian, in which it becomes clear how his revelation of the Dionysian origin grants the Antichrist the legitimacy it requires. This Nietzschean strategy resembles Paul’s legitimization of the Christian faith through the original faith of Abraham.
Jennifer Wright Knust and Zsuzsanna Varhelyi (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199738960
- eISBN:
- 9780199918676
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199738960.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion in the Ancient World
Ancient Mediterranean Sacrifice reappraises the diverse religious texts and practices of the late Hellenistic and Roman periods, investigating the meanings and functions of sacrifice in ...
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Ancient Mediterranean Sacrifice reappraises the diverse religious texts and practices of the late Hellenistic and Roman periods, investigating the meanings and functions of sacrifice in the ancient world. Gathering together essays that address sacrificial acts, ancient theories of sacrifice, and literary as well as artistic depictions of sacrifice, the connections between Mediterranean religions are highlighted, as are the significant differences among them. The attempt to identify a single underlying significance of sacrifice, this collection demonstrates, is futile. It is simply not adequate to define sacrifice solely as a primal expression of violence, despite the frequent equation of sacrifice-religion and sacrifice-violence in many modern scholarly works, nor is it sufficient to suggest that all sacrifice can be explained by guilt, by the need to prepare and distribute animal flesh, or by the communal function of both the sacrificial ritual and the meal. Sacrifice may be invested with all of these meanings, or none of them: the killing of the animal, for example, may take place off stage and the practical, day-to-day routine of plant and animal offerings may have been invested with little meaning at all. Still, sacrificial acts, or discourses about these acts, did offer an important site of contestation for many ancient writers, even when the religions they were defending no longer participated in sacrifice. Negotiations over the meaning of sacrifice remained central to the competitive machinations of the literate elite, and their sophisticated theological arguments did not so much undermine sacrificial practice as continue to assume its essential validity.Less
Ancient Mediterranean Sacrifice reappraises the diverse religious texts and practices of the late Hellenistic and Roman periods, investigating the meanings and functions of sacrifice in the ancient world. Gathering together essays that address sacrificial acts, ancient theories of sacrifice, and literary as well as artistic depictions of sacrifice, the connections between Mediterranean religions are highlighted, as are the significant differences among them. The attempt to identify a single underlying significance of sacrifice, this collection demonstrates, is futile. It is simply not adequate to define sacrifice solely as a primal expression of violence, despite the frequent equation of sacrifice-religion and sacrifice-violence in many modern scholarly works, nor is it sufficient to suggest that all sacrifice can be explained by guilt, by the need to prepare and distribute animal flesh, or by the communal function of both the sacrificial ritual and the meal. Sacrifice may be invested with all of these meanings, or none of them: the killing of the animal, for example, may take place off stage and the practical, day-to-day routine of plant and animal offerings may have been invested with little meaning at all. Still, sacrificial acts, or discourses about these acts, did offer an important site of contestation for many ancient writers, even when the religions they were defending no longer participated in sacrifice. Negotiations over the meaning of sacrifice remained central to the competitive machinations of the literate elite, and their sophisticated theological arguments did not so much undermine sacrificial practice as continue to assume its essential validity.
Mira Balberg
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780520295926
- eISBN:
- 9780520968660
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520295926.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
Blood for Thought delves into a relatively unexplored area of classical rabbinic literature: the vast corpus of laws, regulations, and instructions pertaining to sacrificial rituals. The book traces ...
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Blood for Thought delves into a relatively unexplored area of classical rabbinic literature: the vast corpus of laws, regulations, and instructions pertaining to sacrificial rituals. The book traces and analyzes the ways in which the early rabbis interpreted and conceived of biblical sacrifices, and examines sacrifice and worship in the temple as sites through which the rabbis negotiated new and old intellectual, political, and religious ideas and practices. In its focus on legal-ritual texts and in its cultural orientation, this book diverges from the prevalent approach to the cessation of sacrifice in early Judaism. Rather than viewing the rabbinic project as an attempt to transform a sacrificial religion into a non-sacrificial religion, Blood for Thought argues that the rabbis developed anewsacrificial vision. This new sacrificial vision does not seek to “substitute” obsolete sacrificial practices, but rather to rearrange, reframe, and redefine sacrifice as a critically important component of social and religious life. The book argues that through their seemingly technical legal and ritual discussions, the rabbis present remarkably innovative perspectives on sacrifices and radical interpretations of biblical cultic institutions, and that their reinvention of sacrifice gives this practice new meanings within the greater context of the rabbis’ political and religious ideology.Less
Blood for Thought delves into a relatively unexplored area of classical rabbinic literature: the vast corpus of laws, regulations, and instructions pertaining to sacrificial rituals. The book traces and analyzes the ways in which the early rabbis interpreted and conceived of biblical sacrifices, and examines sacrifice and worship in the temple as sites through which the rabbis negotiated new and old intellectual, political, and religious ideas and practices. In its focus on legal-ritual texts and in its cultural orientation, this book diverges from the prevalent approach to the cessation of sacrifice in early Judaism. Rather than viewing the rabbinic project as an attempt to transform a sacrificial religion into a non-sacrificial religion, Blood for Thought argues that the rabbis developed anewsacrificial vision. This new sacrificial vision does not seek to “substitute” obsolete sacrificial practices, but rather to rearrange, reframe, and redefine sacrifice as a critically important component of social and religious life. The book argues that through their seemingly technical legal and ritual discussions, the rabbis present remarkably innovative perspectives on sacrifices and radical interpretations of biblical cultic institutions, and that their reinvention of sacrifice gives this practice new meanings within the greater context of the rabbis’ political and religious ideology.
Nick Allen
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199659289
- eISBN:
- 9780191764752
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199659289.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies, Philosophy of Religion
This classic essay by Hubert and Mauss was both an early contribution to Durkheim’s struggle to establish an academic discipline studying social phenomena and, for the authors, the start of a ...
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This classic essay by Hubert and Mauss was both an early contribution to Durkheim’s struggle to establish an academic discipline studying social phenomena and, for the authors, the start of a collaborative study of religious phenomena. A summary is offered of the very dense argument, which concentrates on comparing animal sacrifice in Vedic India and early Judaism. The essay emphasizes the variety within sacrificial practice and the potential incompatibility of sacrifice and totemism. It proposes an origin for sacrifice of a god (as in Christianity) rather than to gods, and having defined sacrifice as effecting communication between the sacred and profane, explores its function, which can for instance be one either of sacralization or of desacralization (the latter including scapegoat rituals). The essay is enriched by the authors’ introduction when they reprinted it in 1909, and the chapter ends with a selective account of more recent reactions to it.Less
This classic essay by Hubert and Mauss was both an early contribution to Durkheim’s struggle to establish an academic discipline studying social phenomena and, for the authors, the start of a collaborative study of religious phenomena. A summary is offered of the very dense argument, which concentrates on comparing animal sacrifice in Vedic India and early Judaism. The essay emphasizes the variety within sacrificial practice and the potential incompatibility of sacrifice and totemism. It proposes an origin for sacrifice of a god (as in Christianity) rather than to gods, and having defined sacrifice as effecting communication between the sacred and profane, explores its function, which can for instance be one either of sacralization or of desacralization (the latter including scapegoat rituals). The essay is enriched by the authors’ introduction when they reprinted it in 1909, and the chapter ends with a selective account of more recent reactions to it.
