Ernest S. Frerichs – författare

This collection presents ten essays that examine the distinction between `true religion' and magic in Christianity and Judaism. Topics covered include Babylonian witchcraft, Jesus the Magician, magic in Hassidism and Kabbalah, and magic in Anglo-Saxon England.

While Jews in the land of Israel in ancient times shared much in common - scripture, reverence for the Temple and its cult, some traits as one 'Orthodox' Judaism. Diverse 'Judaisms' flourished, each with its particular way of life, world view, and definition of the social entity, or 'Israel'. Because there was no single, unitary Judaism, there also was no one 'Messiah-idea' or 'Messianic doctrine'. Various readings of the Messiah-theme reached definition in the various, unrelated religious systems or Judaisms produced by those Jews - hence 'Judaisms' and 'their Messiahs'. In this book, distinguished specialists in various Judaisms of late antiquity, including Christian scholars, take up the differing roles of the Messiah-idea in the various traditions examined. Dealing with the best-documented Judaic systems - the Essene community at Qumran, Christian Judaisms represented by Mark and by Matthew, the nascent rabbinic Judaism portrayed in the Mishnah, the Judaic system implicit in the writings of Philo - the authors work out how a given system treats the Messiah theme. Some systems - Philo's and the Mishnah's - find the theme important. Others place it at the center of their systems and treat the Messiah as the purpose and goal of their respective Judaisms, their expectations varying from a political-military figure to an eschatological diety. In its approach to evidence, not harmonizing but analyzing and differentiating, this book marks a revolutionary shift in the study of ancient Judaism and Christianity.

While Jews in the land of Israel in ancient times shared much in common - scripture, reverence for the Temple and its cult, some traits as one 'Orthodox' Judaism. Diverse 'Judaisms' flourished, each with its particular way of life, world view, and definition of the social entity, or 'Israel'. Because there was no single, unitary Judaism, there also was no one 'Messiah-idea' or 'Messianic doctrine'. Various readings of the Messiah-theme reached definition in the various, unrelated religious systems or Judaisms produced by those Jews - hence 'Judaisms' and 'their Messiahs'. In this book, distinguished specialists in various Judaisms of late antiquity, including Christian scholars, take up the differing roles of the Messiah-idea in the various traditions examined. Dealing with the best-documented Judaic systems - the Essene community at Qumran, Christian Judaisms represented by Mark and by Matthew, the nascent rabbinic Judaism portrayed in the Mishnah, the Judaic system implicit in the writings of Philo - the authors work out how a given system treats the Messiah theme. Some systems - Philo's and the Mishnah's - find the theme important. Others place it at the center of their systems and treat the Messiah as the purpose and goal of their respective Judaisms, their expectations varying from a political-military figure to an eschatological diety. In its approach to evidence, not harmonizing but analyzing and differentiating, this book marks a revolutionary shift in the study of ancient Judaism and Christianity.

This volume assembles for the first time a representative statement of Judaic learning on the Old Testament as it is studied today by many of the most important Jewish Bible scholars of the age. A host of internationally known scholars - American, European, and Israeli - here present a variety of rich perspectives on the study and interpretation of the Scriptures revered by both Judaism and Christianity. These studies make clear that no single Jewish school of biblical scholarship exists. Rather there is a Jewish approach, involving appreciation for Hebrew as a living language; the reality of Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel; the continuity of Scripture in the life of Israel, the Jewish people, and the state of Israel; and a complete and healthy adaptation of the critical perspectives of contemporary scholarship. This unique and stimulating volume vividly demonstrates the importance and value of critical scholarly discourse on the Hebrew Scripture (Old Testament) by Jewish scholars for both Christian and Jewish communities.

Continues the study of ancient Judaism by academic methods. This volume includes, by chapter descriptions: Galatians (1:1-5): Paul and Greco-Roman Rhetoric; Text as Interpretation: Paul and Ancient Readings of Paul; Translation and Exegetical Argumentation in the Targums to the Pentateuch; Topic, Rhetoric, Logic: Analysis of a Syllogistic Passage in the Yershalmi; System or Tradition? The Bavli and its Sources; and Literary Studies of Aggadic Narrative: A Bibliography. Co-published with Studies in Judaism.