Renate Egger-Wenzel - Böcker

The series Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (BZAW) covers all areas of research into the Old Testament, focusing on the Hebrew Bible, its early and later forms in Ancient Judaism, as well as its branching into many neighboring cultures of the Ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman world. BZAW welcomes submissions that make an original and significant contribution to the field; demonstrate sophisticated　engagement with the relevant secondary literature; and are written in readable, logical, and engaging prose.

Although our human emotions greatly influence our lives, there have been few studies of emotions in biblical texts. Hence the 2010 meeting of the International Society for the Study of Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature in Salzburg (Austria) was devoted to the topic of “Emotions, Feelings, and Affects within Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature”. This pioneering volume arising from the conference includes medical, musical, philosophical, historical, archaeological, literary, and theological studies of emotions, with a major focus on biblical and related texts.

Als Festgabe für den Salzburger Alttestamentler Friedrich V. Reiterer zur Vollendung des 65. Lebensjahres, dessen Forschung biblischer Weisheitsliteratur vor allem dem Buch Ben Sira gewidmet ist, überreichen Kollegen und Schüler einen Strauß von Untersuchungen, die die Interessengebiete des Jubilars beleuchten: Neben Ben Sira wird die Rolle der Weisheit in weiteren spätbiblischen Schriften, in zwischen- und neutestamentlichen Texten untersucht. Die einzelnen exegetisch-theologisch-philogischen Beiträge des Bandes stehen unter dem Motto „Kommt zu mir … sättigt euch an meinen Früchten” (Sir 24,19).

Die Beiträge des Sammelbandes behandeln spätbiblische Schriften (Tobit, Judit, griechische Esther, 1. Makkabäer, 2. Makkabäer, Buch der Weisheit, Ben Sira, Baruch, griechischer Daniel, Qumran,) aus hellenistischer Zeit unter dem Aspekt von Religion, Literatur und Gesellschaft. Den Schwerpunkt bilden Bedrohungsszenarien und die Abgrenzung gegenüber der hellenistisch geprägten Umwelt und die Identitätsfrage der Gläubigen in den vorchristlichen Jahrhunderten. Geboten werden aktuelle Untersuchungen zu einem bislang wenig beachteten Thema. Dieses ist aber zum Verständnis der Notsituation und der Lösungsmechanismen in den letzten Jahrhunderten vor der Zeitenwende und der Entwicklungen des Juden- und Christentums unverzichtbar.

Given the recent interest in the emotions presupposed in early religious literature, it has been thought useful to examine in this volume how the Jews and early Christians expressed their feelings within the prayers recorded in some of their literature. Specialists in their fields from academic institutions around the world have analysed important texts relating to this overall theme and to what is revealed with regard to such diverse topics as relations with God, exegesis, education, prophecy, linguistic expression, feminism, happiness, grief, cult, suicide, non-Jews, Hellenism, Qumran and Jerusalem. The texts discussed are in Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic and are important for a scientific understanding of how Rabbinic Judaism and Early Christianity developed their approaches to worship, to the construction of their theology and to the feelings that lay behind their religious ideas and practices. The articles contribute significantly to an historical understanding of how Jews maintained their earlier traditions but also came to terms with the ideology of the dominant Hellenistic culture that surrounded them.

The discovery of Hebrew manuscripts of Ben Sira in the Cairo Genizah has shaped and transformed the interpretation of the book. It is argued here that a proper appreciation of the manuscripts themselves is also essential for understanding this ancient work.Since their discovery 120 years ago and subsequent identification of leaves, attention has been directed to the interpretation of the ancient book, the Wisdom of Ben Sira. Serious consideration should also be given to the Hebrew manuscripts themselves and their particular contributions to understanding the language and transmission of the book. The surprising appearance of a work that was preserved by Christians and denounced by some Rabbis raises questions over the preservation of the book. At the same time, diversity among the manuscripts means that exegesis has to be built on an appreciation of the individual manuscripts. The contributors examine the manuscripts in this light, examining their discovery, the codicology and reception of the manuscripts within rabbinic and medieval Judaism, and the light they throw on the Hebrew language and poetic techniques.The book is essential reading for those working on Ben Sira, the reception of the deuterocanon, and Medieval Hebrew manuscripts.

This volume contains essays by some of the leading scholars in the study of the Jewish religious ideas in the Second Temple period, that led up to the development of early forms of Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity. Close attention is paid to the cosmological ideas to be found in the Ancient Near East and in the Hebrew Bible and to the manner in which the translators of the Hebrew Bible into Greek reflected the creativity with which Judaism engaged Hellenistic ideas about the cosmos and the creation. The concepts of heaven and divine power, human mortality, the forces of nature, combat myths, and the philosophy of wisdom, as they occur in 2 Maccabees, Ben Sira, Wisdom of Solomon and Tobit, are carefully analysed and compared with Greek and Roman world-views. There are also critical examinations of Dead Sea scroll texts, early Jewish prayers and Hebrew liturgical poetry and how they these adopt, adapt and alter earlier ideas. The editors have included appreciations of two major figures who played important roles in the study of the Second Temple period and in the history and development of the ISDCL, namely, Otto Kaiser and Alexander Di Lella, who died recently and are greatly missed by those in the field.

This set of varied and stimulating papers, by an international group of younger as well as senior scholars, examines the manner in which peoplehood was understood by the Jewish communities of the Second Temple period and by the religious traditions that emerged from those communities and later flourished in Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism. The Hebrew and Greek terms for "people" and "nation" and the name "Israel" are closely analyzed, especially in forays into wisdom literature, Jewish apologetic and the Dead Sea Scrolls, and their uses are related to geographical, political and theological developments, as well as statehood, authority and rulership in the Persian world, Hasmonean times and Ptolemaic Egypt. Especially interesting are the carefully argued and documented suggestions about how Jewish peoplehood expressed itself with regard to charitable behavior, pagan deities, and marital regulations. Those interested in the history of cultural and theological tensions will be intrigued by the studies centered on how the opponents of Jews behaved towards "the people of God", how Hellenistic Jewish culture located the Jews on the Roman rather than on the Greek side, and how early Christian discourse saw the mission among the peoples and interpreted earlier sources accordingly. The idea of the Jewish "way of life" is seen to have influenced the writer of the longer Greek version of Esther and works of fiction are shown to have had important historical data within them. Modern social theory also has its say here in a careful consideration of Cognitive theory of ethnicity and the dynamic of ethnic boundary-making.