Society, the Sacred and Scripture in Ancient Judaism

Jack N. Lightstone

Description

This work explores the relationship between religion, social patterns, and the perception of the character of scripture in four modes of Ancient Judaism: (1) the Jerusalem community of the fifth to fourth centuries B.C.E. (ie, the Early Second Temple Period); (2) the Judaism of the Graeco-Roman Disapora down to the end of the fourth century of the Christian Era; (3) earliest rabbinic Judaism in the second century C.E> in the land of Israel; (4) Late Antique Talmudic Rabbinism, primarily inn Babylonia, down to the sixth century of the Christian Era. Lightstone attempts not only to describe these perceptions and relationships but also to account for them, to explore why scripture should be thus perceived. His imaginative approach to the challenging descriptive and theoretical tasks is influenced by literary and form-critical methods as well as by the methods and perspectives of social anthropology and sociology of the mind.

This unique attempts at revising the perception of the character of scripture should arouse the interest of scholars and students of Ancient Judaism.

Sujets

• Religión
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Date de parution: 30 octobre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781554587339
• Langue: English

Extrait

Studies in Christianity and Judaism / Etudes sur le christianisme et le juda sme: 3
Studies in Christianity and Judaism / Etudes sur le christianisme et le juda sme
Studies in Christianity and Judaism / Etudes sur le christianisme et le juda sme presents publications that study Judaism and Christianity together in an effort to reach an understanding of how the two religions have related and relate to each other as well as studies that offer original insight into some central aspect of the two religions or of one of them. Three groups of studies are envisaged: studies of doctrine, historical studies, and textual studies. Whereas there exist similar publications produced in Canada in a theological context, this Series reflects the specific nature and orientation of the departments of religious studies in Canadian centres of learning. In these departments Christianity and Judaism are studied from the perspective of the history of religions. Such a perspective is not necessarily aligned with one of the two traditions. It tries to transcend traditional antagonisms as well as confessional limitations. After several decades of work from such a perspective, Canadian scholars are now in a position to offer studies that put forward less conventional views of the two religions. GENERAL EDITOR: Jean Ouellette Universit de Montr al EDITORIAL BOARD: G.-H. Allard Universit de Montreal P.-E. Dion University of Toronto L. Gaston Vancouver School of Theology J. N. Lightstone Concordia University A. Mendelson McMaster University W. H. Principe University of Toronto P. Richardson University of Toronto E. P. Sanders McMaster University F. Wisse McGill University G. Vall e McMaster University
STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY AND JUDAISM
Number 3
SOCIETY, THE SACRED, AND SCRIPTURE IN ANCIENT JUDAISM
A SOCIOLOGY OF KNOWLEDGE
Jack N. Lightstone
Published for the Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion/Corporation Canadienne des Sciences Religieuses by Wilfrid Laurier University Press
1988
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Lightstone, Jack N. Society, the sacred, and scripture in ancient Judaism
(Studies in Christianity and Judaism = tudes sur le christianisme et le judaisme ; 3) Bibliography: p. Includes index. ISBN 0-88920-975-8
1. Sociology, Biblical. 2. Sociology, Jewish. 3. Bible. O.T. - Criticism, interpretation, etc., Jewish. I. Title. II. Series: Studies in Christianity and Judaism ; 3.
BS1199.S6L54 1988 220.8 301 C88-094061-1
1988 Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion/ Corporation Canadienne des Sciences Religieuses
88 89 90 91 4 3 2 1
Cover design by Michael Baldwin, MSIAD
Society, the Sacred, and Scripture in Ancient Judaism has been produced from a manuscript supplied in camera-ready form by the author.
No part of this book may he stored in a retrieval system, translated or reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, microfiche, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher.
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Wilfrid Laurier University Press Wilfrid Laurier University Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3C5
Printed in Canada
For Dorothy, Jennifer, and Etan
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
Transliterations
Chapter One: Introduction
Chapter Two: The Restoration Community and the Torah of Moses
Chapter Three: Diaspora, Sources of the Sacred, and Torah as Holy Relic
Chapter Four: Earliest Rabbinic Circles, Mishnah and Scripture as Closed System
Chapter Five: Talmudic Rabbinism, Midrash, and the Fragmentation of Scripture
Notes
Selected Bibliography and Abbreviations
General Subject Index
PREFACE
This work explores the relationship of religion, social patterns, and the perception of the character of scripture in four distinct modes of Ancient Judaism 1 ) the Restoration community of the fifth to fourth centuries BCE 2) the Judaism of the Graeco-Roman Diaspora down to the end of the fourth century CE 3) earliest rabbinic Judaism of the second century CE in the Land of Israel 4) Late Antique Talmudic Rabbinism, primarily in Babylonia, down through the sixth century CE. This work attempts, first, to describe for each of the settings how scripture is perceived and, second, to explore why it is thus perceived - that is, the first task is descriptive and the second broaches the issue of explanation and, therefore, of theory. The presentation of the material, including the consideration of four discrete Judaic modes and communities, has been organized to facilitate the theoretical agenda. The approach both to the descriptive and to theoretical aspects is heavily influenced not only by the methods of literary and form criticism now used in the study of the literature of Ancient Judaism, but also by the methods and perspectives of symbolic, cultural anthropology and the sociology of knowledge.
About these matters, I shall say more below and in chapter 1 . At this juncture, however, I should specify what this work does not attempt to do.
It does not attempt to be a comprehensive account either of Ancient Judaism or of biblical interpretation in Ancient Judaism. I have omitted entirely consideration of some groups, most notably the Dead Sea Commmunity at Qumran. Nor does this work clearly fall within the field of the history of biblical exegesis because it lacks that area s persistent attention to the content of exegesis and to the history of that content. To the extent that this study concerns itself with biblical interpretation, it focusses primarily on the form in which exegesis occurs. There is a third sense in which this study is limited in its scope. It does not attempt a comprehensive, in-depth analysis of the religion of even those groups considered, or of the literature which they have left us, or of their origins, history, and development.
What follows attempts to explore the most fundamental, coherent and general patterns which characterize the cultures of Ancient Judaic groups. It is my contention that these consistent patterns encode meaning (as does language) and thereby make statements about how the world is, about the location of the group in that world, about the nature of the interaction within and among realms in that world. In other words, these patterns convey and constitute knowledge of the topography of the socially constructed world and of relationships and processes within that topography. Scripture, once adopted as such, ostensibly provided the immutable, official map of things; what, therefore, happens to scripture, how it is reconstructed or differently perceived, in each of four distinct Judaic contexts in the Ancient World, provides valuable insight into, even an indicator of, the socio-cultural processes which underlie shared perceptions of what the world is.
For those interested in the sociology of knowledge and symbolic anthropology, the work will provide relevant evidence from Ancient and Late Antique religion and literature. I would hope as well that the study contributes to the attempt to demonstrate the value of these historical data for sociological and anthropological theorizing. For those involved in the history of religions and for scholars of Ancient Judaism in particular, I offer an attempt to show further the value of the sensibilities and perspectives of social anthropology as a complement to historical and literary critical methods in the study of religions and their literature. For the student of biblical exegesis, I offer a different way of seeing the place of scripture in the life of the community which reveres it. So, while not comprehensive, the work intends to be more than merely heuristic or suggestive. It explores different issues to a different end than is usually the case among scholars of Ancient Judaism or of biblical exegesis.
This book emerged from my participation over the last four years in the Torah/Nomos Group of the annual meetings of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies. Three chapters directly emerged from papers delivered to the group; chapter 4 and an earlier version of chapter 3 were published in the group s proceedings in Studies in Religion between 1984 and 1986 and appear in the present context with permission of the journal and its publisher. These chapters owe much to the resulting discussion and criticism by the Torah/Nomos Group. I owe, therefore, a special thanks to Professor Peter Richardson (University College, University of Toronto), who organized the group s sessions and acted as editor for the publication of the proceedings.
English translations of biblical passages are from the Revised Standard Version as published in the Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha; biblical passages cited in rabbinic texts have been so rendered, however, as to make those texts intelligible. Unless otherwise indicated, translations of extra-biblical texts are my own.
My colleagues at Concordia, Professors F. Bird, C. Davis, M. Despland, H. Joseph, D. Howes, M. Miller, S. McDonough, M. Oppenheim, I. Robinson, J. Rossner, and L. Teskey-Denton, and my students and colleagues, N. Joseph, S. Fishbane and M. McBrea ., , have all read and commented upon earlier drafts of the majority of chapters. I can imagine no better collegial context in which to work than they provide. For any faults in this study, only I am responsible.
My doctoral student, Ruth Vale, worked extensively on the the preparation of the final manuscript and the bibliography. She deserves my special gratitude. L. Stevens kindly proofread the manuscript.
This project was brought to completion with the aid of funds from Concordia University; its support is appreciated.
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanitie