A Classical Ethical Problem in Ancient Philosophy and Rabbinic Thought: The Case of the Shipwrecked

2013 ◽  
Vol 106 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katell Berthelot
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Ethical Problem ◽  
Ancient Philosophy ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Babylonian Talmud ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Jewish Ethics ◽  
Philosophical Texts

The story found in Sifra Behar 5.3 and in the Babylonian Talmud, Baba Meṣi'a 62a, about two persons traveling in a desert and having a quantity of water that allows only one of them to reach civilization and survive, is well known and frequently referred to in books and articles dealing with Jewish ethics. The rabbinic texts raise the question: Should the travelers share the water and die together, or should the person who owns the water drink it in order to survive? This story reminds one of the case of the two shipwrecked men who grasp a plank that can bear the weight of only one person and therefore enables only one of them to reach the coast, a case referred to in philosophical texts from the Hellenistic and Roman periods. The similarities between the issues dealt with in the rabbinic texts and the Greco-Roman ones have indeed been noticed by several scholars working on rabbinic literature (whereas specialists of ancient philosophy generally ignore them). However, a systematic comparative analysis of the rabbinic tradition and the philosophical texts has not been undertaken so far, nor have previous studies paid much attention to the issues at stake within the Greco-Roman texts themselves, to their inner logic and relationships with one another.

From Dungeon to Haven: Competing Theories of Gestation in Leviticus Rabbah and the Babylonian Talmud

AJS Review ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (01) ◽  
pp. 143-168
Author(s):  
Shana Strauch Schick
Keyword(s):  
Medical Knowledge ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Babylonian Talmud ◽  
Leviticus Rabbah ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Representations Of Women ◽  
Roman Palestine

Rabbinic literature offers competing images of embryology and the relationship between mother and fetus. The Palestinian midrashic collection Leviticus Rabbah 14 marginalizes the active role of the mother and depicts the process of gestation as a dangerous time for the fetus. God is in charge of the care and birth of the child, and the father is the lone source of physical material. Passages in the third chapter of Bavli tractate Niddah, in contrast, reference the biological contributions of the mother and portray an idyllic image of the womb. This study explores how cultural differences, variances in representations of women, and sources of authoritative medical knowledge in Sasanian Persia and Roman Palestine contributed to the formation of these texts with markedly different understandings of the relationship between mother and fetus. I will argue that the study of the Sasanian Persian context is key to understanding the Bavli motifs, but that the Palestinian sources can best be understood with references not only to contemporaneous Greco-Roman sources, but also to ancient Iranian and Mesopotamian works, which have been generally overlooked by scholars.

scholarly journals Axiological Attitudes in the Interpretation of the Rational and Irrational in the Works of Latin Apologetics Scholars

2021 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 128-137
Author(s):  
R. R. Balandina ◽  
◽  
E. V. Kuzmina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Research Methodology ◽  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Ancient Philosophy ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Comparative Analyses ◽  
Clear Tendency ◽  
Methodological Basis

The article aims at demonstrating significant differences in the perception of rationality and irrationality in the works of ancient Greek philosophers and philosophers of the period of Latin apologetics. The authors conducted a comparative analysis of the works of ancient and Latin philosophers. The analysis revealed that the Greeks solved the problem of the ratio of the rational and the irrational in an ontological way, while the Latins shifted the focus on the problem to the axiological dimension. The article presents the correlation of three examples of ontological orientation of pagan philosophy with three examples of axiological orientation of Latin theology of the apologetic period. The research methodology is based on the combination of historical-functional and comparative analyses. The works of N. S. Mudragey, where the validity of the use of the concepts "rational" and "irrational" in relation to ancient philosophy was proved, provided the methodological basis of the study, as well as the works of G. G. Mayorov, who actually was the first to consider Latin apologetics as a system with a clear tendency from hellenophilia to hellenophobia. The works of ancient Greek philosophers provided the theoretical basis of the study, as well as the works of Lactantius, Arnobius, Tertullian, and Minucius.

Embodied Inner Human Being

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 20-57
Author(s):  
Annette Weissenrieder ◽  
Gregor Etzelmüller
Keyword(s):  
Deep Understanding ◽  
The Body ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Ancient Medicine ◽  
The Core ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Medicine And Philosophy ◽  
Philosophical Texts ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Relationship

In this paper we take issue with George H. van Kooten’s recent argument that Paul’s concept of inner human being has a background in ancient philosophical treatises as a metaphor of the soul. We argue that its Greco-Roman physiological meaning was decisive in its adoption by Paul and that the split between ancient medicine and philosophy was not essential in antiquity. Ancient medical-philosophical texts did not focus on the core or center of a person but rather sought a deep understanding of his or her inner aspects. These texts sought to understand how it is that we can discover bodily information about this inner person and to what degree the relationship between the inner and outer person can be interpreted. At the same time, however, we are discussing Walter Burkert’s evolutionary understanding of Pauline’s concept of the inner and outer human being. Paul’s definition of the inner human being corresponds to recent anthropological concepts of embodiment insofar as the visible outer human being has an inside which, according to Paul, is not detached from the body, but must be grasped from a physical perspective.

Plato in Rabbi Shimeon bar Yohai's Cave (B. Shabbat 33b–34a): The Talmudic Inversion of Plato's Politics of Philosophy

AJS Review ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert
Keyword(s):  
Wide Distribution ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Babylonian Talmud ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Collective Imagination

Thus we are told in one of the most famous narratives in talmudic literature, in its most elaborate and complex version in the Babylonian Talmud. The late ancient and early medieval rabbinic popularity of Rabbi Shimeon bar Yohai's (henceforth Rashbi) sojourn in the cave is demonstrated by the wide distribution of the motif in various rabbinic texts. It later gained additional prominence in the Jewish collective imagination to such a degree that no less than the composition of the Zohar was attributed to Rashbi; indeed, the text was considered a product of his sojourn in the cave. As is the case with other extensive narratives in the Babylonian Talmud about early rabbinic sages from the days of the Mishnah, different and most likely earlier versions of the whole or parts of this story can be found elsewhere in rabbinic literature. Others have gone about the task of carefully assembling and comparing the versions of the story, and various interpretations of it have been offered. Surely, any additional attempt at making sense of the story and decoding what the rabbinic narrators in the Babylonian Talmud sought to convey with its inclusion in the larger corpus needs to take this work into account.

The Origins of the Seder and Haggadah

2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-134
Author(s):  
Joshua Kulp
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Jerusalem Temple ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Last Supper ◽  
Death Of Jesus ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Temple

Emerging methods in the study of rabbinic literature now enable greater precision in dating the individual components of the Passover seder and haggadah. These approaches, both textual and socio-historical, have led to a near consensus among scholars that the Passover seder as described in rabbinic literature did not yet exist during the Second Temple period. Hence, cautious scholars no longer seek to find direct parallels between the last supper as described in the Gospels and the rabbinic seder. Rather, scholarly attention has focused on varying attempts of Jewish parties, notably rabbis and Christians, to provide religious meaning and sanctity to the Passover celebration after the death of Jesus and the destruction of the Temple. Three main forces stimulated the rabbis to develop innovative seder ritual and to generate new, relevant exegeses to the biblical Passover texts: (1) the twin calamities of the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and the Bar-Kokhba revolt; (2) competition with emerging Christian groups; (3) assimilation of Greco-Roman customs and manners. These forces were, of course, significant contributors to the rise of a much larger array of rabbinic institutions, ideas and texts. Thus surveying scholarship on the seder reviews scholarship on the emergence of rabbinic Judaism.

scholarly journals Comparative analysis of the epistemological language in translation

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-70
Author(s):  
Irina G. Chernenok ◽  
Elena M. Gordeeva
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Immanuel Kant ◽  
English Language ◽  
Cognitive Factors ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Conceptual Integration ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Philosophical Texts ◽  
Study Context

The article presents a comparative analysis of the translation of basic epistemological terms and attempts to analyse cognitive factors underlying the construction of meaning in the translation process. Apart from linguistic expertise, the translation of philosophical texts re­quires a profound understading of the subject matter. Ambiguity of philosophical terms, which appears as a result of the development of a particular concept within a specific philo­sophical school of thought, may lead to inconsistencies in the translation decision-making. The paper aims to apply a cognitive approach to the translation of epistemological terms into the German and English language: Erkenntnis/cognition vs knowledge. In this study, context is interpreted as a verbalization of a specific conceptual frame facilitating the identification of the appropriate meaning of the term on a deeper, conceptual level. The article contains nu­merous examples from the works of Immanuel Kant translated into English as well as the data from multilingual translation corpora which are used to describe translation-relevant aspects of conceptual integration in philosophical discourse.

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