Two Gods in Heaven

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Schäfer
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Philo Of Alexandria ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Jewish Mysticism ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
Son Of Man ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
History Of ◽  
Book Of Daniel ◽  
Common Era

Contrary to popular belief, Judaism was not always strictly monotheistic. This book reveals the long and little-known history of a second, junior god in Judaism, showing how this idea was embraced by rabbis and Jewish mystics in the early centuries of the common era and casting Judaism's relationship with Christianity in an entirely different light. The book demonstrates how the Jews of the pre-Christian Second Temple period had various names for a second heavenly power—such as Son of Man, Son of the Most High, and Firstborn before All Creation. The book traces the development of the concept from the Son of Man vision in the biblical Book of Daniel to the Qumran literature, the Ethiopic Book of Enoch, and the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria. After the destruction of the Second Temple, the picture changes drastically. While the early Christians of the New Testament took up the idea and developed it further, their Jewish contemporaries were divided. Most rejected the second god, but some—particularly the Jews of Babylonia and the writers of early Jewish mysticism—revived the ancient Jewish notion of two gods in heaven. Describing how early Christianity and certain strands of rabbinic Judaism competed for ownership of a second god to the creator, this book radically transforms our understanding of Judeo-Christian monotheism.

The Son of Man in the Vision of Daniel

2020 ◽  
pp. 19-24
Author(s):  
Peter Schäfer
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
Son Of Man ◽  
Book Of Daniel ◽  
The One ◽  
Point Of Departure

This chapter is devoted to the continuation of the Son of Man tradition in rabbinic Judaism. It explains how the Son of Man is virtually irrelevant among the rabbis of Palestine, in contrast to the Second Temple period. The point of departure of all binitarian speculations in Judaism is the enigmatic “Son of Man” in the biblical Book of Daniel. This book consists of various parts that were written at different times. It is certain that its final editing took place during the Maccabean period, which is in the first half of the second century BCE. The chapter also discusses who exactly is the Ancient One, who is the “one like a human being,” and who are the holy ones of the Most High.

scholarly journals Are there Jews and Christians in the Bible?

1997 ◽  
Vol 53 (1/2) ◽  
Author(s):  
John J. Pilch
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The New Testament

The article shows that it is anachronistic to speak of either 'Christians' or 'Jews' in the biblical period. In the New Testament both 'Words are used pejoratively by outsiders. However, it became appropriate to speak of 'Jews' when referring to the period of Rabbinic Judaism onwards, and of 'Christians' since the christological debates of the fourth century C E. 'Israel' was the in-group name during the Second Temple period. Outsiders, like the Romans, called the entire land 'Judea' and all its inhabitants 'Judeans'. Members of the 'house of Israel' called all outsiders 'non-Israel' or 'the nations'. The article concludes with a discussion of the ancient point of view of labeling persons.

What's Divine about Divine Law?

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Hayes
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Dissonance ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Philo Of Alexandria ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Western Idea ◽  
Jewish Writers ◽  
Divine Law

In the thousand years before the rise of Islam, two radically diverse conceptions of what it means to say that a law is divine confronted one another with a force that reverberates to the present. This book untangles the classical and biblical roots of the Western idea of divine law and shows how early adherents to biblical tradition—Hellenistic Jewish writers such as Philo, the community at Qumran, Paul, and the talmudic rabbis—struggled to make sense of this conflicting legacy. This book shows that for the ancient Greeks, divine law was divine by virtue of its inherent qualities of intrinsic rationality, truth, universality, and immutability, while for the biblical authors, divine law was divine because it was grounded in revelation with no presumption of rationality, conformity to truth, universality, or immutability. The book describes the collision of these opposing conceptions in the Hellenistic period, and details competing attempts to resolve the resulting cognitive dissonance. It shows how Second Temple and Hellenistic Jewish writers, from the author of 1 Enoch to Philo of Alexandria, were engaged in a common project of bridging the gulf between classical and biblical notions of divine law, while Paul, in his letters to the early Christian church, sought to widen it. The book then delves into the literature of classical rabbinic Judaism to reveal how the talmudic rabbis took a third and scandalous path, insisting on a construction of divine law intentionally at odds with the Greco-Roman and Pauline conceptions that would come to dominate the Christianized West. This book sheds critical light on an ancient debate that would shape foundational Western thought, and that continues to inform contemporary views about the nature and purpose of law and the nature and authority of Scripture.

Going Through Hell; ΤΑΡΤΑΡΟΣ in Greco-Roman Culture, Second Temple Judaism, and Philo of Alexandria

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 352-378
Author(s):  
Clint Burnett
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Second Temple Judaism ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Philo Of Alexandria ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
Roman Culture ◽  
Greek Myths

This article questions the longstanding supposition that the eschatology of the Second Temple period was solely influenced by Persian or Iranian eschatology, arguing instead that the literature of this period reflects awareness of several key Greco-Roman mythological concepts. In particular, the concepts of Tartarus and the Greek myths of Titans and Giants underlie much of the treatment of eschatology in the Jewish literature of the period. A thorough treatment of Tartarus and related concepts in literary and non-literary sources from ancient Greek and Greco-Roman culture provides a backdrop for a discussion of these themes in the Second Temple period and especially in the writings of Philo of Alexandria.

A Short History of the People Israel from the Patriarchs to the Messiah

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-207
Author(s):  
Beth A. Berkowitz
Keyword(s):  
Early Period ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Sexual Practice ◽  
Short History ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Rich Variety ◽  
Political Status ◽  
Leviticus Rabbah ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of

This article addresses recent arguments that question whether “Judaism,” as such, existed in antiquity or whether the Jewishness of the Second Temple period should be characterized in primarily ethnic terms. At stake is the question of whether it is appropriate to speak of Judaism as an abstract system or religion in this early period. An appeal to the under-used collections of Midrash Aggadah provides the context for new insights, focused around a pericope in Leviticus Rabbah that is preoccupied with this very question. This parashah goes well beyond the ethnicity/ religion binary, producing instead a rich variety of paradigms of Jewish identity that include moral probity, physical appearance, relationship to God, ritual life, political status, economics, demographics, and sexual practice.

Flavius Josephus

2019 ◽  
pp. 281-298
Author(s):  
Michael Tuval
Keyword(s):  
Jewish History ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
First Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Old Russian ◽  
Russian Version ◽  
Manuscript Tradition ◽  
History Of ◽  
Greek Manuscript

The works of first century CE Jewish historian Flavius Josephus constitute our main source for the study of Jewish history of the Second Temple period. In this chapter, we briefly discuss Josephus’ career and his four compositions, as well as the condition of the Greek manuscript tradition of his works. The chapter also deals with the Latin translations of Josephus, a late antique Christian adaptation of mainly Judean War in Latin, known as Hegesippus, and the remnants of Judean War in Syriac. Next comes Josippon, a medieval Hebrew adaptation of Josephus and some other sources, and finally the much-discussed Slavonic, or Old Russian, version of the Judean War.

Was there science in ancient Judaism? Historical and cross-cultural reflections on "religion" and "science"

2007 ◽  
Vol 36 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 461-495
Author(s):  
Annette Yoshiko Reed
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Inquiry ◽  
Biblical Interpretation ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
Religion And Science ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
Ancient Judaism ◽  
Jewish Intellectual ◽  
And Mathematics

This article considers the place of scientific inquiry in ancient Judaism with a focus on astronomy and cosmology. It explores how ancient Jews used biblical interpretation to situate "scientific" knowledge in relation to "religious" concerns. In the Second Temple period (538 B.C.E.-70 C.E.) biblical interpretation is often used to integrate insights from Mesopotamian and Greek scientific traditions. In classical rabbinic Judaism (70-600 C.E.) astronomy became marked as an esoteric discipline, and cosmology is understood in terms of Ma'aseh Bereshit, a category that blurs the boundaries between "science" and "religion." Whereas modern thinkers often see Judaism and "science" as incompatible, medieval Jewish thinkers built on these ancient traditions; some even viewed themselves as heirs to a Jewish intellectual tradition that included astronomy, cosmology, medicine and mathematics.

scholarly journals Messianic expectations in the Old Testament

2001 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Rose
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Hebrew Word ◽  
Peace And Justice ◽  
God's People ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Definition Of

The New Testament is connected to the Old Testament in a number of different ways. It is not unusual to find the word “messianic” used to categorise all the different ways in which the writers of the New Testament find Christ (and, similarly, Jewish sources of the Second Temple Period later find the future Messiah) in the Old Testament, or to identify the specific passages in the Old Testament which are now seen to point to Christ/the Messiah. In this article I argue that, if one wants to be able to appreciate the diversity, one should abandon this indiscriminate use of the word “messianic”. After a brief discussion of the meaning and use of the Hebrew word xyvm in the Old Testament, I propose a definition of the phrase “messianic expectations” (expectations focusing on a future royal figure sent by God – someone who will bring salvation to God’s people and the world and establish a kingdom characterised by features such as peace and justice). Subsequently, the origin of these expectations is located as in the proclamation of the eighth-century prophets (Amos, Isaiah and Micah). Finally, one special category of messianic expectations, that is, messianic expectations in the Books of the Psalms, is dealt with.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document