Recherche – Detailansicht
Ausgabe: | Juli/August/2021 |
Spalte: | 670-671 |
Kategorie: | Judaistik |
Autor/Hrsg.: | De Troyer, Kristin, Schmitz, Barbara, Alfaro, Joshua, and Maximilian Häberlein [Eds.] |
Titel/Untertitel: | The Early Reception of the Torah. |
Verlag: | Berlin u. a.: De Gruyter 2020. XIV, 204 S. = Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature Studies, 39. Geb. EUR 99,95. ISBN 9783110691443. |
Rezensent: | John J. Collins |
This volume contains eleven papers from the 2017 meeting of the SBL program unit on Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature. The essays are quite diverse.
Mark Mariani reviews Abraham’s Torah observance in Second Temple texts. Jan Willem van Henten and Silvia Castelli discuss the interpretation of Massah and Meribah in the Bible, Judith and Josephus. Angela Kim Harkins writes on emotion and law in Baruch. Beate Ego uses LXX Esther and Tobit as test cases for the use of the Torah in the Diaspora. Joseph A. Weaks considers the reception of Deuteronomic and Deuteronomistic Torah Tropes in Tobit. JiSeong James Kwon re-examines the role of the Torah in Ben Sira. Hanna Tervanotko writes on the use of the Torah for divination in 1 Maccabees. Gerbern S. Oegema reviews the development of the sabbath, from biblical commandment to halakhic discussion. Tessa Rajak writes on the Torah in Fourth Maccabees. Michael Langlois discusses the reception of the Mosaic Torah in the Book of Enoch. Ryan Stokes concludes the volume with a discussion of the Mosaic Torah and defense against demons in the Book of Jubilees. Barbara Schmitz and Kristin De Troyer summarize the essays in an introduction.
All the essays are concerned with reception and use of the Torah rather than composition. The opening essays on Abraham and on Massah and Meribah deal with differences in interpretation. This is also true of Oegema’s review of the sabbath. Ego’s essay on Greek Esther and Tobit shows how Torah-based identity can have dif-ferent effects. In Tobit, the Torah helps bind the community toge-ther. In Greek Esther, it is a cause of conflict with the Gentile world. Tessa Rajak’s essay on 4 Maccabees shows how the Torah could be read through the lens of Hellenistic culture without lessening its importance. Weaks identifies Deuteronomistic themes in Torah, in contexts where the Torah is not explicitly invoked. Kwon, in contrast, shows that despite the explicit identification of Torah and wisdom in Ben Sira, the sage does not quote from it or offer explicit exegesis. He suggests that Torah is only invoked as an authority-conferring strategy. Langlois emphasizes that both the Torah and the Enochic corpus developed over time, and related to each other in various ways. Tervanotko and Stokes illustrate specialized uses of the Torah, in one case for divination and in the other for warding off evil spirits. Kim Harkins focuses on the role of emotion in the appropriation of the Law in the prayer of Baruch.
The reader cannot expect a systematic overview of the subject in a collection of seminar papers. They provide probes rather than an overview. Several are quite original, notably the essays of Kim Harkins and Tervanotko. All are stimulating, and cast light on the varied reception of the Torah in the Hellenistic era.