The Literary Imagination in Jewish Antiquity

Mroczek, Eva

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190279837.001.0001

Cited by 150 publications

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“…First is that these texts are but a fraction of an incredibly creative and active culture in early Judaism that generated numerous narrative texts with a variety of fictional characters and historical figures already present in the literary tradition. Figures such as Ezra, Daniel, David, and Solomon appear and reappear in texts as they are given cultural biographies in early Judaism (Mroczek 2016). Second is that the modern genre distinction between historiography and storytelling is anachronistic and must be used with caution when discussing ancient Jewish literature.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Postexilic Prose Traditions in the Writings

Bolin

2018

The Oxford Handbook of the Writings of the Hebrew Bible

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This chapter explores the prose traditions in the Writings under the broad division between historiography and storytelling. While 1–2 Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah make use of archival sources and possibly genuine first-person accounts, these materials are arranged and subsumed under an ideological umbrella—much like contemporaneous Greek historiography. Similarly, the storytelling of Daniel, Esther, Ruth, and the prose portions of Job, while clearly exhibiting folkloristic qualities, also show their primary concern to be with and address the realities faced by Jewish communities in the Persian and Hellenistic Diaspora. Overall the prose traditions in the Writings offer evidence of vibrant and active literary cultures among both temple personnel and cultured elites.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Postexilic Prose Traditions in the Writings

Bolin

2018

The Oxford Handbook of the Writings of the Hebrew Bible

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“…Thus, Hebrew was mostly a secondary language employed in specialized sociolinguistic contexts. Moreover, as Eva Mroczek points out, the outlines of Jewish sacred literature during this time were remarkably fluid (). In general, the sociolinguistic contexts for Hebrew after the exile and until the Bar Kokhba revolts were multifaceted.…”

Section: Methodological Debate and Reflectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By this definition, the codification of the Mishnah then ushered in a new era in the history of the Hebrew language as well as a new set of issues and problems related to Hebrew as a Diaspora language of the Jewish people over the next two millennia. Such terms also acknowledge some of the problems inherent in an overly Bible‐centric approach to ancient Hebrew literature (see recently, Mroczek, ). Our approach to ancient Hebrew language and literature should extend well beyond the bounds of canon.…”

Section: Methodological Debate and Reflectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The history of Classical Hebrew: From the invention of the alphabet to the Mishnah

Schniedewind

2019

Religion Compass

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A lively debate has engulfed the study of the early history of the Hebrew language in the past two decades. Traditionally, scholars classified the language of the Hebrew Bible into three categories: Archaic, Standard, and Late Biblical Hebrew. But recent trends in biblical criticism have tended to date biblical literature much later, and some scholars date almost all of biblical literature to the Persian and Hellenistic periods. This trend undoes traditional linguistic categories for biblical Hebrew and questions the validity of the linguistic dating of biblical literature. In spite of the challenges, a modified and more complex model for the history of Classical Hebrew remains the working consensus model. A lively debate has engulfed the study of the early history of the Hebrew language in the past two decades, especially advanced by the work of Ian Young and Robert Rezetko (e.g., Young & Rezetko, ). Conferences have been organized to address this issue (e.g., Miller‐Naudé & Zevit, ). Young and Rezetko have continued to advocate for their approach in spite of critical reviews (e.g., Joosten, ). Traditionally, scholars have classified the language of the Hebrew Bible into three categories: Archaic Biblical Hebrew (that is, early biblical poems), Standard Biblical Hebrew (the major part of biblical literature), and Late Biblical Hebrew (comprising compositions from the Persian and Hellenistic periods). But trends in biblical criticism over the past several decades have tended to date biblical literature later and later. Now, one can find some prominent scholars who date almost all of biblical literature—and particularly Pentateuchal literature (Sommer, )—to the Persian and Hellenistic periods. This trend raises serious questions about the validity of the traditional linguistic dating of biblical literature. Although some have ignored this linguistic problem, others have offered a variety of rationales justifying the dismissal of linguistic dating. These divergent trends have resulted in continuing debate regarding the historical linguistics of Biblical Hebrew that is addressed in Ronald Hendel and Jan Joosten's recent book, How Old is the Hebrew Bible? (2018).

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“…His ruling, the decision to cut the live baby in two and award each woman one half, elicits compassion in the real mother, who withdraws her claim, and satisfaction in the mother of the dead infant, who declares an equal outcome of two bereft mothers ideal. The narrator follows know: a journal on the formation of knowledge up, portraying Solomon as, infused with divine wisdom, one who "spoke" (d-b-r) three thousand proverbs, "had" (h-y-h 1 l-) one thousand and five songs, and "discoursed" (d-b-r) on the entire plant and animal kingdoms (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14). He mastered life through language.…”

Section: Poetic Proverb and Prose Philosophy On The Quotidianmentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowledge of the Lord in the Hebrew Bible

Chavel

2018

KNOW: A Journal on the Formation of Knowledge

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Knowledge of the Lord in the Hebrew Bible simeon chavel, university of chicago divinity school I. The Hebrew Bible By contemporary accounts, the traditional Jewish Bible is an anthology of Hebrew pieces of literature from ancient Israel, Judea, and Babylon. Its materials-compositions, collections, collated fragments, and more-span the ninth to second centuries BCE, from the period of Assyrian domination, through the Babylonian and Persian, and into the Hellenistic. Sociological and technological developments in the late sixth century BCE made large, durable parchment scrolls available to Judean text-professionals, and prompted their idea to use them to store the valued contents of the smaller, less durable papyrus ones that had long served and predominated, in particular papyri featuring the nation's god and heroes. Over several centuries, text-professionals gathered the papyrus remains of earlier periods and contemporary works too, collating and editing them. 1 The literary record from the fifth century BCE to the first century CE, in the Persian and Hellenistic periods,shows that this concentrated, controlled storage-ancient "big data"went beyond aiding preservation to facilitate a vibrant culture of mastering the contents, hermeneutic engagement, adaptation in new works, public reading events, literal and political applications, text-centered

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The Literary Imagination in Jewish Antiquity

Cited by 150 publications

References 0 publications

Postexilic Prose Traditions in the Writings

Postexilic Prose Traditions in the Writings

The history of Classical Hebrew: From the invention of the alphabet to the Mishnah

Knowledge of the Lord in the Hebrew Bible

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