A Companion to Biblical Interpretation in Early Judaism

by Henze, Matthias

• ISBN13: 9780802803887
• ISBN10: 0802803881
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-01-09
• Publisher: Eerdmans Pub Co

Summary

A Companion to Biblical Interpretation in Early Judaism presents eighteen commissioned articles on biblical exegesis in early Judaism, covering the period after the Hebrew Bible was written and before the beginning of rabbinic Judaism. The essays, all written by experts in the field, are arranged in seven categories: Hebrew Bible, Rewritten Bible, Qumran Literature, Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments, Wisdom Literature, Hellenistic Judaism, and Biblical Interpretation in Antiquity. Together these essays provide a systematic and comprehensive introduction to the diverse modes of scriptural interpretation practiced by a variegated and dynamic spectrum of Jewish groups in the Hellenistic and early Roman eras. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Matthias Henze holds the Watt J. and Lilly G. Jackson Chair in Biblical Studies and is founding director of the Program in Jewish Studies at Rice University, Houston. He is also the editor of Biblical Interpretation at Qumran and the author of The Syriac Apocalypse of Daniel and The Madness of King Nebuchadnezzar: The Ancient Near Eastern Origins and Early History of Interpretation of Daniel 4.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. viii
Abbreviations	p. xi
Introduction
The Beginnings of Biblical Interpretation	p. 3
The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
Inner-biblical Interpretation	p. 27
Translators as Interpreters: Scriptural Interpretation in the Septuagint
The Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in the Targums	p. 92
Rewritten Bible
Biblical Interpretation in the Book of Jubilees: The Case of the Early Abram (Jub. 11:14-12:15)	p. 121
The Genesis Apocryphon: Compositional and Interpretive Perspectives	p. 157
Biblical Interpretation in Pseudo-Philo's Liber Antiquiatum Biblicarum	p. 180
The Qumran Literature
The Use of Scripture in the Community Rule	p. 203
Prophetic Interpretation in the Pesharim	p. 235
Biblical Interpretation in the Hodayot	p. 255
Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments
The Use of Scripture in the Book of Daniel	p. 279
How to Make Sense of Pseudonymous Attribution: The Cases of 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch	p. 308
The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs: A Not-So-Ambiguous Witness to Early Jewish Interpretive Practices	p. 337
Wisdom Literature
Biblical Interpretation in the Book of Ben Sira	p. 363
Pseudo-Solomon and His Scripture: Biblical Interpretation in the Wisdom of Solomon	p. 389
Hellenistic Judaism
The Interpreter of Moses: Philo of Alexandria and the Biblical Text	p. 415
Josephus's Biblical Interpretation	p. 436
Biblical Interpretation in Antiquity
Biblical Exegesis and Interpretations from Qumran to the Rabbis	p. 467
List of Contributors	p. 490
Bibliography	p. 492
Index of Modern Authors	p. 528
Index of Subjects	p. 536
Index of Passages	p. 544
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