Before the Bible The Liturgical Body and the Formation of Scriptures in Early Judaism
archaeological "tel" of the Bible or the analysis of the scribal hand on manuscripts in text-critical work, but the discoveries in the Dead Sea Scrolls have transformed our understanding of scripture formation. Judith Newman focuses not on the putative origins and closure of the Bible, but on the
reasons why scriptures remained open, with pluriform growth in the Hellenistic-Roman period. Drawing on new methods from cognitive neuroscience and the social sciences as well as traditional philological and literary analysis, Before the Bible argues that the key to understanding the formation of scripture is the widespread practice of individual and communal prayer in early Judaism. The
figure of the teacher as a learned and pious sage capable of interpreting and embodying the tradition is central to understanding this revelatory phenomenon. The book considers the entwinement of prayer and scriptural formation in five books reflecting the diversity of early Judaism: Ben Sira,
Daniel, Jeremiah/Baruch, Second Corinthians, and the Qumran Hodayot (Thanksgiving Hymns). While not a complete taxonomy of scripture formation, the book illuminates performative dynamics that have been largely ignored as well as the generative role of interpretive tradition in accounts of how the
Bible came to be.
| Publisher Name | Oxford University Press USA |
|---|---|
| Author Name | Hagendorf, Col |
| Format | Audio |
| Bisac Subject Major | REL |
| Language | NG |
| Isbn 10 | 0190212217 |
| Isbn 13 | 9780190212216 |
| Target Age Group | min:NA, max:NA |
| Dimensions | 00.93" H x 00.06" L x 40.00" W |
| Page Count | 192 |
Judith H. Newman is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism in the Department for the Study of Religion and Emmanuel College in the University of Toronto. Trained at Yale Divinity School (MAR) and Harvard (PhD), her current research interests are in the ritual performance of texts
particularly as this intersects with the formation of communities in early Judaism and Christianity. Emerging projects include a commentary on the book of Judith and its reception through the ages; and a study that reconceives early Jewish temporalities.
