Ancient Readers and their Scriptures: Engaging the Hebrew Bible in Early Judaism and Christianity

331 Pages·2019·1.35 MB·English

by  Garrick V. Allen

Ancient Readers and their Scriptures
Ancient Judaism and Early
Christianity
arbeiten zur geschichte des antiken judentums und des
urchristentums
Founding Editor
Martin Hengel † (Tübingen)
Executive Editors
Cilliers Breytenbach (Berlin)
Martin Goodman (Oxford)
Editorial Board
Lutz Doering (Münster) – Tal Ilan (Berlin) – Judith Lieu (Cambridge)
Tessa Rajak (Reading/Oxford) – Daniel R. Schwartz (Jerusalem)
Seth Schwartz (New York) – Christiane Zimmerman (Kiel)
volume 107
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/ajec
Ancient Readers and
their Scriptures
Engaging the Hebrew Bible in Early Judaism
and Christianity
Edited by
Garrick V. Allen
John Anthony Dunne
LEIDEN | BOSTON
The indices for this book received financial support from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Book
Publication Scheme at Dublin City University.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Garrick, Allen V., editor.
Title: Ancient readers and their scriptures : engaging the Hebrew Bible in
 early Judaism and Christianity / edited by Garrick V. Allen and John Anthony Dunne.
Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2019. | Series: Ancient Judaism and
 early Christianity, ISSN 1871-6636 ; volume 107 | Includes bibliographical
 references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018039484 (print) | LCCN 2018043897 (ebook) |
 ISBN 9789004383371 (Ebook) | ISBN 9789004383364 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Bible. Old Testament—Criticism, interpretation,
 etc—History—Early church, ca. 30-600.
Classification: LCC BS1171.3 (ebook) | LCC BS1171.3 .A53 2018 (print) |
 DDC 221.609/01—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018039484
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 1871-6636
isbn 978-90-04-38336-4 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-38337-1 (e-book)
Copyright 2019 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi,
Brill Sense, Hotei Publishing, mentis Verlag, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without prior written permission from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided
that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910,
Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change.
This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.
Contents
Contributors vii
Preface ix
Garrick V. Allen and John Anthony Dunne
1 Reading the Hebrew Bible in Jewish and Christian Antiquity x
William A. Tooman
Part 1
Reading Scripture in the Second Temple Period
2 What Did Ben Sira’s Bible and Desk Look Like? 3
Lindsey Arielle Askin
3 Creation as the Liturgical Nexus of the Blessings and Curses in
4QBerakhot 27
Mika S. Pajunen
4 The Qumran Library and the Shadow it Casts on the Wall of the
Cave 40
Jonathan D.H. Norton
Part 2
The New Testament and Practices of Reading and Reusing Jewish
Scripture
5 Exegetical Methods in the New Testament and “Rewritten Bible”: A
Comparative Analysis 77
Susan E. Docherty
6 Scriptural Quotations in the Jesus Tradition and Early Christianity:
Textual History and Theology 98
Martin Karrer
vi Contents
7 The Return of the Shepherd: Zechariah 13:7–14:6 as an Interpretive
Framework for Mark 13 128
Paul Sloan
8 The Hybrid Isaiah Quotation in Luke 4:18–19 159
Joseph M. Lear
part 3
Reading Scripture in Rabbinic Judaism
9 A Single, Huge, Aramaic Spoken Heretic: Sequences of Adam’s Creation
in Early Rabbinic Literature 175
Willem Smelik
10 The Variant Reading ולו / אלו of Psalm 139:16 in Rabbinic Literature 209
Dagmar Börner-Klein
11 Jewish and Christian Exegetical Controversy in Late Antiquity: The Case
of Psalm 22 and the Esther Narrative 222
Abraham Jacob Berkovitz
part 4
Reading Retrospective
12 What does ‘Reading’ have to do with it? Ancient Engagement with
Jewish Scripture 243
Garrick V. Allen and John Anthony Dunne
Bibliography 253
Index of Ancient Sources 291
Index of Subjects 305
Index of Modern Authors 311
Contributors
Garrick V. Allen
is Lecturer in New Testament at Dublin City Univerisity and Research Associate
of the School of Ancient and Modern Languages and Cultures, University of
Pretoria.
Lindsey A. Askin
is Lecturer in Jewish Studies at the University of Bristol.
Abraham Jacob Berkovitz
is Assistant Professor of Liturgy, Worship, and Ritual at Hebrew Union
College—Jewish Institute of Religion, USA.
Dagmar Börner-Klein
is Professor for Jewish Studies at the Heinrich-Heine University, Düsseldorf.
Susan E. Docherty
is Professor of New Testament and Early Judaism and Head of Theology at
Newman University Birmingham.
John Anthony Dunne
is Assistant Professor of New Testament at Bethel Seminary (St. Paul, MN).
Martin Karrer
is Professor für Neues Testament und seine Umwelt at the Kirchliche
Hochschule Wuppertal/Bethel.
Joseph M. Lear
is lead pastor of Iowa City First Assembly of God in Iowa City, IA, a university
chaplain at the University of Iowa, and a leader of a multilinugal theology co-
hort for immigrant communities.
Jonathan Norton
is Lecturer in Biblical Studies at Heythrop College, University of London.
Mika Pajunen
is currently working as a University Lecturer in Old Testament Studies at the
University of Helsinki.
viii Contributors
Paul Sloan
is Assistant Professor of Theology in the School of Christian Thought at
Houston Baptist University.
Willem Smelik
is Professor of Hebrew and Aramaic Literature at University College London.
William A. Tooman
is Senior Lecturer in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and Director of Research at
St Mary’s College, University of St Andrews, (Scotland).
Preface
This volume is the result of the 2014 Symposium for Biblical and Early Chris-
tian Studies, organised by the editors, which took place at the University of
St Andrews (2–3 June). The theme of the gathering was “Ancient Readers and
Their Scriptures: The Texts, Reading Strategies, and Versions of the Hebrew
Bible in Second Temple and Early Judaism,” a theme designed to examine
the influence of Jewish scriptural texts on literary production in early Juda-
ism and Christianity. A unifying feature of the various ancient corpora that
are subsumed under this heading is their often intense exegetical interest in
the wording and thematic substance of the works that came to make up the
Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. Organising the symposium in this manner al-
lowed us to bring into conversation scholarship on the Hebrew Bible, the Dead
Sea Scrolls, the New Testament, Rabbinic Literature, and early Christianity, and
offer experts an opportunity to peek over the fence and see how discourse on
this topic operates in cognate fields. A major outcome of the gathering, which
is on display in this volume, is that scholars of the New Testament are now tak-
ing more seriously the textual culture of the late Second Temple period, the pe-
riod in which the majority of the New Testament was composed. This volume
provides a snapshot into how the differing disciplines approach the reuse and
interpretation of scripture in ways that are mutually illuminating.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank the University of St Andrews’
Development Office, St Mary’s College, and the St Mary’s College Society for
generously funding the conference and to the many postgraduate students
who assisted in its execution. Thanks also go to delegates and presenters who
contributed to an exhilarating gathering.
Garrick V. Allen and John Anthony Dunne