The essays in this Festschrift honor James L. Kugel for his contribution to the field of biblical studies, in particular early biblical interpretation. The essays are organized in three roughly chronological categories. The first group treats some part of the Tanakh, ranging from the creation and Abraham stories of Genesis to the evolving conception of sacred writing in the prophetic literature. The second set of essays focuses chiefly on the literature of Second Temple Judaism, including Qumran and extra-biblical literature. The last group concerns the scriptural imagination at work in rabbinic literature, in Milton's Paradise Lost, in the anti-semitic work of Gerhard Kittel, up to the present in a treatment of Levinas and the Talmud.
Author(s): Judith H. Newman, Hindy Najman, James L. Kugel
Series: Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 83
Publisher: Brill Academic Publishers
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 625
THE IDEA OF BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION: Essays in Honor of James L. Kugel......Page 4
Contents......Page 7
List of Contributors......Page 11
James L. Kugel, List of Publications......Page 15
Preface......Page 19
PART ONE: THE BIBLE AS IT WAS......Page 23
The Conversion of Abraham to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam......Page 25
The Alleged “Hidden Light”......Page 63
Golden Calf Stories: The Relationship of Exodus 32 and Deuteronomy 9–10......Page 67
Plumbing the Depths: Genre Ambiguity and Theological Creativity in the Interpretation of Psalm 130......Page 117
כל-האדם and the Evaluation of Qohelet’s Wisdom in Qoh 12:13 or “The ‘A is so, and What’s More, B’ Theology of Ecclesiastes”......Page 147
The Symbolic Significance of Writing in Ancient Judaism......Page 161
PART TWO: TRADITIONS OF THE BIBLE IN SECOND TEMPLE JUDAISM......Page 197
Seven Mysteries of Knowledge: Qumran E/Sotericism Recovered......Page 199
The Contribution of the Qumran Discoveries to the History of Early Biblical Interpretation......Page 237
Myth, History, and Mystery in the Copper Scroll......Page 261
The Concept of Covenant in the Qumran Scrolls and Rabbinic Literature......Page 279
Open and Closed Eyes in the Animal Apocalypse (1 Enoch 85–90)......Page 301
Before the Fall: The Earliest Interpretations of Adam and Eve......Page 315
The Democratization of Kingship in Wisdom of Solomon......Page 331
PART THREE: THE INTERPRETIVE LIFE OF BIBLICAL TEXTS FROM EARLY JUDAISM TO THE PRESENT......Page 351
Two Powers in Heaven; or, The Making of a Heresy......Page 353
Iterated Quotation Formulae in Talmudic Narrative and Exegesis......Page 393
Moses and the Commandments: Can Hermeneutics, History, and Rhetoric Be Disentangled?......Page 421
The Alphabet of Ben Sira and the Early History of Parody in Jewish Literature......Page 445
Does Rashi’s Torah Commentary Respond to Christianity? A Comparison of Rashi with Rashbam and Bekhor Shor......Page 471
Rashi and Ibn Ezra on the Hitpael: Peshat in the Medieval Disputes of Hebrew Grammar......Page 495
Paradise Lost and Traditional Exegesis......Page 507
A Nazi New Testament Professor Reads His Bible: The Strange Case of Gerhard Kittel......Page 535
The Hermeneutical Significance of Emmanuel Levinas’s Talmudic Readings......Page 567
Hebrew Bible......Page 589
Second Temple Literature......Page 597
Targum......Page 602
New Testament......Page 603
Early and Medieval Christian Literature......Page 604
Ancient and Medieval Rabbinic Literature......Page 606
Renaissance Literature......Page 611
Modern Literature......Page 612
B......Page 615
C......Page 616
F......Page 617
H......Page 618
K......Page 619
L......Page 620
M......Page 621
R......Page 622
S......Page 623
T......Page 624
Y......Page 625
Z......Page 626
