General

Abstract

General Christopher T. Begg, Andrew W. Dyck, Walter A. Vogels WF, and Jeremy Corley 1593. Yonathan Adler, “The Hellenistic Origins of Jewish Ritual Immersion,” JJS 69 (2018) 1–29. A.’s study explores the origins of Jewish ritual immersion—inquiring when immersion first emerged as a rite of purification and what the reasons may have been for this development specifically at the time in question. Textual and archaeological evidence suggests, he finds, that the practice emerged at some point during—or slightly prior to—the first half of the 1st cent. b.c.e. A. further suggests that the practice grew out of contemporary bathing practices, the Hellenistic “hip-bath” in particular. Via a process of ritualization, full-body immersion emerged as a method of purificatory washing clearly differentiated from profane bathing. By way of a subsequent process of “hyperritualization,” some Jews ventured to make a further distinction between purificatory ablutions and profane bathing by restricting use of “drawn water” for purification and by assigning a state of impurity to anyone who bathed in such water. The developments traced by A. thus provide an enlightening example of one of the many ways in which Jewish religious practices evolved and adapted in response to Hellenistic cultural innovations. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 1594. Ehud Ben Zvi, “Memory and Political Thought in the Late Persian/Early Hellenistic Yehud/Judah: Some Observations,” Leadership, Social Memory and Judean Discourse, 9–26 [see #2020]. In what follows I will focus on social memories of the Judean past that served as a kind of playground in which different political structures and forms of government could be explored and their strengths and weaknesses shown and remembered. At the same time, the “attribution” of some royal roles to Israel—but not others, e.g., that of a military leader—and especially to the Yehudite literati in a “world” that was still not utopian needs to be kept in mind. That world was part and parcel of an encompassing social mindscape that could not but influence and constrain, in some ways, the shaping of social memories, because these memories played a significant role in shaping the literati’s grammar or mnemonic preferences and dis-preferences (p. 15, adapted). The historically contingent circumstances of Yehud, a small province within a large satrapy, within a still larger empire, the social mindscape of the literati, their ideological world and their social roles all contributed to the shaping of their political thought, just as they contributed to the literati’s understanding that neither the Great King nor a vassal king is actually necessary for the stability, happiness, and well-being of the Yehudite community (see, e.g., the sentiment expressed in Psalm 1). Their memories about the past served as a kind of language in which they could express their (implied?) thoughts about political issues (p. 25, adapted).—C.T.B. 1595. Kåre Berge, “Mystified Authority: Legitimating Leadership through ‘Lost Books,’ ” Leadership, Social Memory and Judean Discourse, 41–54 [see #2020]. My argument here is pragmatic: one aspect of the functionality of the biblical texts is as a legitimating device for leadership in postexilic Yehud. My point of departure for reading [End Page 561] the texts discussed here is that they are all presented as sites of memory: they are discussing the past. This is explicit in Deuteronomy and in the Prophets as well, e.g.: “These are the words that came to the prophet in the days of . . .” etc. My concern is to understand the hermeneutics of authority in these texts about the past for the reading audience of the biblical texts as they were known in postexilic times. And for this purpose, I have focused on those three or four texts [2 Kings 22–23; Deuteronomy 31; Ezekiel 2–3; and Jeremiah 36] about the physicality of lost books and their representations by the present biblical books. Returning now to the “today” formula in Deuteronomy, the biblical text is a site of memory, remembering the first and now lost imprints of God’s commandments and Moses’ explications of these and remembering as well that Moses challenged the exodus generation to submit to...