Ancient Jewish Research Articles

PROPHECIES AND PRINCESSES: MOSES IN EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA ACCORDING TO JOSEPHUS

Josephus’ account of Moses’ birth and upbringing in the Jewish Antiquities includes much extra-biblical material, including an extended account of his military campaign in Ethiopia. This material has often been studied as independent episodes, particularly with a view to finding Josephus’ sources. By reading the preliminary stages of Moses’ life together, this article shows that Josephus’ narrative is well-integrated in its themes and structure, as well as revealing the historian’s core concerns about Moses’ perceived ethnicity and capacity to be a loyal member of a foreign court, both reflecting Josephus’ own writing context and immediate audience among the Greek speakers in Flavian Rome.

The organ in Jewish culture during the long Renaissance

Abstract Between the 1400s and about 1700, the organ firmly manifested itself in Jewish culture by becoming a subject in the writings of Jewish authors who experienced or envisioned the instrument in specific contexts; it became an object in iconography and materialized in synagogues. These occurrences all link to distinct places in Europe—northern Italy, the Rhine region of Germany and Bohemia. The differing meanings and interpretations of the organ—perceived as an instrument tied to the church, explored through the lens of music theory, and as imagined Jewish antiquity and the otherworld—suggest that the Jewish fascination with the instrument goes hand in hand with a certain kind of imagination, sometimes to the extent of fantasy, often with an oblique glance at non-Jewish practices. During its watershed moments in the long Renaissance, the organ in Jewish culture ultimately reveals notable convergences of European culture and religious and non-religious customs unique to Judaism, documenting the intersection of the different life worlds of early modern Europe.

Josephus’s Paraphrase Style and the Testimonium Flavianum

Abstract The controversial account of Jesus in Josephus’s Jewish Antiquities 18.63–64, known as the Testimonium Flavianum, has puzzling similarities to Luke 24.18–24, a portion of the Emmaus narrative. This article proposes an explanation based on established research into Josephus’s methods of composition. Through a phrase-by-phrase study, this article finds that the Testimonium can be derived from the Emmaus narrative using transformations Josephus is demonstrated to have employed in paraphrasing known sources for the Antiquities. Precedents are identified in word adoption/substitution and content modification. Consequently, I submit that the Testimonium is Josephus’s paraphrase of a Christian source. This result also resolves the difficulties that have raised doubts about the Testimonium’s authenticity, with implications for the understanding of the historical Jesus.

Archival Historiography in Jewish Antiquity by Laura Carlson Hasler (review)

Reviewed by: Archival Historiography in Jewish Antiquity by Laura Carlson Hasler Eric X. Jarrard Laura Carlson Hasler. Archival Historiography in Jewish Antiquity. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020. xiii + 216 pp. doi:10.1017/S0364009421000143 Laura Carlson Hasler's Archival Historiography in Jewish Antiquity examines how the diverse array of texts found within Ezra-Nehemiah and Esther seeks to imitate ancient Near Eastern archival spaces. The book is part of a larger constellation of research examining how biblical texts function mimetically to enshrine the vast range of imperial tools, objects, and sites—often as means of resistance, legitimation, and (in a postexilic context) restoration. Carlson Hasler's unique contribution to this conversation, which she clearly articulates in her introduction, is that the form of Ezra-Nehemiah eschews narrative continuity in favor of mirroring an archival space. She proposes the term "archival history" for this mode of composition, in which cited documents, such as lists, decrees, and letters, are inserted into an otherwise coherent narrative, as one might collect documents in a physical archive. She ultimately suggests that archival history is "a hybrid mode of history writing that blurs the line between story and space" (110), particularly within the context of imperial resistance. Chapter 1 explores the characteristics and contents of Mesopotamian imperial archives from the first millennium BCE Mesopotamian empires. Carlson Hasler establishes a profile of common archival practices, drawing on a range of material evidence and archaeological records from across the ancient Mediterranean, including Nineveh, Sippar, and Persepolis. The second chapter narrows its focus to articulate how the qualities of Mesopotamian physical archives are reflected in Ezra-Nehemiah. The evidence she uses to support this proposal includes not only references to documents being stored in archives (Ezra 4–6), but also archives of artifacts other than documents (e.g., temple vessels) and documents without reference to their storage in facilities (e.g., genealogies). The heart of Carlson Hasler's argument occurs in the third chapter, which examines various archival texts embedded within Ezra-Nehemiah. She contends that the decrees, letters, and lists within Ezra-Nehemiah disrupt the "narrative coherence" (52) of the text. She maintains that the inclusion of these citations is part of a concerted effort to rebuild a community with a purely textual—not architectural—archive at its center. Scholars whose critical inquiries are buttressed by the presumption or pursuit of narrative coherence elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, for example, pentateuchal criticism, will likely appreciate this argument. Chapter 4 discusses the notion of archive in the MT and Greek versions of Esther. Here Carlson Hasler proposes that the various editions of Esther are similar to the archival historiographic efforts found in Ezra-Nehemiah, for instance, in their presentation of imperial reliance on the archive as a cognitive prosthesis for Persian kings. Still, the archival function in Esther diverges in its concern for promulgating "textual counterclaim[s]" (95) rather than accumulating archival documents as in Ezra-Nehemiah. This distinction is all the more conspicuous in the Old Greek of Esther, which appends various documents only mentioned in the MT. Carlson Hasler presents their inclusion as a survival strategy to resist "threats of erasure" (96) by ensuring documents—letters, edicts, etc.—are [End Page 436] significant enough to maintain, but also perpetually available to the community's constituent members. The final chapter explores the effects and function of archival historiography in Ezra-Nehemiah. Carlson Hasler argues that archival historiography "facilitates the recovery of Judean identity in the shadow of empire" (110). Of course, an argument concerning recovery necessitates a discussion of loss, which the bulk of the chapter investigates. The short epilogue expands on the suggestion that this collection of texts functions in lieu of spaces. It ends by briefly gesturing toward other biblical and Jewish texts (Exodus, Chronicles, Maccabees, and Josephus) that may perform a similar function. Carlson Hasler's suggestion that Ezra-Nehemiah is intentionally mimicking the archival space is intriguing and provocative, leaving room for development in a number of promising ways. One might, for instance, press this point by asking how archival histories would potentially interact with archival spaces. That is to say, at some point these archival histories and/or their component parts existed...

The Crown and the Courts: Separation of Powers in the Early Jewish Imagination by David C. Flatto (review)

Reviewed by: The Crown and the Courts: Separation of Powers in the Early Jewish Imagination by David C. Flatto Alan Appelbaum David C. Flatto. The Crown and the Courts: Separation of Powers in the Early Jewish Imagination. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2020. 367 pp. doi:10.1017/S0364009421000167 It is a commonplace that in writing history the questions are often more important and interesting than the answers. Many others have emphasized, as David C. Flatto does, that law is at the core of Judaism, and mostly concern themselves with substantive legal matters. Flatto, however, and for the first time (16), asks an unusual, and very lawyerly, question (he teaches law as well as philosophy): Who has, and who should have, subject-matter jurisdiction to decide legal questions? On a deeper level, his question is of the relationship of law and power, basically instantiated here as to what extent should the judiciary function be subordinated to the political or executive. Separation of powers is a basic concept of Western constitutionalism, associated with thinkers such as Montesquieu. But Flatto's answer to his question finds that in Jewish law these ideas go back to Deuteronomy and were further developed in Second Temple and rabbinic times. And in his brilliant conclusion, he diffidently finds "a greater affinity" between the ancient Jewish and the Western notions of separation of powers "than appears at first blush," including in their "internal" and "stronger" versions, as described below (229–30). In most of the Bible, the king, who was the lawgiver, also had jurisdiction to decide legal matters (what Flatto calls "strand 1"). But Deuteronomy 17 ("strand 2") explicitly provides for independent judges, including priests. While strand 2 appears to be "marginal" and "anomalous" in Deuteronomy 17 itself, it traces "back to the idea of revelation" (24), and, following Steven Fraade, Flatto demonstrates that this is congruent with the rest of Deuteronomy (217–21). The bulk of the book proceeds to demonstrate how Second Temple and rabbinic sources "by reversing, revising, expanding and recalibrating the Deuteronomic subordination of the king to an independent judiciary" (39) made strand 2 and its Second Temple and rabbinic progeny dominant (17, 27). Indeed, Flatto proposes that some of these texts went beyond strand 2's "basic version" of the separation of powers to an "internal version" in which powers are not [End Page 440] only separated but widely disseminated among many actors, and, in the theocracy outlined in Josephus's Against Apion, to a "stronger version" in which the entire polity is reconstituted on law alone, and powers other than the law are eliminated. In brief, Flatto places the parabiblical book Psalms of Solomon squarely in strand 1. In different ways he finds royalist tendencies in Philo and in Qumran literature, but demonstrates that these texts are on the way to strand 2. As noted above, Josephus held that an ideal Jewish polity would be solely based on the rule of law spearheaded by a priestly elite. And, as noted below, he finds the judicial function in the rabbinic imaginaire, complicated in fact by the patriarch's roles, to have been vested solely in an institutionalized court system led by rabbinic sages and independent of any other authority. Flatto's project could have focused entirely on the relationship of the judiciary to the executive rather than emphasizing context and providing the reader with extensive background both on the executive power and the judiciary function. Had he chosen focus over context, the result would have been a much shorter work, perhaps an article, which would have been easier to read. He was probably wise to make the second choice so that his book can be a resource for future scholarship on the subject he has introduced. (I might add here that while his sophisticated and nuanced arguments are entirely clear, I found Flatto's prose on occasion awkward, repetitive, and at times hifalutin.) Flatto early on provides a statement of his methodology that is a model for historians generally and may be particularly useful to his intended audience: students of the biblical, Second Temple, and rabbinic periods. His use of the word "imagination" in the book's title allows him, among...

Atonement: Jewish and Christian Origins.

Atonement: Jewish and Christian Origins.

A Therapeutic Medium?: Crisis and History in Oracula Sibyllina 4

This article argues that the oracles of Oracula Sibyllina 4 interpreted and responded to specific crises facing ancient Mediterranean Jewish and pagan communities. With this in mind, it advances the idea that the text can be read as a Jewish reaction to the fall of the Jerusalem temple in 70 CE, which is a reading that recent scholarship has been hesitant to accept. Rather than read Oracula Sibyllina 4 as a reflection of the author’s pre-existing views, the present article approaches the text as a creative medium through which a new historical consciousness was crafted, one that accommodated the fall of the temple and the events surrounding its destruction. To do so, the article briefly contextualizes the text to demonstrate that crisis-mediation was an expected task of ancient Sibylline literature, then proceeds to interpret the contentious passages that have led scholars to offer alternative readings.

Septuagint, Targum and Beyond: Comparing Aramaic and Greek Versions from Jewish Antiquity. Edited by David Shepherd, Jan Joosten, and MIchaël van der Meer

<i>Septuagint, Targum and Beyond: Comparing Aramaic and Greek Versions from Jewish Antiquity</i>. <scp>Edited by David Shepherd, Jan Joosten, and MIchaël van der Meer</scp>

Biblical Narrative as Ethics?

Abstract This paper considers whether biblical narrative was used as part of a technology of the self in Jewish antiquity. Many have seen the assumption that Israel’s ancestors were perfect and, hence, worthy of imitation as essential to the Bible’s identity as Scripture around the turn of the Common Era. Recently several scholars have detailed the specific dynamics of exemplarity among certain readers of the Bible, such as Philo, particularly in light of Hellenistic and Roman models. Such work draws attention to the relative lack of explicit attestation for such a practice in much of ancient Jewish literature. As a next step, we need to further delineate what constitutes a literary practice of exemplarity and explore alternatives or additions to it, such as memorialization. To do so, this paper examines a range of texts, including the Genesis Apocryphon, the Book of Jubilees, Ben Sira, Philo, Josephus, and the rabbinic collection, Genesis Rabbah.

The Book of Daniel as Witness to the Pluriform Bible

The Book of Daniel is an anthology that comes to us in a variety of compositional configurations distinguished in their organization by genre and chronology. Daniel’s varied compositional configurations—MT, Old Greek, Theodotion, Syriac—characterize the book as a literary exercise in divinatory wisdom that can point readers in different directions. The wisdom promoted in MT Daniel is mantic in that it is concerned with how knowledge of God’s effective reality in history can be divined (apocalyptic). In other forms of Daniel, the wisdom recommended for ancient Jews is mundane in that it is concerned with how they may conduct themselves with integrity within their own communities and relative to others (wisdom). I argue that, in the case of Daniel, the meaning of this biblical book is indicated not only in its semantic content but also through the various compositional configurations given to it during antiquity. This finding is consistent with a need for the sort of textually and compositionally pluriform Bible edition articulated by James Sanders.

Introduction: Views on the Mediterranean

This brief article introduces the theme of this issue as well as the contents of the individual contributions it contains. The issue brings together the topic of travel and movement in the ancient eastern Mediterranean and the Mediterranean as a category of research. Furthermore, it highlights a range of visual matters with a focus on visionary experiences and the motif of seeing. More specifically, the studies included in the issue concentrate on such themes as eyewitnessing, visits to religious and other sites, engagement with material objects, and the practise of imagination in visualization. In so doing, the present issue offers diverse perspectives on the intersections of movement and visuality in late antiquity, including in ancient Jewish, early Christian, and ‘pagan’ contexts.

Review: Death and Afterlife in Ancient Jewish and Christian Literature, by Pau Figueras

Review: <i>Death and Afterlife in Ancient Jewish and Christian Literature</i>, by Pau Figueras

Arguing with Aseneth: Gentile Access to Israel’s Living God in Jewish Antiquity, written by Jill Hicks-Keeton

Arguing with Aseneth: Gentile Access to Israel’s Living God in Jewish Antiquity, written by Jill Hicks-Keeton

"Temple complexes" in the religious life of the trypillia community

In the period 4800-3600 BC. in the eastern part of the Trypillia area arose "giant settlements" or "megasites" / "mega-settlements" (working term of modern archaeologists) with thousands of buildings. In the central parts of these living conglomerates, scientists found special buildings that were recognized as sanctuaries, sacred complexes or temples. In the late period of the Trypillia culture they disappeared. These religious buildings were built with a focus visible processes of celestial bodies and the laws of cyclic rotation of the Earth in space, and included in their internal filling usually cruciform altars, ritual utensils, troughs with graters for the preparation of ritual bread and numerous other ceremonial and religious artifacts. There were also unique finds, such as gold jewelry (an element of prestige) and a perforated clay disk with tockins to it from the space of the Nebelivka Temple. The interior and exterior walls of the Trypillia sacral centers were painted with natural colors with a predominance of red. The wood carving for decoration of elements of a skeleton of a construction was investigated also. The first Temples on the European continent show that even at that time there was a cult of architecture. In general, it is clear that such Trypillia objects of religious worship carried encoded astronomical information in symbolic form. The building itself was oriented with regard to worldsides and designed relative to visible celestial bodies. This indicates that the people of Trypillia had a fairly clear worldview, which allowed them to reach the level of understanding the structure and mechanisms of many natural cyclical processes on Earth. Trypillia cosmology united the celestial and terrestrial spheres, and the Temple was the point of contact of the earth with the visible Universe.&#x0D; In his work, the author traces the existing analogies in the structure of construction of Trypillia and sacred complexes of the ancient Middle East and biblical ideas about the Tabernacle and the House of the Lord in the ancient Jews, given the fact, that the Trypillia temple building is known from 4,000 years BC. and several thousand years older than the Middle Eastern counterparts. There are also significant parallels in the construction of temples in the context of Indo-European religious heritage.&#x0D; It is noted that the Temple was not only a metaphysical reflection of the annual cycle with a focus on the points of the equinoxes and solstices, but also had a higher religious function, which consisted in the combination of the terrestrial sphere with the celestial, the connection of man with the mystery of the cosmos.

Judaism in Tropical Africa: The Phenomenon of the Igbo People (Nigeria)

This article is devoted to the emergence and formation of Jewish and Jewish self-identification of the Igbo people (Nigeria). Igbo are one of the ethnic groups of Tropical Africa who consider themselves the Jews of the African diaspora. African Jews pose the question of their Jewish identity in two ways: religious and ethnic. As a result of decades of British colonialism and missionary activity of the colonialists, the Igbo was Christianized, however, many of those who now profess Christianity consider themselves descendants of the lost "tribes of Israel", and the traditional religion of their ancestors is a remnant form of Judaism. The group self-identification of the Igbo as Jews and descendants of the lost tribe of Israel took shape already in the postcolonial period. After the Igbo proclaimed independence from Nigeria in the form of the Republic of Biafra (1967-1970) and the bloody civil war that began after that, the Igbo's self-identification with the Jews, who also suffered genocide in their history, intensified and acquired a new depth. The Igbo considered themselves victims of genocide, just like the Jews who survived the Holocaust, also felt they were residents of a besieged territory, like the state of Israel. Under the influence of these events, in the second half of the 20th century, part of the Igbo ethnos began to transform their religious identity and declared that they were not only descendants of the ancient Israelites, but Jews. This group heralded a new phenomenon of African Judaism, when African religious traditions mixed with Christianity were supplanted by a new Jewish identity. The article examines how the religious status of Igbo Jews, confirming their own cultural identity, is primarily associated with the country's political history. The search and approval of a new religious self-identification of Igbo Jews acts as a means of interpreting and resolving conflict life experience. The question of the genetic proximity of Igbo and ancient Jews is still open.

The Glory of the Invisible God: Two Powers in Heaven Traditions and Early Christology by Andrei Orlov

Reviewed by: The Glory of the Invisible God: Two Powers in Heaven Traditions and Early Christology by Andrei Orlov Adiel Schremer andrei orlov, The Glory of the Invisible God: Two Powers in Heaven Traditions and Early Christology (Jewish and Christian Texts in Contexts and Related Studies 31; London: T&T Clark, 2019). Pp. xiii + 224. $120. This book explores various theophanies described in ancient Jewish and early Christian texts, in which God appears alongside a second, divine figure. It points at a process, common to these texts, whereby God’s visual attributes are transferred to the second figure, who is also bestowed with God’s Glory (Hebrew kābôd), while God withdraws into an aniconic aural mode and becomes invisible. This process, according to O., is one of the major characteristics of the NT accounts of the baptism and the transfiguration of Jesus. He suggests that Jesus’s divine identity was developed in the NT materials through the bestowal of God’s visual attributes on Jesus, and that the earliest christology emerges from the creative tension of the ocularcentric and aural theophanic molds, in which God abandons the divine corporeal profile so as to release it for the second figure, “who from then on becomes the image and the glory of the invisible God” (p. 190). Part 2, which is the book’s real focus, is devoted to “Two Powers in Heaven Traditions in Early Christian Accounts.” As frequently noted in previous scholarship, “Already within the earliest Christian testimonies preserved in the Pauline corpus, one can see clear tendencies toward the promulgation of the glory language” (p. 79), and a “predisposition to transfer the attributes and functions of the divine Glory to Jesus” (ibid.). O. adds that “the refashioning of the second power’s theophanic makeup goes hand-in-hand with the deity’s abandonment of its visual, corporeal dimension and its withdrawal into the aniconic aural mode” (p. 83). In his opinion, these two inverse conceptual dynamics “proved to be of paramount significance for the development of early Christology” (ibid.). To facilitate this analysis O. suggests looking at the NT material through the prism of Two Powers in Heaven traditions found in early Jewish texts, and part 1 is devoted to this task. O. begins with the well-known passage in Dan 7:9–14 and proceeds to other Second Temple Jewish texts, including the extrabiblical apocalypse known as the Book of the [End Page 345] Similitudes, and to some later Jewish texts, such as the Primary Adam Books, the Exagoge of Ezekiel the Tragedian, 2 Enoch, the Apocalypse of Abraham, and the Ladder of Jacob. Then he turns to a discussion of “Theophanic Molds in Rabbinic and Hekhalot Two Powers Debates,” where the well-known Pardes story is given much attention and is treated at some length. The relevance of these texts is not simple, however, and, as O. himself notes, they do not represent a single picture. In the ocularcentric theophanies (where both powers are fashioned in ocularcentric mode), as found in the first three texts (Primary Adam Books, Exagoge of Ezekiel, and 2 Enoch), God appears first. In contrast, in the theophanies attested in the other two texts—the Apocalypse of Abraham and the Ladder of Jacob—the second power is depicted first, “followed by the aural epiphany of the first power, which manifests itself as the hypostatic voice” (p. 88). This raises the question of how much of the Jewish material is really relevant to the understanding of the theophanic narratives in the NT. It seems, however, that the main problem with the book lies in its very application of Two Powers in Heaven terminology to the NT material. The key term, “Two Powers in Heaven,” is entirely absent from the above Jewish texts, and the early rabbinic sources in which it is found do not use it in relation to a theophany of whatever kind. Moreover, the rabbinic sources never refer to a specific figure who might be considered a “second power.” Rather, they use it as a general theological concept, according to which there is more than one God. Of the identity and characteristics of the “second power” they say virtually nothing...

МЕТОДОЛОГІЧНІ ЗАМІТКИ ДО КОМПЛЕКСНОГО ЛІНГВОФОЛЬКЛОРИСТИЧНОГО АНАЛІЗУ ПОЕТИКИ МЕФОДІЇВСЬКОГО ПЕРЕКЛАДУ ПІСНІ НАД ПІСНЯМИ

The article is devoted to some methodological issues that arise in the linguistic and folklore analysis of the poetics of the Methodius's translation of the Song of Songs, which we consider as an orally poetic text, later elaborated in literature. The parameters of interlingual, interfaith and interethnic transmission under conditions of considerable time duration are outlined. Problems related to layers not only temporal, but also within several ethnic traditions, namely: ancient Egyptian, ancient Jewish, ancient Greek, ancient Slavic. There are a number of tropes and stylistic figures that are used as a means of organizing the text or used as components for stylistic symmetry. These are permanent epithets, different types of repetitions, anaphora and epiphora, tautological combinations, pleonastic combinations, allegories, comparisons, ekphrasis, specific composites, etc. It is possible to involve in the study of common in folklore hyperbole, personifications, paraphrases. The range of methodological difficulties is outlined. The article warns about the counterproductiveness of the study of literary tropes in isolation from the contexts of specific works, in the abstract non-ethnic continuum, although in synchrony and diachrony. If in the national literatures, especially in the early stages of their development, there are peculiar genre systems, then in folklore there are differences in genres of even related ethnic groups. Hence, the need to take into account the differences between the genres of wedding poetry in ancient Aramaic folklore and in the oral traditions of the peoples whose scribes translated the poem. The importance of a specific contextual study of the tracks of the Song of Songs is emphasized, because the movement of its texts in time and space is a change in their perceptions by translators, editors, transcribers, which leads to changes in understanding and aesthetic acceptance of the monument by readers. It is stressed that the full picture can be obtained only by examining all the national and ethnic branches of the family tree of the monument. The question of place in such a comprehensive study of religious allegorical and symbolic interpretations is also delivered in the article.

Les collegia romaines comparées aux synagogues judéennes et galiléennes (ier siècle av. J.-C. - iiie siècle apr. J.-C.)

The origins of the first synagogues are still under investigation today. In this paper, we will discuss the hypothesis comparing the first synagogues and the voluntary Greek-Roman associations which were so numerous in the Mediterranean World. First, we will see that the synagogues could be perceived by the Roman power as associations resembling to the collegia and thiasoi; the Roman laws especially those quoted in the Jewish Antiquities of Flavius Josephus reflect a confusion between the Jewish assemblies in the Diaspora and the Greek-Roman associations. In the second part of this paper, we will deal with the architecture from the work of P. Richardson because he compares buildings identified as synagogues with other buildings belonging to Greek-Roman associations. Finally, we will discuss if we can assume to extend the conclusions considering the synagogues of the Diaspora to the first synagogues excavated in Galilee and Judea.

Program aniconism in theology of Devarim (Deuteronomy)

The article explores the formation of the aniconic position in ancient Judaism. A reference to biblical texts shows that the aniconic doctrine, which put forward the demand for a cult without an image was formulated and theologically substantiated in the book of Devarim. Here, the prohibition on creating images follows YHWH’s statement of formlessness and is seen as its logical consequence. The invisible God cannot be adequately embodied in a visual material image and does not need it, because he has a different way of interacting with his people. Deities of other nations manifest themselves in temple statues, providing their worshipers the opportunity to approach them through a cult, but the God of the Jews, in accordance with the Devarim doctrine, chose a different way of communicating with people. He does not need statues, he remains with the people mainly not because of the correctness of the ritual, but because of the carefully executed law (only a small part of which is the ritual). In fact, in Devarim the scheme is reversed compared to the usual view of things at that time. The creation of images and worship of them does not bring the deity closer to people, but on the contrary threatens him with a distance. Comparison with the statements regarding the images in the book of Shemot (Exodus) suggests the following: a consistent aniconic program corresponding to clearly articulated monotheism and a specific cult paradigm was first announced in Devarim, and began to be established in the Jewish environment, probably not earlier than the end of VII c. BC.The religion of the ancient Jews was not static, strict aniconism was not inherent in Judaism initially, but it took shape and developed over many centuries.

CONCEPT OF PRACTICES OF JEWISH AND EARLY CHRISTIAN MEDICINE

The article examines the theological and philosophical origins of Jewish and early Christian medicine. We have shown that the basis of the medical practice of the ancient Jews and early Christians were the books of the Old Testament. The principles of nutrition, sanitation and hygiene have been considered in detail in the context of the topic. We also have analyzed the rules of care for sick people and the means used by the Jewish people in the treatment of infectious diseases. It has been shown that in order to prevent the spread of an infectious disease, Jews isolated an infected person from close contact with other people, thus avoiding the spread of various diseases and epidemics. Some Jewish works of the post-biblical period contain a description of the development of philosophy and ethics in medicine; the main ones are the Midrash, the Mishnah and the Talmud. In the article we also have analyzed conceptual medical foundations set forth in the Pentateuch of the Moses and the Talmud. It has been shown that the main attention of Jewish treatment practitioners was focused on disease prevention, as they attached great importance to the principles of ritual purity, which in turn was directly related to public hygiene. We also have studied a number of works of the early church fathers, who initiated the practice of caring for the physically ill. As a result, it was found that in the writings of the church fathers there are many mentions of surgery and treatment of mental illness.