Jewish Interpretation Research Articles

Hokhmat ha-Nefesh : Soul and Dream, from Eleazar of Worms to Renaissance Italy

Abstract This article examines the traditions of copying and reading a medieval Ashkenazi treatise, Hokhmat ha-Nefesh (»Wisdom of the Soul«) by Eleazar of Worms (1176–1238) in Renaissance Rome. It delves into a manuscript copied in 1515 by Jewish scholar Elias Levita (1469–1549), commissioned by Levita’s patron, Neoplatonist and Hermetic scholar Egidio da Viterbo (1469–1532). In addition to copying the text, Egidio had Jewish interpreters translate Hokhmat ha-Nefesh into vernacular Italian. The treatise discusses the heavenly nature of the soul, its connections with the angelic world, its prophetic abilities, and its fate and retribution in the afterlife. What role did this Ashkenazi text play in the early modern tradition? How can this text be seen as a testament to kabbalistic perspectives in Renaissance Italy? How did Egidio’s collaborators handle their scribal and translation tasks, and the relationship between the Hebrew original and the vernacular translation of Hokhmat ha-Nefesh? This essay addresses these questions.

Reshaping Abraham’s Image in Early Qing China: A Comparative Study of Catholic and Jewish Interpretations

In the early Qing dynasty, the Jesuit missionary Louis de Poirot’s (He Qingtai 賀清泰, 1735–1814) Chinese rendition of the Bible, Guxin Shengjing (The Ancient and New Testament) (古新聖經), reshaped the figure of Abraham. Contrary to the depiction by Chinese Jews of the era, de Poirot portrayed Abraham as a sage, resonating with the traditional Chinese concept of the “five cardinal relationships” (rulers to subjects, fathers to sons, husbands to wives, among siblings, and between friends), and an exemplar of virtue and faith, devoid of human flaws. Key differences emerged in translating Abraham’s name, religious stature, and national identity, influenced by distinct belief systems, attitudes towards Confucian culture, and political dynamics. Analyzing these Catholic and Jewish perspectives on Abraham enhances our understanding of the Bible’s contextualization and informs contemporary religious localization.

The Questions of Theodore. Part II

The article contains a translation of the second part of the Coptic text, composed in the genre of “erotapokrisis” (question-answer) and in the form of a dialogue between the Archbishop of the Coptic Church John III and a certain presbyter named Theodore (admittedly real historical characters). The Questions reveals a number of legends and interpretations based on the biblical text; some of them find analogies in Coptic as well as in early Christian literature in other languages and in Jewish interpretations, other ones probably should be considered unique. Distortions in biblical quotations suggest that the compiler often quotes them from memory. In addition, there are a number of quotations from the Alexandrian Physiologus, which confirms the popularity of this book in Egypt.

The Questions of Theodore. Part 1

The article contains a translation of the first part of the Coptic text, composed in the genre of “erotapokrisis” (question-answer) and in the form of a dialogue between the Archbishop of the Coptic Church John III and a certain presbyter named Theodore. Most of the sections are interpretations of individual sayings of the Old and New Testaments. The Questions reveals a number of legends and interpretations based on the biblical text; some of them find analogies in Coptic as well as in early Christian literature in other languages and in Jewish interpretations, other ones probably should be considered unique. The absence of typical pseudepigraphal details in the Coptic original suggests that both actors are real historical characters.

2세기 전반 기독교의 구약 성경에 대한 태도

At the first half of the 2nd century, the Christians were seeking a new identity independent of Judaism. I studied the attitudes of three Christian leaders to Old Testament.
 Clement of the Rome recognized the Old Testament as authoritative scriptures. He used the Old Testament as the basis for almost all arguments. The letter of Barnabas recognized the Old Testament as a sacred scripture, but its interpretation was completely different from that of Jews. The letter Barnabas used the Old Testament for only two purposes. One was to point out that the Jewish interpretation of the Old Testament was fundamentally wrong, and the other was to show that the Old Testament prefigured Jesus. So to the author of the letter of Barnabas the Old Testament was not a scripture that had any meaning in itself.
 Marcion opposed the Barnabas’s attitude and argued that the Old Testament should be completely discarded. According to him, Jesus’s God has nothing to do with the God of Old Testament. Therefore, Christianity should abandon the Old Testament. In this way, in the first half of the 2nd century, attitudes toward the Old Testament developed in various ways within Christianity.

Сравнение Шестоднева в Масоретском тексте и в Таргуме Онкелоса в историко-философском контексте

The article is dedicated to the first chapter of the Book of Genesis in the Targum Onkelos, the most important Jewish translation of the Pentateuch into Aramaic. The paper deals with terms related to the structure of space, time and eternity. In the Targum of Onkelos, the influence of Ptolemaic cosmology and geography, as well as the worldview of the era of the formation of the Mishna, are observed. The creator of the translation uses the term kadmin (originality, eternity), which al­lows us to interpret that Onkelos in a sense allows the existence of the world for an indefinitely long time in the past. In the theological aspect, the author of the Targum uses the Tetragrammaton, which is translated into Russian as the word “Lord”, instead of the Hebrew elohim (plural form). The author of the article inter­prets this unconditionally monotheistic term as a struggle against Gnosticism and Manichaeism, which was relevant in the 2nd century AD. The Aramaic term rekiya, which Onkelos translates into Hebrew rakia, means not so much “firma­ment” as extension, and this article discusses its possible translation as “space”. If a number of concepts “signs”, “holidays”, “days” and “years” are used in the He­brew Torah as synonymous, then in the Aramaic text “signs” and “times” are sepa­rately distinguished, and it is separately indicated that the luminaries are needed to count days and years. This shows the influence of Late Antique astrology, popu­lar among the Jews too. The author of this Targum not only created an interpreta­tion of the biblical text, but also created his own aspects of Jewish cosmology, which were used by Jewish interpreters to build their medieval cosmology.

Chloe T. Sun. Conspicuous in His Absence: Studies in the Song of Songs and Esther

Chloe T. Sun. <i>Conspicuous in His Absence: Studies in the Song of Songs and Esther</i>

De svenska biblarna som aldrig blev av

It has often been assumed that the late eighteenth century in Sweden never produced much of interest on the exegetical or theological plane. This was the period in which the Bible, a hotly debated text in Enlightenment Europe, was famously never translated in any accepted version and the philological, academic and theological work that was done during the Gustavian era has been underappreciated in later historiography. Picking up on the notion of a ‘religious Enlightenment,’ this article analyzes three biblical translation projects, the official Bible commission of 1773, the private translations of Bishop Johan Adam Tingstadius and the private Jewish translation of Genesis 49 by David Josephsson and Marcus Maure. Through a comparison of the translation work of Genesis 49 in these three projects this article argues for the usefulness of Bible reception in understanding the late eighteenth-century world. Philology, new historical knowledge and altered epistemic perspectives meant that the Bible, as the most central of classical and religious texts, could no longer be translated in the old 1541 tradition and that any translation of it would show the perspectives and ideologies of the translators and their intended audience, Jewish or Christian.

Haredi Fundamentalism in the State of Israel

Since its establishment in 1948, the State of Israel, which defines itself as Jewish-nation state, has been providing Haredi Jewry, also known as ultra-Orthodoxy, with a vast autonomy in education, enabling the development of a Jewish “Society of Learning Men.”This goes back to the Status quo regulations, which blocks the separation of state and religion in the country. In this framework, Haredi Jewry, which was nearly extinct after the Shoah, has developed into a striving and confident fundamentalist religious Jewish movement. At the same time, it has become the demographically most dynamic Jewish current. The influence of Haredi Jewry in Israel is crucial, for its leadership and its members do consider their isolationist, counter-acculturative, anti-modern moulding as the only authentic and “pure” form of Judaism, and they actively combat liberal Jewish interpretations or denominations.In this paper, a discussion about the definition of Haredism as fundamentalism will be provided. Furthermore, it will be argued that through the basic requirement of the Status quo between State and Jewish (orthodox) religion, the Haredi society’s attempt to organize itself as a cultural and communal autonomy has been highly successful also against the background of the societal restrictions of this effort given the dependant relationship that has developed between the Haredi community and general Israeli society. As illustrations for this case study, the educational autonomy, the Haredi judicial power over Jewish and non-Jewish citizens and the struggle over the Shabbat regulations will be examined.

"The midst of the earth”: Ps. 73:12b (LXX) in Patristic and Liturgical Understanding

The verse “You have wrought salvation in the midst of the earth” (Ps. 74/73:12) occurs in numerous liturgical texts. This article examines how this verse has been understood by patristic authors from circa third to fifth centuries. The Hebrew original and its Jewish interpretations focus on God’s salvific acts in the world, in the eyes of all peoples, while the Septuagint allows a more punctual understanding “in the centre of the world”. The latter option was utilised immediately after the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, as Golgotha became the solemn centre of Christian pilgrimage and was widely recognised as the centre of the earth in theological and cosmological terms. Therefore, the verse became much used in liturgical celebrations related to the cross, as witnessed already in the Typikon of Mar Saba.&#x0D; Moreover, the idea of Golgotha as axis mundi was soon applied in colourful ways regarding traditions related to the creation and burial of Adam, sacrifice of Isaac, and even eschatological visions. Excitingly, these interpretations have evident predecessors in Judaism and in the early Jewish Christian beliefs and practices. All this guarantees that the verse is one of the richest dictums in liturgical life in terms of theological, mythic, and historical connotations.

Nathan J. Chambers. Reconsidering Creation Ex Nihilo in Genesis 1

Nathan J. Chambers. <i>Reconsidering Creation Ex Nihilo in Genesis 1</i>

Hitler’s National Socialist Democracy Concept 1919–1933

ABSTRACT A conceptual study of Hitler's development of the National Socialist democracy concept between 1919 and 1933 is presented. Despite the voluminous literature on Hitler and Nazism, our knowledge of the NS democracy concept is seriously incomplete. This article makes a substantial historiographical contribution by providing a more profound understanding of Hitler's NS democracy concept and his position in the broader Weimar debate on democracy. I argue that Hitler prioritized democracy as a core concept in NS ideology. Between 1920 and 1925, Hitler employed a Germanic democracy concept centred on a popularly elected Führer modelled in the reversed mirror image of his Jewish democracy concept. The allegedly Jewish interpretation of democracy was, according to Hitler's conspiracy theory, a precursor for the Jews to achieve a global dictatorship. Between 1925 and 1933 Hitler resettled for an anti-plebiscitary Volksherrschaft concept, abandoning his Germanic democracy, the election of the Führer, and elections per se. This new concept rested on a notion of a Volkswille, which purportedly accommodated a genuine will of the people that could not be expressed in plebiscites and was identical with Hitler's worldview. I contend that Hitler's changeover from Germanic democracy to Volksherrschaft contributed to a totalitarian turn in NS ideology.

Jonah: Introduction and Commentary by Amy Erickson

Reviewed by: Jonah: Introduction and Commentary by Amy Erickson Steven T. Mann amy erickson, Jonah: Introduction and Commentary by (Illuminations; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2021). Pp. xxiv + 466. $70. Amy Erickson offers readers an extensive and insightful overview of the history of interpretation regarding the Book of Jonah, as well as an intriguing analysis of its translation and meaning. E. divides the study into two parts: an introduction and a commentary. Each part is organized into smaller sections and subsections that will allow readers to easily locate a particular topic of interest. In addition to providing a broad overview of historical interpretations, the introduction illuminates ways in which interpretations of Jonah are dependent on perspectives of the interpreter and interpreting community. The commentary section demonstrates various ways in which the story itself fosters polyvalent and even ambivalent interpretations. For example, E. points out that each chapter of the book participates in its own distinct genre, generating reflection out of tension and ambiguity. This aspect of Jonah leads E. to suggest similarities with the Book of Job as explored by Carol Newsom (The Book of Job: A Contest of Moral Imaginations [New York: Oxford University Press, 2003]). The first part of the book begins with a discussion of several preliminary topics including text, language, provenance, genre, and literary characteristics. E. demonstrates ways in which interpretation is never created in a vacuum but is directly tied to specific perspectives and presuppositions held by an interpreter and/or interpretative community. Drawing on an article by Yvonne Sherwood ("Cross-Currents in the Book of Jonah: Some Jewish and Cultural Midrashim on a Traditional Text," BibInt 6 [1998] 49–79), E. points out that "commentators who have read the book as a satire have done so as a result of their Protestant biases and at the expense of a suitably complex characterization of Jonah" (p. 40). Noting that the humor in the story is not restricted to Jonah but extends to every character, E. suggests that it is better to view the story as a parody rather than a satire. The bulk of the first half of this study explores what E. calls the "history of consequences," a term that includes "a range of uses, applications, and effects" that will enable readers "to appreciate those consequences that are not (at least in the traditional sense) textually based or rooted" (p. 66). E. provides an overview of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and modern "consequences" throughout history, with different historical periods discussed separately. This includes interpretations that are found not only in midrash and canonical texts but also literature, liturgy, and various artistic expressions. E. demonstrates that many (but not all) Jewish interpreters have tended to view the character Jonah in a positive light, suggesting, for example, that Jonah refuses to follow Yhwh's initial direction to prophesy against Nineveh because he knows of Assyria's future military action and is attempting to protect Israel. In this way, Jonah's refusal is "a reverent act of disobedience" (p. 79). Jewish readings have also tended to appreciate and debate the tensions in the story in search of deeper meanings. Christian interpretations have similarly sought deep meanings but have [End Page 299] been dominated by two ambivalent perspectives: one that views Jonah typologically to represent the resurrected Christ, and the other presenting Jonah in a supersessionist light that portrays the Jewish people as stubborn and hopeless, abandoned by God in favor of the gentiles. Muslim interpretations tend to view Jonah positively due to his prayer in chap. 2, which is viewed as "a second-person iteration of Islam's basic statement of faith, the shahadah ('There is no god but God, and Muhammad is his prophet')" (p. 194). E. points out that "Jonah (Yūnus) is the only one of the twelve Minor Prophets in the OT mentioned in the Qur'an" and that "one of Muhammad's sayings warns people against saying they are superior to Jonah" (p. 194). In discussing modern consequences, E. exposes several disturbing dominant Christian interpretations of Jonah that have tended to impose inappropriate reductionist and anti-Semitic overtones upon the book. In the commentary section, E. examines several translation issues and explores the story's...

Esther, Drag, and Agency: Gender, Ethnicity, Power, and Queer Time in the Book of Esther and its Jewish Interpretations

The character of Esther in the biblical book named for her is often read in scholarship as passive, overshadowed by her relative Mordechai, merely complying with his directives. This essay uses queer-theoretical vocabularies of drag and passing to allow for a different reading of Esther, one in which she acts intentionally and at great personal risk to save herself and her people. I examine the Hebrew Masoretic text of Esther, as well as early Jewish interpretations of the story, for clues about Esther's ethnic and sexual passing. In addition to arguing that Esther the character engages in drag and passing, I contend that Esther the book does temporal drag, playing with notions of time to make an important argument about how Jewish history works. While acknowledging that the book was almost certainly written to legitimate nationalist counter-reading strategies can produce more liberatory understandings.

The Mother of the Infant King, Isaiah 7:14: ʿalmâ and parthenos in the World of the Bible; A Linguistic Perspective by Christophe Rico and Peter J. Gentry

Reviewed by: The Mother of the Infant King, Isaiah 7:14: ʿalmâ and parthenos in the World of the Bible; A Linguistic Perspective by Christophe Rico and Peter J. Gentry Sehoon Jang christophe rico and peter j. gentry, The Mother of the Infant King, Isaiah 7:14: ʿalmâ and parthenos in the World of the Bible; A Linguistic Perspective (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2020). Pp. xiii + 217. Paper $48. Christophe Rico and Peter J. Gentry seek to offer a comprehensive treatment of the Hebrew word ʿalmâ and its Greek rendering parthenos in Isa 7:14, a controversial term that has occasioned countless debates and still leaves us with much uncertainty. R. deals primarily with the main part of the biblical book, and G. with the last section of Appendix II. Both R. and G. are willing to remain unsympathetic with and even to audaciously fly in the face of a nearly universal scholarly consensus that ʿalmâ refers to a young girl. Rico initially poses the question, "Does the word ʿalmâ refer to a virgin, a married [End Page 122] woman, or a young girl?" (p. 4), adumbrating the primary goal of this research. He then commences his study of ʿalmâ with a concise overview of the history of the developing connotations of parthenos in ancient Greek. He asserts that, during the Hellenistic era, parthenos appears to have referred exclusively to a virgin as the final development in the meaning of the word. He offers a full-scale analysis against the universal consensus that ʿalmâ designates "a young woman." The consensus is based primarily on an etymological study of ʿalmâ the exclusive role of bĕtûlâ as "virgin," the occurrence of ʿalmâ in Prov 30:19, and Jewish tradition. R. finds any etymological approach to ʿalmâ problematic if it fails to keep the semantic value of the word in mind. He contends that ʿalmâ is utilized as a hyponym of bĕtûlâ "if the meaning of ʿalmâ joins the respective values of the terms bətûlâ and naʿărâ" (p. 30). He pays close attention to a difficult problem with the appearance of ʿalmâ in Prov 30:19, suggesting a possible solution that ʿalmâ could be emended as ʿlm(y)w connoting "in youth," a textual emendation that is said to be supported by several ancient versions. Furthermore, an extensive investigation of traditional Jewish interpretations of ʿalmâ especially five rabbinic sources from the eleventh to fourteenth centuries, leads him to confirm his conclusion that the word means "virgin." In the last part of the book, R. provides a wide-ranging examination of the meaning of ʿalmâ from a semantic perspective. In particular, he focuses on the Psalms, especially the title of Psalm 46, where ʿălāmôt is exceptionally set forth as an instrumental instruction related to the soprano voice. In his judgment, the musical usage of ʿalmâ in the Psalms plays a significant role in maintaining the argument that ʿalmâ connotes "virgin." Finally, R. offers a painstaking analysis of the structure of Isaiah 1-12, especially the Immanuel cycle (7:1-8:18), where the mysterious mention of ʿalmâ and her child is significantly highlighted. Given the elusive identity of ʿalmâ in the cycle, R. comes to the conclusion that Isa 7:14 ought to be understood as the prediction of a birth by a young virgin that will take place in the distant future (p. 155). This unflinching position is subsequently reinforced by G., whose updated treatment of Isa 7:14, including his critical response to H. G. M. Williamson (review of La mère de l'Enfant-Roi, Isaïe 7,14: 'ʿalmâ' et 'parthenos' dans l'univers biblique; Un point de vue linguistique, by Christophe Rico, CBQ 76 [2014] 338–39), is presented in Appendix II, with the succinct claim that Isa 7:14 must be construed as "a direct prediction for the distant future" (p. 217). This research is a significant contribution to a linguistic study of the Hebrew word ʿalmâ rendered as parthenos in the LXX of Isa 7:14. R. and G.'s approach to ʿalmâ provides valuable insights into the history of the reception of the meaning of the word...

The Pleasures of Life and the Praise of Wisdom in the Book of Qohelet in the Light of Medieval Jewish Interpreters

The article analyzes how the most important medieval Jewish exegetes interpreted the book of Qohelet. It is focused on some of the most controversial ideas of the text, namely, the meaning of pleasures of life and the kind of wisdom praised in the book. The question of authorship, although not controversial, is also analyzed. The interpretations of medieval Jewish exegetes on these topics were the basis for their understanding of the purpose of the book as a whole. Different explanations were given by Jewish exegetes on whether the book of Qohelet encourages asceticism or promotes the knowledge of foreign sciences.

Towards a Bilingual Binational Translation Method: The Amputated Tongue Collection of Short Stories as a Sample

Translators and writers are divided into two main groups regarding the method of translation that should be adopted in translating texts. One group believes that the translator should be true to the translated text, while the other group believes that the translator has the right to recreate the text into a more beautiful one. This study deals with this issue from these two points of view and tries to answer the following questions: Why do we translate? What should we translate? How do we translate? The study relies on an innovative translation method developed by the Board of Maktoub Project for Translation that belongs to Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem to answer these questions. A group of about one hundred Arab and Jewish translators translated Arabic literature texts into Hebrew in an internationally new method, which is neither individual nor collective. It is a bilingual binational method. The translators consist of pairs of a Jewish or/and Arab translator, an Arab/or Jewish literary editor, and a linguistic editor, believing that translation is a text and culture, heritage, and traditions of a people or nation. This dual method gave the translated text its right of accuracy after it had been translated by one translator who can make mistakes due to his ignorance of the writer's culture. The study's conclusion confirms that bilingual binational translation is more fruitful and more accurate because it is based on dialogue, bilingual, and binational cultural knowledge.

“The Bush Burned with Fire and the Bush Was Not Consumed”

Abstract This paper explores the post-metaphysical theology of Richard Kearney (1954–) from a Jewish theological perspective. It seeks to provide an original analysis of his project “anatheism,” considering the prominence of Jewish texts in the development of the concept of anatheism. Rooted in deconstructionist and Continental philosophical discourses, Jewish hermeneutics also plays a central role in anatheism. This discursive intersection has received scarce scholarly attention to date. Biblical and other texts which he interprets, include the rabbinic exegesis of Rashi and of modern Jewish hermeneutical philosophy notably of Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, and Emmanuel Levinas. I analyse elements of Kearney’s interpretation primarily of the “Burning Bush” biblical narrative as a test case for anatheistic reading of Jewish texts as they appear in one particular text “I Am Who May Be” in The God Who May Be: A Hermeneutics of Religion (2001). Kearney’s textual reading of the Burning Bush offers an unusual example of a Christian engagement with Jewish interpretations of the biblical parable as well as of Levinas, Derrida, and others. Kearney’s effort highlights an approach of a mutual search for ways of interpreting texts not “of” the other, but “with” the other, in a mutual engagement of post-metaphysical theology. More broadly, this examination offers an important contribution to the developing field of post-metaphysical theology in the Jewish and Christian traditions, ultimately posing questions as to how and whether elements of Jewish scriptural interpretative techniques might or can imbue contemporary Christian post-metaphysical theologies. Conversely, the question can be asked as to what a Jewish version of anatheism might look like. This examination presents a test case for possibilities of reading and learning from discourses across different religions.

Mordechai Z. Cohen. The Rule of Peshat: Jewish Constructions of the Plain Sense of Scripture and Their Christian and Muslim Contexts, 900–1270.

Mordechai Z. Cohen. <i>The Rule of Peshat: Jewish Constructions of the Plain Sense of Scripture and Their Christian and Muslim Contexts, 900–1270</i>.

Review: The Golden Calf between Bible and Qur’an: Scripture, Polemic, and Exegesis from Late Antiquity to Islam, by Michael Pregill

Review: <i>The Golden Calf between Bible and Qur’an: Scripture, Polemic, and Exegesis from Late Antiquity to Islam</i>, by Michael Pregill