Imitating Abraham

Ritual and Exemplarity in Jewish and Christian Contexts
Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-90-04-72261-3
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 42, 420 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 803 g

Reihe: Jewish and Christian Perspectives Series

Imitating Abraham provides exciting glimpses into the reception history of the character Abraham in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, illuminating the manifold ways in which interpreters draw upon his legacy to authorize practices like sacrifice, circumcision, hospitality, feasting, prayer, and personal and corporate piety. Abraham holds surprises: his name is used in magical amulets—some published here for the first time—to ward off demons, protect cattle from illness, and even to round up runaway slaves. Researchers, students, and all interested in Biblical, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Studies, as well as ritual and exemplarity will want to read this book.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Bergmann, Claudia D.

Blanton IV, Thomas R.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Christentum/Christliche Theologie Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments

List of Figures and Tables

Abbreviations

Notes on Contributors

Introduction: Abraham, Ritual, and Exemplification Thomas R. Blanton IV and Claudia D. Bergmann

Part 1: Writings from the Neo-Babylonian, Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman Periods (ca. 600s BCE–100s CE)

1 “Look to Abraham and Sarah”: the Motifs of Infertility and Childbirth in Genesis and Second Isaiah Claudia D. Bergmann and May May Latt

2 Abraham as a Model and Mediator of Worship Practices in the Genesis Apocryphon and Jubilees Mika S. Pajunen

3 “Look toward the Heavens and Count the Stars”: Abraham the Astronomer in Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism Stephen O. Smoot

4 Right Knowledge of God and the Rejection of False Religion: Abraham in Romans 1 Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr

5 Abraham as Exemplum in Fourth Maccabees Jan Willem van Henten

Part 2: Writings from the Early Byzantine / Sassanid Period (ca. 300s–700s CE)

6 “Halakic” Abraham in the Encounter with the Three Visitors Marcel Poorthuis

7 Abraham as Ritual Model in Rabbinic Tradition: Circumcision, Prayer, and Priesthood Günter Stemberger

8 Christianizing Abraham: Exemplarity in Ambrosiaster and Ambrose of Milan Clayton J. Killion

9 “Arise My Beloved, and Come Away”: the Eros of Genesis 12 in a Late Antique Liturgical Poem Laura S. Lieber

10 Abraham as Model in Christian Ritual: Evidence from Late Ancient and Medieval Greek and Syriac Magic Michael Zellmann-Rohrer

11 Abraham as Model for Muhammad: a Survey of Some Early Christian Arabic Views Clare E. Wilde

Part 3: Writings from the Medieval and Modern Periods (ca. 800s–1800s CE)

12 Abraham as a Model of Hospitality in the Palaea and Cognate Literature Alexey Somov

13 “For I Know Him, That He Will Command His Children and His Household after Him” (Gen 18:19): Some Ideas on Abraham as a Model in Rabbinic Prayer and Ritual Leon Mock

14 Contradictory Readings of Genesis 22: Abraham in Wisdom of Solomon and in Voltaire Christoph Bultmann

15 Abraham as Ritual Model in Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling George Pattison

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Claudia D. Bergmann is Professor for Biblical Theology and Exegesis at Paderborn University (Germany) and the author of Festmahl ohne Ende: Apokalyptische Vorstellungen vom Speisen in der Kommenden Welt im antiken Judentum und ihre biblischen Wurzeln (Kohlhammer, 2019).

Thomas R. Blanton IV is Visiting Assistant Professor at John Carroll University. He is the author of A Spiritual Economy: Gift Exchange in the Letters of Paul of Tarsus (2017); his research examines early Christianity and ancient Mediterranean economies.