Miller Performances of Ancient Jewish Letters

From Elephantine to MMT
1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-3-647-55093-0
Verlag: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, Band Band 020, 317 Seiten

Reihe: Journal of Ancient Judaism. Supplements (JAJ.S)

This ambitious and engaging book sets itself the task of combining a wide range of approaches to cast new light on the form and function of several ancient Jewish letters in a variety of languages. The focus of The Performance of Ancient Jewish Lettersis on applying a new emerging field of performance theory to texts and arguing that letters and other documents were not just read in silence, as is normal today, but were “performed,” especially when they were addressed to a community. A distinctive feature of this book consists of being one of the first to apply the approach of performance criticism to ancient Jewish letters. Previous treatments of ancient letters have not given enough consideration to their oral context; however, this book prompts the reader to “listen” sympathetically with the audience. The Performance focuses close attention on the ways in which the engagement of the audience during the performance of a text might be read from traces present in the text itself. This book invites the audience to hear a fresh reading of a family letter from Hermopolis, concerning ugly tunics and castor oil; festal letters, about issues surrounding the celebration of Passover, Purim and Hanukkah; a diaspora letter on how to live in a foreign land; and also an official letter concerning the building of the Jerusalem temple. These letters will help us understand a text from the Dead Sea Scrolls, namely, MMT. Marvin L. Miller argues for the centrality of performance in the life of Jews of the Second Temple period, an area of study that has been traditionally neglected. The Performanceadvances the fields of orality and epistolography and supplements other scholars’ works in those fields.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Miller, Marvin Lloyd

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturgeschichte und Literaturkritik
• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien: Theologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Geschichte des Judentums Geschichte des Judentums: Biblische & Klassische Periode
• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien: Literatur & Kunst

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Cover;1
2;Title Page;4
3;Copyright;5
4;Table of Contents;6
5;Body;10
6;List of Abbreviations;10
6.1;Primary Literature;10
6.2;Secondary Literature;11
7;Preface;16
8;Chapter 1 Introduction;18
8.1;1.1 Performance Criticism;20
8.1.1;1.1.1 Different Approaches to Performance;20
8.1.2;1.1.2 Towards a Definition of Performance Criticism;26
8.2;1.2 Performance and Ethnopoetics;28
8.3;1.3 Performance and Folklore;30
8.4;1.4 New Directions;35
9;Chapter 2 Going Behind the Scenes: History of Scholarship;38
9.1;2.1 History of Scholarship of Ancient Letters;39
9.1.1;2.1.1 Greek Letters;39
9.1.2;2.1.2 Aramaic Letters;42
9.1.3;2.1.3 Hebrew Letters;46
9.2;2.2 What is a Letter?;50
9.3;2.3 History of Scholarship of MMT;54
9.4;2.4 Observations;57
10;Chapter 3 Setting the Stage: Methods;58
10.1;3.1 Contributions of Historical Critical Methods;59
10.1.1;3.1.1 Form Criticism;59
10.1.2;3.1.2 Redaction Criticism;61
10.2;3.2 Contributions of Recent Insights into Texuality;62
10.2.1;3.2.1 Semiotics;62
10.2.2;3.2.2 Oral Processes;66
10.3;3.3 Observations;72
11;Chapter 4 Preparing for the Performances;74
11.1;4.1 From Text to Performance;75
11.1.1;4.1.1 How to Read a Letter;76
11.1.2;4.1.2 Letter Carriers and Readers;82
11.2;4.2 Performances and Audiences;84
11.2.1;4.2.1 Embodiment of a Text for an Audience;85
11.2.2;4.2.2 Interaction with the Audience;87
11.2.3;4.2.3 Authority of the Performer;91
11.2.4;4.2.4 Performance and Cultural Memory;94
11.3;4.3 Performance in Second Temple Judaism;96
11.3.1;4.3.1 Some Scholarly Proposals for Jewish Scribal Traditions;97
11.3.2;4.3.2 Performances of Ancient Jewish Letters;99
11.3.3;4.3.3 Qumran Scribal Tradition;101
11.4;4.4 Observations;103
12;Chapter 5 Performances of two Free Standing Letters from Egypt;106
12.1;5.1 Form And Function Of Ancient Letters;107
12.2;5.2 Hermopolis Family Letter;110
12.2.1;5.2.1 Text;111
12.2.2;5.2.2 Texture;114
12.2.3;5.2.3 Context;123
12.3;5.3 Passover Letter;127
12.3.1;5.3.1 Text;128
12.3.2;5.3.2 Texture;130
12.3.3;5.3.3 Context;138
12.4;5.4 Summarizing the Performances;140
13;Chapter 6 Performances of two Embedded Jewish Letters;142
13.1;6.1 Aramaic Letters in Ezra: An Overview;143
13.2;6.2 An Embedded Aramaic Letter: Ezra 5;146
13.2.1;6.2.1 Text;146
13.2.2;6.2.2 Texture;149
13.2.3;6.2.3 Context;158
13.3;6.3 An Embedded Hebrew Letter: Jeremiah 29;161
13.3.1;6.3.1 Text;162
13.3.2;6.3.2 Texture;166
13.3.3;6.3.3 Context;182
13.4;6.4 Summarizing the Performances;186
14;Chapter 7 Performances of two Greek Letters;188
14.1;7.1 An Embedded Letter in Greek Esther;189
14.1.1;7.1.1 Text;190
14.1.2;7.1.2 Texture;193
14.1.3;7.1.3 Context;205
14.2;7.2 An Introductory Letter to 2 Maccabees;207
14.2.1;7.2.1 Text;207
14.2.2;7.2.2 Texture;214
14.2.3;7.2.3 Context;219
14.3;7.3 Summarizing the Performances;220
15;Chapter 8 A Case Study of the Performances of MMT;222
15.1;8.1 Text;223
15.1.1;8.1.1 Scene 1: Calendrical Section;224
15.1.2;8.1.2 Scene 2: Legal Section;226
15.1.3;8.1.3 Scene 3: Exhortation Section;242
15.1.4;8.1.4 Evaluation of the evidence gathered from the text;247
15.2;8.2 Texture;248
15.2.1;8.2.1 Oral Register;248
15.2.2;8.2.2 Cultural Traditions;251
15.3;8.3 Context;255
15.3.1;8.3.1 Late Second Century BCE Performances;256
15.3.2;8.3.2 Late First Century BCE. Performance;259
15.3.3;8.3.3 A Performance Reflecting on an Earlier Tradition;261
15.4;8.4 Bringing the Performances Together;264
16;Chapter 9 Conclusions;268
17;Bibliography;276
18;Ancient Literature;304
19;Modern Authors;310
20;Subject;316

Über Autor(innen)

Miller, Marvin Lloyd
Marvin Lloyd Miller, PhD, is Adjunct Professor at Summit Pacific College in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada.