Lutz Doering | University of Münster (original) (raw)
Books by Lutz Doering
Greek authors likened "philosophical discourse" in the Hellenistic and Roman eras to an orchard. ... more Greek authors likened "philosophical discourse" in the Hellenistic and Roman eras to an orchard. Logic, physics, and ethics served as the orchard walls, the trees, and the fruit of this enterprise. In a similar manner, this collection of essays, written by an international group of scholars and devoted to Philo of Alexandria's fashioning of a new Jewish philosophical discourse, harvests the fruits of many disciplines – including the study of Ancient Judaism and History of Religions, Ancient Philosophy, and the Classics – and brings them to bear on one of the Roman period's most prolific and creative Jewish thinkers and public figures. Essays treat Philo’s relationship to the varied schools of philosophy: Socratic thought, Pyrrhonism, Epicureanism, Pythagoreism, Stoicism, and Middle Platonism all played a role in the seedbed of Philo’s orchard. The volume also includes a new catalogue of Philo’s library and a study of Philo’s reception in Christian philosophical discourse.
This volume offers contributions to two basic questions of the study of the Tosefta: How can we d... more This volume offers contributions to two basic questions of the study of the Tosefta: How can we describe the character and relationship of the Tosefta manuscripts? And how does the Tosefta relate to other rabbinic traditions and texts? It also sheds light on other topics of Tosefta research: "magic", emotions, and gender. The volume, based on two international colloquia in Munster in 2016 and 2017, marks the beginning of a new phase in the study of Tosefta, encouraging an international conversation between scholars on method and contents.
The study of ancient Judaism has enjoyed a steep rise in interest and publications in recent deca... more The study of ancient Judaism has enjoyed a steep rise in interest and publications in recent decades. However, much of this study has focused on the ideas and beliefs represented in ancient texts, with only limited study regarding the daily lives and material culture of Jewish individuals and their communities. The nascent institution of the synagogue formed an increasingly important venue for communal gathering and daily or weekly practice. This collection of essays is intended to bring together a broad spectrum of new archaeological and textual data with various emergent theories and interpretive methods in order to address the need to understand the place of the synagogue in the daily and weekly procedures, community frameworks, and theological structures in which Judaeans, Galileans, and Jewish people in the Diaspora lived and gathered. The interdisciplinary studies will be of great significance for anyone studying ancient Jewish belief, practice, and community formation.
![Research paper thumbnail of [Tosefta] Seder II: Moëd, 1: Schabbat (Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer, 2019)](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/58396157/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](This is the first complete translation of the Tosefta tractate Shabbat into German, with brief in... more This is the first complete translation of the Tosefta tractate Shabbat into German, with brief introduction and detailed commentary by annotation, published by W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart, in March 2019. – Apart from the title page, three specimens are made available here: the table of contents, the preface, and a reading sample.
In the ancient world, letter-writing not only forged connections between individuals, but also he... more In the ancient world, letter-writing not only forged connections between individuals, but also helped to construct and cultivate group-identities and communities. This volume explores the interrelation of epistolary communication and socio-political practice across four key cultural configurations: Greece, Rome, Judaism, and Christianity.
• Incorporates a range of original case studies, offering new insights into the socio-political dimensions of letter-writing in the ancient world across key cultural contexts
• Utilizes a multi-disciplinary approach to ancient epistolography, drawing on Jewish and Biblical studies, classics, and ancient history, and combining both literary and historical perspectives on this vital aspect of antiquity
![Research paper thumbnail of Journal of Ancient Judaism 8/2 (2017) [2018], special issue “Jews and Drama”](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/57213823/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Special issue “Jews and Drama,” guest-edited by Lutz Doering and Sandra Gambetti
Time has always held a fascination for human beings, who have attempted to relate to it and to ma... more Time has always held a fascination for human beings, who have attempted to relate to it and to make sense of it, constructing and deconstructing it through its various prisms, since time cannot be experienced in an unmediated way. This book answers the needs of a growing community of scholars and readers who are interested in this interaction. It offers a series of innovative studies by both senior and younger experts on various aspects of the construction of time in antiquity. Some articles in this book contain visual material published for the first time, while other studies update the field with new theories or apply new approaches to relevant sources. Within the study of antiquity, the book covers the disciplines of Classics and Ancient History, Assyriology, Egyptology, Ancient Judaism, and Early Christianity, with thematic contributions on rituals, festivals, astronomy, calendars, medicine, art, and narrative.
Contents:
1. Introduction Lutz Doering and Jonathan Ben-Dov
2 Time and natural law in Jewish-Hellenistic writings Jonathan Ben-Dov
3. Calendars, politics, and power relations in the Roman Empire Sacha Stern
4. Doubling religion in the Augustan Age: shaping time for an empire Jörg Rüpke
5. Real and constructed time in Babylonian astral medicine John Steele
6. The intellectual background of the Antikythera mechanism Robert Hannah
7. Divine figurations of time in Ancient Egypt Alexandra von Lieven
8. The moon and the power of time reckoning in Ancient Mesopotamia Lorenzo Verderame
9. Toward a phenomenology of time in ancient Greek art SeungJung Kim
10. Women's bodies as metaphors for time in biblical, second temple, and rabbinic literature Sarit Kattan Gribetz
11. The beginning of sabbath and festivals in ancient Jewish sources Lutz Doering
12. Seasoning the bible and biblifying time through fixed liturgical reading systems (lectionaries) Daniel Stökl Ben Ezra
13. The Roman ember days of September and the Jewish New Year Robert Hayward
14. Celebrations and the abstention from celebrations of sacred time in Early Christianity Clemens Leonhard.
Ancient Jewish letter writing is a neglected topic of research. Lutz Doering’s new monograph seek... more Ancient Jewish letter writing is a neglected topic of research. Lutz Doering’s new monograph seeks to redress this situation. The author pursues two major tasks: first, to provide a comprehensive discussion of Jewish letter writing in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman periods and, second, to assess the importance of ancient Jewish letter writing for the emergence and early development of Christian epistolography. Although individual groups of Jewish letters have been studied before, the present monograph is the first one to look at Jewish letters comprehensively across the languages in which they were written and/or handed down (chiefly Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek). It operates with a broad concept of "letter” and deals with documentary as well as literary and embedded letters. The author highlights cross-linguistic developments, such as the influence of the Greek epistolary form on Aramaic and Hebrew letters or the non-idiomatic retention of Semitic "peace” greetings in some letters translated into Greek, which allowed for these greetings to be charged with new meaning. Doering argues that such processes were also important for early Christian epistolography. Thus, Paul engaged creatively with Jewish epistolary formulae. Frequent address of communities rather than individuals and the quasi-official setting of many Jewish letters would have provided relevant models when Paul developed his own epistolary praxis. In addition, the author shows that the concept of communication with the "Diaspora”, in both halakhic-administrative and prophetic-apocalyptic Jewish letters, is adapted by a number of early Christian letters, such as 1 Peter, James, Acts 15:23-29, and 1 Clement . Ancient Jewish and early Christian letters also share a concern with group identity and cohesion that is often supported by salvation-historical motifs. In sum, Lutz Doering addresses the previously under-researched text-pragmatic similarities between Jewish and Christian letters.
Conference Organization by Lutz Doering
A conference of the Cluster of Excellence Religion and Politics, University of Münster, in cooper... more A conference of the Cluster of Excellence Religion and Politics, University of Münster, in cooperation with the School of Jewish Studies and Archaeology, Tel Aviv University, 23–25 September 2024.
Registration for in-person or Zoom participation until 13 September (see flyer).
This is the updated list of the sessions of the Hellenistic Judaism Section at the 2019 SBL Annua... more This is the updated list of the sessions of the Hellenistic Judaism Section at the 2019 SBL Annual Meeting at San Diego. Welcome to our sessions!
(Alexander von) Humboldt Tagung at WWU Münster, Institutum Judaicum Delitzschianum. Consideration... more (Alexander von) Humboldt Tagung at WWU Münster, Institutum Judaicum Delitzschianum. Considerations of Philo's philosophical library (Gregory Sterling), the interrelation of theology and philosophy (Rainer Hirsch-Luipold), the Omnis probus (Maren Niehoff, Troels Engberg-Pedersen), Philo and Scepticism (Carlos Lévy, Mauro Bonazzi), and Philo's Philosophy of Language (Michael Cover). Responses by David Runia and Lutz Doering.
The Call for Papers is open between 19 Dec 2018 and 6 Mar 2019.
This is the list of sessions offered by the Hellenistic Judaism section at the SBL Denver Annual ... more This is the list of sessions offered by the Hellenistic Judaism section at the SBL Denver Annual Meeting
Papers by Lutz Doering
Brief und Bildung: Von der Antike bis zur Moderne, eds. E.-M. Becker and A. Fürst; Epistula 1; Berlin., 2024
This article discusses the transmission of knowledge in ancient Jewish letters using the examples... more This article discusses the transmission of knowledge in ancient Jewish letters using the examples of the two introductory letters of Second Maccabees (2 Macc 1:1-2:18), the Letter of Baruch (2 Bar 78-86) and the letters of Rn Gamaliel to distant areas of the Land of Israel and the Diaspora (tSan 2:6).
NTT Journal for Theology and the Study of Religion, 2024
This is the pre-print version of Lutz Doering, “Review Essay: The Literature of the Sages”, NTT J... more This is the pre-print version of Lutz Doering, “Review Essay: The Literature of the Sages”, NTT Journal for Theology and the Study of Religion 78 (2024): 169–181. This essay reviews the 2022 volume, The Literature of the Sages: A Re-visioning, edited by Christine Hayes in the series Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum (CRINT).
Parting of the Ways: The Variegated Ways of Separations between Jews and Christians, 2024
The article briefly reviews some aspects of the literary structure and source-critical questions ... more The article briefly reviews some aspects of the literary structure and source-critical questions of the Didache, comments on its genre, and discusses in detail the two selected topics of fasting and prayer in Did. 8.1–3, with a view to what the Didache might contribute to the issue of the so-called “Parting of the Ways”. It is argued that the Didache, directed at a Christ-believing group composed of both Jews and gentiles, attempts to establish boundaries vis-à-vis a specific group of Jews polemically called “hypocrites” which bears some relation with pre-70 CE Pharisees, and that this conversely shows that “the ways” between the Didache group “and Judaism” have not fully parted.
The Routledge Handbook of Jews and Judaism in Late Antiquity, 2024
The chapter reviews the evidence of Jewish letters and letter writing in Tannaitic texts, where i... more The chapter reviews the evidence of Jewish letters and letter writing in Tannaitic texts, where it is sparse, and Amoraic texts, where it becomes more frequent; specific groups of letters are those ascribed to the Patriarch, those between rabbinic colleagues, mostly in regards to halakhic topics, and those addressed by “the people” of a given place to rabbis, again concerning halakhic questions, which can be considered a forerunner of the responsa literature from the Gaonic period onwards. In addition, the chapter discusses the evidence of extant Jewish documentary letters in Greek, Aramaic, Hebrew from Late Antiquity (from ca. the fourth century C.E.). Finally, the chapter briefly considers the debated question of potential Jewish literary letters transmitted in Latin (Letter of Mordecai to Alexander, Epistola Anne ad Senecam).
William M. Schniedewind, Jason M. Zurawski, and Gabriele Boccaccini (eds.), Torah: Functions, Meanings, and Diverse Manifestations in Early Judaism and Christianity. EJL 56; Atlanta, GA: SBL Press, 2022
This article charts the status, notion, and development of Torah and Jewish law (“halakah”) throu... more This article charts the status, notion, and development of Torah and Jewish law (“halakah”) throughout the Hellenistic period, both in the Land of Israel and in the Jewish Diaspora, looking for legal concern as well as evidence for the practice of the law. It argues that legal concern did not only arise after the Maccabean period, although it became more detailed from the end of the second century BCE.
Greek authors likened "philosophical discourse" in the Hellenistic and Roman eras to an orchard. ... more Greek authors likened "philosophical discourse" in the Hellenistic and Roman eras to an orchard. Logic, physics, and ethics served as the orchard walls, the trees, and the fruit of this enterprise. In a similar manner, this collection of essays, written by an international group of scholars and devoted to Philo of Alexandria's fashioning of a new Jewish philosophical discourse, harvests the fruits of many disciplines – including the study of Ancient Judaism and History of Religions, Ancient Philosophy, and the Classics – and brings them to bear on one of the Roman period's most prolific and creative Jewish thinkers and public figures. Essays treat Philo’s relationship to the varied schools of philosophy: Socratic thought, Pyrrhonism, Epicureanism, Pythagoreism, Stoicism, and Middle Platonism all played a role in the seedbed of Philo’s orchard. The volume also includes a new catalogue of Philo’s library and a study of Philo’s reception in Christian philosophical discourse.
This volume offers contributions to two basic questions of the study of the Tosefta: How can we d... more This volume offers contributions to two basic questions of the study of the Tosefta: How can we describe the character and relationship of the Tosefta manuscripts? And how does the Tosefta relate to other rabbinic traditions and texts? It also sheds light on other topics of Tosefta research: "magic", emotions, and gender. The volume, based on two international colloquia in Munster in 2016 and 2017, marks the beginning of a new phase in the study of Tosefta, encouraging an international conversation between scholars on method and contents.
The study of ancient Judaism has enjoyed a steep rise in interest and publications in recent deca... more The study of ancient Judaism has enjoyed a steep rise in interest and publications in recent decades. However, much of this study has focused on the ideas and beliefs represented in ancient texts, with only limited study regarding the daily lives and material culture of Jewish individuals and their communities. The nascent institution of the synagogue formed an increasingly important venue for communal gathering and daily or weekly practice. This collection of essays is intended to bring together a broad spectrum of new archaeological and textual data with various emergent theories and interpretive methods in order to address the need to understand the place of the synagogue in the daily and weekly procedures, community frameworks, and theological structures in which Judaeans, Galileans, and Jewish people in the Diaspora lived and gathered. The interdisciplinary studies will be of great significance for anyone studying ancient Jewish belief, practice, and community formation.
This is the first complete translation of the Tosefta tractate Shabbat into German, with brief in... more This is the first complete translation of the Tosefta tractate Shabbat into German, with brief introduction and detailed commentary by annotation, published by W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart, in March 2019. – Apart from the title page, three specimens are made available here: the table of contents, the preface, and a reading sample.
In the ancient world, letter-writing not only forged connections between individuals, but also he... more In the ancient world, letter-writing not only forged connections between individuals, but also helped to construct and cultivate group-identities and communities. This volume explores the interrelation of epistolary communication and socio-political practice across four key cultural configurations: Greece, Rome, Judaism, and Christianity.
• Incorporates a range of original case studies, offering new insights into the socio-political dimensions of letter-writing in the ancient world across key cultural contexts
• Utilizes a multi-disciplinary approach to ancient epistolography, drawing on Jewish and Biblical studies, classics, and ancient history, and combining both literary and historical perspectives on this vital aspect of antiquity
Special issue “Jews and Drama,” guest-edited by Lutz Doering and Sandra Gambetti
Time has always held a fascination for human beings, who have attempted to relate to it and to ma... more Time has always held a fascination for human beings, who have attempted to relate to it and to make sense of it, constructing and deconstructing it through its various prisms, since time cannot be experienced in an unmediated way. This book answers the needs of a growing community of scholars and readers who are interested in this interaction. It offers a series of innovative studies by both senior and younger experts on various aspects of the construction of time in antiquity. Some articles in this book contain visual material published for the first time, while other studies update the field with new theories or apply new approaches to relevant sources. Within the study of antiquity, the book covers the disciplines of Classics and Ancient History, Assyriology, Egyptology, Ancient Judaism, and Early Christianity, with thematic contributions on rituals, festivals, astronomy, calendars, medicine, art, and narrative.
Contents:
1. Introduction Lutz Doering and Jonathan Ben-Dov
2 Time and natural law in Jewish-Hellenistic writings Jonathan Ben-Dov
3. Calendars, politics, and power relations in the Roman Empire Sacha Stern
4. Doubling religion in the Augustan Age: shaping time for an empire Jörg Rüpke
5. Real and constructed time in Babylonian astral medicine John Steele
6. The intellectual background of the Antikythera mechanism Robert Hannah
7. Divine figurations of time in Ancient Egypt Alexandra von Lieven
8. The moon and the power of time reckoning in Ancient Mesopotamia Lorenzo Verderame
9. Toward a phenomenology of time in ancient Greek art SeungJung Kim
10. Women's bodies as metaphors for time in biblical, second temple, and rabbinic literature Sarit Kattan Gribetz
11. The beginning of sabbath and festivals in ancient Jewish sources Lutz Doering
12. Seasoning the bible and biblifying time through fixed liturgical reading systems (lectionaries) Daniel Stökl Ben Ezra
13. The Roman ember days of September and the Jewish New Year Robert Hayward
14. Celebrations and the abstention from celebrations of sacred time in Early Christianity Clemens Leonhard.
Ancient Jewish letter writing is a neglected topic of research. Lutz Doering’s new monograph seek... more Ancient Jewish letter writing is a neglected topic of research. Lutz Doering’s new monograph seeks to redress this situation. The author pursues two major tasks: first, to provide a comprehensive discussion of Jewish letter writing in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman periods and, second, to assess the importance of ancient Jewish letter writing for the emergence and early development of Christian epistolography. Although individual groups of Jewish letters have been studied before, the present monograph is the first one to look at Jewish letters comprehensively across the languages in which they were written and/or handed down (chiefly Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek). It operates with a broad concept of "letter” and deals with documentary as well as literary and embedded letters. The author highlights cross-linguistic developments, such as the influence of the Greek epistolary form on Aramaic and Hebrew letters or the non-idiomatic retention of Semitic "peace” greetings in some letters translated into Greek, which allowed for these greetings to be charged with new meaning. Doering argues that such processes were also important for early Christian epistolography. Thus, Paul engaged creatively with Jewish epistolary formulae. Frequent address of communities rather than individuals and the quasi-official setting of many Jewish letters would have provided relevant models when Paul developed his own epistolary praxis. In addition, the author shows that the concept of communication with the "Diaspora”, in both halakhic-administrative and prophetic-apocalyptic Jewish letters, is adapted by a number of early Christian letters, such as 1 Peter, James, Acts 15:23-29, and 1 Clement . Ancient Jewish and early Christian letters also share a concern with group identity and cohesion that is often supported by salvation-historical motifs. In sum, Lutz Doering addresses the previously under-researched text-pragmatic similarities between Jewish and Christian letters.
A conference of the Cluster of Excellence Religion and Politics, University of Münster, in cooper... more A conference of the Cluster of Excellence Religion and Politics, University of Münster, in cooperation with the School of Jewish Studies and Archaeology, Tel Aviv University, 23–25 September 2024.
Registration for in-person or Zoom participation until 13 September (see flyer).
This is the updated list of the sessions of the Hellenistic Judaism Section at the 2019 SBL Annua... more This is the updated list of the sessions of the Hellenistic Judaism Section at the 2019 SBL Annual Meeting at San Diego. Welcome to our sessions!
(Alexander von) Humboldt Tagung at WWU Münster, Institutum Judaicum Delitzschianum. Consideration... more (Alexander von) Humboldt Tagung at WWU Münster, Institutum Judaicum Delitzschianum. Considerations of Philo's philosophical library (Gregory Sterling), the interrelation of theology and philosophy (Rainer Hirsch-Luipold), the Omnis probus (Maren Niehoff, Troels Engberg-Pedersen), Philo and Scepticism (Carlos Lévy, Mauro Bonazzi), and Philo's Philosophy of Language (Michael Cover). Responses by David Runia and Lutz Doering.
The Call for Papers is open between 19 Dec 2018 and 6 Mar 2019.
This is the list of sessions offered by the Hellenistic Judaism section at the SBL Denver Annual ... more This is the list of sessions offered by the Hellenistic Judaism section at the SBL Denver Annual Meeting
Brief und Bildung: Von der Antike bis zur Moderne, eds. E.-M. Becker and A. Fürst; Epistula 1; Berlin., 2024
This article discusses the transmission of knowledge in ancient Jewish letters using the examples... more This article discusses the transmission of knowledge in ancient Jewish letters using the examples of the two introductory letters of Second Maccabees (2 Macc 1:1-2:18), the Letter of Baruch (2 Bar 78-86) and the letters of Rn Gamaliel to distant areas of the Land of Israel and the Diaspora (tSan 2:6).
NTT Journal for Theology and the Study of Religion, 2024
This is the pre-print version of Lutz Doering, “Review Essay: The Literature of the Sages”, NTT J... more This is the pre-print version of Lutz Doering, “Review Essay: The Literature of the Sages”, NTT Journal for Theology and the Study of Religion 78 (2024): 169–181. This essay reviews the 2022 volume, The Literature of the Sages: A Re-visioning, edited by Christine Hayes in the series Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum (CRINT).
Parting of the Ways: The Variegated Ways of Separations between Jews and Christians, 2024
The article briefly reviews some aspects of the literary structure and source-critical questions ... more The article briefly reviews some aspects of the literary structure and source-critical questions of the Didache, comments on its genre, and discusses in detail the two selected topics of fasting and prayer in Did. 8.1–3, with a view to what the Didache might contribute to the issue of the so-called “Parting of the Ways”. It is argued that the Didache, directed at a Christ-believing group composed of both Jews and gentiles, attempts to establish boundaries vis-à-vis a specific group of Jews polemically called “hypocrites” which bears some relation with pre-70 CE Pharisees, and that this conversely shows that “the ways” between the Didache group “and Judaism” have not fully parted.
The Routledge Handbook of Jews and Judaism in Late Antiquity, 2024
The chapter reviews the evidence of Jewish letters and letter writing in Tannaitic texts, where i... more The chapter reviews the evidence of Jewish letters and letter writing in Tannaitic texts, where it is sparse, and Amoraic texts, where it becomes more frequent; specific groups of letters are those ascribed to the Patriarch, those between rabbinic colleagues, mostly in regards to halakhic topics, and those addressed by “the people” of a given place to rabbis, again concerning halakhic questions, which can be considered a forerunner of the responsa literature from the Gaonic period onwards. In addition, the chapter discusses the evidence of extant Jewish documentary letters in Greek, Aramaic, Hebrew from Late Antiquity (from ca. the fourth century C.E.). Finally, the chapter briefly considers the debated question of potential Jewish literary letters transmitted in Latin (Letter of Mordecai to Alexander, Epistola Anne ad Senecam).
William M. Schniedewind, Jason M. Zurawski, and Gabriele Boccaccini (eds.), Torah: Functions, Meanings, and Diverse Manifestations in Early Judaism and Christianity. EJL 56; Atlanta, GA: SBL Press, 2022
This article charts the status, notion, and development of Torah and Jewish law (“halakah”) throu... more This article charts the status, notion, and development of Torah and Jewish law (“halakah”) throughout the Hellenistic period, both in the Land of Israel and in the Jewish Diaspora, looking for legal concern as well as evidence for the practice of the law. It argues that legal concern did not only arise after the Maccabean period, although it became more detailed from the end of the second century BCE.
K. J. Dell (ed.), The Biblical World, Second Edition. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2022
This chapter provides an overview of the institutions (the Jerusalem Temple, the festival calenda... more This chapter provides an overview of the institutions (the Jerusalem Temple, the festival calendar, synagogues, houses and households), theological concepts (belief in one God, restoration and eschatology, election and covenant), the importance of Jewish law (Torah and halakhah, as well as elite groups (“sects”: Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, the “New Covenant”, the Yahad) and popular movements (anti-Roman rebels, messiah pretenders and sign prophets) in the Judaism around the turn of the era. – Published as Chapter Thirty-Seven in K. J. Dell (ed.), The Biblical World, 681–704, with five figures, endnotes instead of footnotes, and bibliography.
Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, 2021
This essay surveys and assesses Joachim Jeremias’ contribution to the study of ancient Judaism. T... more This essay surveys and assesses Joachim Jeremias’ contribution to the study of ancient Judaism. To this end, Jeremias’ monographs, essays and dictionary articles are reviewed, which are often devoted not only to ancient Judaism but also to the study of ancient Palestine, historical Jesus research or early Christianity, as well as his relevant reviews of Jewish studies literature and scattered methodological comments on the study of ancient Jewish texts. Consideration is also given to Jeremias’ organisational activity with regard to the study of ancient Judaism. Providing an overview and discussing selected topics, the essay shows achievements and problems of Jeremias’ relevant works from the perspective of contemporary research on ancient Judaism.
Encyclopedia of Jewish-Christian Relations Online, 2021
This is an encyclopaedia article providing an overview of Jewish and Christian deployment of epis... more This is an encyclopaedia article providing an overview of Jewish and Christian deployment of epistolary texts and communication, focusing on antiquity but affording also glimpses beyond, until the early modern period. The article also discusses the role of letters in Jewish-Christian interaction.
Tosefta Studies: Manuscripts, Tradition, and Topics. Eds. Lutz Doering and Daniel Schumann. Münsteraner Judaistische Studien 27. Zurich: LIT, 2021
This article starts from the formula, “two, which is four”, in mShab 1:1 and discusses the Toseft... more This article starts from the formula, “two, which is four”, in mShab 1:1 and discusses the Tosefta’s reflection on this formula. By comparing the textual traditions of tShab 1:1–5 in Codices Erfurt and Vienna, it arrives at the conclusion that Codex Vienna’s distinction between a “true” private and a “true” public domain and two further domains which are not “true” public or private domain but merely resemble them, respectively, namely, the neutral place and shared courtyards, is preferable to Codex Erfurt’s reading, which identifies the third domain as the karmelit and the fourth as the free place. In contrast to Codex Erfurt’s secondary reading, Codex Vienna’s wording can be identified as an adoption of the Mishnah’s pattern of “two, that is four”. – This is only a preview; I shall be happy to send a personal copy to interested scholars.
Tosefta Studies: Manuscripts, Tradition, and Topics. Eds. Lutz Doering and Daniel Schumann. Münsteraner Judaistische Studien 27. Zurich: LIT, 2021
This article explores the mixed evidence of Mishnah and Tosefta Shabbat regarding the development... more This article explores the mixed evidence of Mishnah and Tosefta Shabbat regarding the development of the notion of mela’khah “labour” in Shabbat law. Starting with the Hebrew Bible, through Jewish writings from the Second Temple period, and ending with Tannaitic literature, it describes the beginnings of various attempts at conceptualizing different forms of labour. With respect to early rabbinic literature, the article concludes that the form of grouping labours labelled inTosefta Shabbat 9 (10):17–20 “kind of one labour” (me’ein mela’khah aḥat) resembles an approach that has its roots already in the Second Temple period. In contrast, the concept of avot mela’khot “principal categories of labour” in mShab 7:2 is a later rabbinic form of systematizing different types of labour. While this approach not unknown in the Tosefta, the latter has preserved some of the older “clustering” of labours, and the notion of avot mela’khot is less central in Tosefta Shabbat than in Mishnah Shabbat. – This is but a preview; I shall be happy to send a personal copy of the article to interested scholars.
Torah, Temple, Land: Constructions of Judaism in Antiquity. Eds. M. Witte, J. Schröter, and V. Lepper. TSAJ 184. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2021
This article examines the notions of Torah and temple in the Book of Jubilees from the 2nd centur... more This article examines the notions of Torah and temple in the Book of Jubilees from the 2nd century BCE and in the post-70 CE apocalypses Fourth Ezra and Second Baruch. Each of these texts includes in its notion of Torah more than the Pentateuch, though details differ. Moreover, each of these texts has a differentiated view of the temple and applies some form of Urzeit-Endzeit correlation regarding the expected future temple.
Synagogues in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods: Archaeological Finds, New Methods, New Theories. Eds. Lutz Doering and Andrew R. Krause, in co-operation with Hermut Löhr. Ioudaioi 11. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2020
Synagogues in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods: Archaeological Finds, New Methods, New Theories. Eds. Lutz Doering and Andrew R. Krause, in co-operation with Hermut Löhr. Ioudaioi 11. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2020
Lutz Doering reviews the current evidence for first-century, late Second-Temple synagogues and pl... more Lutz Doering reviews the current evidence for first-century, late Second-Temple synagogues and places the newly discovered synagogue at Magdala in this context. In doing so, he critically reviews previous proposals for the interpretation of the decoration and function of the Magdala stone table. Doering argues that, rather than providing a model of the Jerusalem Temple in the synagogue at Magdala, or bringing visitors of the synagogue into the Temple courts, the stone, through references to the Temple in its decoration, provides a connection between the local activity of Torah reading and the central institution of the Temple.
Early Judaism and its Modern Interpreters, 2nd ed. Eds. Matthias Henze and Rodney Werline. Atlanta: SBL Press, 2020
This chapter reviews major trends in the study of early Judaism during the past decades relevant ... more This chapter reviews major trends in the study of early Judaism during the past decades relevant for the study of early Christianity as well as developments in the study of early Christiaity regarding the perception of early Judaism.
Zeitschrift für Neues Testament, 2020
Interpreting and Living God’s Law at Qumran: Miqṣat Ma῾as´e Ha-Torah. Some of the Works of the Torah (4QMMT), 2020
This article compares 4QMMT with, and understands it in the context of, Hellenistic literature. I... more This article compares 4QMMT with, and understands it in the context of, Hellenistic literature. It first deals with the use of calendars for politics and then probes the genre of 4QMMT between epistle and treatise, comparing it with official and other corporate letters as well as epistolary treatises, and drawing on structural features of Hellenistic letter closings and epistolary phrases to illuminate 4QMMT. In these respects, MMT shows numerous intriguing similarities with (other) Hellenistic literature. The article is part of a recent trend in scholarship to see Qumran texts enmeshed in the Hellenistic culture of their time rather than to speak of an “influence” of Hellenism on Qumran.
Historical and Theological Lexicon of the Septuagint (HTLS) 1, 2020
This article deals with ἀδελφός κτλ. in Greek literature, papyri and inscriptions, the Septuagint... more This article deals with ἀδελφός κτλ. in Greek literature, papyri and inscriptions, the Septuagint, Jewish literature in Greek, the New Testament, and early Christian literature.
Bilder, Heilige und Reliquien: Beiträge zur Christentumsgeschichte und zur Religionsgeschichte (eds. Mariano Delgado and Volker Leppin; Basel: Schwabe; Stuttgart: Kohlhammer), 2020
The article points to the close connection between the ›prohibition of images‹ and the prohibitio... more The article points to the close connection between the ›prohibition of images‹ and the prohibition of idolatry in ancient Judaism, which had already been established in the Decalogue itself. First, the treatment of the ›prohibition of images‹ in Philo of Alexandria and Flavius Josephus is discussed, followed by a treatment of the archaeological evidence up to the Bar Kokhba revolt. A reluctance to depict animals and humans can be observed here, especially in order to prevent their being worshipped. However, there is no absolute prohibition of images, and the archaeological evidence also yields individual depictions of animals and even humans which points to social and ideological differences in the Judaism of the Hellenistic-Early Roman period. The rabbinic texts refer even more strongly to the aspect of worship: according to Tannaitic sources (above all, Mishnah and Tosefta Avodah zarah), using those images that are ›worshipped‹ is forbidden. The presence of images, even images of gods, in public spaces not designed for their worship is unproblematic, as the famous anecdote about Rabban Gamli’el in Aphrodite’s bath in Akko illustrates, according to which the statue of Aphrodite is considered to be a mere ›ornament‹. The archaeological evidence seems to correspond to this: from the early 3rd century at the latest, one finds animal images preserved on lintels of synagogues, followed soon afterwards by human depictions, e.g. on synagogue mosaic floors, and finally also depictions of Helios and the Quadriga. Only in later witnesses (beginning ith the Babylonian Talmud) do we find prohibitions to depict, for example, the moon even as an ornament, and ›iconoclastic‹ interventions are discernible in the archaeological evidence. – The PDF uploaded is a pre-print version with corrections. I shall be happy to send a PDF of the published version upon request.
Die Rede von Gott Vater und Gott Heiligem Geist als Glaubensaussage: Der erste und der dritte Artikel des Apostolischen Glaubensbekenntnisses im Gespräch zwischen Bibelwissenschaft und Dogmatik (eds. Anne Käfer, Jörg Frey and Jens Herzer), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2020
This article reviews the deployment of statements on the creation of the world and of human being... more This article reviews the deployment of statements on the creation of the world and of human beings in the New Testament in the context of Israel's authoritative scriptures and ancient Jewish literature. Inter alia, it deals with the following aspects: God as creator of heaven and earth, philosophical impulses for ancient Jewish and Christian reflection on creation, the notion of creation through a mediator, the notion of “creatio continua”, human beings as creatures and the relationship between male(s) and female(s), and expectations for the future of creation as well as the notion of "new creation". The article is part of a conversation between Biblical and Systematic Theology. – The PDF uploaded is a pre-print version with corrections. I shall be happy to send a PDF of the published version upon request.
Sōtēria: Salvation in Early Christianity and Antiquity. Festschrift in Honour of Cilliers Breytenbach on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday (eds. David du Toit, Christine Gerber and Christiane Zimmermann; NTSup 175; Leiden: Brill), 2019
This article elucidates the soteriological themes deployed in 1 Peter, which form a “web” distinc... more This article elucidates the soteriological themes deployed in 1 Peter, which form a “web” distinctive in the New Testament. It is argued that the concept of re-begetting, which has both soteriological and ecclesiological implications and is the dominant theme of the first part of the letter, should be distinguished from baptism, mentioned only at 3:20–21. Moreover, the various statements about Christ’s suffering and his blood are analysed and evaluated. The former is not limited to Christ’s death and has vicarious qualities modelled on the Suffering Servant. The latter evokes both the blood of the covenant and images of lamb sacrifices that are not generally related to atonement. Additionally, “ransom” as effected by Christ’s blood carries notions of redemption from exile and manumission from slavery. Finally, the paraenetical role of Christ’s suffering for the addressees’ suffering notwithstanding, it is specifically Christ’s resurrection in which their salvation grounds. – The PDF uploaded is the pre-print version with corrections (note 106 contains a material correction over against the published version).