EXC 2060 A3-17 - Transcultural Entanglement and Disentanglement in Jewish Apocalypticism

Period
Status
Finished
Funding Source
DFG - Cluster of Excellence
Project Number
EXC 2060/1
Type of Funding
Unknwon Project Type
Description
The aim of this project is to chart and interpret the relationship of Jewish apocalypticism with Near Eastern, Greek, and Roman texts and traditions, and thus to present a careful analysis of the transcultural entanglement and disentanglement of early Jewish apocalypses (between c. 300 BCE and c. 150 CE). On the one hand, comparable narrative and hermeneutic motifs, structures, and literary strategies in both Jewish apocalypses and neighbouring literatures will be charted and assessed. On the other hand, it will be asked in what ways, if any, the apocalypses present themselves as a transcultural phenomenon. The project will be run as a cooperation project with the Bible Department / Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Professor Michael Segal). It features also a Digital Humanities component: a digital edition of a central Jewish apocalypse, 4 Ezra.
Persons

  • Dissertations

    Florian Neitmann, Mag. Theol.

     

    Doctoral AbstractThesis

    The Law in the Fourth Book of Ezra

    Supervisor
    Professor Dr. Lutz Doering
    Doctoral Subject
    Evangelische Theologie
    Doctoral Degree
    Dr. theol.
    Awarded by
    Department 01 – Protestant Theology
    The dissertation investigates the concept of Law in 4 Ezra in a transcultural perspective. According to this Jewish apocalypse, judgement will be held on all humans according to their obedience or disobedience to "the law". This raises the central question of the study: What is meant by "the law"?
    An answer is sought through exegetical analysis of 4 Ezra in its different versions. The backgrounds of the concepts of Law in this book are further elucidated from their context by comparison to other, Jewish and non-Jewish sources. This comparative analysis focuses on universalist concepts of law which are expressed in sapiential texts from Ancient Near East and in Graeco-Roman philosophy, as in the idea of a natural law grounded in reason.
    The study contributes to viewing Jewish apocalypticism within its transcultural entanglements and disentanglements and to determining the relationship between universalism and particularism in Ancient Jewish thought.