Bakker, Arjen (2024) 'Early Configurations of Jewish Prayer: Translating Sacrifice in the Second Temple Period' Journal for the Study of Judaism 55(4-5): 459-489
Abstract
The argument of this article is that there are remarkable affinities between early configurations of Jewish prayer in the Second Temple period and the later rabbinic liturgical system. The article examines Greek and Hebrew sources that exhibit a process of deepening and purification in which sacrificial worship is reinterpreted and relegated to other domains of non-sacrificial worship and service. Furthermore, the article explores elements of the sacrificial cult that are incorporated into prayers from the Second Temple period. My argument relies on both textual and material evidence, including the works of Philo of Alexandria, the Dead Sea Scrolls, excerpted texts and tefillin, and the Septuagint of Daniel.
Conclusion (in part)
In the course of the Second Temple period, the prophetic rhetoric against temple corruption is internalized and used to reformulate worship, but sacrifice itself is not rejected. Rather than “the end of sacrifice,” what we see is a deepening of sacrificial notions by means of a hermeneutical process that can be described as the “translation of sacrifice,” by which texts and rituals are reinscribed in the context of non-sacrificial performance. This happens both in Palestine and in the Mediterranean diaspora and is reflected across Hebrew and Greek texts from the period, defying any distinction between assumed sectarian and non-sectarian contexts. The ideal of holiness that is associated with the temple and the priesthood is transposed onto the person and the community performing these prayers, which results in the projection of purity requirements of the temple and the officiating priesthood onto communities that are geographically removed from the temple and that include non-priests among their members. This has significant implications for synagogues and synagogal liturgy in antiquity, as well as for ritual baths and purity regulations. The holiness of the temple could be domesticated into synagogal space and projected onto the community performing the service when the temple was still standing.
Full text available at https://brill.com/view/journals/jsj/55/ ... h&result=1
Abstract
The argument of this article is that there are remarkable affinities between early configurations of Jewish prayer in the Second Temple period and the later rabbinic liturgical system. The article examines Greek and Hebrew sources that exhibit a process of deepening and purification in which sacrificial worship is reinterpreted and relegated to other domains of non-sacrificial worship and service. Furthermore, the article explores elements of the sacrificial cult that are incorporated into prayers from the Second Temple period. My argument relies on both textual and material evidence, including the works of Philo of Alexandria, the Dead Sea Scrolls, excerpted texts and tefillin, and the Septuagint of Daniel.
Conclusion (in part)
In the course of the Second Temple period, the prophetic rhetoric against temple corruption is internalized and used to reformulate worship, but sacrifice itself is not rejected. Rather than “the end of sacrifice,” what we see is a deepening of sacrificial notions by means of a hermeneutical process that can be described as the “translation of sacrifice,” by which texts and rituals are reinscribed in the context of non-sacrificial performance. This happens both in Palestine and in the Mediterranean diaspora and is reflected across Hebrew and Greek texts from the period, defying any distinction between assumed sectarian and non-sectarian contexts. The ideal of holiness that is associated with the temple and the priesthood is transposed onto the person and the community performing these prayers, which results in the projection of purity requirements of the temple and the officiating priesthood onto communities that are geographically removed from the temple and that include non-priests among their members. This has significant implications for synagogues and synagogal liturgy in antiquity, as well as for ritual baths and purity regulations. The holiness of the temple could be domesticated into synagogal space and projected onto the community performing the service when the temple was still standing.
Full text available at https://brill.com/view/journals/jsj/55/ ... h&result=1
Statistics: Posted by MrMacSon — Wed Dec 11, 2024 9:17 pm