The True Israel: Uses of the Names Jew, Hebrew, and Israel in Ancient Jewish and Early Christian Literature

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BRILL, 2001 - Religion - 303 pages
What do the names Jew, Hebrew, and Israel mean in the vernacular? That is, how did writers from 300 BCE to 200 CE use these names? What were they influenced by? And how did readers interpret them? Judaism was and continues to be culturally diverse, and writers sought to be clear and therefore "politically correct" even then. This book takes into account written as well as oral works that circulated during this 500-year period. Taking neither an etymological nor an archeological approach, Harvey instead uses the theory of associative fields to explore the full range of associations of the names in their actual context to better understand how the words were actually used. Divided into three parts, Jew, Hebrew, and Israel respectively, the volume especially examines Israel. Within each section, individual chapters are dedicated to specific literature. This book makes a significant contribution to Jewish self-definition, then and now. This publication has also been published in hardback, please click here for details.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
Jew in the Bible
11
Jew by the Dead Sea
21
Catena
35
Apocryphon of Joseph
36
PseudoJeremiah
37
ProtoEsther
38
Heavenly Lights
39
Flavius Josephus
124
Early Christian literature
129
Early Rabbinic literature
143
Inscriptions
145
Conclusion
146
Israel in the Bible
148
Etymologie
149
People 2
152

Masada
40
Conclusion
41
Jew in Philo
43
Conclusion
46
Jew in Josephus
47
Selfdesignation
48
Sources and subjects
49
Origins
50
People and neighbours
52
Character
54
Judas
59
Conclusion
61
Jew in early Christian literature
62
Galatians
68
Romans
76
Luke and Acts
78
John
84
Revelation
94
Ignatius
95
Jew in early Rabbinic Literature
99
Hebrew
104
Samaritans
110
Septuagint
111
Pseudepigrapha
116
Dead Sea Scrolls
119
Philo of Alexandria
121
People 3
155
People 4
158
Congregation
160
Israel and Judah
164
Northern kingdom
166
God
167
Holy One
174
Land and places
177
Borders sanctuaries and cities
182
Possessions
184
Conclusion
186
Israel by the Dead Sea
189
Damascus Document
191
The Halakhic Letter 4QMMT
197
Purification rules
199
Rule of the Congregation
201
Midrash on the Last Days
202
Messianic Anthology
203
Temple Scroll
204
Pesharim
205
Israel in Philo
219
Israel in early Christian literature
225
Israel in early Rabbinic literature
257
Conclusion
267
Index
299
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