Early Judaism- A Comprehensive Overview

In some of the apocalypses a messianic leader plays a role in the final

drama (e.g.,Animal Apocalypse, Similitudes of Enoch, 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch).

Poetic and Liturgical Works

The Psalms incorporated into the Hebrew Psalter served various functions

in Temple worship and presumably in other settings as well, but these 150

poems hardly comprise the totality of poetic writing in the period. Again,

the Qumran texts have offered abundant examples of such compositions.

TheHodayotorThanksgiving Hymnsare sectarian poetic compositions

which celebrate the greatness of God and his goodness to those whom he

has chosen and other teachings of the group (such as divine predestination

of events). Another set of poems has been labeledNoncanonical Psalms

(4Q380-381). Among the scrolls are also texts that contain prayers for cer-

tain occasions (daily [4Q503] and festival [4Q507-509] prayers) and bless-

ings for each day (4Q504-506; see also theBerakhotorBlessingstexts,

4Q286-290). Considerable interest attaches to theSongs of the Sabbath Sac-

rifice(4Q400-407; 11Q17), which describes the heavenly worship on the

first thirteen Sabbaths of a year and assumes a unity between the angelic

worship offered in the celestial sanctuary and the worship offered by hu-

mans on earth. Poetry of a different nature is found in thePsalms of Solo-

mon,a first-century-b.c.e.work that, among other topics, speaks bitterly

about the Hasmonean rulers and about Pompey, the Roman general who

took Jerusalem in 63b.c.e.Psalms of Solomon17 and 18 also offer some im-

portant statements about a Davidic messiah.

Other texts were written, but the above survey should suffice to give

an idea of the range of Judean literature composed in the period of early

Judaism.

Commonalities

The surviving evidence exhibits a richness and diversity in Judaism of the

Second Temple era, a diversity so great that some have resorted to the neol-

ogism “Judaisms” to express it. Yet, despite the undoubted diversity pres-

ent in the texts, there are fundamental beliefs and practices that would

have been accepted by virtually all Jews during those centuries and that

justify retaining the singular noun Judaism.

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Judaism in the Land of Israel

EERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
Tuesday, October 09, 2012 12:03:54 PM