Ancient, Judaism, Culture, Jewish, Kingdom, Contexts, PRIESTS, Ancestry, Merit

A Kingdom of Priests: Ancestry and Merit in Ancient Judaism (Jewish Culture and Contexts)

According to the account in the Book of Exodus, God addresses the children of Israel as they stand before Mt. Sinai with the words, "You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (19:6). The sentence, Martha Himmelfarb observes, is paradoxical, for priests are by definition a minority, yet the meaning in context is clear: the entire people is holy. The words also point to some significant tensions in the biblical understanding of the people of Israel. If the entire people is holy, why does it need priests? If membership in both people and priesthood is a matter not of merit but of birth, how can either the people or its priests hope to be holy? How can one reconcile the distance between the honor due the priest and the actual behavior of some who filled the role? What can the people do to make itself truly a kingdom of priests? Himmelfarb argues that these questions become central in Second Temple Judaism. She considers a range of texts from this period, including the Book of Watchers, the Book of Jubilees, legal documents from the Dead Sea Scrolls, the writings of Philo of Alexandria, and the Book of Revelation of the New Testament, and goes on to explore rabbinic Judaism's emphasis on descent as the primary criterion for inclusion among the chosen people of Israel--a position, she contends, that took on new force in reaction to early Christian disparagement of the idea that mere descent from Abraham was sufficient for salvation.

Martha Himmelfarb is Professor of Religion at Princeton University. She is the author of Ascent to Heaven in Jewish and Christian Apocalypses and Tours of Hell: An Apocalyptic Form in Jewish and Christian Literature, the latter also published by the University of Pennsylvania Press.









List Price: $ 59.95



Price: $ 59.92

Other posts like this, by keyword:

Ancient:

Mothers and Children Books ...
Baseball Books blog ...
Health Books blog ...
Science Books blog ...
Manga Books blog ...
Food and Wine Books ...
Poetry Books blog ...
Pets Books blog ...
Travel Books blog ...
Teens Books blog ...
Judaism:

Contemporary Books blog ...
Computers and Internet Books ...
Non Fiction Books blog ...
Television Books blog ...
Needlepoint Books blog ...
Books Under 10 Books ...
Books Under 10 Books ...
Animals Books blog ...
Social Issues Books ...
Careers Books blog ...
Culture:

Games Books blog ...
Single Women Books ...
Coaching Books blog ...
Science Books blog ...
Business Books blog ...
Golf Books blog ...
blog Childrens Books ...
Manga Books blog ...
Design Books blog ...
Contemporary Books blog ...
Jewish:

Computers and Internet Books ...
Certification Books blog ...
Diet Books blog ...
The New Jewish Wedding, Revised Reviews ...
Kingdom:

Mind and Body Books ...
Careers Books blog ...
Woman of Honor (Kingdom of Arnhem, Book 1) ...
Kingdom Under Glass: A Tale of Obsession, Adventure, and One Man’s Quest to Preserve the World’s Great Animals ...
How different is United Kingdom cash to United States? Is it the same amount? ...
Prophets, Captives, and the Kingdom Rebuilt: Jonah- Esther-Ezekiel-Daniel-Job-Ezra/Nehemiah-Psalms (Z Graphic Novels / Manga Bible) (v. 5) ...
Contexts:

Pets Books blog ...
Historical Books blog ...
The Occult in Nineteenth-Century America (Contexts and Consequences) ...
PRIESTS:

Ancestry:

Merit: