Greek Genres and Jewish Authors (eBook)

Negotiating Literary Culture in the Greco-Roman Era

Sean A. Adams (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2020
448 Seiten
Baylor University Press (Verlag)
978-1-4813-1295-0 (ISBN)

Infos

The ancient world, much like our own, thrived on cultural diversity and exchange. The riches of this social reality are evident in the writings of Jews in the Hellenistic and Roman eras. Jewish authors drew on the wide range of Greek literary conventions and gave fresh expressions to the proud traditions of their faith and ethnic identity. They did not hesitate to modify and adapt the forms they received from the surrounding culture, but their works stand as legitimate participants in Greco-Roman literary tradition.

In Greek Genres and Jewish Authors, Sean Adams argues that a robust understanding of ancient genre facilitates proper textual interpretation. This perspective is vital for insight on the author, the work’s original purpose, and how the original readers would have received it. Adopting a cognitive-prototype theory of genre, Adams provides a detailed discussion of Jewish authors writing in Greek from ca. 300 BCE to ca. 135 CE--including New Testament authors--and their participation in Greek genres. The nine chapters focus on broad genre divisions (e.g., poetry, didactic, philosophy) to provide studies on each author’s engagement with Greek genres, identifying both representative and atypical expressions and features.

The book’s most prominent contribution lies in its data synthesis to provide a macroperspective on the ways in which Jewish authors participated in and adapted Greek genres--in other words, how members of a minority culture intentionally engaged with the dominant culture’s literary practices alongside traditional Jewish features, resulting in unique text expressions. Greek Genres and Jewish Authors provides a rich resource for Jewish, New Testament, and classical scholars, particularly those who study cultural engagement, development of genres, and ancient education.

Autor

Sean A. Adams is Professor of New Testament and Ancient Culture in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Glasgow.

Inhalt

Preface
Abbreviations
1 Introduction
2 Jewish Epic Poetry
3 Other Jewish-Greek Poets
4 Didactic Literature
5 Jewish Philosophical Treatises
6 Jewish Novelists
7 Jewish Historians
8 Jewish Biographers
9 Concluding Observations

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.9.2020
• Verlagsort: Waco
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Vor- und Frühgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Religionsgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Kirchengeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Judentum
• Schlagworte: Genre, Ancient Genre, Ancient genre theory, ancient history, Second Temple studies, literary study, literacy studies, textual interpretation, contextual interpretation, Judaism, early Judaism, Second Temple Judaism, Early Christianity, Philo, Josephus, Jewish-Greek relations, Jewish-Greek interactions, Judaism and Hellenism
• ISBN-10: 1-4813-1295-2 / 1481312952
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4813-1295-0 / 9781481312950