Imitating Abraham

Ritual and Exemplarity in Jewish and Christian Contexts

Claudia D. Bergmann, Thomas R. Blanton IV (Herausgeber)

Buch | Hardcover

452 Seiten

2025
Brill (Verlag)
9789004722613 (ISBN)

Artikel merken

Imitating Abraham provides exciting glimpses into the rich reception history of the Abraham character in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic interpretation as an exemplary figure in ritual, liturgical, astronomical, philosophical, poetic, and magical texts, and in innovative elaborations of biblical narratives.

Imitating Abraham provides exciting glimpses into the reception history of the character Abraham in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, illuminating the manifold ways in which interpreters draw upon his legacy to authorize practices like sacrifice, circumcision, hospitality, feasting, prayer, and personal and corporate piety. Abraham holds surprises: his name is used in magical amulets—some published here for the first time—to ward off demons, protect cattle from illness, and even to round up runaway slaves. Researchers, students, and all interested in Biblical, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Studies, as well as ritual and exemplarity will want to read this book.

Claudia D. Bergmann is Professor for Biblical Theology and Exegesis at Paderborn University (Germany) and the author of Festmahl ohne Ende: Apokalyptische Vorstellungen vom Speisen in der Kommenden Welt im antiken Judentum und ihre biblischen Wurzeln (Kohlhammer, 2019). Thomas R. Blanton IV is Visiting Assistant Professor at John Carroll University. He is the author of A Spiritual Economy: Gift Exchange in the Letters of Paul of Tarsus (2017); his research examines early Christianity and ancient Mediterranean economies.

Acknowledgments

List of Figures and Tables

Abbreviations

Notes on Contributors

Introduction: Abraham, Ritual, and Exemplification

Thomas R. Blanton IV and Claudia D. Bergmann

Part 1: Writings from the Neo-Babylonian, Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman Periods (ca. 600s BCE–100s CE)

1 “Look to Abraham and Sarah”: the Motifs of Infertility and Childbirth in Genesis and Second Isaiah

Claudia D. Bergmann and May May Latt

2 Abraham as a Model and Mediator of Worship Practices in the Genesis Apocryphon and Jubilees

Mika S. Pajunen

3 “Look toward the Heavens and Count the Stars”: Abraham the Astronomer in Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism

Stephen O. Smoot

4 Right Knowledge of God and the Rejection of False Religion: Abraham in Romans 1

Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr

5 Abraham as Exemplum in Fourth Maccabees

Jan Willem van Henten

Part 2: Writings from the Early Byzantine / Sassanid Period (ca. 300s–700s CE)

6 “Halakic” Abraham in the Encounter with the Three Visitors

Marcel Poorthuis

7 Abraham as Ritual Model in Rabbinic Tradition: Circumcision, Prayer, and Priesthood

Günter Stemberger

8 Christianizing Abraham: Exemplarity in Ambrosiaster and Ambrose of Milan

Clayton J. Killion

9 “Arise My Beloved, and Come Away”: the Eros of Genesis 12 in a Late Antique Liturgical Poem

Laura S. Lieber

10 Abraham as Model in Christian Ritual: Evidence from Late Ancient and Medieval Greek and Syriac Magic

Michael Zellmann-Rohrer

11 Abraham as Model for Muhammad: a Survey of Some Early Christian Arabic Views

Clare E. Wilde

Part 3: Writings from the Medieval and Modern Periods (ca. 800s–1800s CE)

12 Abraham as a Model of Hospitality in the Palaea and Cognate Literature

Alexey Somov

13 “For I Know Him, That He Will Command His Children and His Household after Him” (Gen 18:19): Some Ideas on Abraham as a Model in Rabbinic Prayer and Ritual

Leon Mock

14 Contradictory Readings of Genesis 22: Abraham in Wisdom of Solomon and in Voltaire

Christoph Bultmann

15 Abraham as Ritual Model in Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling

George Pattison

Index

Erscheinungsdatum	10.05.2025
Reihe/Serie	Jewish and Christian Perspectives Series ; 42
Verlagsort	Leiden
Sprache	englisch
Maße	155 x 235 mm
Gewicht	874 g
Themenwelt	Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Kirchengeschichte
ISBN-13	9789004722613 / 9789004722613
Zustand	Neuware