Purity in Ancient Judaism: Texts, Contexts, and Concepts

English summary: Purity plays a central role in ancient Judaism. It is relevant in the encounter with the sacred, especially at the Jerusalem Temple, but also in the context of sacred communities, for example the Qumran ya?ad . Ancients Jews, however, also strove for purity far away from the Temple, both in the land of Israel remote from Jerusalem and in the Diaspora. Yet, means, procedures, and conceptualizations in relation to purity and purification varied. While purity therefore seems to be "everywhere" in ancient Judaism, it is not everywhere the same. The present volume explores different texts and material evidence in relation to purity, impurity, and purification, from both the historic land of Israel and the Diaspora. It adduces comparative evidence from Greece, probes and refines concepts of moral and ritual (im)purity, and traces the relevance of purity debates in nascent Christianity. German description: Reinheit ist im antiken Judentum zentral, in der Begegnung mit dem Heiligen, etwa am Jerusalemer Tempel, aber auch in der Gemeinschaft von Qumran. Doch auch in der Diaspora war Reinheit von Bedeutung. Dieser Band bietet neueste Forschungen zu Texten, materiellen Befunden und Konzepten.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 3161593294
• ISBN13: 9783161593291
• Release Date: February 2025
• Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
• Length: 435 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.