Remembering Eden: The Reception History of Genesis 3: 22-24 - Rilegato

Lanfer, Peter Thacher

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0199926743 ISBN 13: 9780199926749

Casa editrice: OUP USA, 2012

Riassunto

There are few texts as central to the mythology of Jewish literature as the Garden of Eden and its attendant motifs, yet the direct citation of this text within the Hebrew Bible is surprisingly rare. Even more conspicuous is the infrequent reference to creation, or to the archetypal first humans Adam and Eve. There have also been few analyses of the impact of Genesis 2-3 beyond the biblical canon, though early Jewish and Christian interpretations of it are numerous, and often omitted is an analysis of the expulsion narrative in verses 22-24. In Remembering Eden, Peter Thacher Lanfer seeks to erase this gap in scholarship. He evaluates texts that expand and explicitly interpret the expulsion narrative, as well as translation texts such as the Septuagint, the Aramaic Targums, and the Syriac Peshitta. According to Lanfer, these textual additions, omissions, and translational choices are often a product of ideological and historically rooted decisions. His goal is to evaluate the genetic, literary, and ideological character of individual texts divorced from the burden of divisions between texts that are anachronistic ("biblical" vs. "non-biblical") or overly broad ("Pseudepigrapha"). This analytical choice, along with the insights of classic biblical criticism, yields a novel understanding of the communities receiving and reinterpreting the expulsion narrative. In addition, in tracing the impact of the polemic insertion of the expulsion narrative into the Eden myth, Lanfer shows that the multi-vocality of a text's interpretations serves to highlight the dialogical elements of the text in its present composite state.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

An intellectual tour-de-force that ranges from the palace reliefs of 18th-century BCE Mari to the rabbinical literature of the 2nd century CE in order to explicate the interpretive history of the Garden of Eden's tree of life and associated motifs. Along the way, we learn of the nature of immortality, the pitfalls of wisdom, and hopes of a future paradise. A veritable feast of scholarly erudition from an exciting young scholar! (Susan Ackerman, Preston H. Kelsey Professor of Religion, Dartmouth College)

L'autore:

Lecturer in Hebrew Bible and religions of the Ancient Near East at University of California Los Angeles; Lecturer in Hebrew Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, and Early Christianity at Dartmouth College.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: OUP USA
• Data di pubblicazione: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0199926743
• ISBN 13: 9780199926749
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 272