Reviews"This is a most welcome addition to a series which has already proved its worth, and augurs well for its future." C. T. R. Hayward in: Book List - Society for Old Testament Study 2009
Grade FromCollege Graduate Student
Grade ToCollege Graduate Student
SynopsisThe series Commentaries on Early Jewish Literature (CEJL) is devoted to the study of Jewish documents and traditions that can be dated or traced back to the Hellenistic and Roman periods (ca. 300 BCE-150 CE). The literature covered by the series represents a rich diversity of literary forms and religious perspectives. Formally, these writings include testaments, apocalypses, legends, expansions and interpretations of biblical writings, psalms and prayers, poetry, historiography, and wisdom literature. They witness to an immensely creative period during which many Jews were struggling to preserve a living faith in the wake of social, political, and religious upheavals in the Mediterranean world and the Near East., During the past few decades a great amount of scholarly work has been done on the various prayer cultures of antiquity, both Graeco-Roman and Jewish and Christian. In Jewish studies this burgeoning research on ancient prayer has been stimulated particularly by the many new prayer texts found at Qumran, which have shed new light on several long-standing problems. The present volume intends to make a new contribution to the ongoing scholarly debate on ancient Jewish prayer texts by focusing on a limited set of prayer texts, scil. , a small number of those that have been preserved only in Greek. Jewish prayers in Greek tend to be undervalued, which is regrettable because these prayers shed light on sometimes striking aspects of early Jewish spirituality in the centuries around the turn of the era. In this volume twelve such prayers have been collected, translated, and provided with an extensive historical and philological commentary. They have been preserved on papyrus, on stone, and as part of Christian church orders into which some of them have been incorporated in a christianized from. For that reason these prayers are of great interest to scholars of both early Judaism and ancient Christianity., During the past few decades a great amount of scholarly work has been done on the various prayer cultures of antiquity, both Graeco-Roman and Jewish and Christian. In Jewish studies this burgeoning research on ancient prayer has been stimulated particularly by the many new prayer texts found at Qumran, which have shed new light on several long-standing problems. The present volume intends to make a new contribution to the ongoing scholarly debate on ancient Jewish prayer texts by focusing on a limited set of prayer texts, scil. , a small number of those that have been preserved only in Greek. Jewish prayers in Greek tend to be undervalued, which is regrettable because these prayers shed light on sometimes striking aspects of early Jewish spirituality in the centuries around the turn of the era. In this volume twelvesuch prayers have been collected, translated, and provided with an extensive historical and philological commentary. They have been preserved on papyrus, on stone, and as part of Christian church orders into which some of them have been incorporated in a christianized from. For that reason these prayers are of great interest to scholars of both early Judaism and ancient Christianity.