Petitioners, Penitents, and Poets: On Prayer and Praying in Second Temple Judaism

Description

This volume contributes to the growing interest in understanding the phenomenon of prayer and praying in the Hebrew Bible, Early Judaism, and nascent Christianity. Papers by the leading scholars in these fields revisit long-standing questions and chart new paths of inquiry into the nature, form, and practice of addressing the divine in the ancient world. The essays in this volume deal with particular texts of and about prayer, practices of prayer, as well as figures and locations (historical and literary) that are associated with prayer and praying. These studies apply a range of methods and theoretical approaches to prayer and the language of prayer in literatures of Early Judaism and Christianity. Some studies apply the classical methods of biblical studies to Second Temple texts of prayer, including form critical and text critical approaches; others engage in literary and narrative analysis of ancient works that recount discourse directed to the divine. Still other studies draw on anthropological and sociological analyses of prayer or marshal particular theories of discourse, ethics, and moral agency to offer fresh interpretations of address to God in the literature of Second Temple Judaism and earliest Christianity. Preface Table of Contents Abbreviations Including Frequently Cited Sources Introduction Pastiche, Hyperbole, and the Composition of Jonah’s Prayer Psalms: Sitz im Leben vs. Sitz in der Literatur “If I had said …” (Ps 73:15): Retrospective Introspection in Didactic Psalmody of the Second Temple Period Agur’s Words to God in Proverbs 30 and Prayerful Study in the Second Temple Period Patterns of Priesthood and Patterns of Prayer in the Dead Sea Scrolls The Apotropaic Function of the Final Hymn in the Community Rules The Absence of Prayer in the Temple Scroll On Amulets, Apotropaic Prayers, and Phylacteries: The Contribution of Three New Texts from the Judean Desert Prayer in 2 Baruch The Prayers of Eve in the Greek Life of Adam and Eve “I Have Prayed for You ... Strengthen Your Brothers” (Luke 22:32): Jesus’s Proleptic Prayer for Peter and Other Gendered Tropes in Luke’s War on Satan Praying the Lord’s Prayer in (Some Sort of) Tameion (Matt 6:6) Ancient Sources Index Subject Index