Idolatry, incest, and impurity: Moral defilement in ancient Judaism

Journal for the Study of Judaism

Volumn 29, Issue 4, 1998, Pages 391-415

  Klawans, Jonathan ^a  

^a BOSTON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 61449229426     PISSN: 00472212     EISSN: 15700631     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1163/157006398X00065     Document Type: Article

References (106)

1. Jacob Neusner, The Idea of Purity in Ancient Judaism (Leiden: EJ. Brill, 1973)) 108.
2. Neusner, The Idea, 54.
3. Adolph Büchlcr's Studies in Sin and Atonement in the Rabbinic literature of the First Century (London: Oxford University Press, 1928)
4. Tikva Frymer-Kensky, "Pollution, Purification, and Purgation in Biblical Israel", in Carol L. Meyers and M. O'Connor, eds., The Word of the Lord Shall Go Forth: Essays in Honor of Davii Noel Freedmaa in Celebration of his Sixtieth Birthdaa (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1983)) 399-410;
5. David P. Wright, "The Spectrum of Priestly Impurity", in Gary A. Anderson and Saul M. Olyan, eds., Priesthood and Cult in Ancient Israel (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1991)) 150-181.
6. David Zvi Hoffmann, Das Buch I^viticus (Berlin: M. Poppelauer, 1905-6)) esp. vol. 1, 303-4, 340; vol. 2, 59.
7. Impurity and Sin in Ancient Judaism (Columbia University, 1997),
8. Klawans, "The Impurity of Immorality in Ancient Judaism", Journal of Jewish Studies 48.1 (1997)) 1-16.
9. Frymer-Kensky, "Pollution", 403; Wright, "The Spectrum", 157; cf. E.P. Sanders,
10. Jewish Law from Jesus to the Mishnah (London: SCM Press, 1990)) 140-3.
11. Frymer-Kensky, "Pollution", 403;
12. Wright, "The Spectrum", 157;
13. Sanders, Jewish Law, 142-3.
14. Mary Douglas, "Sacred Contagion", in John F.A. Sawyer, ed., Reading Leviticus: A Conversation with Mary Douglas (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996)) 86-106, esp. 95-9.
15. Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16. A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, [New York: Doubleday, 1992]] 822, 857
16. Translations from the Hebrew Bible are taken from or based upon Tanakh (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1985)) referred to as NJV.
17. Kings 1:50-53 and 2:28-30;
18. Biichler, Studies, 235.
19. Jacob Milgrom, "Israel's Sanctuary: The Priestly 'Picture of Dorian Gray'", Revue Biblique 83.3 (1976)) 390-399; cf. Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16, 253-292.
20. Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the New Testament
21. Wilfried Paschen, Rein und Unrein: Untersuchung zur biblischen Wortgeschichte (Munich: Kösel-verlag, 1970)) On mOTl 28-30 and 67-8.
22. Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16, 35-9.
23. Pand H, Israel Knohl, The Sanctuary of Silence: The Priestly Torah and the Holiness School (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995))
24. Helmer Ringgrenand G. André, in G. Johannes Botterweck and H. Ringgren, eds., Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, 7 vols. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 1974-1995)) vol. 5, 291-295 (s.v. T70); vol. 5, 331-340 (s.v. RDB)
25. Baruch Levine refers to this type of impurity as "figurative", (The JPS Torah Commentary: Leviticus [Philadelphia: JPS, 1989]] 134)
26. Baruch Schwartz, in his treatment of the Holiness Code, speaks of the transformation of ritual defilement into a symbolic, metaphysical concept.
27. "Selected Chapters of the Holiness Code: a Literary Study of Leviticus 17-19", (Dissertation [Hebrew], Hebrew University, 1988)) xii
28. Philo, Special Laws I: 256-261. More recently, Wright has advocated a similar argument, viewing ritual defilement as symbolic.
29. "The Spectrum", 170-3.
30. Klawans, "The Impurity of Immorality", 4-5.
31. Impurity and Sin, esp. 58-66.
32. Ezra, Nehemiah, and their service in Judah,
33. Joseph Blenkinsoppp Ezra-Nehemiah: A Commentary (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1988)) 139-144;
34. John Bright, A History of Israel: Third Edition (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1981)) 391-402,
35. Morton Smith, Palestinian Parties and Politics that Shapee the Old Testament (New York: Columbia University Press, 1971)) 90-2.
36. Jacob M. Myers, Ezra & Nehemiah, Vol. 14, The Anchoo Bible (New York: Doubleday, 1965)) LXVIII-LXX (Myers dates the books to c. 400 BCE).
37. David J.A. Clines in 77K Harper Collins Study Bible (on Ezra 10:3)) "apparendy the law is here being applied to the case of the (ritual) 'uncleanness' of foreign birth".
38. Klawans, "Notions of Gentile Impurity in Ancient Judaism", Association for Jewish Studies Reviiw 20.2 (1995)) 285-312
39. Christine E. Hayes, "The Impurity of Gentiles in Biblical Law and Late Antique Judaism" (Unpublished MS).
40. Blenkinsopp, Ezra-Nehemiah, 184-5
41. Myers, Ezra & Nehemiah, 78-9.
42. Paschen, Rein und Unrein, 27-8.
43. Shaye J.D. Cohen, "From the Bible to the Talmud: The Prohibition of Intermarriage", Hebrew Annual Reviiw 7 (1983)) 23-39.
44. Mary Douglas, "The Stranger in the Bible", Archives Europeennes de Sociologie 35 (1994)) 283-298.
45. Shaye J.D. Cohen, "Solomon and the Daughter of Pharaoh: Intermarriage, Conversion, and the Impurity of Women", Journal of the Ancient .Near East Society 14 & 15 (1985)) 23-38, esp. 24-5.
46. Eileen M. Schuller, Non-Canonical Psalms from Qumran: A Pseudepigraphic Collection (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1986)) Translation based on Schuller, 203.
47. Schuller, Non-Canonical Psalmss 204-210.
48. Non-Canonical Psalmss 21-60.
49. James C. Vander Kam, The Book of Jubileess 2 vols. (Louvain: Peeters, 1989)) v-vi;
50. O.S. Wintermute, "Jubilees: A New Translation and Introduction", in James H. Charlesworth, ed., The Old Testament Pseudepigraphap Volume 2 (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983)) 43-4;
51. Emil Schürer, The History of the Jewish Peopll in the Age of Jesus Christ, rev. and ed. Geza Vermes et at, 4 vols. (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1973-1987), vol. III. 1, 311-2;
52. Michael Stone, ed., Jewish Writings of the Second Temple Period: Apocrypha, Pseudepigraphap Qumran Sectarian Writings, Philo, Josephus. Section Two, Vol. II, Compendium Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1984)) 101-3.
53. Schürer and Vermes, The History of the Jewish People, vol. III.1, 313-4;
54. Stone, Jewish Writings, 103.
55. James C. Vander Kam, The Dead Sea Scrolls Today (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 1995)) 39-40.
56. anderKam, The Book of Jubileess Unfortunately the Qumran manuscripts of Jubilees overlap only intermittently with the passages that are of concern to us here. See the edition of 4Q216-228
57. prepared by James VanderKam and Jozef Milik in Harold Attridge et ai, Qumran Cave 4, VIII: Parabiblical Texts, Part 1, Discoverier in the Judaean Desert, vol. XIII (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994)) 1-185.
58. Halpern-Amaru, Rewriting the Bible, 28 and 44-45.
59. Bruce J. Malina, T/ie New Testament World: Insights from Cultural Anthropology, revised ed. (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993)) 160;
60. Jacob Milgrom, "The Concept of Impurity in Jubilees and the Temple Scroll", Revue de Qumran 16.2 (1993)) 277-284
61. Klawans, "Notions of Gentile Impurity", 286, and the literature cited there in n. 3.
62. Yadin, The Temple Scroll, 3 vols. (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1983)) vol. I, 386-390.
63. Schiirer and Vermes, The, Historr of the Jewish People, vol. III. 1, 414-7
64. Michael Owen Wise, A Critical Study of the Temple Scroll from Qumran Cave 11 (Chicago: The Oriental Institute, 1990)) 26-31.
65. Yadin, The Templl Scroll and also Elisha Qimron, The Temple Scroll A Critical Edition with Extensive Reconstructions (Beer Sheva: Ben Gurion University of the Negev Press; Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1996))
66. Andrew M. Wilson and Lawrence Wills, "Literary Sources for the Temple Scroll", Harvard Theological Reviiw 75 (1982)) 275-288.
67. Milgrom, "The Concept of Impurity , esp. 284
68. Hartmut Stegemann, "The Literary Composition of the Temple Scroll and its Status at Qumran", in GJ. Brooke, ed., Templl Scroll Studies (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1989)) 123-48.
69. Wise, A Critical Study of the Temple Scroll, 23-6.
70. Schiirer and Vermes, The History of the Jewisi People, vol. III. 1, 412-5;
71. Lawrence H. Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls: the History of Judaism, the Background of Christianity, the Lost Librarr of Qumran (Philadelphia: Jewish Publicatton Society, 1994)) 257-8
72. Florentino Garcia Martinez, "The Problem of Purity: the Qumran Solution", in Garcia Martínez and Julio Trebolle Barrera, The Peopll of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Theii Writings, Beliefs and Practices, translated by Wilfred G.E. Watson (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995)) 139-157;
73. Jacob Milgrom, "The Concept of Impurity", and "The Scriptural Foundations and Deviations in the Laws of Purity of the Temple Scroll", in Lawrence H. Schiffman, ed., Archaeology and Historr in the Dead Sea Scrolls (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1990)) 83-99;
74. Lawrence H. Schiffman, "The Impurity of the Dead in the Temple Scroll", Archaeology and Historr in the Dead Sea Scrolls, 135-156;
75. Dwight D. Swanson, The Temple Scroll and the Bible: the Methodology of 11QT (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995)) 175-214.
76. Hannah K. Harrington, The Impurity Systems of Qumran and the Rabbii (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1993))
77. Trans. Yadin, The Templl Scroll, vol. II, 227-8.
78. Sifra Kedoshm, Perek 4:1 [Weiss ed., 88d-89a].
79. Milgrom, "The Qumran Cult: Its Exegetical Principles", in Brooke, ed., Temple Scroll Studies, 165-80, esp. 171.
80. Yadin, The Temple Scroll, vol. II, 208-9.
81. VanderKam, "The Temple Scroll and the Book of Jubilees", in Brooke, ed., Temple Scroll Studies, 211-236.
82. James H. Charlesworth, ed., Damascus Document, War Scroll, and Related Documents, Vol. 2, The Dead Sea Scrolls: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greee Textt with English Translations (Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck]] Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1995)) 6-7.
83. Philip R. Davies, The Damascus Covenant: an Interpretation of the "Damascus Document" (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1982)) 1-47.
84. Biichler, "Schechter's Jewish Sectaries'", Jewish Quarterly Reviiw 3 [1912-13]: 429-285)
85. Charlesworth, The Dead Sea Scrolls, vol. 2, 59-63
86. Joseph M. Baumgarten, Qumran Case e, XIII: The Damascus Document (4Q266-273), Discoverier in the Judaean Desert, vol. XVIII (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996)) esp. 1-22.
87. Schürer and Vermes, The Historr of the Jewish People, vol. III.1, 389-395;
88. Charlesworth, The Dead Sea Scrolls, vol. 2, 6-7.
89. The Damascus Covenant, 56-104.
90. "An Essene Missionary Document? CD II, 14-VI, 1", Revue Biblique 11 (1970.) 201-29.
91. Charlesworth, 77K Dead Sea Scrolls, vol. 2, 6;
92. Vander Kam, The Dead Sea Scrolls Todayy 57.
93. Translation from Charlesworth, The Dead Sea Scrolls, vol. 2.
94. Solomon Schechter, Fragments of a Zadokiti Work, Vol. 1, Documents of Jewish Sectaries (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910e) XXXVI, *\ VII, n. 22
95. Chaim Rabin, The Zadokite Documents (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1958)) 15, n. 2 to line 19, also speaks of a lacuna.
96. Geza Vermes, "Sectarian Matrimonial Halakha in the Damascus Rule", Journaa of Jewish Studies 25 (1974)) 197-202
97. Joseph A. Fitzmyer, "Divorce among First-Century Palestinian Jews", Eretz-Israel 14 (1978)) 103-110
98. Joseph M. Baumgarten, "The Qumran-Essene Restraints on Marriage", in Lawrence H. Schiffman, ed. Archaeology and Historr in the Dead Sea Scrolls, 13-24.
99. Davies' "The Ideology of the Temple in the Damascus Document", Journal of Jewish Studies 33 (1982)) 287-301;
100. Behind the Essenes: History and Ideology in the Dead Sea Scrolls (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1987)) 73.
101. Louis Ginzberg, An Unknown Jewish Sect (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1976)) 158;
102. Rabin, Zado/cite Documents, 17, n. 2 to line 20 and 19, n. 2 to line 8;
103. Vermes, "Sectarian Matrimonial Halakha", 197,
104. and Fitzmyer, "Divorce", 107
105. J. Murphy O'Connor has shown, practically all of the precepts listed in columns VI to VIII have parallels in the Holiness Code.
106. J. Murphy O'Connor, "A Literary Analysis of Damascus Document VI, 2-VHI, 3", Revue Biblique 78 (1971)) 210-232, esp. 212-4, 217.