Böcker av Markus Witte

Philo von Alexandria, der etwas altere Zeitgenosse des Paulus, ist der wichtigste Reprasentant des alexandrinischen Judentums. An der Schnittstelle von biblischer Uberlieferung sowie platonischer und stoischer Philosophie bieten die Schriften Philos eine ganz eigenstandige judische Anthropologie und Kosmologie, Eschatologie und Ethik. Otto Kaiser, emeritierter Alttestamentler an der Philipps-Universitat Marburg und einer der besten Kenner des judischen Schrifttums der hellenistisch-romischen Zeit, fuhrt mit dieser Aufsatzsammlung in das Denken und die Schriftauslegung Philos ein. Er bietet eine Ubersicht uber Philos Verstandnis des judischen Kultes, zumal des Jerusalemer Hohepriesters und Tempels, und skizziert Philos Hochschatzung des Gebets und der Tugend. Dabei verortet Kaiser Philo im Kontext der hellenistischen Philosophie und analysiert Philos Antworten auf die Grundfragen menschlicher Existenz wie Gesundheit und Krankheit, Hoffnung und Verzweiflung, Tod und Uberwindung des Todesgeschicks.

The present volume contains the proceedings of a conference held in October 2018 at Humboldt University Berlin. The articles reflect the different categories of describing Judaism of the Second Temple Period in view of their sustainability in characterising an ancient religious community in different historical situations and discuss relevant (re)constructions of ancient Judaism in the history of scholarship. Since the Persian period, ancient Judaism existed in a world which was in constant flux regarding its political, social, and religious contexts. Consequently, Judaism was subject to permanent processes of change in its self-perception as well as its external perception. In all complexity, however, the Torah, the Temple(s) as a place where heaven meets the earth, and the 'holy' or 'promised' land as the dwelling place of God's people can be regarded as institutions to which all kinds of Judaism in the Babylonian and Egyptian dispora as well in Israel/Palestine were related in some way or another.

Provides an introduction to the literature and history of the Old Testament. This title looks at the Biblical text, archaeology, other texts, and iconography. It explores varying exegetical methods, including historical criticism, canonical approach, feminist, social scientific and liberation theology.

In der Reihe Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (BZAW) erscheinen Arbeiten zu samtlichen Gebieten der alttestamentlichen Wissenschaft. Im Zentrum steht die Hebraische Bibel, ihr Vor- und Nachleben im antiken Judentum sowie ihre vielfache Verzweigung in die benachbarten Kulturen der altorientalischen und hellenistisch-romischen Welt.

In der Reihe Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (BZAW) erscheinen Arbeiten zu sämtlichen Gebieten der alttestamentlichen Wissenschaft. Im Zentrum steht die Hebräische Bibel, ihr Vor- und Nachleben im antiken Judentum sowie ihre vielfache Verzweigung in die benachbarten Kulturen der altorientalischen und hellenistisch-römischen Welt.

In this volume, Witte presents three case studies on biblical theology and demonstrates how the ways of speaking and thinking about God in the Old Testament constitute the religio-historical and theological basis for the discourse on God's acts in the person of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. The theology of the Old Testament and that of the New Testament are inseparably connected, even if discrete theologies of the Old and New Testaments can be identified. The first study traces the development of the understanding of God in the Old Testament through the Hebrew divine title, El Shaddai, and one of its most important Greek equivalents, pantokrator. The use of the title El Shaddai, its ancient Near Eastern religious background, its transfer into Hellenistic Judaism, and its theological significance reveal fundamental aspects of a biblical theology that is equally indebted to comparative philology and to the history of religion. The second essay discusses justice as a central theme of the theology of the Old Testament and as an essential category in defining the relationship between God and humanity through a selection of different texts from the canon of the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint. The third study offers a short literary-historical biography of Yahweh as the creator of the world, the master of history, the guarantor of justice, and the donor of wisdom. It takes into account the approach of the first essay, which presents theology as a sort of religio-historical onomastics, and reflects, on the basis of the second essay, the traditio-historical presentation of images of God and his anointed in the Old Testament as a background for theology and christology in the New Testament.