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HU Credits:
2
Degree/Cycle:
1st degree (Bachelor)
Responsible Department:
comparative religion
Semester:
1st Semester
Teaching Languages:
Hebrew
Campus:
Mt. Scopus
Course/Module Coordinator:
Serge Ruzer
Coordinator Office Hours:
Monday 13:00-14:00
Teaching Staff:
Dr. Serge Ruzer
Course/Module description:
The course will address the variety of Late Antique elaborations on the biblical figure of Moses and the foundational Exodus story. We will discuss the complex interplay between adaptation (and adaptation) of existing earlier patterns and identity-building strategies, employed in the context of polemical interactions and reflected in Jewish, Christian and Gnostic sources.
Course/Module aims:
---To expose the participants to the variety of late antique traditions coping with the precedents of Moses and Exodus.
----To strengthen awareness of the polemical aspect of appealing to Moses and Exodus -- either vis-a-vis earlier traditions or vis-a-vis rival religious groups.
----To strengthen awareness of a variety of interaction patterns between Christianity and Judaism during the early centuries of the common era.
Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
---Adequately appraise the variegated patterns on first centuries CE interactions between Judaism and Christianity, which polemically appealed to the figure of Moses and the precedent of the Exodus "first redemption".
Attendance requirements(%):
100%
Teaching arrangement and method of instruction:
Frontal teaching that encourages the participants to take part in discussion of textual evidence and various research methods.
Course/Module Content:
1. Introductory session: Torah and the figure of Moses in Second Temple Judaism.
2. Hellenistic Judaism. Exodus in the eyes of the Letter of Aristeas. Moses as Bearer of the Logos in Philo of Alexandria.
3. Apocalyptic tradition. Moses as Enoch in Exagoge by Yeheskel the Tragedian. Ezra as a new (and greater?) Moses in 4 Ezra.
4. Moses and Torah in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Qumran covenanters as new Israel traveling through the desert.
5. Moses, the gift of the Torah and Exodus in the Synoptic tradition.
6. Moses as the focus of reference in the Gospel of John.
7. Moses and Exodus in the Epistle to the Hebrews.
8. Moses and the revelation of Torah in the Damascus Document, and in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians compared to the Epistle of Barnabas.
9. Moses in Christian authors from the second century C.E.
10. Responses of the Rabbinic tradition to the Christian appropriation of Moses.
11. Moses as one to whom heavenly secrets, e.g. the prototype of the logos, were revealed.
12. Moses as an example of asceticism in Christian monastic tradition and Jewish response.
13. Addenda.
14. Concluding discussion.
Required Reading:
יאיר זקוביץ וסרג' רוזר, בראשית היה הדבר: שמונה שיחות על הבשורה הרביעית, ירושלים, מאגנס, תשע"ד, עמ' 27¬-43, 93¬-135.
יאיר זקוביץ וסרג' רוזר, כי דבר האלוהים חי הוא: שמונה שיחות על האיגרת אל העברית, ירושלים, מאגנס, תשע"ו.
David Brakke, Athanasius and Asceticism (Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1998).
George J. Brooke, "Moving Mountains: From Sinai to Jerusalem," in George J. Brooke, Hindy Najman and Loren T. Stuckenbruck (eds.), The Significance of Sinai: Traditions about Divine Revelation in Judaism and Christianity (Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2008), pp. 73-89
Noah Hacham, "The 'Letter of Aristeas': a New Exodus Story?" Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic and Roman Period 36.1 (2005), pp. 1-20.
Andrei Orlov, "In the Mirror of the Divine Face: The Enochic Features of the Exagoge if Ezekiel the Tragedian," in George J. Brooke, Hindy Najman, and Loren Stuckenbruck (eds.), The Significance of Sinai: Traditions about Divine Revelation in Judaism and Christianity (Leiden: Brill, 2008), pp. 183-199.
Serge Ruzer, Mapping the New Testament: Early Christian Writings as a Witness for Jewish Biblical Exegesis (Leiden: Brill, 2007).
Daniel R. Schwartz, "Special People or Special Books?: On Qumran and New Testament Notions of Canon," in Ruth A. Clements and Daniel R. Schwartz (eds.), Text, Thought, and Practice in Qumran and Early Christianity (Leiden: Brill, 2009), pp. 49-60.
G. Stemberger, "'Moses received Torah...' (M. Avot 1,1): Rabbinic Conceptions of Revelation," in F. Garcia Martinez (ed.) Jerusalem, Alexandria, Rome (Leiden and Boston: Brill,2003), 285-299.
D. Schoenfeld, "The Destiny of All Men: rabbinic and medieval justifications for the death of Moses," in J. Bill (ed.), Illuminating Moses
), A History of Reception from Exodus to Renaissance (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2014), 167-183
Additional Reading Material:
L. Miralles Maciá, "Judaizing a gentile biblical character through fictive biographical reports : the case of Bityah, Pharaoh’s daughter, Moses’ mother, according to rabbinic interpretations," C. Cordoni and G. Langer (eds.)Narratology, hermeneutics, and midrash : Jewish, Christian, and Muslim narratives from the late antiquity through to modern times (Göttingen : V & R Unipress ; Vienna : Vienna University Press, 2014),145-175.
Y. Furstenberg, "The 'Agon' with Moses and Homer: Rabbinic Midrash and the Second Sophistic," in M. Niehoff (ed.), Homer and the Bible in the Eyes of Ancient Interpreters (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 299-328.
R. Nikolsky, "'God tempted Moses for seven days' : the Bush Revelation in George H. van Kooten (ed.), The Revelation of the Name YHWH to Moses : perspectives from Judaism, the pagan Graeco-Roman world, and early Christianity (Leiden: Brill, 2006), 89-104.
S. Fine, "'This is the Torah that Moses set before the children of Israel': Scripture and Authority in Rabbinic Judaism," Review and Expositor 95.4 (1998), 523-532.
E. A. Phillips, "The Singular Prophet and Ideals of Torah: Miriam, Aaron, and Moses in C. A. Evans and J. A. Sanders (eds.), The Function of scripture in Early Jewish and Christian tradition
(Imprint Sheffield : Sheffield Academic Press, c1998), 78-88.
Course/Module evaluation:
End of year written/oral examination 0 %
Presentation 0 %
Participation in Tutorials 20 %
Project work 80 %
Assignments 0 %
Reports 0 %
Research project 0 %
Quizzes 0 %
Other 0 %
Additional information:
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