Tag Archives: Second Temple period

Rituals are Exciting! An Interview with Jutta Jokiranta

What is your research about, in general terms?
My research is about the Second Temple period and processes of creating Judean/Jewish identities, especially in light of the Dead Sea Scrolls (or Qumran texts). It’s also about imagining what texts mean during this time when they are written in scrolls, and about the impact of rituals in humans’ lives and perceptions.

Why particularly did you choose this direction for your career?
Rituals are underrepresented in research that has been keen on finding meanings of texts and symbolic interpretations; rituals take seriously the need for doing and aspects that are common to all human beings: patterns of ritualization and rituals as mediating traditions. Identity has been part of my research always!

How would you describe the relevance of your work for society?
The more I study, the more I think of big questions: how is human thought constrained by its innate capacities. and how does that effect the way we think of God, gods or otherworldly beings, for example. How is our perception of the world embodied and extended? Cognitive science of religion brings together the past and the present to answer such questions.

More focused on biblical studies: it is valuable to study in which forms sacred texts exist in different times and how they are understood to exist and work. Before books and print culture, you could not walk with “the bible” in your hand. Furthermore, Judaism is and was not only one thing, then and now. Christians tend to look at Judaism of the New Testament as legalistic, ritualistic, and corrupt, but one gets a different story in the Scrolls.

Looking back at your academic work so far, what would you say you are most proud of?
Perhaps being able to show the relevance of social-scientific approaches in Qumran and biblical studies: studying social identity, sectarianism, authority, or almost any topic can benefit from critical thinking about the concepts we use or from informed theories.

Can you tell us a short story about something that happened to you during your career that amazed you?
Well, I was amazed during these past years to find myself in archaeological excavations and enjoying it so much — or rather that my physical condition did not let me down! I am really grateful for these opportunities.

Is there anything you’ve researched that you never thought you’d find yourself interested in?
It may sound funny, but somehow the Maccabean/Hasmonean history with all the power struggles and various successive kings has not been so appealing to me, but recently these things have become more alive and meaningful, also because of archaeology.

With the cognitive approaches, I find myself reading studies referring to neuropsychology or evolutionary theories, and those can be quite apart from traditional biblical studies.

What are you working on at the moment?
I want to find out how ritualization, as a mechanism of actions that feel compelling, functions within various rituals or practices, and how we might detect this phenomenon that can be significant in dealing with anxieties. I also want to explain what kind of ideas and practices were connected to covenant making and covenant renewal, and what difference those make, especially with the Qumran movement as a case study. Rituals are exciting!

Jutta Jokiranta is University Lecturer in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies at the University of Helsinki, Department of Biblical Studies (since 2009). She is currently Team Leader of CSTT’s Team 4 Society and Religion in Late Second Temple Judaism (2014‒2019) and is also an Academy Research Fellow for her project Ritual and Change in the Qumran Movement and Judaean Society (2014‒2019). More information can be found on her University of Helsinki profile-page.

Interview conducted by Helen Dixon

Workshop with Prof. Judith H. Newman (14 Oct, Helsinki)

You are warmly invited to attend a workshop with Prof. Judith H. Newman on “Scribal Bodies as Liturgical Bodies: The Formation of Scriptures in Early Judaism”, to be held Friday, 14 October from 9:30-11:30 in Porthania Building lecture room P724 (7th floor of Yliopistonkatu 3). The workshop is open to all scholars and students interested in Second Temple Judaism and transmission of literary traditions.

Judith H. Newman is Associate Pjudy-newmanrofessor of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible at Emmanuel College and holds a joint appointment with the Department for the Study of Religion in the area of early Judaism and a cross-appointment to the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. She is also a faculty member of the Centre for Jewish Studies.

Prof. Newman specializes in the Hebrew Bible as well as Jewish literature of the Second Temple period. Her current research interests are in the ritual performance of texts particularly as this intersects with the formation of communities in early Judaism and Christianity. She is also interested in the development of scripture, early biblical interpretation, as well as method in the study of the Bible and early Judaism and Christianity. Emerging projects include work on literature of the Hasmonean period, particularly the book of Judith; and a study of time, temporality, and liturgy.

Suomalaiset Qumran-tutkijat ylittävät rajoja

Huippuyksikön tutkijat TT Mika Pajunen ja TT Hanna Tervanotko pääsivät tällä viikolla pitelemään käsissään uunituoretta työnsä tulosta, kun heidän toimittamansa kirja Crossing Imaginary Boundaries: The Dead Sea Scrolls in the Context of Second Temple Judaism ilmestyi. Kirja on Suomen Eksegeettisen Seuran tuorein julkaisu, ja se koostuu miltei kokonaan huippuyksikön tutkijoiden artikkeleista.  Continue reading Suomalaiset Qumran-tutkijat ylittävät rajoja