Tag Archives: early Judaism

General

Conceptions of Virtue in Early Judaism

University of Helsinki Research Funds has granted funding for a three-year long research project titled “Conceptions of Virtue in Early Judaism” directed by CSTT team 4 member Elisa Uusimäki. Also Sami Yli-Karjanmaa from team 4 and Anna-Liisa Tolonen from the Centre of Excellence Reason and Religious Recognition take part in the project.

The project asks what virtue (i.e., human behaviour regarded as morally valuable) meant for ancient Jews. How did they discuss and practise virtue? According to Uusimäki, her team fills a research gap by analysing conceptions of virtue in early Jewish literature (ca. 350 BCE – 150 CE).

– Scholars have typically sought for the historical roots of virtue discourse in Greek philosophical sources. Jewish sources can no longer be ignored, however, if the diversity of the Mediterranean virtue discourses is taken seriously, Uusimäki explains.

– This project demonstrates the cultural variety of such discourses, thus enabling dialogue between biblical, religious, and Greco-Roman studies.

Congratulations to Elisa and her team!

Interviews

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

Publications

New Book “Social Memory and Social Identity in the Study of Early Judaism and Early Christianity” (V&R, 2016)

Samuel Byrskog, Raimo Hakola, and Jutta Jokiranta, eds (2016) Social Memory and Social Identity in the Study of Early Judaism and Early Christianity. Novum Testamentum et Orbis Antiquus 116. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

The concepts o9783525593752f social memory and social identity have been increasingly used in the study of ancient Jewish and Christian sources. In this collection of articles, international specialists apply interdisciplinary methodology related to these concepts to early Jewish and Christian sources. The volume offers an up-to-date presentation of how social memory studies and socio-psychological identity approach have been used in the study of Biblical and related literature. The articles examine how Jewish and Christian sources participate in the processes of collective recollection and in this way contribute to the construction of distinctive social identities. The writers demonstrate the benefits of the use of interdisciplinary methodologies in the study of early Judaism and Christianity but also discuss potential problems that have emerged when modern theories have been applied to ancient material.

CONTENTS

RAIMO HAKOLA, SAMUEL BYRSKOG, AND JUTTA JOKIRANTA
Introduction

I Social Memory

SAMUEL BYRSKOG Lund University
Philosophical Aspects on Memory: Aristotle, Augustine and Bultmann

ALAN KIRK, James Madison University, USA
The Formation of the Synoptic Tradition: Cognitive and Cultural Memory Approaches to an Old Problem

SANDRA HÜBENTHAL, Universität Passau
Reading the Gospel of Mark as Collective Memory

KARI SYREENI, Åbo Akademi University
Eyewitness Testimony, First-Person Narration and Authorial Presence as Means of Legitimation in Early Gospel Literature

DAN NÄSSELQVIST, Lund University
Dual Conventions: The Oral Delivery of New Testament Writings in Light of First-Century Delivery Practices

II Social Identity

CECILIA WASSÉN, Uppsala University
The Importance of Marriage in the Construction of a Sectarian Identity in the Dead Sea Scrolls

JUTTA JOKIRANTA, University of Helsinki
Black Sheep, Outsiders, and the Qumran Movement: Social-Psychological Perspectives on Norm-Deviant Behaviour

ELISA UUSIMÄKI, University of Helsinki
Wisdom, Scripture and Identity Formation in 4QBeatitudes

RIKARD ROITTO, Stockholm School of Theology
Forgiveness, Rituals, and Social Identity in Matthew: Obliging Forgiveness

RAIMO HAKOLA, University of Helsinki,
The Johannine Community as a Constructed, Imagined Community

NINA NIKKI, University of Helsinki
Contesting the Past, Competing over the Future: Why is Paul Past-Oriented in Galatians and Romans, but Future-Oriented in Philippians?

MARTIN WESSBRANDT, Lund University
Covenant, Conflict & Collective Identity: The Relationship between Hebrews and 1 Clement

Publications

New Book: “Turning Proverbs towards Torah” (Brill, 2016)

In Tuntitledurning Proverbs towards Torah, Elisa Uusimäki offers the first monograph on the early Jewish wisdom text 4Q525 from Qumran. Following the reconstruction of the fragmentary manuscript, Uusimäki analyses the text with a focus on the reception and renewal of the Proverbs tradition and the ways in which 4Q525 illustrates aspects of Jewish pedagogy in the late Second Temple period. She argues that the author was inspired by Proverbs 1-9 but sought to demonstrate that true wisdom is found in the concept of torah. He also weaved dualistic elements and eschatological ideas into the wisdom frame. The author’s intention, Uusimäki argues, is to form the audience spiritually, encouraging it to trust in divine protection and blessings that are bestowed upon the pious.

READERSHIP:
All interested in wisdom texts (esp. the Proverbs tradition), Jewish pedagogy in the second temple era, Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient scriptural interpretation, identity construction in early Judaism, and material reconstruction.

For more information see http://www.brill.com/products/book/turning-proverbs-towards-torah

 

Events

A Workshop on the Dead Sea Scrolls and Early Judaism at Trinity College Dublin

Text: Elisa Uusimäki and Sami Yli-Karjanmaa
Photos: Jutta Jokiranta

Three members of the CSTT’s Team 4 – Jutta Jokiranta, Elisa Uusimäki, and Sami Yli-Karjanmaa – travelled to Ireland in the beginning of May in order to foster the co-operation between biblical scholars working at the University of Helsinki and Trinity College of Dublin. Landing to the greenness of Dublin on a sunny day was a most beautiful start for our visit, and the next days of academic activities and college life fulfilled our expectations. Continue reading A Workshop on the Dead Sea Scrolls and Early Judaism at Trinity College Dublin →