Maren R. Niehoff approfondisce il pensiero ebraico e i testi antichi. Il suo lavoro si concentra sui modi in cui gli antichi scritti ebraici vennero interpretati e su come si intersecassero con le più ampie tradizioni accademiche del loro tempo. Niehoff indaga come gli autori plasmarono l'identità e la cultura attraverso l'analisi letteraria, e come le figure e le loro narrazioni si evolsero in scritti successivi. La sua erudizione illumina le intricate relazioni tra tradizione religiosa, studi letterari e storia intellettuale.
The book offers a detailed examination of the interpretative methods used by Alexandrian Jews in their biblical studies, particularly in relation to the insights gained from Homeric scholarship of their time. It explores the interplay between these two significant literary traditions, shedding light on the cultural and intellectual environment that influenced Jewish biblical interpretation in Alexandria.
This collection of articles places the frequently discussed question of the introvert Self into a new interdisciplinary context: rather than tracing a linear development from social forms of life with an outward orientation to individual introspection, it argues for significant overlaps between interior and exterior dimensions, between the Self and society. A team of internationally renowned experts from different fields examines Pagan, Jewish and Christian voices on an equal basis and explores the complexity of their messages. Philosophical texts are analyzed next to letters, legal sources, Bible interpretation and material evidence. Not only is the experience of individuals examined, but also instructions from authoritative figures in a position to shape constructions of the Self. The book is divided into three parts; namely, „Constructing the Self“, a field usually treated by philosophers, „Self-Fashioning“, generally associated with literature, and „Self and Individual in Society“, commonly the domain of historians. This volume shows the complexity of each category and their overlaps by engaging unexpected sources in each section and interrogating internal as well as external dimensions.
In the Roman Empire, travelling was something of a central feature, facilitating commerce, pilgrimage, study abroad, tourism, and ethnographic explorations. The present volume investigates for the first time intellectual aspects of this phenomenon by giving equal attention to pagan, Jewish, and Christian perspectives. A team of experts from different fields argues that journeys helped construct cultural identities and negotiate between the local and the particular on the one hand, and wider imperial discourses on the other. A special point of interest is the question of how Rome engages the attention of intellectuals from the Greek East and offers new opportunities of self-fashioning. Pagans, Jews, and Christians shared similar experiences and constructed comparable identities in dialogue, sometimes polemics, with each other. The collection addresses the following themes: real and imagined geography, reconstructing encounters in distant places, between the bodily and the holy, Jesus' travels from different perspectives, and destination Rome. The articles in each section are arranged in chronological order, ranging from early imperial texts to rabbinic and patristic literature.
Eine intellektuelle Biographie
Philon von Alexandria hinterließ ein umfangreiches Werk, das das hellenistische Judentum, frühe Christentum und die Zweite Sophistik beleuchtet. Seine Persönlichkeit und intellektuelle Entwicklung bleiben jedoch ein Rätsel, da er wenig über sich selbst offenbart. Maren R. Niehoff analysiert sein Œuvre im Kontext seiner Leitung der jüdischen Gesandtschaft zu Gaius Caligula (38-41 n. Chr.), einem biographischen und geistigen Wendepunkt. In Alexandria war Philon eng mit der jüdischen Gemeinde verbunden und beteiligte sich an Debatten über die Bedeutung biblischer Texte, indem er Methoden der Homerexegese und platonische Allegorien anwandte. In Rom hingegen adressierte er ein breiteres Publikum und öffnete sich der blühenden Stoa, die ihm neue Impulse zur Interpretation der jüdischen Tradition gab. Die biblischen Erzväter und -mütter werden zu Helden seiner Biographien, die Plutarchs Werk vorwegnehmen. Das jüdische Gesetz wird als zentrales Anliegen und Naturgesetz dargestellt, was auch Auswirkungen auf neutestamentliche Diskussionen hat. Die englische Originalausgabe von Niehoffs Buch wurde 2019 mit dem Polonsky-Preis für Originalität und Kreativität in den Geisteswissenschaften der Hebräischen Universität in Jerusalem ausgezeichnet.