Jubilees and Hellenistic Encyclopaedism

Bibliographic Data

ID10906545
AuthorsPieter B Hartog (0000-0001-7935-858X, Protestant Theological UniversityGroningenThe Netherlands, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume50
Issue1
Pages1-25
Publication date2019-02-13
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal for the Study of Judaism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-2212 • E-ISSN: 1570-0631
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1163/15700631-12501231
OpenAlexW2912254640
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited12

The final form of the book of Jubilees is commonly dated to the Hellenistic period. It may come as no surprise, therefore, that various parallels between Jubilees and Greek scholarship have been discovered. Yet scholars remain divided on Jubilees’ attitude towards Greek culture. In this article, I argue that Jubilees is fully conversant with global intellectual developments in the Hellenistic period and exhibits a type of encyclopaedic rhetoric similar to non-Jewish scholarly writings from this period. At the same time, Jubilees exhibits a local outlook, as it emphasises the timelessness and distinctiveness of the Jewish nation and its laws. Hence, the book must be understood as a “glocal” work, in which global and local trends merge and are intricately intertwined

Aesthetics · Art · Jewish studies · Judaism · Literature · Merge (version control · Optimal distinctiveness theory · Parallels · Period (music · Political science · Rhetoric · Scholarship · Sociology · Surprise · Theology · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Classics · Historical and Linguistic Studies · History · Law · Philosophy

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