Legal Fictions: Studies of Law and Narrative in the Discursive Worlds of Ancient Jewish Sectarians and Sages (Supplement to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 147)

Fraade, Steven

ISBN 10: 9004201092 / ISBN 13: 9789004201095

Published by Brill, 2011

About this Item

Leiden, Brill, 2011. xvii, 627 pp. Fine copy. Hardcover with dustjacket. Drawing on the ancient writings of the Dead Sea Scrolls and early rabbinic Judaism, this book comprises studies that explore the intersections of scriptural interpretation, narrative fiction, and legal rhetoric. It proposes and models methods of a non-reductive historiography for each of these communities and for both of them in comparison.

Seller Inventory # 52655

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Legal Fictions: Studies of Law and Narrative in the Discursive Worlds of Ancient Jewish Sectarians and Sages (Supplement to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 147)
• Publisher: Brill
• Publication Date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9004201092
• ISBN 13: 9789004201095
• Binding: Hardcover

About this title

Synopsis

Ancient Jewish writings combine interpretive narratives of Israel’s sacred history with legal prescriptions for a divinely ordered way of life. Two ancient Jewish societies have left us extensive textual corpora preserving interpenetrating legal and narrative interpretive teachings: the sectarian community of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the sage-disciple circles of the early Rabbis. This book comprises studies that explore specific aspects of the interplay of interpretative, narrative, and legal rhetoric with an eye to pedagogic function and social formation for each of these communities and for both of them in comparison. It addresses questions of how best to approach these writings for purposes of historical retrieval and reconstruction by recognizing the inseparability of literary-rhetorical textual analysis and a non-reductive historiography.

About the Author

Steven D. Fraade, Ph.D. (1980) in Near Eastern Studies, University of Pennsylvania, is the Mark Taper Professor of the History of Judaism at Yale University, in the Department of Religious Studies and the Program in Judaic Studies. He is a former Guggenheim Fellow and the author of From Tradition to Commentary, winner of the 1992 National Jewish Book Award in the category of Scholarship.