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Midrash

(417 words)

Author(s): Schlüter, Margarete
The term “midrash” (pl. midrashim), first found in 2 Chr. 13:22; 24:27, comes from Heb. dāraš, which in the Bible means “seek, inquire, search out” (Judg. 6:29; Deut. 4:29), especially “seek and read from the book of the Lord” (Isa. 34:16), to set one’s heart “to study the law [ tôrâ] of the Lord” (Ezra 7:10; cf. at Qumran 1QS 5:11 and 6:6). In the Mishnah the main meaning is “explain” or “expound” a verse of Scripture ( m.  S–eqal. 1:4). The understanding of prerabbinic interpretation (e.g., in the Bible itself or at Qumran) as midrash is debated, but in rabbinic lite…

Mishnah

(553 words)

Author(s): Schlüter, Margarete
“Mishnah,” deriving from Heb. šānâ, “repeat, learn,” means (1) a single item of learning (pl. Mishnayot); (2) the teachings of an individual Tanna; and especially (3) the collection of traditional material, mainly Halakic, of Tannaitic Judaism, which attained quasi-canonical authority soon after its final redaction about a.d. 200, on which all the later decisions of religious and civil law are founded, and which forms the basis of the Talmud. Originally given orally, the Mishnah as oral teaching stands equally beside the written Torah, or Miqra (from qārāʾ, “read”), which…

Talmud

(1,140 words)

Author(s): Schlüter, Margarete
1. Origin The Talmud (Heb. lmd, “learn, teach”), strictly talmûd tôrâ, “study/teaching of the Torah,” is the main work of rabbinic literature. It consists of the Mishnah (the earliest authoritative rendering of Jewish oral laws, mostly in Hebrew) and the Gemara ¶ (Aram. gemar, “study, complete,” a rabbinic commentary on the Mishnah, largely in Aramaic). As rabbinic learning (Rabbi, Rabbinism) developed differently in its two geographic centers, the teaching tradition gave …

Rabbi, Rabbinism

(2,099 words)

Author(s): Schlüter, Margarete
1. Definition The term “rabbi” denotes a Jewish scholar and minister. The origin of the term is to be found in Heb. rab (master, great one). It seems originally to have been a form of address meaning “my master” or “my teacher” (see Matt. 23:7). In the second half of the first century a.d., it then became a title preceding the proper name. Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi (i.e., Judah the Patriarch, ca. 135–ca. 220) was simply known as the Rabbi. He was traditionally the redactor of the Mishnah. Other patriarchs held the honorary title rabban, “our teacher,” for example, Rabban Johanan ben Zakkai (d. ca.…

Torah

(785 words)

Author(s): Schlüter, Margarete
¶ “Torah” ( tôrâ, pl. tôrôt) derives from Heb. yrh, hôrâ, “show, direct, instruct.” In a more general sense it means “teaching”; in a narrower sense, “law.” It can denote either a single instruction, as in Lev. 6:9, 14 (MT: 6:2, 7), or more generally a collection of commands. Only in the latter sense can a specific group such as the Decalogue be considered as a Torah, although it is not exclusively called by this word. “Torah” further denotes the Pentateuch (ḥummāš), the five books of Moses, whose unfortunate Greek and Latin renderings ( nomos and lex), however, are inappropriate insofar as Genesis, for example, can hardly be characterized as law. In later times, “Torah” was used for Prophets and Writings—that is, for the whole Hebrew Bible. The Wisdom literature identifies Torah with preexistent (Prov. 8:22–31) wisdom ( ḥokmâ; …

Historiography

(5,830 words)

Author(s): Hecker, Karl | Cancik, Hubert | Dietrich, Walter | Plümacher, Eckhard | Brennecke, Hanns Christof | Et al.
[German Version] I. Ancient Near East – II. Greece – III. Rome – IV. The Bible – V. Christianity – VI. Judaism I. Ancient Near East Historiography in the classic sense, with a reflective account of historical linkages, developed rudimentarily at best in the cuneiform cultures of the ancient Near East in Hittite and Neo-Assyrian annals and the introductions to treaties; even these documents were usually written to justify the political actions. Around the middle of the 3rd millennium …

Hai Gaon

(187 words)

Author(s): Schlüter, Margarete
[German Version] (also: Hai ben Sherira; 939–1038), gaon of the Academy (Yeshivah) of Pumbedita from 1004 to 1038. Having already assisted his father Sherira Gaon as a young man, he became ab bet din (“Father of the Court,” the second h…

Gaon

(314 words)

Author(s): Schlüter, Margarete
[German Version] Gaon, Heb. גאון/ ga'on, pl. ge'onim, from bibl. גָאוׄן/ gā'ôn (“lordliness, majesty, pride”), is a title given esp. to the heads of the leading rabbinical academies in Babylonia and (later) in Israel (Palestine) during the so-called Gaonic (or Geonic) period (c. mid-6th – mid-11th cent.), t…

Sherira Gaon

(407 words)

Author(s): Schlüter, Margarete
[German Version] (Sherira ben Chanina Yehuda; c. 906–1006), between 968 and 1004 Gaon of the rabbinic academy (Yeshivah) of Pumbedita in Baghdad, one of the most important Geonim. During his tenure (and that of his son Hai Gaon), the academy enjoyed a renaissance. He placed relationships with the Jewish Diaspora communities outside Babylonia on a new footing, demanding their mate…

Seder Olam

(300 words)

Author(s): Schlüter, Margarete
[German Version] The “Order of the World,” traditionally ascribed to the Tanna Jose ben Halafta, is usually identified as a chronographic work edited in the early Amoraic period; according to Milikowsky, Flavius Josephus was already using a Proto-Seder Olam, which was revised somewhat later and supplemented and taught by Jose. Its primary purpose – possibly in polemic against the use of non-biblical sources for biblical history in Hellenistic Jewish historiography (VI, 1) – is to determine the dates and timefram…

History/Concepts of History

(12,750 words)

Author(s): Rudolph, Kurt | Görg, Manfred | Schlüter, Margarete | Römer, Nils | Cancik, Hubert | Et al.
[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Ancient Near East and Israel – III. Judaism – IV. Greece and Rome – V. New Testament – VI. Church History – VII. Dogmatics – VIII. Ethics – IX. Philosophy I. Religious Studies History is a major aspect of the study of religion. Apart from its roots in the Enlightenment idea of tolerance, it owes its scholarly development to the historicism of the 19th century. As a result, the expression history of religions ( Religionsgeschichte, histoire des religions, storia delle religioni) has remained dominant in continental Europe, in contrast to the fuzzy religious studies or study of religion(s). This philological and historical approach to the world of religions, as in other areas of social studies and the humanities, had consequences that influenced both the material under study and the self-conception of the scholars studying it. Strict historical study leads to relativism, i.e. indirect or open criticism of dogmatic religious images of the world and statements of faith. Therefore the study of religions made a contribution to modernity and itself became part of the European and Amer…

Seder Olam

(271 words)

Author(s): Schlüter, Margarete
[English Version] . Die »Weltordnung«, traditionell dem Tanna Jose ben Chalafta zugeschrieben, gilt meist als ein in frühamoräischer Zeit redigiertes chronographisches Werk; nach Milikowsky benutzte schon Flavius Josephus einen Proto-S.O., der etwas später revidiert und von Jose im 2.Jh. ergänzt und gelehrt wurde. Hauptanliegen ist das – vielleicht in polemischer Absicht gegen die Verwendung auch nichtbibl. Quellen für die bibl. Gesch. in der jüd.-hell. Geschichtsschreibung (: VI.,1.) – meist mitt…

Sherira Gaon

(368 words)

Author(s): Schlüter, Margarete
[English Version] (Sh. ben Ḥanina ben Jehuda; ca.906–1006), 968–1004 Gaon der rabb. Akademie (Jeshiva) von Pumbedita mit Sitz in Bagdad, einer der bedeutendsten Geonim, unter dessen (und seines Sohnes Hai Gaon) Amtszeit die Akademie eine neue Blüte erlebte. Er stellte die oft konfliktbeladenen Beziehungen zu den jüd. Gemeinden der außerbab. Diaspora auf eine neue Basis, forderte deren materielle Unterstützung sowie Anerkennung der spirituellen Führerschaft des bab. Gaonats und spielte eine maßgeb…