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Part of 1 History of Research - 1.13 Polemics Most of the biblical knowledge of the common Jewish population in the Rabbinic period was not so much based on a stable written text, but on the contents of the biblical books transmitted by oral instruction. In Rabbinic works, as we have them now in manuscripts or printed editions, the biblical text is nearly uniformly the later Masoretic text (I.1.2.2; I.1.5), although we do not know how much this text was unified by later copyists and, above all, what text-forms non-Rabbinic Jews in Palestine used. This concerns also Christians and Samaritans. As to Christians, their Hebrew text of the Bible is never mentioned in Rabbinic writings. We may assume that Christians, as far as they still used Hebrew texts and not a Greek version, also mainly relied on oral transmission whereas written copies were the exception. There were no important textual variants the Rab…

[German Version] I. Terminology – II. Old Testament – III. New Testament – IV. Systematic Theology – V. Practical Theology – VI. Judaism – VII. Islam I. Terminology 1. Religious Studies a. As an emic linguistic term, “faith” is found not only in the context of the Christian West (cf. fides, foi, Glaube, etc.), but also in other religious traditions. The Sanskrit term śraddhā (cf. Pāli saddhā; Avestan zrazdā-) seems to represent an Indo-European etymological pendant to Lat. credo, as demonstrated by the possible reconstruction of Indo-Germanic * k'red-dhē-, “set one's heart on” (Köhler; Smith, 1979). Hinduism. The term śraddhā, however, has many meanings, including an eager readines…

[German Version] I. General Rabbinic literature comprises the majority of Jewish materials written in the millennium following the destruction of the temple in 70 ce: Mishnah, Tosefta, Talmud, and Midrash. The rabbis were not the only authors of these works and their traditions, but they are constantly cited as oral sources and tradents. They are also held up as models of an ideal life based on the Torah, as illustrated by numerous episodes from their lives. In a broader sense, rabbinic literature also includes the Aramaic Targumim (Bible translations: I, 4), although they naturally do not mention any rabbis by name and their rabbinic character is not alway…

[German Version] (Jun 5, 1878, Frankfurt am Main – Jul 28, 1957, Jerusalem). After studying classical philology, Isaak Heinemann taught at grammar schools, at the Jewish Theological Seminary in Wrocław (Breslau; 1919–1938), where he was editor of the Monatsschrift ( MGWJ) from 1919 onward, and at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (from 1938). During the Breslau years, the ties between Hellenistic and Jewish philosophy were the main focus of his work, which soon concentrated on Philo, whose writings he copublished in German translation (6 vols., 1909–1938; 7 vols. 21962–1964). Philo…

[German Version] I. Resurrection of the Dead 1. History of religions a. Resurrection as a religious category. The concept of resurrection has been shaped extensively by connotations drawn from the tradition of Christian theology. In this sense, it is understood as a unique event that takes the body and soul of a human being, separated at death, and reunites them for a new, eternal life in the next world. Here it serves to mark a distinction …

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[German Version] I. Old Testament – II. New Testament – III. Fundamental Theology – IV. Philosophy of Religion – V. Religious Education and Preaching – VI. Judaism I. Old Testament A similitude (from Lat. similis, “like”; Ger. Gleichnis, “simile”) differs from a concise simile in its textological extent. A situation or event is visualized by comparison to an analogous situation or event in a different, more concrete area of everyday life. Unlike a fable, a similitude presents only one essential point ( …