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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…

[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 Ar…

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[German Version] I. Clarification of the Concept Talmud (derived from למד/ lamad, “to learn,” or limmad, “to teach”) signifies “study, instruction, teaching” (as first attested in Qumran: 4QpNah II…

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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 ( tertium comparationis) common to the objects of comparison. The concrete an…

[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 …

[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 conn…