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[German version] Mentioned in the Bible (probably from the Hebrew root mr, ‘become fat, fatten’, as ‘place that is fat/fattens’; Greek Μάμβρη/ Mámbrē; Latin Mambre) as an oak grove where Abraham [1] built an altar (Gn 13:18), and where, as he played host to three men, interpreted as a divine apparition, the birth of his son Isaac [1] was announced to him (Gn 18). According to Biblical indications, the place is identical with Hebron (thus Gn 23:17 etc.; but cf. Gn 13:18: ‘in’ or ‘near Hebron’). M. has been located in t…

[German version] Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrkanos ( c. end 1st/early 2nd cent.) is one of the most frequently mentioned Tannaites in the Mishnah and Talmud. Records of his life have survived in numerous legends: he only found his way to the Torah after the age of twenty and left the home of his wealthy parents to devote himself to studying the Torah as one of the disciples of Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkais. There he was noted because of his outstanding exegetical abilities, which were so remarkable that they eve…

[German version] (Hebr. rosh ha-knesset). Title of the head of the synagogue who was responsible for the conduct of services. There is literary (i.a. Mk 5,21-43; Lk 13,14; Acts 18,8) and epigraphic (i.a. CIJ II 991; 1404; 741; 766; CIJ I 265; 336; 383) documentation for the office from Palestine and the diaspora. Since the title was later applied to women and children as well, there is some discussion if women could hold the office or if the designation was merely an honorary title. Ego, Beate (Osnabrück) Bibliography Schürer, vol. 2, 434-436.

[German version] The term Haggadah (the Hif'il of the Hebrew root ngd ‘say, tell’) or its Aramaic equivalent Aggada refers to all non-Halachic traditions from Rabbinic literature and is therefore a collective term for all in the widest sense narrative materials in this extensive corpus of literature. Such a negative definition of the term can already be found in the Middle Ages in Šmuel ha-Nagid (993-1055): ‘Haggadah is any interpretation in the Talmud on any topic which is not a commandment.’ Quite particular im…

[German version] Beginning with the self-attribution of the Revelations of John as ἀποκάλυψις ( apokálypsis; Rev 1,1), the term Apocalypses became the generic name for this and related works. A chosen recipient of revelations is informed by visions, ecstatic experiences, dreams of honourable founders (Enoch, Moses, a prophet, an apostle), heavenly journeys or instruction by angels about the course of history (past, future and esp. the end of the world) or the afterlife with its entire geography (Heavenly Jeru…

[German version] (Νῶε/ Nôe, Lat. Noa, Noe; Hebr. Nōaḥ). In the Bible, Noah is the main character in the story of the Flood in Gn 6,5-9,29. This story originated in Mesopotamia (cf. the Gilgamesh Epic and the Atraḫasis Epic; legend of the Flood). As a righteous man Noah is spared God's punishment and thus he became the father of mankind, as father of Shem, Ham und Japheth (Gn 6,10; 9,18), who represent the three continents. According to the traditional interpretation of the Pentateuch, the Biblical story…

[German version] (Θεωδοτίων/ Theodotíōn; according to Epiphanius, De mensuris et ponderibus 17; 2nd cent. AD), in the view of the ancient Church a proselyte from Ephesus (Iren. Adversus haereses 3,21). T. did not produce (in contrast to Aquila [3] and Symmachus [2]) a new Greek translation of the Old Testament, rather he revised a Greek translation in accordance with the Hebrew text. Whether his model was identical with the Septuaginta is debatable, since there are also 'Theodotionic' readings in texts earlier than T. [1] identified T. with the author of the k aige- or Palestinian rece…

[German version] I. Definition Collective term for the literature of rabbinical Judaism (AD 70 to 1040), traditionally considered the 'oral Torah' ( tōrā šæ-be-al-pæ) revealed to Moses [1] on Mount Sinai (mAb 1,1). In terms of content, a distinction is made between Halakhah, i.e. the legal-judicial tradition, and Haggadah, which contains narrative elements. The essential literary works of this transmitted corpus are the Mishnah, Tosefta, Talmud, various Midrash works and the Targumim (Targum). RL is not the work of i…

[German version] (literally the 'inhabitation [of God]' from Hebrew šāḵan, 'dwell, inhabit'). Rabbinical term for the presence of God in the world; follows notionally from the description of God's dwelling in the Temple (Jes 8,18; Ez 43,7-9) or in his people (Ex 29,45) (cf. also the comparable reception of the concept in John's theology of incarnation, Jo 1,14). The concept of Šekinā is used to describe the immanence of an intrinsically transcendental deity. Proceeding from the idea of the continuous presence of the Šekinā in the Temple (according to [1] …

[German version] City on the Euphrates in Babylonia which, even before the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in AD 70, showed a Jewish settlement (Jos. Ant. Iud. 18,311). According to rabbinical tradition, an important Talmud school (Judaic law) was situated there as well as the headquarters of the Babylonian exilarchs (Exilarch). The city's heyday was in the middle of the 3rd cent. After it had been destroyed by the Palmyrenes in AD 259 - probably in order to break its economic strength - the centre of Babylonian Judaism moved to Pumbedita. Ego, Beate (Osnabrück) Bibliography Y.D. Gi…

[German version] (Hebrew psḥ; Greek πάσχα, LXX, explained in Phil. De sacrificiis Abelis et Caini 63 and Phil. Legum allegoria 3 as διάβασις/ diábasis; German Passah; English Passover). Annual spring celebration from 15 to 22 Nisan according to the Jewish calendar. It is one of the most important Jewish festivals and commemorates the Exodus and the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt (cf. Ex 7-14). A central symbol is unleavened bread (Hebrew maṣṣōt), which is supposed to recall the haste of the Exodus (Ex 12:34; 14:39). Hence any leavened bread has to be remov…

[German version] Post-Biblical traditions of A. are designed to idealize this figure, who appears ambivalent in the Biblical tradition (e.g. the Golden Calf episode), against a background of disputes starting with  Menelaus over the office of High Priest, which had abandoned hereditary succession, and thus affirming that A. (and his successors) were worthy of the office. The  Qumran community, which broke with the Jerusalem community of worship in protest over the progressive desacralization of th…

[German version] According to biblical records (Nm 6:1-21), a male or female (cf. Jos. BI 2,313: Berenice) nazirite vowed - normally for a limited period of time - to take up certain ascetic rules of behaviour: abstention from vine products and haircutting, ban on getting impure by touching a dead person (Nm 6:3-12; cf. also the rules in the Mishnah, or Talmud and Tosefta tract Nazir). If the nazirite vow was not, as in the case of Samson (Judges 13,5), taken for life, then it ended, after the deadline set in the vow, with offers of various sacrifices (cf. Ac…

[German version] (Hebrew ‘Book of creation’). Attempt at a systematic description of the fundamental principles of the world order. This Hebrew text, comprising only a few pages and extant in three different recensions, was probably written between the 3rd and 6th cent. and thus is one of the oldest texts of Jewish esoteric writing. In the first part, the ten original numbers, and in the second part the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet are presented as elements of creation through whose c…

[English version] wörtlich “meine Herren”. Das Pluralsuffix rekurriert vermutlich auf eine Angleichung an das hebr. Wort für Gott, Elohim, das gramm. eine Pluralform ist. Als das Frühjudentum aus Furcht vor Mißbrauch die Aussprache des Gottesnamens Jahwe tabuisierte (vgl. u. a. Ex 20,7), diente A. als Ersatz. Die Septuaginta gibt dementsprechend den Eigennamen “Jahwe” durch das Gottesprädikat “Herr” (κύριος), wieder. Die Masoreten (ca. 7.-9. Jh. n. Chr.), die den zunächst fast nur aus Konsonanten bestehenden Text der hebr. Bibel fixierte…

[English version] Der Rabbi E. (ca. E. 1. bis Anf. 2. Jh.) gehört zu den in der Mischna und im Talmud meistgen. Tannaiten. Über sein Leben liegen zahlreiche legendenhafte Traditionen vor: Nachdem er erst im Alter von über zwanzig Jahren zur Tora gefunden hatte, verließ er sein reiches Elternhaus, um sich dem Studium der Tora im Schülerkreis Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkais zu widmen. Dort fiel er durch seine große exegetische Begabung auf, die sogar seinen Vater von seinem Entschluß abbrachte, ihn zu en…

[English version] (hebr. “Buch der Schöpfung”). Versuch einer systematischen Beschreibung der fundamentalen Prinzipien der Weltordnung. Das nur wenige Seiten umfassende hebr.-sprachige Werk, das in drei verschiedenen Rezensionen vorliegt, entstand wohl zw. dem 3. und 6. Jh. und gehört damit zu den ältesten Texten der jüd. Esoterik. Als Elemente der Schöpfung werden im ersten Teil die zehn Urzahlen sowie im zweiten Teil die zweiundzwanzig Buchstaben des hebr. Alphabets vorgestellt, durch deren Komb…

[English version] Eine G. (“Aufbewahrung”, von aram. gnaz, “verbergen”) ist ein Ort, an dem im Judentum aus dem Gebrauch gezogene Bücher, die den Gottesnamen enthalten, oder Ritualobjekte aufbewahrt werden, um Mißbrauch oder Profanierung auszuschließen. Solche Räume befanden sich häufig in Synagogen; wurden diese abgerissen, dann “bestattete” man die Schriften auf dem Friedhof. Unter der Vielzahl von Genizot der jüd. Welt kommt der G. der Esra-Synagoge von Fusṭāṭ (Alt-Kairo) ganz bes. Bedeutung zu, deren wiss. Erschließung v.a. dem britischen Gelehrten S.…

[English version] (Eliša b. Abuja). Jüd. Gelehrter aus der ersten Hälfte des 2. Jh.n.Chr., gilt in der rabbinischen Lit. als der Prototyp des Apostaten und trägt wohl daher den Namen Aḥer (hebr. “der Andere”). Dabei nennt die legendenhafte rabbinische Überlieferung aber ganz unterschiedliche Häresien: Die Aussage von bHag 15a, wonach er an die Existenz zweier himmlischer Gewalten geglaubt haben soll, läßt auf gnostisches (Gnostiker) Gedankengut schließen; nach yHag 2,1 (77b) soll er alle getötet h…

[English version] Nach biblischer Überl. (Nm 6,1-21) stellte das N. eine Institution dar, wonach ein Mann oder eine Frau (vgl. Ios. bell. Iud. 2,313: Berenike) - in der Regel in einem begrenzten Zeitraum - aufgrund eines Gelübdes bestimmte asketische Verhaltensweisen auf sich nahm: Verzicht auf Produkte des Weinstocks und auf Haarschur, keine Verunreinigung durch den Kontakt mit Toten (Nm 6,3-12; vgl. auch die Bestimmungen im Mischna- bzw. Talmud- und Toseftatraktat Nazir). War das N. nicht wie bei Simson (Ri 13,5) für die gesamte Lebenszeit bestimmt, so wurde es …