Light in a Spotless Mirror: Reflections on Wisdom Traditions in Judaism and Early Christianity (Faith and Scholarship Colloquies) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1563383993 ISBN 13: 9781563383991

Publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd., 2003

Synopsis

After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C.E., Jewish scholars, especially those in Jerusalem and Alexandria, turned increasingly to the eternal questions that define those who reflect on human life. These sages sought to comprehend the origin and essence of things and pondered how it was possible to learn and obtain insight. Wisdom, they came to see, was the fashioner of all things who disclosed what is secret and what is manifest. Many of these Jewish intellectuals saw Wisdom as the closest being to God. In this book, five of the world's foremost scholars in the field reflect on the Wisdom traditions in Second Temple Judaism and earliest Christianity. Roland Murphy (late of Duke University) explores the biblical and Jewish wisdom literature, and focuses on ways that Jews sought to understand sin and suffering. Peter Schafer (Princeton University) argues that the association of Wisdom, Torah, and Israel found in biblical literature was taken up much later in the writings of the Rabbinic sages. Peder Borgen (formerly University of Trondheim, Norway) examines the similarities in the writings of the Hellenistic Jewish Wisdom teacher Philo of Alexandria and the writer of the Gospel of John. D. Moody Smith (Duke University) focuses on the Passion narrative in the Gospel of John as he demonstrates how much John relies on Jewish Wisdom tradition in his gospel. James Charlesworth (PrincetonTheological Seminary) examines the Wisdom aspects of some Jewish apocalypses in order to demonstrate that the Gospel of John draws upon both the Jewish Wisdom literature and Jewish apocalypses. James H. Charlesworth is George L. Collord Professor of New Testament Language and Literature at Princeton Theological Seminary, director of the seminary s Dead Sea Scrolls Project, and co-editor of the Trinity Press Faith and Scholarship Colloquies (FSC) series. Michael A. Daise is Assistant Professor of Religion at The College of William and Mary and has published articles on the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

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Review:

This collection of essays on Wisdom in Jewish and Christian biblical and non-biblical texts discloses just how widespread and significant the figure of Lady Wisdom was in Jewish and Christian thought at the turn of the era. Here Philo and the Pseudepigrapha, in particular, receive the attention to which they are entitled. The book offers challenge and illumination for the mind as it feeds the spirit, thus fulfilling the purpose of the series of which it is a part. Walter Harrelson, Vanderbilt Divinity School, Emeritus, Wake Forest University Divinity School, Adjunct--Walter Harrelson, Admirably brief yet masterfully comprehensive, refreshingly readable yet thoroughly rounded in primary texts, this collaboration of five distinguished scholars guides the reader through the evolution of Wisdom in post-biblical Judaism and the Gospel of John. This is a book I will recommend often. A reader who spends even a few hours with it will gain, well, wisdom! R. Alan Culpepper, McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University--R. Alan Culpepper

About the Author:

James H. Charlesworth is George L. Collord Professor of New Testament Language and Literature at Princeton Theological Seminary and director of the seminary s Dead Sea Scrolls Project. He is the author of The Beloved Disciple (Trinity) and co-editor of the Trinity Press Faith and Scholarship Colloquies (FSC) Series. Michael A. Daise is Assistant Professor of Religion at The College of William and Mary and has published articles on the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

About this edition

• Publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1563383993
• ISBN 13: 9781563383991
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160
• Editor: Daise Michael A., Charlesworth James H.