The Exegetical Encounter Between Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity (2009 Grypeou, Spurling), edited volume

The Exegetical Encounter between Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity (2009) is a volume edited by Emmanouela Grypeou and Helen Spurling.

Abstract

The ‘Exegetical Encounter between Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity’ is a collection of essays examining the relationship between Jewish and Christian biblical commentators.

The contributions focus on analysis of interpretations of the book of Genesis, a text which has considerable importance in both Christian and Jewish tradition. The essays cover a wide range of Jewish and Christian literature, including primarily rabbinic and patristic sources, but also apocrypha, pseudepigrapha, Philo, Josephus and Gnostic texts.

In bringing together the studies of a variety of eminent scholars on the topic of ‘Exegetical Encounter’, the book presents the latest research on the topic and illuminates a variety of original approaches to analysis of exegetical contacts between the two sets of religious groups. The volume is significant for the light it sheds on the history of relations between Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity. [From the publisher's webpage]

Editions and translations

Published in Leiden (Brill, 2009).

Table of contents

• Introduction (Helen Spurling and Emmanouela Grypeou)
• ‘In the Beginning’: Rabbinic and Patristic Exegesis on Genesis 1:1 (Philip Alexander)
• Adam Alone in Paradise. A Jewish-Christian Exegesis and Its Implications for the History of Asceticism (Dmitrij F. Bumazhnov)
• Will and Grace: Aspects of Judaising in Pelagianism in Light of Rabbinic and Patristic Exegesis of Genesis (Burton L. Visotzky)
• The Christian and Rabbinic Adam: Genesis Rabbah and Patristic Exegesis of Gen 3:17-19 (Hanneke Reuling
• Critical Gnostic Interpretation of Genesis (Gerard P. Luttikhuizen)
• ‘Be You a Lyre For Me’: Identity or Manipulation in Eden (Michael E. Stone)
• What Did Cain Do Wrong? Jewish and Christian Exegesis of Genesis 4:3-6 (Robert Hayward)
• Creating Women’s Voices: Sarah and Tamar in Some Syriac Narrative Poems (Sebastian P. Brock)
• Genesis 15 in Rabbinic and Patristic Interpretation (Günter Stemberger)
• ‘And Abraham Had Faith’: But In What? Ephrem and the Rabbis on Abraham’s and God’s Blessings (Judith Frishman)
• Abraham’s Angels: Jewish and Christian Exegesis of Genesis 18-19 (Helen Spurling and Emmanouela Grypeou)
• Keeping it in the Family? Jacob and His Aramean Heritage according to Jewish and Christian Sources (Alison Salvesen)
• Early Rabbinic Exegesis of Genesis 38 (Stefan C. Reif)
• Origen’s View of ‘Jewish Fables’ in Genesis (Marc Hirshman)

External links

Brill Profile