According to the account in the Book of Exodus, God addresses the children of Israel as they stand before Mt. Sinai with the words, "You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (19:6). The sentence, Martha Himmelfarb observes, is paradoxical, for priests are by definition a minority, yet the meaning in context is clear: the entire people is holy. The words also point to some significant tensions in the biblical understanding of the people of Israel. If the entire people is holy, why does it need priests? If membership in both people and priesthood is a matter not of merit but of birth, how can either the people or its priests hope to be holy? How can one reconcile the distance between the honor due the priest and the actual behavior of some who filled the role? What can the people do to make itself truly a kingdom of priests?
Himmelfarb argues that these questions become central in Second Temple Judaism. She considers a range of texts from this period, including the Book of Watchers, the Book of Jubilees, legal documents from the Dead Sea Scrolls, the writings of Philo of Alexandria, and the Book of Revelation of the New Testament, and goes on to explore rabbinic Judaism's emphasis on descent as the primary criterion for inclusion among the chosen people of Israel—a position, she contends, that took on new force in reaction to early Christian disparagement of the idea that mere descent from Abraham was sufficient for salvation.
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Martha Himmelfarb is Professor of Religion at Princeton University. She is the author of Ascent to Heaven in Jewish and Christian Apocalypses and Tours of Hell: An Apocalyptic Form in Jewish and Christian Literature, the latter also published by the University of Pennsylvania Press.
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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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This book takes its title from God's promise to the children of Israel as they stand before Mt. Sinai: "If you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all people...you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exod 19:5-6). Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
abnormal genital flow, male genital discharge, corpse impurity, priestly ancestry, impure until evening, corpse impure, forbidden sexual relations, menstrual impurity, priestly courses, seminal emission, heavenly tablets, purity laws, contemporary priests, consecrated food, eschatological temple, heavenly temple, abnormal discharge, ideal priest, abnormal flow Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Book of the Watchers, Temple Scroll, Rule of the Community, Damascus Document, Aramaic Levi, Holiness Code, Dead Sea Scrolls, First Temple, Bar Kokhba, Book of Revelation, Maccabean Revolt, Astronomical Book, Letter of Aristeas, Jewish War, Torah of Moses, Day of Atonement, God of Israel, Near East, Psalms of Solomon, Alexandrian Jewish, Annette Reed, Book of Daniel, Book of Deuteronomy, Book of Ezra, John Hyrcanus New!
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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
This book takes its title from God's promise to the children of Israel as they stand before Mt. Sinai: "If you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all people...you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exod 19:5-6). Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
abnormal genital flow, male genital discharge, corpse impurity, priestly ancestry, impure until evening, corpse impure, forbidden sexual relations, menstrual impurity, priestly courses, seminal emission, heavenly tablets, purity laws, contemporary priests, consecrated food, eschatological temple, heavenly temple, abnormal discharge, ideal priest, abnormal flow Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Book of the Watchers, Temple Scroll, Rule of the Community, Damascus Document, Aramaic Levi, Holiness Code, Dead Sea Scrolls, First Temple, Bar Kokhba, Book of Revelation, Maccabean Revolt, Astronomical Book, Letter of Aristeas, Jewish War, Torah of Moses, Day of Atonement, God of Israel, Near East, Psalms of Solomon, Alexandrian Jewish, Annette Reed, Book of Daniel, Book of Deuteronomy, Book of Ezra, John Hyrcanus New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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