1st Edition
Rethinking ‘Authority’ in Late Antiquity Authorship, Law, and Transmission in Jewish and Christian Tradition
List of contributors; Acknowledgements; CHAPTER 1: A.J. BERKOVITZ AND MARK LETTENEY, "AUTHORITY IN CONTEMPORARY HISTORIOGRAPHY"; CHAPTER 2: HINDY NAJMAN, "READING BEYOND AUTHORITY"; CHAPTER 3: MARK LETTENEY, "AUTHENTICITY AND AUTHORITY: THE CASE FOR DISMANTLING A DUBIOUS CORRELATION"; CHAPTER 4: MATTHEW D. C. LARSEN, "CORRECTING THE GOSPEL: PUTTING THE TITLES OF THE GOSPELS IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT; CHAPTER 5: AJ BERKOVITZ, "BEYOND ATTRIBUTION AND AUTHORITY: THE CASE OF PSALMS IN RABBINIC HERMENEUTICS"; AUTHORITY AND THE LAW; CHAPTER 6: MARIA DOERFLER, "GLIMPSES FROM THE MARGINS: RE-TELLING LATE ANCIENT HISTORY AT THE EDGES OF THE LAW"; CHAPTER 7: JONATHAN A. POMERANZ, "CONCEALING THE LAW: THE LIMITS OF LEGAL PROMULGATION AMONG THE RABBIS OF BABYLONIA"; AUTHORITY AND TRANSMISSION; CHAPTER 8: EVA MROCZEK, "TRUTH AND DOUBT IN MANUSCRIPT DISCOVERY NARRATIVES"; CHAPTER 9: WINRICH LÖHR, "THE ORTHODOX TRANSMISSION OF HERESY" 190; CHAPTER 10: SARIT KATTAN GRIBETZ, "CONSUMING TEXTS: WOMEN AS RECIPIENTS AND TRANSMITTERS OF ANCIENT TEXTS"; EPILOGUE: C. M. CHIN: READING WITHOUT AUTHORITY; Index
Biography
A. J. Berkovitz is Assistant Professor of Liturgy, Worship, and Ritual at Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, USA. His forthcoming book focuses on the reception and practice of the Psalms in Late Antiquity, and explores issues related to book history and the Jewish-Christian encounter.
Mark Letteney is a PhD candidate in Princeton’s Department of Religion, USA. His dissertation considers the effects of Christian governance on scholarly practices in the late fourth and fifth centuries. He is also an archaeologist, co-directing the Solomon's Pools Archaeological Project in Palestine.
"This book delves into two of the most crucial themes in contemporary critical theory: authority and transmission. The essays cover a a wide variety of themes in Jewish and Christian textual history, but share one mission: to revisit, question and complicate the common (mis)conception that subjugates transmission to authority, and sees the latter as the key to the former. This superb collection is essential reading for anyone grappling with questions of literary transmission, authority in literature, and the complicated connections between them."
- Ishay Rosen-Zvi, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
