Covenant and Community in Early Rabbinic Literature

This article concerns the role of covenant in early rabbinic literature in relation to biblical and especially Second Temple-era predecessors. The first part establishes that the Qumran sectarians and earlier circles were drawn to the concept of covenant because it represented, especially through th...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Novick, Tzvi 1976- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Cambridge Univ. Press 2024
In: Harvard theological review
Year: 2024, Volume: 117, Issue: 2, Pages: 228-249
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Old Testament / Bible. Deuteronomium 29 / Divine covenant / Qumran Community / Rabbi / Halacha / Law / Group identity
B Bible. Deuteronomium 29 / Old Testament / Qumran Community / Rabbi / Halacha / Group identity
RelBib Classification:BH Judaism
HA Bible
HB Old Testament
TB Antiquity
XA Law
ZB Sociology
Further subjects:B Halakah
B Corporate identity
B Covenant
B Deuteronomy 29
B Qumran
B Rabbinic Literature
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Summary:This article concerns the role of covenant in early rabbinic literature in relation to biblical and especially Second Temple-era predecessors. The first part establishes that the Qumran sectarians and earlier circles were drawn to the concept of covenant because it represented, especially through the mechanism of covenant renewal, a powerful tool for defining and supporting group identity. The second part shows that for the rabbis, the importance of covenant lay chiefly, instead, in its capacity to conceptualize the notion of Israel as a collective body defined by corporate responsibility. The third part suggests that this novel deployment of covenant arose in part to counter the individuating force of halakah as law, another innovation of the rabbis.
ISSN:1475-4517
Contains:Enthalten in: Harvard theological review
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1017/S0017816024000075