Land and Temple : : Field Sacralization and the Agrarian Priesthood of Second Temple Judaism / / Benjamin D. Gordon.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DG Ebook Package English 2020
• VerfasserIn: Gordon, Benjamin D.,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter, , [2020]; ©2020
• Year of Publication: 2020
• Language: English
• Series: Studia Judaica : Forschungen zur Wissenschaft des Judentums , 87
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (XI, 287 p.)

This exploration of the Judean priesthood’s role in agricultural cultivation demonstrates that the institutional reach of Second Temple Judaism (516 BCE–70 CE) went far beyond the confines of its houses of worship, while exposing an unfamiliar aspect of sacred place-making in the ancient Jewish experience. Temples of the ancient world regularly held assets in land, often naming a patron deity as landowner and affording the land sanctity protections. Such arrangements can provide essential background to the Hebrew Bible’s assertion that God is the owner of the land of Israel. They can also shed light on references in early Jewish literature to the sacred landholdings of the priesthood or the temple.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- Abbreviations -- Figures -- Chapter 1: Introduction -- Chapter 2: Field Consecrations in Leviticus 27 -- Chapter 3: The Sacred Reserve of Yahweh in Ezekiel’s Temple Vision -- Chapter 4: Hellenistic Rulers, Jewish Temples, and Sacred Land -- Chapter 5: Field Consecrations in the Late Second Temple Period -- Chapter 6: Herem Property and Landholding by Priests in the Late Second Temple Period -- Chapter 7: An Allusion to a Sacred Tree in Paul’s Letter to the Romans -- Summary and Conclusions -- Bibliography -- Index of Ancient Sources -- Index of Subjects