Möchten Sie über diese Zeitschrift informiert bleiben? Klicken Sie bitte auf die Buttons, um unsere Alerts zu abonnieren.
Möchten Sie über diese Zeitschrift informiert bleiben? Klicken Sie bitte auf die Buttons, um unsere Alerts zu abonnieren.
Inward and Sociocentric Formations of Ancient Selves
in Journal of Ancient JudaismSearch for other papers by Mark G. Brett in
Current site
Google Scholar
Abstract
There are several ways of speaking about an inner personal self in the Hebrew Bible and Hellenistic Jewish texts, yet according to Charles Taylor’s influential distinction between ancient and modern selves, inwardness is more characteristic of modern cultural developments within which individuals are socially “disembedded.” Taylor himself noted an ancient exception in Plato’s account of self-mastery, but this concession raises a question as to why ancient Jewish literature was excluded from his philosophical discussion. This paper reexamines a range of texts that have emerged in recent debates, considering the ways in which a “legal self,” conscience, and the Priestly imitatio Dei reflect different modes of ancient subjecthood. The biblical literature is overwhelmingly sociocentric, and in this respect Taylor’s modelling is still defensible, even if his historical accounts have significant gaps.
Kauf
Sofortzugang erwerben (PDF-Download und unbegrenzter Online-Zugang):
Institutszugang
Melden Sie sich mit Open Athens, Shibboleth oder Ihren institutionellen Anmeldedaten an.
Persönliche Anmeldung
Melden Sie sich mit Ihrem brill.com-Konto an
-
Achenbach, Reinhard. “Sabbath in Genesis 1:1–2:3 and in the Pentateuch.” Pages 18–32 in Aux commencements – Création et temporalité dans la Bible et dans son contexte culturel. Edited by Sophie Ramond and Reinhard Achenbach. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2019.
-
Aalders, G.J.D. “ΝΟΜΟΣ ΕΜΨΥΧΟΣ.” Pages 315–329 in Politeia und Res Publica. Beiträge zum Verständnis von Politik, Recht und Staat in der Antike. Edited by Peter Steinmetz. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1969.
-
Altmann, Alexander. “The Delphic Maxim in Medieval Islam and Judaism.” Pages 196–232 in Biblical and Other Studies. Edited by Alexander Altmann. Cambridge, MA: Havard University Press, 1963.
-
Andrew, Edward G. Conscience and Its Critics: Protestant Conscience, Enlightenment Reason, and Modern Subjectivity. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001.
-
Balibar, Etienne. Identity and Difference: John Locke and the Invention of Consciousness. Trans. Warren Montag. London: Verso, 2013.
-
Barmash, Pamela. Homicide in the Biblical World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
-
Barr, James “Hebrew Lexicography: Informal Thoughts.” Pages 137–151 in Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew. Edited by Walter R. Bodine. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1992.
-
Barresi, John and Raymond Martin, “History as Prologue: Western Theories of the Self.” Pages 33–56 in The Oxford Handbook of the Self. Edited by Shaun Gallagher. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
-
Bejan, Teresa. Mere Civility: Disagreement and the Limits of Toleration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017.
-
Blum, Erhard. Studien zur Komposition des Pentateuch. BZAW 189. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1992.
-
Boeker, Ruth. Locke on Persons and Personal Identity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021.
-
Brett, Mark G. Locations of God: Political Theology in the Hebrew Bible. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.
-
Brett, Mark G. “Debating the Nation: The Imagined Assembly in Genesis.” Pages 199–219 in Qahal und Ekklesia: Typen und Funktionen von Versammlungen im Alten und Neuen Testament und Ihren Umwelten. Edited by Joachim J. Krause, Stefan Krauter and Wolfgang Oswald. SCCB 19. Paderborn: Brill Schöningh, 2024.
-
Brett, Mark G. Indigenous Rights and the Legacies of the Bible: From Moses to Mabo. The Bible and the Humanities. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024.
-
Byrd, Jr., James P. The Challenges of Roger Williams: Religious Liberty, Violent Persecution, and the Bible. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2002.
-
Carr, David. “Standing at the Edge of Reconstructable Transmission-History: Signs of a Secondary Sabbath-Oriented Stratum in Genesis 1:1–2:3.” VT 70 (2020): 17–41.
-
Cudworth, Ralph. The True Intellectual System of the Universe. The First Part wherein all the Reason and Philosophy of Atheism is Confuted and its Impossibility Demonstrated. London, 1678.
-
Dascalu, Raphael. “Imago and imitatio: Perfection of the Individual and Society in Maimonides’ Theory of Religious Law.” Pages 266–288 in Law, Religion, and Love: Seeking Ecumenical Justice for the Other. Edited by Paul Babie and Vanja-Ivan Savić. Abingdon: Routledge, 2018.
-
Davies, Catherine Glyn. Conscience as Consciousness: The Idea of Self Awareness in French Philosophical Writing from Descartes to Diderot. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.
-
Descartes, Renati. Meditationes de prima philosophia, in qua Dei existentia et animae immortalitas demonstrator. Paris, 1641.
-
Dietrich, Jan. “Liberty, Freedom, and Autonomy in the Ancient World: A General Introduction and Comparison.” Pages 3–21 in Research on Israel and Aram: Autonomy, Independence and Related Issues. Proceedings of the First Annual RIAB Center Conference, Leipzig, June 2016. Research on Israel and Aram in Biblical Times I. Edited by Angelika Berlejung and Aren M. Maeir. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019.
-
Dietrich, Jan. “Individuality and Sociality in Ancient Israel.” Pages 299–322 in Archaeology of Mind in the Hebrew Bible / Archäologie alttestamentlichen Denkens. Edited by Andreas Wagner, Jürgen van Oorschot and Lars Allolio-Näcke. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2023.
-
Dietrich, Walter. Early Monarchy in Israel: The Tenth Century B.C.E.Atlanta, GA: SBL, 2007.
-
Di Vito, Robert A. “Old Testament Anthropology and the Construction of Personal Identity.” CBQ 61 (1999): 217–238.
-
Feldman, Liane M. The Story of Sacrifice: Ritual and Narrative in the Priestly Source. FAT 141. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2020.
-
Foucault, Michel. Le souci de soi. Vol. 3 of Histoire de la sexualité. Paris: Gallimard, 1984.
-
Fox, Michael. Ecclesiastes. JPS. Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society, 2004.
-
Frankel, David. “Israelites and Non-Israelites in the Land of Promise.” Jewish Studies 55 (2020): 1*–44*.
-
Frevel, Christian. “Person-Identität-Selbst: eine Problemanzeige aus alttestamentlicher Perspektive.” Pages 65–89 in Anthropologie(n) des Alten Testaments. Edited by Jürgen van Oorschot and Andreas Wagner. Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsansalt, 2015.
-
Frevel, Christian. “Von der Selbstbeobachtung zu inneren Tiefen: Überlegungen zur Konstitution von Individualität im Alten Testament.” Pages 13–43 in Individualität und Selbstreflexion in den Literaturen des Alten Testaments. Edited by Andreas Wagner and Jürgen van Oorschot. VWGTh 48. Berlin: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2017.
-
Frevel, Christian. “‘Quellen des Selbst’? Charles Taylor’s Einfluss auf die alttestamentliche Anthropologie.” Pages 447–463 in Im Dienste der Gerechtigkeit und Einheit: Festschrift für Heinrich J.F. Reinhardt zur Vollendung seines 75. Lebensjahres. Edited by Rüdiger Althaus, Judith Hahn, and Matthias Pulte. Essen: Ludgerus Verlag, 2017.
-
Frevel, Christian. “Never Mind: Some Observations on Thinking and its Linguistic Expressions in the Hebrew Bible.” Pages 95–115 in Archaeology of Mind in the Hebrew Bible / Archäologie alttestamentlichen Denkens. Edited by Andreas Wagner, Jürgen van Oorschot and Lars Allolio-Näcke. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2023.
-
Hadot, Pierre. Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault. Edited by Arnold I. Davidson. Translated by Michael Chase. Oxford: Blackwell, 1995.
-
Hieke, Thomas. Levitikus: Erster Teilband, 1–15. HThKAT. Freiburg: Herder, 2014.
-
Hutton, Jeremy. The Transjordanian Palimpsest: The Overwritten Texts of Personal Exile and Transformation in the Deuteronomistic History. BZAW 396. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2009.
-
Hutzli, Jürg. The Origins of P: Literary Profiles and Strata of the Priestly Texts in Genesis 1 – Exodus 40. FAT 164. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2023.
-
Jackson, Bernard S. Wisdom Laws: A Study of the Mishpatim of Exodus 21:1–22:16. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
-
Janowski, Bernd. “Das Herz – ein Beziehungsorgan: Zum Personverständnis des Alten Testaments.” Pages 1–45 in Dimensionen der Leiblichkeit: Theologische Zugänge. Edited by Bernd Janowski and Christoph Schwöbel. Theologie interdisziplinär Band 16. Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchenr Verlag. 2015.
-
Janowski, Bernd. Anthropologie des Alten Testaments: Grundfragen – Kontexte – Themenfelde. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019.
-
Joas, Hans. The Sacredness of the Person: A New Genealogy of Human Rights. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2013.
-
Köckert, Matthias. “Gottes ‘Bund’ mit Abraham und die ‘Erwählung’ Israels in Genesis 17.” Pages 193–220 in Von Jakob zu Abraham: Studien zum Buch Genesis. FAT 147. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2021.
-
Krüger, Thomas. “Das ‘Herz’ in der alttestamentlichen Anthropologie.” Pages 103–118 in Anthropologische Aufbrüche: Alttestamentliche und interdisziplinäre Zugänge zur historischen Anthropologie. Edited by Andreas Wagner. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2009.
-
Lambert, David. “Refreshing Philology: James Barr, Supersessionism, and the State of Biblical Words,” BibInt 2.4 (2016): 332–356.
-
Lambert, David. “‘Desire’ Enacted in the Wilderness: Problems in the History of the Self and Bible Translation.” Pages 26–49 in Self, Self-Fashioning, and Individuality in Late Antiquity: New Perspectives. Edited by Maren R. Niehoff and Joshua Levinson. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019.
-
Lasater, Phillip M. “The Heart of Self Formation: The Overlap of Moral Selfhood and Legalities in Ancient Scriptural Discourse.” DSD 28 (2021): 367–395.
-
Leonard-Fleckman, Mahri. The House of David: Between Political Formation and Literary Revision. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2016.
-
Levenson, Jon D. Resurrection and the Restoration of Israel: The Ultimate Victory of the God of Life. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006.
-
Levinson, Bernard M. “The First Constitution: Rethinking the Origins of Rule of Law and Separation of Powers in Light of Deuteronomy.” Cardozo Law Review 27 (2006): 1853–1888.
-
Locke, John. A Letter Concerning Toleration. Humbly Submitted, etc. London, 1689.
-
Locke, John. Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Edited by Peter H. Nidditch. Oxford: Clarendon, [1689] 1975.
-
Milgrom, Jacob. Leviticus 17–22: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. AB 3A. New York: Doubleday, 2000.
-
Milstein, Sara J. Making a Case: The Practical Roots of Biblical Law. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021.
-
Müller, Katrin. “Lobe den Herrn, meine ‘Seele’”: Eine kognitiv-linguistische Studie zur nefeš des Menschen im Alten Testament. BWA(N)T 215. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2018.
-
Najman, Hindy. Seconding Sinai: The Development of Mosaic discourse in Second Temple Judaism. JSJSup 77. Leiden: Brill, 2003.
-
Najman, Hindy. Past Renewals: Interpretative Authority, Renewed Revelation, and the Quest for Perfection in Jewish Antiquity. JSJSup 53. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
-
Najman, Hindy. “Imitatio Dei and the Formation of the Subject in Ancient Judaism.” JBL 140.2 (2021): 309–323.
-
Najman, Hindy. “Formation of the Subject in Hellenistic Judaism.” Pages 113–126 in Scriptural Vitality: Rethinking Philology and Hermeneutics. The Bible and the Humanities. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2025.
-
Nelson, Eric. The Hebrew Republic: Jewish Sources and the Transformation of European Political Thought. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010.
-
Newsom, Carol A. “Sin Consciousness, Self-Alienation, and the Origins of the Introspective Self.” Pages 225–240 in Rhetoric and Hermeneutics: Approaches to Text, Tradition and Social Construction in Biblical and Second Temple Literature. FAT 130. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019.
-
Newsom, Carol A. The Spirit within Me: Self and Agency in Ancient Israel and Second Temple Judaism. AYBRL. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2021.
-
Nihan, Christophe. From Priestly Torah to Pentateuch: A Study in the Composition of the Book of Leviticus. FAT II 25. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2007.
-
Nihan, Christophe. “Resident Aliens and Natives in the Holiness Legislation.” Pages 111–134 in The Foreigner and the Law: Perspectives from the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East. Edited by Reinhard Achenbach, Rainer Alberta, and Jakob Wöhrle. BZABR 16. Wiesbaden: De Gruyter, 2011.
-
Nussbaum, Martha C. Liberty of Conscience: In Defense of American’s Tradition of Religious Equality. New York: Basic Books, 2008.
-
Otto, Eckart. “Strafrechtstheorie und Rechts-anthropologie in Platons NOMOI und in der biblischen Tora des Buches Deuteronomium. Zweiter Teil: Strafrechtstheorie und Rechtsanthropologie im Buch Deuteronomium.” ZABR 26 (2020): 161–234.
-
Pury, Albert de. “Gottesname, Gottesbezeichnung und Gottesbegriff: ‘Elohim’ als Indiz zur Entstehungsgeschichte des Pentateuch.” Pages 25–47 in Abschied vom Jahwisten: Die Komposition des Hexateuch in der jüngsten Diskussion. Edited by Jan C. Gertz, Konrad Schmid, and Markus Witte. BZAW 315. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2002.
-
Rogerson, John W. “The Hebrew Conception of Corporate Personality. A Re-Examination.” JTS 21 (1970): 1–16.
-
Satlow, Michael. “Philo on Human Perfection.” JTS 59 (2008): 500–519.
-
Schechtman, Marya. Staying Alive: Personal Identity, Practical Concerns, and the Unity of a Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
-
Seigel, Jerrold. The Idea of the Self: Thought and Experience in Western Europe since the Seventeenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2005.
-
Sergi, Omer. The Two Houses of Israel: State Formation and the Origins of Pan-Israelite Identity. ABS 33. Atlanta, GA: SBL, 2023.
-
Shepherd, David J. King David, Innocent Blood, and Bloodguilt. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023.
-
Sorabji, Richard. Moral Conscience through the Ages: Fifth Century BCE to the Present. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
-
Stern, Jessica R. “A Key into The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution: Roger Williams, the Pequot War, and the Origins of Toleration in America.” Early American Studies 9 (2011): 576–616.
-
Suriano, Matthew. A History of Death in the Hebrew Bible. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.
-
Taylor, Charles. Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
-
Taylor, Charles. The Ethics of Authenticity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989.
-
Taylor, Charles. A Secular Age. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 2007.
-
Tussay, Ákos. “Nomos Empsychos: Towards a Historiography of the Greek Living Law Idea.” Polis: The Journal for Ancient Greek and Roman Political Thought 41 (2024): 456–478.
-
Tylor, E.B. Primitive Culture. 2 vols. London: John Murray, 1871.
-
Vatter, Miguel. Living Law: Jewish Political Theology from Hermann Cohen to Hannah Arendt. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021.
-
Wagner, Andreas. “Wider die Reduktion des Lebendigen. Über das Verhältnis dersog. anthropologischen Grundbegriffe und die Unmöglichkeit, mit ihnen diealttestamentliche Menschenvorstellung zu erfassen.” Pages 183–99 in Anthropologische Ausbrüche: Alttestamentliche und interdisziplinäre Zugänge zur historischen Anthropologie. Edited by Andreas Wagner. FRLANT 232. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2009.
-
Watts, John W. Leviticus 1–10. HCOT. Leuven: Peeters, 2013.
-
Weinberg, Shelley. Consciousness in Locke. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.
-
Wevers, John Williams. Notes on the Greek Text of Genesis. SCS 35. Atlanta, GA: Scholars, 1993.
-
Williams, Roger. The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience. London: J. Haddon, [1644] 1848.
-
Wright, David P. Inventing God’s Law: How the Covenant Code of the Bible Used and Revised the Laws of Hammurabi. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
| Insgesamt | Letzte 365 Tage | In den letzten 30 Tagen | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aufrufe von Kurzbeschreibungen | 170 | 170 | 10 |
| Gesamttextansichten | 10 | 10 | 2 |
| PDF-Downloads | 30 | 30 | 6 |
Inward and Sociocentric Formations of Ancient Selves
in Journal of Ancient JudaismSearch for other papers by Mark G. Brett in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
There are several ways of speaking about an inner personal self in the Hebrew Bible and Hellenistic Jewish texts, yet according to Charles Taylor’s influential distinction between ancient and modern selves, inwardness is more characteristic of modern cultural developments within which individuals are socially “disembedded.” Taylor himself noted an ancient exception in Plato’s account of self-mastery, but this concession raises a question as to why ancient Jewish literature was excluded from his philosophical discussion. This paper reexamines a range of texts that have emerged in recent debates, considering the ways in which a “legal self,” conscience, and the Priestly imitatio Dei reflect different modes of ancient subjecthood. The biblical literature is overwhelmingly sociocentric, and in this respect Taylor’s modelling is still defensible, even if his historical accounts have significant gaps.
| Insgesamt | Letzte 365 Tage | In den letzten 30 Tagen | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aufrufe von Kurzbeschreibungen | 170 | 170 | 10 |
| Gesamttextansichten | 10 | 10 | 2 |
| PDF-Downloads | 30 | 30 | 6 |
