How did notions of memory develop and function in the ancient world? The authors of the essays collected here address this question on the basis of studies in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, ancient Judaism, the classical world, the New Testament and early Christianity.
The volume brings together essays that explore the topic of memory and remembrance in the ancient world, taking into account the Hebrew Bible (Deuteronomy, 1 and 2 Kings), ancient Judaism (1 and 2 Maccabees, Psalms of Solomon, Dead Sea Scrolls), the classical world, the New Testament (Jesus, Synoptic Gospels and Acts, Gospel of John, Pauline letters) and Early Christianity (Petrine tradition). The essays, which focus on a wide range of sources from antiquity, open up new questions about the social and religious function of memory. As a collection, they demonstrate how much social memory theory can contribute to the understanding of the ways ancient texts were, on the one hand, shaped by conventions of memory and, on the other hand, participated in and contributed to evolving strategies for reading »the past«.
Table of contents:
Loren T. Stuckenbruck,
Stephen C. Barton, and
Benjamin G. Wold: Introduction -
Joachim Schape r: The Living Word Engraved in Stone: The Interrelationship of the Oral and the Written and the Culture of Memory in the Books of Deuteronomy and Joshua -
Erhard Blum: Historiography or Prose? The Peculiarities of the Hebrew Prose Tradition -
Benjamin G. Wold: Memory in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Exodus, Creation and Cosmos -
Loren T. Stuckenbruck: The Teacher of Righteousness Remembered: From Fragmentary Sources to Collective Memory in the Dead Sea Scrolls -
Hermann Lichtenberger: History-writing and History-telling in First and Second Maccabees -
William Horbury: The Remembrance of God in the Psalms of Solomon -
John M. G. Barclay: Memory Politics: Josephus on Jews in the Memory of the Greeks -
Doron Mendels: Societies of Memory in the Graeco-Roman World -
Anthony Le Donne: Theological Memory Distortion in the Jesus Tradition -
James D. G. Dunn: Social Memory and the Oral Jesus Tradition -
Martin Hengel: Der Lukasprolog und seine Augenzeugen: Die Apostel, Petrus und die Frauen -
Ulrike Mittmann-Richert: Erinnerung und Heilserkenntnis im Lukasevangelium - Anna Maria Schwemer: Erinnerung und Legende: Die Berufung des Paulus und ihre Darstellung in der Apostelgeschichte -
Hans-Joachim Eckstein: Das Johannesevangelium als Erinnerung an die Zukunft der Vergangenheit -
Stephen C. Barton: Memory and Remembrance in Paul -
Markus Bockmuehl: New Testament Wirkungsgeschichte and the Early Christian Appeal to Living Memory
