Some seventh century links

European (mostly English) history

Wikipedia

Mainly Church history (western)

Nestorian Church

reference to an article about coins in Palestine

an article by DAMIAN BRACKEN about Rationalism and the Bible in Ireland



Books

Haldon, J.F., Byzantium in the Seventh Century: The Transformation of a Culture

Palmer, Andrew (trans.), Seventh Century in the West Syrian Chronicles

Summary of Kugel's "Two Introductions..."

James L. Kugel, “Two introductions to midrash”, Prooftext 3 (1983), 131-155

I

an illustrating example of midrash Kugel brings b. ber 4b, about the psalm which is missing a nun.

He is asking the (good) question: is it not obvious to him that he is doing an injustice to the text, twisting it around to say its opposite? (p. 79) mea mater sus est mala (can mean: my mother is a bad pig, or, Go, oh mother, the pg is eating the apples).

II

about prophecy – it was established on earlier messages.

About prophets eating the word of God. The word of God already becoming a text. Prophecy of the second temple period was much divided, omen seekers and self appointed prophets were common. The hope of the restoration of Elijah rose. The scrolls at this period does not enter the prophet anymore. But the written word exists (p. 83).

it is the period of the manipulators of the texts: copyists, soferim, interpreters.

Interpreting starts with reproducing the text itself (p. 83).

Daniel is an (inspired) interpreter of the words of Jeremiah.

III

God function in history in creating single time events that change history. There are reasons to ghings. the cyclical view of time also exists in early Jewish/late biblical culture, for example in the book of ecclesiastics (and other wisdom literature).

Apocalyptic books. Here the end-of-time is parallel to the beginning of time. In this system biblical events are models to the events of the end-time.

A paragraph which was not clear to me (p. 87, the second): archaizing details and manners of so many post biblical compositions, attest to the desire to dress up present reality in biblical trappings (I want more details about this).

Allegorized Bible of the Alexandrian Judaism – has its own way: de-particularization of the text.

All of these exhibit the urge to connect one's own world with the world of the Scripture (p. 88).

[some more about the notion of time in {early} second temple period].

This lead to seeing the Bible not as “past”, there is not continuity between biblical time and ours, the Bible is “Other” time; this view entails the possibility of exegesis.

Differences between midrashic approach to Scripture and other approaches, with regard to time (pp. 98-90). talks about the allegoric approach and the apocalyptic.

“Now later rabbinic Judaism might seem similarly eschatological, for it awaits ... the arrival of God's anointed ... in this sense it appears to have much in common with the apocalyptists. But this has nothing to do with the stance of its exegesis ... For midrash, as opposed to Qumranic pesher and other “political” exegeses, generally views Scripture as a world unto itself.”

The bridge between the biblical and the midrashic is the halakha (not messianism). This is not a bridge of time.

IV

midrash has much in common with the early exegetes mentioned, also from within the Bible itself.

Trying to (not) define midrash (p. 91).

counting genres of midrash (targum, sermons, homilies, exegetical prayers and poems etc.)

midrash is concerned with surface irregularities of the text.

In the later midrash, it looks like they first had the solution then they looked for the problem (p. 93).Midrash is an exegesis of biblical verses, not of books.

Brings the example of the song of songs rabbah – the line the God is the lover and Israel is the beloved is usually followed, but it is not the only line. The beloved is allegorically both Israel and God; this present no problem. We find in the midrash host of opinions.

Why concentrate on the verse level? Because it is the level appealing to the memory (p. 94).

(the compilations are deceiving because they seem to treat the whole book, but the bits are quite atomistic). “and so, midrashic explications ofindividual verses no doubt circulated on their own, independent of any larger exegetical context”. Describes the example of the exegesis of ps. 81:1 (pp. 95-98).

checking variations in some collections, of the passage which he studied in the beginning (or is it the one studied only now?).

Yes, it is indeed the issue of the seventy languages that Joseph new, which was discussed just before. Now learning the passage from B. Sota 36b.

The independence of the midrashic units enables them to be incorporated in different contexts (p. 99).

even though the first initiative of the midrash is the exegeses of a verse, the story told in the exegeses can eventually become part of the narrative canon of the culture, and is mentioned without reference to the verse it originally explained.