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Redeeming Time: The Wisdom of Ancient Jewish and Christian Festal Calendars (review)
- Hebrew Studies
- National Association of Professors of Hebrew
- Volume 44, 2003
- pp. 282-284
- 10.1353/hbr.2003.0005
- Review
- Additional Information
- Purchase/rental options available:
Hebrew Studies 44 (2003) 282 Reviews The publication is rounded out with seven indexes which convert what would have been a rather slim volume into a book-sized presentation. The first two-compiled by Lidija Novakovic-are, however, worth the price of the book. The "Index of Biblical Quotations in the Pesharim, Other Commentaries, and Related Documents" (pp. 119-128) not only allows the reader to access readily the biblical basis for the pesharim but also paints a clear picture of just where the interest of the Qumran exegete was focused. The "Text-critical Variants in the Pesharim, Other Commentaries, and Related Documents" (pp. 129-158) is somewhat weakened by presenting variants only to the Masoretic Text, but is nonetheless a wealth of infonnation for not only text criticism, but perhaps more importantly, to illustrate the method of the Qumran exegete. Indexes to Biblical Texts, Dead Sea Scrolls, Other Ancient Writings, Modem Authors, and Subjects complete the book. Charlesworth's list of Qumran specialists deposited in footnote 21 (p. 23) is ill-advised if only for the important contributors that are left off. A scan of the index of modern authors suggests that notables such as Brooke, GarciaMartinez , Murphy-O'Connor, Puech, Schiffman, and Stegemann have also made significant contributions to the research community's understanding of Qumran history in general and pesharim in particular. Also, comments concerning Pesharim, Other Commentaries, alld Related Documents (vol. 6B, Dead Sea Scrolls: Hebrew Aramaic alld Greek Texts, ed. James H. Charlesworth, et al.; Tubingen: Mohr [Siebeck], 2002) perhaps overstate the importance of this "critical edition" (e.g., pp. 3, 80-81). The book is recommended to anyone desiring a well crafted review by a seasoned scholar of one of the most important and intriguing aspects of the Qumran discovery. The wealth of bibliographic infonnation makes this volume a worthy acquisition for more serious researchers as well. There seems to be little that is pertinent to the subject at hand that Charlesworth has not documented at some point in the numerous (369) footnotes. Marlill G. Abegg, Jr. Trinity Western University Langley, Be V2Y IYI Callada abegg@lWu.ca REDEEMING TIME: THE WISDOM OF ANCIENT JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN FESTAL CALENDARS. By Bruce Chilton. Pp. viii + 132. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 2002. Cloth, $19.95. This is a lively and infonnative discussion of the ancient Jewish and Christian calendars, and of the transition between them, concentrating Hebrew Studies 44 (2003) 283 Reviews particularly on the New Testament period. The author believes that the calendar has the function of redeeming time, and making it a blessing and not a tyrant. The reviewer especially enjoyed the comparison between the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Mishnaic tractate Yoma (pp. 89-93), but much of the book is thought-provoking. Chilton concentrates particularly on the three pilgrim feasts of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. He propounds the hypothesis that the ministry of Jesus is identified particularly with Tabernacles, that of Peter with Pentecost, and that of James the Lord's brother with the Passover. This hypothesis, though based on the New Testament, involves a decidedly unusual reading of the New Testament. The Acts of the Apostles is much drawn upon, but is regarded as a partly "romanticized" account (p. 73). It is Peter's ministry on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 that is taken most literally. James is seen as quite strongly opposed to Paul, and most of the apostolic circle as siding with James; and Paul is described on page 67 as "one of Peter's students (Galatians I: 18)," citing a verse which is designed to assert the opposite. In Acts 15: 19, at the Jerusalem council, James is quoted as saying "I determine" (p. 75), though krino can also mean "propose" or "consider," which fits in better with what precedes and follows (Acts 15:6, 25). James is certainly represented by Acts as summing up the debate, which must be significant, but in the presence of the apostles he does not do it in an authoritarian manner. The special association of Jesus with the feast of Tabernacles is ingenious but hardly convincing. Jesus is only once recorded in the Gospels as attending this feast (John...