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Naomi Koltun-Fromm

Naomi Koltun-Fromm Hermeneutics of Holiness: Ancient Jewish and Christian Notions of Sexuality and Religious Community. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Pp. xv, 309. Cloth with dust jacket. £45.00. ISBN 978-0-19-973648-5. Many Jews and Christians in late antiquity believed that Moses led a celibate life as a prophet and leader of the Israelites. But what did this belief imply for their lives, for their marital choices, for their understandings of issues such as sexuality, purity, and holiness? This book addresses this tradition and other writings, from the Hebrew Bible through the fourth century c.e., to explore how members of these diverse communities considered the relationship between holiness and sexual practices such as marriage, asceticism, and/or celibacy. One reason these questions are especially intriguing is that Syriac Christian writers (most particularly Aphrahat) and Babylonian talmudic rabbis developed their ideas through “related exegetical traditions and interpretive methods” (4), yet came to different, even opposite conclusions. Thus the inter-connected set of issues explored here include self-definition, influence between groups, and internal and external boundary setting. These are examined through the lens of “hermeneutics of holiness”: “the different ways in which my subjects have constructed their notions of holiness, how these notions both exist in http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal for the Study of Judaism Brill

Naomi Koltun-Fromm

Labovitz, Gail
Journal for the Study of Judaism , Volume 45 (1): 122 – Feb 11, 2014
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
Subject
Review of Books
ISSN
0047-2212
eISSN
1570-0631
DOI
10.1163/15700631-12340042
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Hermeneutics of Holiness: Ancient Jewish and Christian Notions of Sexuality and Religious Community. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Pp. xv, 309. Cloth with dust jacket. £45.00. ISBN 978-0-19-973648-5. Many Jews and Christians in late antiquity believed that Moses led a celibate life as a prophet and leader of the Israelites. But what did this belief imply for their lives, for their marital choices, for their understandings of issues such as sexuality, purity, and holiness? This book addresses this tradition and other writings, from the Hebrew Bible through the fourth century c.e., to explore how members of these diverse communities considered the relationship between holiness and sexual practices such as marriage, asceticism, and/or celibacy. One reason these questions are especially intriguing is that Syriac Christian writers (most particularly Aphrahat) and Babylonian talmudic rabbis developed their ideas through “related exegetical traditions and interpretive methods” (4), yet came to different, even opposite conclusions. Thus the inter-connected set of issues explored here include self-definition, influence between groups, and internal and external boundary setting. These are examined through the lens of “hermeneutics of holiness”: “the different ways in which my subjects have constructed their notions of holiness, how these notions both exist in

Journal

Journal for the Study of Judaism – Brill

Published: Feb 11, 2014

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