Background
Neusner, Jacob was born on July 28, 1932 in Hartford, Connecticut, United States.
(This groundbreaking work continues Jacob Neusner's multi-...)
This groundbreaking work continues Jacob Neusner's multi-volume examination of the main texts of Judaism in its formative years. The first two parts of the project-'Judaism: The Evidence of the Yerushalmi'-examined the Mishnah and the Talmud of the Land of Israel and placed them in the social, intellectual, and religious contexts of their time. In 'Judaism and Scripture' Neusner moves from the study of ancient Judaism in society at large to an analysis of Rabbinic Judaism in relation to Scripture itself. Neusner accomplishes this both through close analysis and through the first English translation of the critical text of the Leviticus Rabbah. Tracing the relationship between the actual Book of Leviticus and its rabbinic commentary, Neusner asks how the rabbis who stand behind the text make use of Leviticus and how, through their comments on it, they make intelligible and comprehensible statements of their own. In answering these two questions Neusner shows, through a prime example, exactly how Scripture enters Judaism and how rabbis of the formative age of Judaism chose and taught the lessons they deemed critical to the life of Israel, the Jewish people.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226576140/?tag=2022091-20
(From The Publisher: "Progress in the study of the growth ...)
From The Publisher: "Progress in the study of the growth of Pharisaic Judaism before 70 A.D. will depend upon the accumulation of detailed knowledge and a determined effort to cease theorizing about the age. We must honestly attempt to understand not only what was going on in the first century, but also-and most crucially-how and whether we know anything at all about what was going on. Here you are invited to share the painful task of assessing difficult sources and criticizing the nature of extant information about the Pharisees before 70 A.D.. At the outset, you learn more than you wanted to know about the Pharisees, but the real reward of your labor ought to be mature skepticism about the nature of historical knowledge." - from the Preface
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( In this close analysis of The Fathers According to Rabb...)
In this close analysis of The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan, a sixth-century commentary on the Mishnah-tractate The Fathers (Avot), Jacob Neusner considers the way in which the story, as a distinctive type of narrative, entered the canonical writings of Judaism. The final installment in Neusner's cycle of analyses of the major texts of the Judaic canon, Judaism and Story shows that stories about sages exist in far greater proportion in The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan than in any of the other principal writings in the canon of Judaism of late antiquity. Neusner's detailed comparison of The Fathers and The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan demonstrates the transmission and elaboration of these stories and shows how these processes incorporated the newer view of the sage as a supernatural figure and of the eschatological character of Judaic teleology. These distinctions, as Neusner describes them, mark a shift in Jewish orientation to world history. Judaism and Story documents a chapter of rabbinic tradition that explored the possibility of historical orientation by means of stories. As Neusner demonstrates, this experiment with narrative went beyond the borders of rabbinic preoccupation with rhetorical argumentation focused on the explication of the Torah. The sage story moved in the direction of biography, but without allowing biography to emerge. This development, in Neusner's account, parallels the movement from epistle to Gospel in early Christianity and thus has broad implications for the history of religions.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226576302/?tag=2022091-20
(Concludes a series that Neusner characterizes not as an e...)
Concludes a series that Neusner characterizes not as an exhaustive history of Babylonian Jewry and Judaism, but an effort to promote the understanding of a few basic problems of Talmudic historiography and religion. He extends the account past the beginning of the sixth century, when most historians
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(History of Jews in Babylonia: Age of Shapur v. 4, Pt. 2)
History of Jews in Babylonia: Age of Shapur v. 4, Pt. 2
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( In this compelling study, Jacob Neusner argues that eco...)
In this compelling study, Jacob Neusner argues that economics is an active and generative ingredient of the system of the Mishnah. The Mishnah directly addresses such economic concerns as the value of work, agronomics, currency, commerce and the marketplace, and correct management of labor and of the household. In all its breadth, the Mishnah poses the question of the critical place occupied by the economy in society under God's rule. The Economics of the Mishnah is the first book to examine the place of economic theory generally in the Judaic system of the Mishnah. Jacob Neusner begins by surveying previous work on economics and Judaism, the best known being Werner Sombart's The Jews and Modern Capitalism. The mistaken notion that Jews have had a common economic history has outlived the demise of Sombart's argument, and it is a notion that Neusner overturns before discussing the Mishnaic economics. Only in Aristotle, Neusner argues, do we find an equal to the Mishnah's accomplishment in engaging economics in the service of a larger systemic statement. Neusner shows that the framers of the Mishnah imagined a distributive economy functioning through the Temple and priesthood, while also legislating for the action of markets. The economics of the Mishnah, then, is to some extent a mixed economy. The dominant, distributive element in this mixed economy, Neusner contends, derives from the belief that the Temple and its designated castes on earth exercise God's claim to the ownership of the holy land. He concludes by considering the implications of the derivation of the Mishnah's economics from the interests of the undercapitalized and overextended farmer.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226576566/?tag=2022091-20
( Distinguished historian of Judaism Jacob Neusner here v...)
Distinguished historian of Judaism Jacob Neusner here ventures for the first time into constructive theology. Taking the everyday life of contemporary Judaism as his beginning, Neusner asks when in the life of the living faith of the Torah does Israel, the holy community, meet God? Where does the meeting take place? What is the medium of the encounter? In his attempt to answer these questions, Neusner sets forth the character and the form of the Torah as sung theology. Israel, the holy community, meets God in the synagogue, while at prayer, and in the yeshiva, when studying the Torah—at the moment in each setting when the Torah is received. In both circumstances people do not read but sing out its words. With the written part of the Torah sung in the synagogue, and the oral part declaimed in centers of sacred learning, music provides the medium for Judaism's theological voice. Neusner identifies a reciprocal exchange between the holy community Israel and God: Israel sings to God when the Torah is studied, and God sings to Israel when the Torah is declaimed. Through the metaphor of music, Neusner offers an account of how he believes those faithful to the Torah meet God in the Torah, and how they should listen to the melody of God's self-revelation. The result is an original theological reflection that will interest all students of Judaism.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226576493/?tag=2022091-20
( With the conversion of Constantine in 312, Christianity...)
With the conversion of Constantine in 312, Christianity began a period of political and cultural dominance that it would enjoy until the twentieth century. Jacob Neusner contradicts the prevailing view that following Christianity's ascendancy, Judaism continued to evolve in isolation. He argues that because of the political need to defend its claims to religious authenticity, Judaism was forced to review itself in the context of a triumphant Christianity. The definition of issues long discussed in Judaism—the meaning of history, the coming of the Messiah, and the political identity of Israel—became of immediate and urgent concern to both parties. What emerged was a polemical dialogue between Christian and Jewish teachers that was unprecedented. In a close analysis of texts by the Christian theologians Eusebius, Aphrahat, and Chrysostom on one hand, and of the central Jewish works the Talmud of the Land of Israel, the Genesis Rabbah, and the Leviticus Rabbah on the other, Neusner finds that both religious groups turned to the same corpus of Hebrew scripture to examine the same fundamental issues. Eusebius and Genesis Rabbah both address the issue of history, Chrysostom and the Talmud the issue of the Messiah, and Aphrahat and Leviticus Rabbah the issue of Israel. As Neusner demonstrates, the conclusions drawn shaped the dialogue between the two religions for the rest of their shared history in the West.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226576523/?tag=2022091-20
(This study of the history of Judaism is organized around ...)
This study of the history of Judaism is organized around the polarities of timelessness, change, eternity, and the historical present.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/159752509X/?tag=2022091-20
humanities and religious studies educator
Neusner, Jacob was born on July 28, 1932 in Hartford, Connecticut, United States.
Bachelor of Arts in History magna cum laude, Harvard University, 1953. Postgraduate (Henry fellow), Lincoln College, Oxford, England, 1954. Postgraduate (Fulbright scholar), Hebrew University, 1958.
M.H.L., Jewish Theological Seminary America, 1960. Doctor of Philosophy in Religion (University scholar), Columbia University, 1960. A.M. ad eudem, Brown University, 1969.
Doctor of Humane Letters, University Chicago, 1978. Doctor of Philosophy (honorary), University Cologne, 1979. Honorary Doctorate, University Bologna.
Honorary Doctorate, Tulane University. Honorary Doctorate, St. Louis University. Honorary Doctorate, University Rochester.
Instructor religion Columbia University, 1960-1961. Assistant professor Hebrew University Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1961-1962. Research associate Brandeis University, 1962-1964.
Assistant professor religion Dartmouth College, 1964-1966, associate professor Providence, 1966-1968. Professor religious studies Brown University, 1968-1975, professor religious studies, Ungerleider Distinguished scholar Judaic studies, 1975-1982, University professor, Ungerleider Distinguished scholar, 1982-1990. Distinguished Research professor religious studies University São Paolo.
Florida, Tampa, 1990-2000. Research professor religion and theology Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, since 2000. Visiting professor Jewish Theological Seminary American, summer 1977, Iliff School Theology, Denver, summer 1978, University Frankfurt, 1991, Cambridge (England) University, 1992, Abo Akademi University, 1993, University Canterbury, England, 1994, University Goettingen, Germany, 1995.
Hill visiting professor University Minnesota, 1978. President Max Richter Foundation, since 1969. Member National Council for Humanities.
Governing board National Endowment Humanities, 1978-1984, National Council for the Arts, 1984-1990. Lecturer in field.
( In this close analysis of The Fathers According to Rabb...)
(Concludes a series that Neusner characterizes not as an e...)
( With the conversion of Constantine in 312, Christianity...)
( In The Economics of the Mishnah Jacob Neusner showed ho...)
(This study of the history of Judaism is organized around ...)
(This study of the history of Judaism is organized around ...)
( In this compelling study, Jacob Neusner argues that eco...)
( In this compelling study, Jacob Neusner argues that eco...)
(This groundbreaking work continues Jacob Neusner's multi-...)
(Genesis Rabbah is the commentary on the book of Genesis p...)
(An Introduction, a Preface, four major sections, and 24 c...)
( Distinguished historian of Judaism Jacob Neusner here v...)
(From The Publisher: "Progress in the study of the growth ...)
(A Preface, five major sections, and nine chapters. The Ph...)
(History of Jews in Babylonia: Age of Shapur v. 4, Pt. 2)
(Book by Neusner, Jacob)
(Book by Neusner, Jacob)
(Book by Neusner, Jacob)
(Book by Neusner, Jacob)
Fellow Royal Asiatic Society. Member American Academy Religion (vice president, program chairman 1967-1968, president 1968-1969, chairman of the section on history of Judaism 1979-1981,director since 1981), Society Biblical Literature, Phi Beta Kappa.
Married Suzanne Richter, March 15, 1964. Children: Samuel Aaron, Eli Ephraim, Noam Mordecai Menahem, Margalit Leah Berakhah.