Performances of Ancient Jewish Letters
From Elephantine to MMT
by Marvin Miller
This ambitious and engaging book sets itself the task of combining a wide range of approaches to cast new light on the form and function of several ancient Jewish letters in a variety of languages. The focus of The Performance of Ancient Jewish Letters is on applying a new emerging field of performance theory to texts and arguing that letters and other documents were not just read in silence, as is normal today, but were “performed,” especially when they were addressed to a community. A distinctive feature of this book consists of being one of the first to apply the approach of performance criticism to ancient Jewish letters. Previous treatments of ancient letters have not given enough consideration to their oral context; however, this book prompts the reader to “listen” sympathetically with the audience. The Performance focuses close attention on the ways in which the engagement of the audience during the performance of a text might be read from traces present in the text itself. This book invites the audience to hear a fresh reading of a family letter from Hermopolis, concerning ugly tunics and castor oil; festal letters, about issues surrounding the celebration of Passover, Purim and Hanukkah; a diaspora letter on how to live in a foreign land; and also an official letter concerning the building of the Jerusalem temple. These letters will help us understand a text from the Dead Sea Scrolls, namely, MMT. Marvin L. Miller argues for the centrality of performance in the life of Jews of the Second Temple period, an area of study that has been traditionally neglected. The Performance advances the fields of orality and epistolography and supplements other scholars’ works in those fields.
Marvin Lloyd Miller, PhD, is Adjunct Professor at Summit Pacific College in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada.
- By (author) Marvin Miller
Other Titles in this Series
At the Intersection of Texts and Material Finds
Stepped Pools, Stone Vessels, and Ritual Purity Among the Jews of Roman Galilee
Volume 16
Between Text and Text
International Symposium on Intertextuality in Ancient Near Eastern, Ancient Mediterranean, and Early Medieval Literatures
Volume 6
Between Symbolism and Realism
The Use of Symbolic and Non-Symbolic Language in Ancient Jewish Apocalypses 333-63 B.C.E.
Volume 8
The Faces of Torah
Studies in the Texts and Contexts of Ancient Judaism in Honor of Steven Fraade
Volume 22
The Land to the Elect and Justice for All
Reading Psalms in the Dead Sea Scrolls in Light of 4Q381
Volume 14
‘See, I will bring a scroll recounting what befell me’ (Ps 40-8)
Epigraphy and Daily Life from the Bible to the Talmud. Dedicated to the Memory of Professor Hanan Eshel
Volume 12
At the Intersection of Texts and Material Finds
Stepped Pools, Stone Vessels, and Ritual Purity Among the Jews of Roman Galilee
Volume 16
In Search of the Promised Land?
The Hasmonean Dynasty Between Biblical Models and Hellenistic Diplomacy
Volume 24
Light Against Darkness
Dualism in Ancient Mediterranean Religion and the Contemporary World
Volume 2
Social Inequality in the World of the Text
The Significance of Ritual and Social Distinctions in the Hebrew Bible
Volume 4
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