Ebook: Ancient Jewish Sciences and the History of Knowledge in Second Temple Literature

Until very recently, the idea of ancient Jewish sciences would have
been considered unacceptable. Since the 1990’s, Early Modern
and Medieval Science in Jewish sources has been actively studied, but the consensus was that no real scientific themes could
be found in earlier Judaism. This work points them out in detail,
and posits a new field of research: the scientific activity evident
in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Early Jewish Pseudepigrapha. The
publication of new texts and new analyses of older ones reveals
crucial elements that are best illuminated by the history of science, and may have interesting consequences for it. The contributors evaluate these texts in relation to astronomy, astrology and
physiognomy, marking the first comprehensive attempt to account
for scientific themes in Second Temple Judaism. They investigate
the meaning and purpose of scientific explorations in an apocalyptic setting. An appreciation of these topics paves the way to
a renewed understanding of the scientific fragments scattered
throughout rabbinic literature.






The book first places the Jewish material in the ancient context
of the Near Eastern and Hellenistic worlds. While the Jewish texts
were not on the cutting edge of scientific discovery, they find a
meaningful place in the history of science, between Babylonia and
Egypt, in the time period between Hipparchus and Ptolemy. The
book uses recent advances in method to examine the contacts and
networks of Jewish scholars in their ancient setting. Second, the
essays here tackle the problematic concept of a national scientific
tradition. Although science is nowadays often conceived as universal, the historiography of ancient Jewish sciences demonstrates
the importance of seeing the development of science in a local
context. The book explores the tension between the hegemony of
central scientific traditions and local scientific enterprises, showing the relevance of ancient data to contemporary postcolonial
historiography of science. Finally, philosophical questions of the
demarcation of science are addressed in a way that can advance
the discussion of related ancient materials.





Online edition available as part of the NYU Library's Ancient World Digital Library and in partnership with the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW).