Understanding Texts in Early Judaism: Studies on Biblical, Qumranic, Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature in Memory of Géza Xeravits

495 Pages·2022·11.416 MB·English

by  József Zsengellér

Understanding Texts in Early Judaism
Deuterocanonical and Cognate
Literature Studies
Edited by
Friedrich V. Reiterer, Kristin De Troyer, Beate Ego
und Tobias Nicklas
Volume 48
Understanding
Texts in Early
Judaism
Studies on Biblical, Qumranic, Deuterocanonical
and Cognate Literature in Memory of Géza Xeravits
Edited by
József Zsengellér
ISBN 978-3-11-076836-7
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-076853-4
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-076856-5
ISSN 1865-1666
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021948240
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
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Géza György Xeravits (1971–2019)

Preface: In memoriam Géza G. Xeravits (1971–2019)
It is always a trauma to lose a family member or a close friend, but if it is by way
of a dramatic disease, it is a tragedy. Géza was only 48 years old; he leaves behind
four kids (Ábris 20; Sára 18; Döme 15; Rézi 11) and a wife (Kriszta). To be con­
soled we need to remember. Remember the good days, the time we spent together,
the good deeds he did, and for a scholarly community, especially his scholarly
legacy. In this volume 25 colleagues and friends have gathered to express our
honor, love, and thanks for the life of Géza Xeravits who would be 50 in this year.
We remember him as a colleague, scholar, and friend.
As a colleague: Géza Xeravits’s career began after his graduation from the
Pázmány Péter Catholic University Budapest (1996); he was a lecturer at the Saint
Athanas College of the Greek Catholic Church in Nyíregyháza, where he worked
for two years. After three years of scholarships in Leuven and Groningen (1999–
2002), he started to work at the Reformed Theological College at Pápa as an assis­
tant professor. During his seven years of teaching he defended his PhD thesis in
Groningen (2002) and made a habilitation (2008). He was a beloved and popular
teacher among the students, and he had an ability to identify those with talent.
He became professor in Pápa in 2008. From 2009 he was professor and chair of
Biblical Studies at the Sapientia College of Theology of Religious Orders in Buda­
pest. Between 2015 and 2018 he taught at the Theological Faculty of the János
Selye University of Komarno (Slovakia). In his last year (2019), he was employed
as research professor at the Theological Faculty of the Károli Gáspár Reformed
University Budapest.
As a scholar: Géza Xeravits published his first book in 1995 on the conti­
nuous pesharim from Qumran while still in his graduate studies. He founded a
Hungarian journal for Biblical Studies in Nyíregyháza (Studia Biblica Athanasi­
ana), which he edited until his death. His interest in the Dead Sea Scrolls was
continuous and resulted in his PhD dissertation on the eschatological protag­
onists of the Yahad community and further in several articles, an introductory
monograph, and an edited book. In Old Testament literature his favorites were
the books of Isaiah, Daniel, and Psalms. He wrote several articles about them and
an exegetical monograph about the pilgrim psalms. During his years in Pápa his
interest turned to the deuterocanonical literature, and he published ten volumes
of the proceedings of the international conferences on this literature in Pápa and
Budapest (some of them with collaboration of the present author). He founded a
monograph series on Deuterocanonica with five published books. He also wrote
a monograph on the Book of Baruch. At the Sapientia in Budapest, he started a
monograph series of the chair of Biblical Studies, which numbered twelve books
during his time. In his last years he concentrated on the interpretation of the
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110768534-202
VIII   Preface: In memoriam Géza G. Xeravits (1971–2019)
iconographic decorations of the Jewish synagogues in Antiquity and published
several articles on the topic. Altogether he published 3 English, 1 German and 14
Hungarian books, 15 English and 10 Hungarian volumes as editor or co­editor,
and 40 English, (French and German) and 73 Hungarian articles in books and
journals (see his bibliography in this book). In his writings he concentrated pri­
marily on the texts and the topics themselves, and the discussion of the second­
ary literature was only secondary for him.
Géza organized a series of ten international conferences on deuterocanonical
literature concentrating first on individual books and later on different common
characteristics and themes. From 2010 he was the vice president of the Society
of Hungarian Hebraists. His scholarly work was acknowledged with the József
Schweitzer award in 2019.
As a friend: Géza was very open. After the first meeting with him, one felt as if he
were an old friend. He enthusiastically discussed all personal, religious, cultural,
political, or scholarly topics with others. He not only wanted to share his own ideas
with his friends and conversation partners, but he was really interested in how
the others thought about the world. On the other hand, he was very extroverted
and wanted to involve his friends in the knowledge he had of a very wide range of
topics, from the culinary and wine specialties of different regions in Hungary to the
cultural particularities of the Armenian or the Dutch people. His style of storytell­
ing was entertaining and enlightening, and he had a great sense of humor. The less
hair he had over the years, the greater his beard grew. Some of these characteristics
were mentioned by some of the contributors of the present volume.
Twenty four papers of twenty five colleagues commemorate Géza Xeravits
in this volume, but several other colleagues expressed their emotions and good
memories of him, even if they could not deliver a paper. Just to mention some of
them: Stefan Schorch, Eibert Tigchelaar, Michael Duggan, Nicholas Allen, Stefan
Reif, Renate Egger­Wenzel, Marcus Witte, Eugen Ulrich, Sidnie White Crawford,
Oda Wischmeyer, Marko Martilla, Ulrike Mittmann, George Brooke, Kristin de
Troyer, Candido Don Dionisio. Hungarian colleagues will commemorate him with
a Hungarian volume.
In his short life Géza Xeravits was a fruitful scholar, he, however, could not
show all the truth as the angel Raguel in the book of Tobit does, but he always
tried to “reveal with due honor the works of God” (Tob 2:11).1 Although we are
sad that he is not with us anymore, according to our belief, all of the works and
secrets of God are already revealed to him for eternity.
József Zsengellér
1 This citate from the Book of Tobit was the working title of the present volume.
Contents
Preface: In memoriam Géza G. Xeravits (1971–2019)   VII
Part 1: Old Testament and Early Judaism
Thomas Hieke
“From the Heavens, From the Earth”: Structure and Messages of Psalm 148   3
Stefan Beyerle
Different Texts and Different Interpretations of “Exile”   29
Matthew Goff
Effaced and Naturalized Modes of Jewish Reading: The Judah and Tamar
Story (Genesis 38), the Book of Jubilees, and Robert Alter   45
Part 2: Qumran
John J. Collins
The Two Spirits and the Origin of Evil   63
John Kampen
Reading Instruction as a Sectarian Composition   75
Peter Porzig
Thoughts on the Way towards “Prolegomena” to an Introduction to the
Writings of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Preliminary Reflections on the Categorization
and Nomenclature of the Dead Sea Scrolls    93
Balázs Tamási
Levi, Levites and Worship in Qumran   107
Réka Esztári
Children Confined in the House of Darkness: An Akkadian Incantation Ritual of
the Stillborn   119