Sanctity and the Attitude towards the Temple in Hellenistic Judaism

Abstract

This chapter discusses the manifestations of sanctity in the Second and Third Books of Maccabees and the attitudes towards the Temple that emerge from these two books. It demonstrates that though both books were largely or completely authored in the Diaspora, a significant difference between them is apparent in their respective treatments of the concept of sanctity and their attitudes to the Temple. The chapter shows that 3 Maccabees presents, in this context, an emphatically critical diasporan position regarding the Jerusalem Temple while 2 Maccabees presents a substantially more moderate position. It is therefore divided into two sections: the first section examines the occurrence of the concepts of sanctity in the two books, and the second section examines 3 Maccabees' viewpoints concerning the Temple and compares them with those of 2 Maccabees. The Hellenistic Jewish Diaspora's conceptions of sanctity are diverse, particularly with regard to the Temple and sacred places.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 6 citations exist upstream.