Why Did Paul Go West?

Jewish Historical Narrative and Thought

Doron Mendels

• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780567658616
• eBook ISBN: 9780567610379
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Criticism & Interpretation

In his new book Doron Mendels addresses the topic of the authority of texts and their transmission, as well as different strategies of narration in ancient texts. Mendels provides extensive treatment of issues such as linearity, emporality and simultaenity of texts, whilst working to examine four core themes. First, the narrator and his strategies in the historiography of the Hellenistic period. Secondly, Jewish Historical thought in the Hellenistic period and beyond. Thirdly, issues of Hellenization in Palestine - power, honour, gifting, etiquette and sovereignty and their presentation in the main narrative of the Hasmonean period. Finally Mendels gives attention to the 'split' in the Jewish diaspora between east and west, as exemplified from a Christian point of view, it is this that unites these themes into a sustained examination of Jewish historical narrative and thought.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Preface
• Chapter 1 Why Did Paul Go West?
• Chapter 2 How Was Antiquity Treated in Societies with a Hellenistic Heritage? And Why Did the Rabbis Avoid Writing History?
• Chapter 3 Can We Read a Historical Text as a Musical Score? A New Approach to Polyphony and Simultaneity in 1 Maccabees
• Chapter 4 The Conceptual Linearity of Historical Narrative and its Distortion: A Preliminary Note
• Chapter 5 Memory and Memories: The Attitude of 1 and 2 Maccabees toward Hellenization and Hellenism
• Chapter 6 Phases of Inscribed Memory Concerning the Land of Israel in Palestinian Judaism of the Second Century bce: The Case of 1 Maccabees
• Chapter 7 Etiquette I: Was the Rejection of Gifts One of the Reasons for the Outbreak of the Maccabean Revolt? A Preliminary Note on the Role of Gifting in the Book of 1 Maccabees
• Chapter 8 Etiquette II: Honor and Humiliation as a Factor in Hasmonean Politics According to the Narrator of 1 Maccabees
• Chapter 9 Political Theology I: Deus Duplex to Deus Silens: The State of Exception in the Political Theology of 1 Maccabees
• Chapter 10 Political Theology II: 1 Maccabees and Liberation from a Competing King-God and the Phenomenon of Rifts Inherent in Ancient Israel
• Select Bibliography
• Index of Biblical and Other Ancient Sources
• Index of Authors