Ancient Jewish prayers and emotions : emotions associated with Jewish prayer in and around the Second Temple period / edited by Stefan C. Reif and Renate Egger-Wenzel.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The Place of Prayer in Early Judaism / Stefan C. Reif -- Moments of Joy and Lasting Happiness / Christine Abart -- "Sounding Trumpets with Loud Shouts" Emotional Responses to Temple Building: Ezra and Esdras / Kristin De Troyer -- Adjusting the Narrative Emotions and the Prayer of Moses (Jub 1:19 -- 21) / Simone M. Paganini -- Emotions in Jerusalem's Prayer: Baruch and Lamentations / Thomas R. Elssner -- Prayer and Emotion in the Septuagint of Esther / Beate Ego -- 1 Maccabees: Emotions of Life and Death In Narrative and Lament / Michael W. Duggan -- Praying to God Passionately: Notes on the Emotions in 2 Maccabees / Friedrich V. Reiterer -- Emotions in the Prayer of Sir 22:27 -- 23:6 / Nuria Calduch-Benages -- Emotions in the Prayers of the Wisdom of Solomon / Markus Witte -- Judith and Holofernes: An Analysis of the Emotions in the Killing Scene (Jdt 12:10 -- 13:9) / Barbara Schmitz -- Sarah's Grief to Death (Tob 3:7 -- 17) / Renate Egger-Wenzel -- The Prayer of Susanna (Daniel 13) / Dalia Marx -- Language, Prayer and Prophecy: 1 Enoch, the Dead Sea Scrolls and 1 Corinthians / Jonathan Ben-Dov -- From Emotions to Legislation: Asenath's Prayer and Rabbinic Literature / Moshe Lavee -- Emotions and Expressions of Emotion as a Didactic Guide as to How to Pray: Berakhot in the Aramaic Prayers of Qumran / Ursula Schattner-Rieser -- A Phenomenological Study of Penitential Elements and Their Strategic Arousal of Emotion in the Qumran Hodayot (1QHa cols. 1 -- 8) / Angela Kim Harkins -- The Centrality of Prayer and Stability of Trust. An Analysis of the Hymn of the Maskil in 1QS IX, 25b -- XI, 15a / Asaf Gayer -- Prayer and Emotion in Mark 14:32 -- 42 and Related Texts / Oda Wischmeyer -- The Concept of "Emotional Prayer" In Earliest Christianity: Rom 8:15 and Acts 7:60 In Their Context(s) / Eve-Marie Becker.

Given the recent interest in the emotions presupposed in early religious literature, it has been thought useful to examine in this volume how the Jews and early Christians expressed their feelings within the prayers recorded in some of their literature. Specialists in their fields from academic institutions around the world have analysed important texts relating to this overall theme and to what is revealed with regard to such diverse topics as relations with God, exegesis, education, prophecy, linguistic expression, feminism, happiness, grief, cult, suicide, non-Jews, Hellenism, Qumran and Jerusalem. The texts discussed are in Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic and are important for a scientific understanding of how Rabbinic Judaism and Early Christianity developed their approaches to worship, to the construction of their theology and to the feelings that lay behind their religious ideas and practices. The articles contribute significantly to an historical understanding of how Jews maintained their earlier traditions but also came to terms with the ideology of the dominant Hellenistic culture that surrounded them.