Israelite Festivals: From Cyclical Time Celebrations to Linear Time Commemorations
1
TheTorah.com, Project TABS (Torah and Biblical Scholarship), Passaic, NJ 07055, USA
2
Kogod Research Center, Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem 9108001, Israel
Religions 2019, 10(5), 323; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10050323
Received: 18 January 2019
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Revised: 8 May 2019
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Accepted: 9 May 2019
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Published: 14 May 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Archaeology and Ancient Israelite Religion)
The Pentateuch and later Jewish tradition associates the key pilgrimage festivals with stories about Israel’s past. Nevertheless, these festivals all began as agricultural or seasonal festivals. Using comparative evidence from the ancient Near East, and looking at the Covenant Collection, the earliest biblical law collection, through a redaction critical lens, we can uncover the early history of these festivals and even how they developed in stages. A similar process is evident with the Sabbath, which appears to have begun as a moon festival, as per certain biblical references and from comparative evidence, but which eventually developed into the seventh day of rest as part of the institution of the week, and then comes to be associated with the story of God resting after creation. These developments, from celebrating agricultural and lunar cycles to celebrating mnemohistorical events, can be seen as part of two parallel processes: the coalescing of Israelite cultural memory and the institution of the linear calendar as the dominant conception of time.
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Keywords:
Israelite festivals; Sabbath; calendars; pilgrimage festivals; full-moon celebrations; harvest celebrations; firstborn rituals; first produce rituals
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MDPI and ACS Style
Farber, Z.I. Israelite Festivals: From Cyclical Time Celebrations to Linear Time Commemorations. Religions 2019, 10, 323. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10050323
AMA Style
Farber ZI. Israelite Festivals: From Cyclical Time Celebrations to Linear Time Commemorations. Religions. 2019; 10(5):323. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10050323
Chicago/Turabian StyleFarber, Zev I. 2019. "Israelite Festivals: From Cyclical Time Celebrations to Linear Time Commemorations" Religions 10, no. 5: 323. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10050323
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