Inventory of Structurally Important Literary Features in the Anonymous and Pseudepigraphic Jewish Literatures of Antiquity
A corpus-based list of generically defined literary features occurring in at least one text of the Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, the Apocrypha of the Old Testament, the near-complete large Dead Sea Scrolls, or Rabbinic Literature.
Work in progress, version -355, 25 February 2011. Please cite information from this document as: A. Samely, P. Alexander, R. Bernasconi, R. Hayward, "Inventory of Structurally Important Literary Features in Ancient Jewish Literature (Version -355)" (Manchester: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/ancientjewishliterature, 2010), plus Inventory Point number.
This Inventory is part of the outcomes of the Project Typology of Anonymous and Pseudepigraphic Jewish Literature of Antiquity (TAPJLA) Manchester-Durham 2007-2011, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK).
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H. Contents labels
11. Dominant contents
| Definition of the literary feature | Selected texts illustrating the feature |
|---|---|
| 11.1. The non-narrative text projects its thematic concern as being mainly one or more of the following: | |
| 11.1.1. Description of a reality, including a physical reality. | Sefer Yetsirah |
| 11.1.2. Moral values or value judgments, including practical instructions on proper behaviour or self-preservation. | Sirach, 1QpHab, 4Mac, 4Ezra, mAvot, 1Bar, bHor, Wisdom |
| 11.1.3. Law, commandments or norms of behaviour. | 4Mac, 1Bar, Tractates of Mishnah and Tosefta, 4QMMT, Temple Scroll, Wisdom, Bavli Tractates, |
| 11.1.4. A discourse on or inquiry into a field of knowledge, with self-referential treatment of the limits, sources or nature of knowledge. | Epistola Anne, 4Mac, [extraneous example: Marcus Aurelius, To Himself] |
| 11.1.5. The meaning of another text. | 1QpHab, GenR, LevR, Sifra, Bavli, Yerushalmi |
| 11.1.6. Reports of the speech of named characters. | most of rabbinic literature |
| 11.1.7. Future events or future reward and punishment. | 4Ezra |
| 11.2. The text is dominated by the reporting of emplotted events, whether or not in an overarching narrative format (as profiled in section 4). | |
| 11.2.1. The reported events are those of a biblical past, or of a biblically foretold future. | LAB, Jubilees, GenApoc, Wisdom, 1Bar, BerR, Targum Genesis Onkelos, QohR, Targum Esther Sheni |
| 11.2.2. The reported events are not biblical, but are related to a biblical past/future. | 1Mac, Judith, Tobit, 4Mac, 1Bar |
| 11.2.3. The reported events have no strong links to biblical events. | Ahiqar (narrative part-text), QohR |
| 11.3. The text is directly or indirectly addressed to God. Its specific contents are self-reflective regarding the governing voice, thematic in a diffuse manner or narrative (see also 3). | Prayer of Manasseh, Psalms of Solomon, Hodayyot |
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