The author
Holger Michael Zellentin is Lecturer in Jewish Studies, Faculty of Arts (University of Nottingham).
I am a scholar of the Ancient Near and Middle East, focusing on Judaism from the time of Alexander the Great to Early Islam. My current research projects include a religious pre-history of Islam, for which I won an AHRC grant, and a study of the ways in which the Talmudic rabbis incorporate Christian narratives. I also work on Hellenistic Judaism and on the sociology and anthropology of ancient religion.
(Source : University of Nottingham)
Presentation
The Qur’ān, emphasizing ritual purity and the role of Jesus as giver of God’s positive law, preserves aspects of an earlier Jesus movement that most Christian groups diluted or rejected. The Didascalia Apostolorum , a late ancient church order, records a significant number of the laws promulgated in the Qur’ān, but does not fully endorse them when it comes to purity. Likewise, the Didascalia’ legal narratives about the Israelites and about Jesus, as well as the legal and theological vocabulary of the Syriac (Eastern Christian Aramaic) version of the Didascalia, recurrently show kinship with the Arabic Qur’ān, amplifying the apparent affinities between the two texts. The Qur’ān, however, is not "based" on the Didascalia in any direct way; detailed comparison of the two documents illustrates the absence of textual influence in either direction. Both texts should rather be read against the background of the practices and the oral discourse shared by their respective audiences: a common legal culture.
In this volume, Holger M. Zellentin offers new insights into Late Antique Judaism and Christianity, into the continuity of Judaeo-Christian law and narrative within Jewish and Christian mainstream communities past the fourth century, and into the community that the Qur’ān first addressed. Understanding how the Qur’ān parts ways with contemporaneous forms of Christianity and Judaism, both in the initial and in subsequent phases of the internal development of its legal culture, allows for a more precise appreciation of its message.
Contents
Foreword
Introduction : Late Antiquity Legal Culture, Judeaeo-Christianity, and the Qur’an
- Chapter One : The Didascalia’s Laws and the Qur’ans Abrogations
- Chapter Two : Ritual Law in the Didascalia, the Clementine Homilies, and in the Qur’an
- Chapter Three : Narratives of Law in the Disdascalia and in the Qur’an
- Chapter Four : Jesus, Muhammad, and the Judaeo-Christian Food Laws
- Conclusion : Judaeo-Christian Legal Culture as a point of Departure for the Qur’an
- Epilogue : The Qur’an between Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism
Bibliography
Citation Index
Author Index
Subject Index
(Source : http://www.mohr.de/)