The Evil Inclination in Early Judaism and Christianity

Explores the origins and development of the Jewish belief in the 'Evil Inclination' and the impact on early Christian thought.

James Aitken (Edited by), Hector M. Patmore (Edited by), Ishay Rosen-Zvi (Author)

9781108470827, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 21 January 2021

382 pages
23.5 x 16 x 3 cm, 0.73 kg

'This broad and erudite volume will be of value to scholars of the Dead Sea Scrolls.' Matthew Goff, Dead Sea Discoveries

One of the central concepts in rabbinic Judaism is the notion of the Evil Inclination, which appears to be related to similar concepts in ancient Christianity and the wider late antique world. The precise origins and understanding of the idea, however, are unknown. This volume traces the development of this concept historically in Judaism and assesses its impact on emerging Christian thought concerning the origins of sin. The chapters, which cover a wide range of sources including the Bible, the Ancient Versions, Qumran, Pseudepigrapha and Apocrypha, the Targums, and rabbinic and patristic literature, advance our understanding of the intellectual exchange between Jews and Christians in classical Antiquity, as well as the intercultural exchange between these communities and the societies in which they were situated.

1. Introduction James Aitken, Hector Patmore and Ishay Rosen-Zvi
2. Reconsidering the semantics of the 'inclination' (yéṣɛr) in classical Biblical Hebrew Noam Mizrahi
3. The 'inclination' (yēṣer) as rendered in the Septuagint James Aitken
4. 'Fleshly spirit' and 'vessel of flesh' in 4Qinstruction and the thanksgiving hymns Benjamin Wold
5. Theological anthropology in the enochic tradition Loren Stuckenbruck
6. The perils of philosophical persuasion: Philo on the origin of moral evils Sharon Weisser
7. The evil inclination (yeṣer ha-ra') in tannaitic literature: demonic desires and beyond Ishay Rosen-Zvi
8. Conflicting intrapersonal powers in Paul's letters Daniel Schumann
9. The 'two inclinations' and the double-minded human condition in the letter of James George van Kooten
10. An evil inclination in early targums to the Pentateuch and Prophets? Hector Patmore
11. Gnostic theologies of evil Timothy Pettipiece
12. The rabbinic 'inclination' (yeṣer) and the Christian apocrypha Monika Pesthy-Simon
13. Origen on the origin of sin Riemer Roukema
14. Augustine on the diabolical suggestion of sin Sophie Lunn-Rockliffe
15. Jerome and the 'inclination' (yeṣer): the evidence of the vulgate C. T. R. Hayward
16. Rabbinic inclinations and monastic thoughts: Evagrius Ponticus' doctrine of reasoning (logismoi) and its antecedents Augustine Casiday
17. 'Inclination' (yaṣrā) in the Syriac tradition David G. K. Taylor
18. Evil, sin and inclination (Yeṣer) in Jewish and Christian poetic disputes between the body and soul Ophir Münz-Manor
19. The wizard of az and the evil inclination: the Babylonian rabbinic inclination (yeṣer) in its Zoroastrian and Manichaean context Yishai Kiel
20. The evil inclination in the targums to the writing Leeor Gottlieb.

Subject Areas: Judaism: sacred texts [HRJS], Judaism [HRJ], New Testaments [HRCF2], Christianity [HRC], Philosophy of religion [HRAB], Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA]