Language:
English
Year of publication:
2024
Titel der Quelle:
Harvard Theological Review
Angaben zur Quelle:
117,3 (2024) 436-455
Keywords:
Adam
;
Talmud Bavli. Criticism, interpretation, etc.
;
New Testament. Criticism, interpretation, etc.
;
Noahide Laws
;
Meat Religious aspects
;
Judaism
;
Meat Religious aspects
;
Christianity
Abstract:
Toward the end of the Noahide commandment pericope in the Talmud (b. Sanh. 56–60), we find a sugya (pericope) featuring the prohibition on meat consumption imposed on Adam and its permission to the Noahides. This unique sugya pieces together halakic and haggadic sources that reinterpret the Garden of Eden story and address the complex relationship between humans and animals. This article will examine this sugya, focusing on its closing story, which describes a pietist who merits a gift of heavenly flesh. I will demonstrate that the story has many levels of meaning, grounded in both its immediate and wider contexts, and claim that it conceals a polemic with a similar Christian story (Acts 10), which describes impure meat that descends from the sky, undermining the cultural and halakic divisions between Jews and non-Jews. The comparison between the two stories reveals opposing worldviews with regard to law and lawlessness, utopia and redemption.
DOI:
10.1017/S0017816024000178
URL:
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