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Christian ethics --- Church and the world --- Evangelistic work --- Holiness --- Hospitality --- Witness bearing (Christianity) --- Religious aspects --- Christianity

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According to the account in the Book of Exodus, God addresses the children of Israel as they stand before Mt. Sinai with the words, "You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (19:6). The sentence, Martha Himmelfarb observes, is paradoxical, for priests are by definition a minority, yet the meaning in context is clear: the entire people is holy. The words also point to some significant tensions in the biblical understanding of the people of Israel. If the entire people is holy, why does it need priests? If membership in both people and priesthood is a matter not of merit but of birth, how can either the people or its priests hope to be holy? How can one reconcile the distance between the honor due the priest and the actual behavior of some who filled the role? What can the people do to make itself truly a kingdom of priests? Himmelfarb argues that these questions become central in Second Temple Judaism. She considers a range of texts from this period, including the Book of Watchers, the Book of Jubilees, legal documents from the Dead Sea Scrolls, the writings of Philo of Alexandria, and the Book of Revelation of the New Testament, and goes on to explore rabbinic Judaism's emphasis on descent as the primary criterion for inclusion among the chosen people of Israel-a position, she contends, that took on new force in reaction to early Christian disparagement of the idea that mere descent from Abraham was sufficient for salvation.

Priests, Jewish --- Holiness --- Judaism --- Apocryphal books --- History. --- Judaism. --- History --- Criticism, interpretation, etc. --- Dead Sea scrolls. --- 296*5 --- Jews --- Hellenistic Judaism --- Judaism, Hellenistic --- 296*5 Joodse godsdienst en liturgie --- Joodse godsdienst en liturgie --- Criticism, interpretation, etc --- Priests --- History and criticism --- Jerusalem scrolls --- ʻAin Fashka scrolls --- Jericho scrolls --- Scrolls, Dead Sea --- Qumrân scrolls --- Rękopisy z Qumran --- Shikai bunsho --- Megilot Midbar Yehudah --- Dodezee-rollen --- Kumránské rukopisy --- Documentos de Qumrán --- Textos de Qumrán --- Rollos del Mar Muerto --- Manuscritos del Mar Muerto --- Manuscrits de la mer Morte --- Dödahavsrullarna --- Kumranin kirjoitukset --- Kuolleenmeren kirjoitukset --- Qumranhandskrifterna --- Qumranin kirjoitukset --- Qumran Caves scrolls --- Priests, Jewish - History. --- Holiness - Judaism. --- Judaism - History - Post-exilic period, 586 B.C.-210 A.D. --- Apocryphal books - Criticism, interpretation, etc. --- Ancient Studies. --- Jewish Studies. --- Religion. --- Religious Studies.