In:
Harvard Theological Review, Cambridge University Press (CUP), Vol. 53, No. 2 ( 1960-04), p. 125-142
Abstract:
The חבורה (fellowship) was a religious society founded in the villages and towns of Jewish Palestine during the Second Commonwealth in order to foster observance of the laws of tithing and ritual purity. The sources on the fellowship are preserved in rabbinic literature, and the חבורה has therefore been associated with the Pharisees; one must, nonetheless, retain the distinction between the חבורה and the whole Pharisaic sect, since there is no evidence that all Pharisees were members of a fellowship. Membership represented a status recognized by other members and not a formal affiliation with an organized society. The חבר (member) of such a fellowship undertook to carry out even in the company of non-observant men those ritual laws which were generally neglected. Thus they taught their observance by example and precept. At the same time, the members distinguished themselves from the common society by their strict adherence to ritual laws which separated them in crucial relationships of daily life.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0017-8160
,
1475-4517
DOI:
10.1017/S0017816000026948
Language:
English
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Publication Date:
1960
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2051494-3
SSG:
1
