About the Contributor(s): Rene Gehring is Pastor and Assistant Lecturer. He holds two PhDs in the fields of theology (New Testament) and history (Jewish History), and received an MA in Ancient History and Classics. He published several theological articles and is author of a book about the Jewish religious parties of the New Testament era.

Master's Thesis from the year 2009 in the subject History - World History - Early and Ancient History, grade: 1,0, University of Salzburg, language: English, abstract: As the title indicates, this treatise explores the field of Jewish sexual ethics. It is not intended to research all the areas associated with this topic, but to select those realms which best explain the concrete negative attitudes of Jewish society, particularly in the first century CE, towards sexuality. While a very brief introduction provides an interesting background about the pagan (i.e. Greek/Roman) views on Jews, Judaism and Jewish sexuality - as far as the few sources allow - the main chapters are dealing with the following different perspectives: (1)Jewish profane literature (2)Different Jewish sects (schools), including the early Christian "sect" (3)Jewish Holy Scripture, including the later rabbinic (Mishnaic) legislations These differing views on that important topic allow to differentiate between some Jewish "mainstream" practice or understanding and the various facets in different groups or authors. The early Christian "sect" as given in the NT scriptures is included as well as the Mishnaic legislation in order to demonstrate the two most lasting and durable streams of perception. Both survived until nowadays in the Jewish and Christian communities, which differ quite a lot in legal regulations but still have the same basis as given in the Hebrew Scriptures. By researching, combining, and commenting the numerous Jewish Scriptures, this thesis finally explains what is to be understood by the term "sexual sin" supported by some basic principles, although it has not been possible to investigate every aspect of that huge field. Thus, the goal of providing a well based reasonable argumentation as a foundation of understanding Jewish thinking and practice, especially in the most interesting and "restless" first century CE, is reached quite comprehensively.

Magisterarbeit aus dem Jahr 2008 im Fachbereich Philosophie - Philosophie der Antike, Note: Sehr gut, Universitat Salzburg (Kultur- und Gesellschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultat), 170 Quellen im Literaturverzeichnis, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: Flavius Josephus als "judischer Romer" und zugleich Historiker, gibt in seinen Werken mehrfach Berichte uber die drei "philosophischen Schulen" der Juden: Essener, Pharisaer und Sadduzaer. Am Rande nennt er auch Abspaltungen der Hauptrichtungen, u.a. jene, die zum Judischen Krieg (66-70/73 n. Chr.) fuhrte. In dieser Arbeit wird (nach einer Einfuhrung zu den politisch-gesellschaftlichen Hintergrunden des Imperium Romanum und des damaligen Judentums) das Selbstverstandnis des Josephus bzgl. seiner Person, seinem Leben und seinen Werken untersucht, was den Hintergrund zu seinen Darstellungen der drei Schulen bildet. Es werden schliesslich alle Texte in seinen Werken untersucht, die sich mit den Schulen und deren Vertretern befassen und eine Charakterisierung sowohl der darstellerischen Absichten, als auch der Sekten an sich ermoglichen. Abschliessend wird eine Interpretation des typisch josephischen Verstandnisses der judischen "Philosophie" der verschiedenen Schulen gegeben und in diesem Zusammenhang ist auch eine Interpretation seiner historiographischen Absichten dem judischen Volk gegenuber moglic