precis:

This essay explores the negotiation of Jewish-Christian difference in the beginning of the Common Era through a comparative study of the symbolic associations of midnight. It comparatively analyzes references to midnight in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, as well as their later reception in Jewish and Christian communities, with attention to how the early Christian community adopted Jewish traditions of time and revised them to reinforce emerging Christian concepts. This essay proposes that the divergent symbolic associations of midnight in the two canons illustrate some of the central concerns and self-understandings of early Christian and Jewish communities, which became thematic in the assertion of Jewish-Christian difference during the parting of the ways. It demonstrates that the midnight passages are thematically linked as a time of transformation, but the content of that transformation differs between the two canons, reflecting themes of concern to the communities that developed the texts. Across the passages in the Hebrew Bible, midnight appears to be symbolic of a transformation that leads to the creation or strengthening of the people of Israel. In contrast to the national transformation envisioned in the Hebrew Bible, references to midnight in the New Testament are thematically related in their presentation of midnight as a time of eschatological transformation, symbolizing the turning point from this world to the next world, and reflecting an emerging religious tradition focused on a redemption beyond worldly time. This essay argues that these distinct thematic associations present concepts of transformation that were asserted during the parting of the ways, as the two religious traditions formulated parameters around their identities. It concludes with an exploration of two distinct temporal visions that eventually emerged as the two traditions separated, drawing parallels between the literary symbolism of midnight in the biblical text and later developments in Jewish and Christian perspectives on time.

概要：

本文通过对午夜象征联想的比较研究，探讨了公元纪元之初犹太教与基督教差异的谈判。它比较分析了希伯来圣经和新约中对午夜的引用，以及它们后来在犹太教和基督教社区中的接受情况，并关注早期基督教社区如何采用犹太时间传统并对其进行修改以强化新兴的基督教概念。本文提出，两个正典中午夜的不同象征联想说明了早期基督教和犹太社区的一些核心关注点和自我理解，这成为在分道扬镳期间主张犹太教与基督教差异的主题。它表明，午夜段落在主题上作为一个转变的时间联系在一起，但两个正典之间的转变内容有所不同，反映了开发文本的社区所关注的主题。在希伯来圣经的各个段落中，午夜似乎象征着导致以色列人民的创造或加强的转变。与希伯来圣经中所设想的国家转变相反，新约中对午夜的提及在主题上与午夜作为末世转变的时间有关，象征着从这个世界到另一个世界的转折点，并反映了一种新兴的宗教传统注重超越世俗时间的救赎。本文认为，这些不同的主题关联呈现了在分道扬镳期间所主张的转变概念，因为两种宗教传统围绕其身份制定了参数。最后，它探索了两种不同的时间观念，这两种观念最终随着两种传统的分离而出现，并将圣经文本中午夜的文学象征意义与犹太教和基督教时间观的后来发展进行了比较。