This article concerns the role of covenant in early rabbinic literature in relation to biblical and especially Second Temple-era predecessors. The first part establishes that the Qumran sectarians and earlier circles were drawn to the concept of covenant because it represented, especially through the mechanism of covenant renewal, a powerful tool for defining and supporting group identity. The second part shows that for the rabbis, the importance of covenant lay chiefly, instead, in its capacity to conceptualize the notion of Israel as a collective body defined by corporate responsibility. The third part suggests that this novel deployment of covenant arose in part to counter the individuating force of halakah as law, another innovation of the rabbis.

中文翻译：

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早期拉比文学中的圣约与共同体

本文涉及圣约在早期拉比文学中与圣经尤其是第二圣殿时代的前辈相关的角色。第一部分指出，库姆兰宗派和早期圈子被圣约概念所吸引，因为它代表了定义和支持群体身份的强大工具，特别是通过圣约更新机制。第二部分表明，对于拉比来说，圣约的重要性主要在于它能够将以色列概念概念化为由企业责任定义的集体团体。第三部分表明，这种新颖的盟约部署部分是为了对抗哈拉卡作为法律的个体化力量，这是拉比的另一项创新。