Sin-Consciousness and the Introspective Turn in Second Temple Judaism

Sin-Consciousness and the Introspective Turn in Second Temple Judaism: A Case of Intergenerational Trauma?

A number of first person prayer and psalm texts from Second Temple Judaism reflect a new way of representing and experiencing the self. In contrast to the unified and socially-oriented self typical of earlier Israelite culture, these texts present the self as divided, alienated from itself, helpless before a recognition of its radical sinfulness. Since key aspects of the imagery can be traced to prophetic texts that responded to the trauma of the destruction of Judah by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, is this new form of prayer evidence of intergenerational trauma? Or might it, paradoxically, also be a strategy of cultural resilience?