How did Early Judaism Understand the Concept of ʿAvodah?

The Hebrew word ʿavodah has an intriguing semantic history. Early Rabbinic texts presuppose meanings that include “work,” “study,” “Temple worship” and “prayer.” Do these nuances have a respectable linguistic pedigree, or did the Rabbis invent them? In order to respond to this question, an assessment will be offered of how the word is defined in Classical Hebrew and in the Hebrew texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls. These findings will then be compared with how the word was rendered by those who translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek for the Septuagint, and by the grandson of Ben Sira. It will then be possible to offer a tentative analysis of how theology appears to have influenced language in the treatment of this word by the Jews of the Second Temple period.