The Covenant in Judaism and Paul deals with biblical and intertestamental uses of covenant and related rituals, challenging the view that baptism replaces circumcision, since baptism is entry into the new covenant, and showing that ritual boundaries are replaced or redefined since identity has changed. The investigation uses social categories, "identity" as a term that offers an explanation for a group's selfunderstanding and "boundary" as a term for entry rite of affirmation marker. Part A looks at the Old Testament background to aspects of the covenant. Part B examines covenant...

Each of the two reconstructed "oldest texts" of the intertestamental work, Joseph and Aseneth, presents a consistent picture with a coherent theology, but there are considerable differences between them. The image of women in each case serves to crystallise these differences, and their analysis opens a window not only on the texts but also on their social contexts. The author develops a method which allows close study of ancient literary images of women and of their effects on ancient readers. It is shown that the different images portrayed in the two versions correspond to differing...

This volume makes available a collection of the most important and influential modern articles on the Didache or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, many of them appearing in English for the first time. Leading Jewish and Christian scholars in the field represented in the volume include G. Alon, J-P. Audet, E. Bammel, J. Betz, J.A. Draper, D. Flusser, A. de Halleux, E. Mazza, K. Niederwimmer, W. Rordorf, G. Schollgen, H.R. Seeliger and C.M. Tuckett. Essays included provide a representative sample of most aspects of study of this first-century Christian writing, documenting an...

This volume consists of 23 essays that have appeared in 19 different journals and other publications during a period of over 40 years, together with an introduction. The essays deal primarily with the relations between Jews and non-Jews during the period from Alexander the Great to the end of the Roman Empire, in five areas: Josephus; Judaism and Christianity; Latin literature and the Jews; the Romans in Rabbinic literature; and other studies in Hellenistic Judaism. The topics include a programmatic essay comparing Hebraism and Hellenism, pro-Jewish intimations in Apion and in Tacitus, the...

This volume analyzes the understanding of dreams and the corresponding literary forms used by Josephus in his writings. Josephus reports dreams as either auditory message dreams, symbolic visual dreams, or dream image appearances. In this regard he uses the format for auditory and visual dreams found in ancient Near Eastern and biblical texts, while his dream image appearance reports show familiarity with traditional Greek modes of reporting dreams.
Close attention is given to the following topics: 1) the development of dream reports in the ancient Near East, the Bible, and the Hellenistic...

Many studies have portrayed Judaism in Antiquity as sectarian, with a variety of groups all claiming to be The True Israel. Early Christianity is alleged to have begun in this context as one more Jewish sect claiming such authority. However, the second-century Christian Justin Martyr is the first person known to have used the phrase 'the True Israel'. This book examines the uses of the names 'Jew', 'Hebrew' and 'Israel' in the surviving literature - especially the Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, Philo, Josephus, New Testament and Mishnah - to determine whether this is an adequate or accurate...

This study poses and answers two questions: 1. What is the basis in the tradition for the Acts 13 and 14 narrative about Paul's and Barnabas' mission on Cyprus and in southern Galatia? 2. Who are the addressees of the letter to the Galatians?
Using the extant inscriptions and literary sources that relate to the provinces of Cyprus and Galatia in the early Roman Empire, the above questions are addressed to Acts and Galatians, and answered as follows: 1 Acts 13-14 contains so much local colour as to rule out the thesis that the so-called first missionary journey is fictional. 2. Paul's...

The Proclamation of Jesus seeks to place Jesus in the context of first-century Palestinian Judaism. The authors hope to discern the essence of his preaching, his concept of the kingdom of God, and the place of purity in his teaching and activities. Better methods for assessing not simply the authenticity of reported sayings and deeds, but for tracing the development of tradition are considered. The authors are convinced that most of the Synoptic tradition is authentic, but that much of it has been reinterpreted and recontextualized. Herein lies the real challenge for those...

Contra Apionem, the last known work by the Jewish author Flavius Josephus (38 - ca. 100 CE), is the only direct Jewish apology, that remains from antiquity. It is of special interest to us, because in its third part Josephus undertakes to explain the main ideas and laws of Judaism and its "theocratic" constitution to non-Jewish readers. This volume gives an introduction to Contra Apionem as a whole, a German translation, and a precise analysis and interpretation of the work's third part on Judaism, especially its meaning for non-Jewish readers. This study gives the reader access...

This study demonstrates that angel and angel-related traditions, especially those growing from the so-called "Angel of the Lord" in the Hebrew Bible, had a significant impact on the origins and early development of Christology to the point that an Angelomorphic Christology is discernable in several first century texts.
Significant effort is given to tracing the antecedents of this Christology in the angels and divine hypostases of the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Jewish literature. The primary content of this volume is the presentation of pre-150 CE textual evidence of Angelomorphic...