Codex Vaticanus (4th cent. CE) includes the oldest, and probably the most important, complete copy of the Greek translation of the biblical book of Joshua (or Jesus, in Greek).The translation had been made some five centuries earlier (2nd cent. BCE) from a Hebrew version of Joshua which differed at many points from the Hebrew text now familiar to us.It was mostly rather literal; and, where it appears surprisingly free, it is often inviting attention to relevant passages in the books of Moses.What the first scribe of the Codex wrote is transcribed uncorrected.The deliberately literal rendering...

This volume, the only full-scale commentary on 3 Maccabees in English, includes a fresh translation, an introduction, a section by section commentary, and bibliography. The author views 3 Maccabees as, in part, a narrative satire on the cult of Dionysus.

This commentary examines 4 Maccabees as a contribution to the ongoing reformulation of Jewish identity and practice in the Greek-speaking Diaspora. It analyzes the Jewish author's interaction with, and facility in, Greek rhetorical conventions, ethical philosophy, and literary culture, giving attention also to his use and interpretation of texts and traditions from the Jewish Scriptures and other Hellenistic Jewish writings. The commentary exhibits the author's skillful weaving together of all these resources to create a text that interprets the Torah-observant life as the fullest embodiment...