Drawing together two divergent approaches to 4 Ezra, this book combines a fresh analysis of the dialogues as a wisdom debate with a literary-psychological interpretation of the book, arguing that the authora (TM)s theological solution is found in the symbolic visions.

This book argues that Aramaic scribes from antiquity drew upon a common legal tradition. It identifies the distinctive elements that form the core of this tradition and traces their antecedents within the cuneiform record.

This collection of articles is representative of my work over the last decade. It centers on the interrelated themes of translation, social location, and transmission of tradition in a wide range of early Jewish texts.

For the majority of scholars, the Animal Apocalypse is a militant text, a piece of pro-Maccabean propaganda. This text, however, develops theological reflections that are distinctly different from a justification of an armed struggle. Its themes are even incompatible with the Maccabean movement. It is impossible to condemn the Second Temple and, at the same time, mobilise people for a fight in order to purify that very Temple. After dealing with text-critical issues, this work challenges the thesis that the text is military propaganda through the use of narrative and historical...

Altogether 46 essays in honour of Professor Raija Sollamo contribute to explore various aspects of the rich textual material around the turn of the era. At that time Scripture was not yet fixed; various writings and collections of writings were considered authoritative but their form was more or less in transition. The appearance of the first biblical translations are part of this transitional process. The Septuagint in particular provides us evidence and concrete examples of those textual traditions and interpretations that were in use in various communities. Furthermore, several biblical...

History and literature come together in a new way in this study of the midrashic collection Pesikta deRav Kahana. The book combines the findings of rabbinic historians and early Christianity scholars with a close reading of this midrashic text on its own and in relation to the tannaitic midrashim which preceded it. The rich picture that emerges suggests that PRK, in its new homiletical and aggadic stance, develops a religious language more appealing and accessible to the masses, an outreach language meant to win rabbinic popularity. Exploring issues of power and rhetoric, the book also places...

Almost all scholars have viewed the book of Jubilees as the work of a single author, applying to the book methods of analysis determined primarily by its literary genre, Rewritten Bible. This study suggests a new approach, in light of numerous contradictions between the rewritten stories on the one hand, and the juxtaposed legal passages and chronological framework on the other. It is suggested here that the editor of Jubilees adopted extant reworked sources, and added his own legal and chronological framework. This proposed literary-critical method is highly significant for the study of the...

The book deals with leisure, pleasure and healing at the thermo-mineral sites in the Levant since the biblical era throughout the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and early Muslim periods. It looks closely at the question of whether the spas, which are models for social interaction between pagans, Christians and Jews, served as sacred cult places or popular sites of healing. The main objectives of the book are as follows: - Clarifying the leisure-time activities at the spas based on Classical and Rabbinic literature, pilgrims' travel-books, Syriac and Arabic texts, the Geniza fragments,...

An imperial adjudication against the Jews prompted the riots of 38 CE in Alexandria. The Roman prefect and the Alexandrian citizenry acted within their institutional roles to the effect that most of the Jews lost their legal residence for good.

This monograph interprets the theme of election in the book of Sirach. Previous scholarship has often understood Ben Sira's worldview to be dualistic, and has approached the sage's correlation of Wisdom and Torah as either a nationalization of Wisdom or a universalization of Torah. By probing Ben Sira's ideas about election, this book suggests that Ben Sira does not collapse the traditional sapiential dichotomy wisdom/folly into a dualistic worldview, and that his understanding of the relation between Wisdom and Torah proves to be far more subtle than previous interpretations have allowed....