This book analyses the data about Torah centers and rabbinic activity in Palestine during Mishnaic and Talmudic times, 70-400 CE--the Roman and early Byzantine periods. The research is an interdisciplinary inquiry. It encompasses rabbinic literature as well as archeology, geography, and sociology, thus enriching the discussion of the history and scope of rabbinic activity in the different regions of Palestine. Arranged in chronological order, the book highlights the changes generated by historical events, in particular the relocation of rabbinic centers following the upheaval of the Bar...

This study analyzes mythic narratives, found in the 8th century midrashic text Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer (PRE), that were excluded, or 'repressed', from the rabbinic canon, while preserved in the Pseudepigrapha of the Second Temple period. Examples include the role of the Samael (i.e. Satan) in the Garden of Eden, the myth of the Fallen Angels, Elijah as zealot, and Jonah as a Messianic figure. The questions are why these exegetical traditions were excluded, in what context did they resurface, and how did the author have access to these apocryphal texts. The book addresses the assumptions that...

The present book brings together the contributions of the foremost specialists on the relationship of the New Testament and Rabbinic Literature. It contains the proceedings of a Symposium held at the K.U.Leuven in January 2006. The contributors, from different European countries as well as from Israel, present in detail the history of rabbinical scholarship by Christian scholars and deal with the main issues in the study of rabbinic materials. As could be expected, much attention is given to halakhic issues, but literary questions in Midrash, Targum and Mystical Literature are also dealt...

An accurate picture of ancient religious studies: all papers stress historiography, anthropological history, and philology. Topics range from Mesopotamia to Christianism and rabbinic Judaism. The result is to offer an ambitious and comparatist status quaestionis for today.

These essays span about a third of a century and include both previously published and some unpublished studies by Robert A. Kraft which focus on interfaces between Jewish materials and the worlds in which they were transmitted and/or perceived, especially Christian contexts. The initial section on general context and methodology is followed by several detailed studies by way of example. The final section touches on some related issues involving Philonic and other texts. The primary concern is with "scripturesque" materials and traditions, whether they later became canonical or not, that seem...

Starting his career as a scholar of the New Testament, Sean Freyne's work became synonymous with the study of Galilee in the Greek and Roman periods. His search for a deeper and more nuanced understanding of Judaism in the Greek and Roman periods and the development of the early Christian movement has led him to interface with scholars in many related disciplines. In order to do justice to the breadth of Sean Freyne's interests, this volume includes contributions from scholars in the fields of Archaeology, Ancient History, Classics, Hebrew Bible, Early Judaism, Rabbinic Judaism, Early...

How did ancient Jewish authors claim authority for their interpretations? How, after the "end of prophecy," could they claim the authority of revelation? Whom did one have to be, or aspire to be, in order to merit authority? Hindy Najman addresses these questions through close readings of ancient Jewish texts, e.g., Ezra-Nehemiah, Philo of Alexandria, 4Ezra, Dead Sea Scrolls, and Jubilees. In Seconding Sinai (Brill, 2003), Najman reconceived pseudepigraphy, developing the idea of a Mosaic discourse that comprised a series of ancient texts attributed to Moses. Here she develops the broader...

Is there a future after death and what does this future look like? What kind of life can we expect, and in what kind of world? Is there another, hopefully better world than the one we live in? The articles collected in this volume, all written by leading experts in the field, deal with the question how ancient Jewish and Christian authors describe "otherworldly places and situations." They investigate why various forms of texts were created to address the questions above, how these texts functioned, and how they have to be understood. It is shown how ancient descriptions of the "otherworld"...

The normative rhetoric of tannaitic literature (the earliest extant corpus of rabbinic Judaism) is predominantly deontological. Prior scholarship on rabbinic supererogation, and on points of contact with Greco-Roman virtue discourse, has identified non-deontological aspects of tannaitic normativity. However, these two frameworks overlook precisely the productive intersection of deontological with non-deontological, the first because supererogation defines itself against obligation, and the second because the Greco-Roman comparate discourages serious treatment of law-like elements. This book...

In Jewish Ethnic Identity and Relations in Hellenistic Egypt, Stewart Moore investigates the foundations of common assumptions about ethnicity. To maintain one's identity in a strange land, was it always necessary to band tightly together with one's coethnics? Sociologists and anthropologists who study ethnicity have given us a much wider view of the possible strategies of ethnic maintenance and interaction. The most important facet of Jewish ethnicity in Egypt which emerges from this study is the interaction over the Jewish-Egyptian boundary. Previous scholarship has assumed that this...