Most cultures have myths of origin. The Babylonians were the first to combine blocks of traditions about primeval time into primeval histories where humans had a central role. In the first millennium there were different versions that influenced the concepts of primeval history within Jewish religion, both in the Bible and in the parallel Enochic tradition. Atrahasis and the traditions of primeval dynasties had crucial impact on Genesis; the traditions of the primeval apkallus as cosmic guardians were lying behind the Enochic Watcher Story. The book offers a comprehensive analytic comparison...

In the Hellenistic period Jews regularly encountered Greek mythology in one form or another: in literature, in art, or through language. This book is the first comprehensive study of the different strategies pursued by Jewish-Hellenistic authors as they engaged with Greek myth. The principal focus of this study is on the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, but a large range of other authors from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE are also discussed. Far from limiting themselves to outright rejection, these authors often show a striking familiarity with Greek myth, which they sometimes...

The main theme of the collected essays is expressed clearly in the following statement by Eugene Ulrich in the beginning of his article: What was the state of the Pentateuch during the Second Temple period? Was it basically complete and static at the time of Ezra, or was it still developing in substantial ways? To pursue this main theme, the International Workshop on the Study of the Pentateuch with special emphasis on textual transmission history in the Hellenistic and Roman period was held on August 28-31, 2007 in Tokyo. Fifteen papers were read and discussed enthusiastically in the...

The Roman destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 was a watershed event in the religious, political, and social life of first-century Jews. This book explores the reaction to this event found in Jewish apocalypses and related literature preserved among the Pseudepigrapha (4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, 3 Baruch, 4 Baruch, Sibylline Oracles 4 and 5, and the Apocalypse of Abraham). While keeping the historical context of their composition in mind, the author analyzes the texts with a view to answering the following questions: What do these texts tell us about Jewish attitudes toward the Roman Empire? How did...

The 300 years between the beginning of Maccabean resistance against Seleucid rule and the end of the Bar Kokhba revolt were formative for the development of Jewish identity in antiquity. The frequent political changes (from Seleucid to Hasmonean, Herodian and Roman rule) presented profound challenges to Jewish self-understanding. Political adjustments were coupled with internal reconfigurations. We witness the invention and reinterpretation of rituals, the emergence of new religious groups, and the use of scripture as argument. This volume brings together the perspectives of scholars of...

This collection of essays honors James C. VanderKam on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday and twentieth year on the faculty of the University of Notre Dame. An international group of scholars--including peers specializing in Second Temple Judaism and Biblical Studies, colleagues past and present, and former students--offers essays that interact in various ways with ideas and themes important in VanderKam's own work. The collection is divided into five sections spanning two volumes. The first volume includes essays on the Hebrew Bible and ancient Near East along with studies on Qumran...

The first part of this book is an extensive verse-by-verse commentary on the Book of Jubilees. Kugel's stated aim is "to understand what the text is saying and why it is saying it," and in particular to explore the numerous bits of biblical interpretation found in Jubilees and their connection to other exegetical writings of the Second Temple period. Subsequent chapters focus on the possibility that Jubilees had more than one author, as well as on the book's specific relationship to four other Second Temple texts: the Genesis Apocryphon, the Aramaic Levi Document, 4Q225 Pseudo-Jubilees, and...

Starting from the seminal work of the French scholar Annie Jaubert on the date of the Last Supper, the present work revisits known - and identifies new - calendrical issues in the literature of Second Temple Judaism. The research supports the conclusion that all known calendrical traditions functioned on the tenet that orthopraxis in ancient Judaism meant close interconnection between cultic and agricultural cycles. From this perspective the book removes the calendrical objection leveled at the Jaubertian theory. Further, the research brings new light on current debates about Qumran...

This study analyzes the specific textual formation of Mishna Sotah. Diverging significantly from its origins in the book of Numbers, the Mishnaic ritual was traditionally read by scholars as an "ancient Mishna," narrating an actual ritual practiced in the second temple. In contrast to this generally accepted view, this book claims that while Sotah does contain some traditions, its overall composition has a clear ideological and academic form. Furthermore, comparisons with parallel Tannaitic sources reveal the ideological redaction, which carefully selected only those opinions which support...

The essays by Florentino Garcia Martinez collected in this volume reflect some of his most recent work on theological concepts as they are formed in the interpretations and in the imagination of ancient Jewish writers, and thus illuminate the nexus between philology and theology. The essays, five of which are published for the first time in English, engage a broad range of ancient Jewish texts ranging from Philo and the Dead Sea Scrolls, to Jubilees, 4 Ezra and the Targumim. Focus of the essays is the way in which ancient Jewish writers (and, in the case of 4 Ezra, Christian Renaissance...