"Perhaps most of the essays in this book are substitutes for stories that I have not managed to write," says Amos Oz in the preface to Under This Blazing Light. Published for the first time in English, this collection of essays reveals the personal and political thoughts of Israel's most celebrated novelist. The essays in this volume put a unique perspective on the author's own experiences and development, and reveal a complex and deeply human figure of practical political influence as well as of significant literary stature. Oz's refreshing blend of skepticism and idealism will win for him...

The authors of the essays collected in this volume are all concerned with the Jewish transmission and use of Greek translations of the biblical books from Late Antiquity to the early modern period. It is only in recent years that the idea of such a Jewish transmission has gained acceptance, and the present volume represents the first attempt to bring together contributions from specialists in a number of areas, including not only biblical and Jewish studies but also such disciplines as epigraphy and Byzantine history and literature, to investigate a wide range of aspects of the subject. The...

This is the first book-length treatment of the reception and transmission of Greek Bible translations by Jews in the Middle Ages. It is the fruit of some 40 years' research by Nicholas de Lange, who has collected most of the evidence himself, mainly from previously unpublished manuscript sources, such as Cairo Genizah fragments. Byzantine Judaism was exceptional in possessing an unbroken tradition of Biblical translation in its own language that can be traced back to antiquity. This work sheds light not only on Byzantine Jewish life and thought, but also on such subjects as the spread of...