This work deals with the Jewish warfare in the Hellenistic and Roman Antiquity from the point of view of the religious rites which, for the Ancients, were a necessary part of all social activity. The author rejects the traditional concept of "Holy War" and prefers to emphasise the diversity of representations of war in the Judaism of the Second Temple. The book deals with questions linked to the status of warriors and priests who were involved in war with regard to purity laws. It analyses the rituals specific to military operations. It deals with the Sabbath, with the war oracle of the ourim...

This book suggests a new approach to the social history of Jewish religious movements in the Second Temple and early Rabbinic periods. It argues that most of these movements and their traditions emerged within the context of complex interaction between traditional families and disciple circles.

The encounter between interpretation and history in the writings of Josephus provides the conceptual framework for this collection of essays. The contributions in this volume, which were presented at an international colloquium entitled "Josephus: Interpretation and History" held in Dublin in 2004, are united, not by a single view of Josephus, but by the question of historical method, both ancient and modern. These essays take up aspects of a problem basic to all researchers who would use Josephus for historical purposes, namely: What is the relationship between narratives and history?...

This publication on the Jewish community of Rome in ancient times provides interesting information about the development of the Jewish presence in the Capital of the Roman Empire and the cultural links this community created with the Diaspora and Eretz-Israel.

This book provides an overview of the current debate about the early Enoch literature and its place in ancient Judaism, especially in relation to the Torah of Moses and to the Dead Sea Scrolls.

This volume considers a major shift among Jewish sages during the Second Temple period, from an earthly to an otherworldly focus. It compares the perspectives of figures like Qoheleth and Ben Sira with the eschatological vision of 4QInstruction.

This book offers a fresh understanding of how Isaiah was translated into Greek, arguing that the translator attempted a cohesive representation of Isaiah for his Greek-speaking co-religionists, utilizing interpretative ploys applied to Homer by the Alexandrian grammatikoi.

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.