The Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism
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The Dictionary of Early Judaism is the first reference work devoted exclusively to Second Temple Judaism (fourth century b.c.e. through second century c.e.). The first section of this substantive and incredible work contains thirteen major essays that attempt to synthesize major aspects of Judaism in the period between Alexander and Hadrian. The second ? and significantly longer ? section offers 520 entries arranged alphabetically. Many of these entries have cross-references and all have select bibliographies. Equal attention is given to literary and nonliterary (i.e. archaeological and epigraphic) evidence and New Testament writings are included as evidence for Judaism in the first century c.e. Several entries also give pertinent information on the Hebrew Bible. The Dictionary of Early Judaism is intended to not only meet the needs of scholars and students ? at which it succeeds admirably ? but also to provide accessible information for the general reader. It is ecumenical and international in character, bringing together nearly 270 authors from as many as twenty countries and including Jews, Christians, and scholars of no religious affiliation.
Outside the Bible, 3-Volume Set
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The Hebrew Bible is only part of ancient Israel's writings. Another collection of Jewish works has survived from late- and post-biblical times, a great library that bears witness to the rich spiritual life of Jews in that period. This library consists of the most varied sorts of texts: apocalyptic visions and prophecies, folktales and legends, collections of wise sayings, laws and rules of conduct, commentaries on Scripture, ancient prayers, and much, much more. While specialists have studied individual texts or subsections of this vast library, Outside the Bible seeks for the first time to bring together all the major components into a single collection, gathering portions of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Septuagint, the biblical Apocrypha, and Pseudepigrapha, and the writings of Philo of Alexandria and Josephus. The editors have brought together these diverse works in order to highlight what has often been neglected; their common Jewish background. For this reason the commentaries that accompany the texts devote special attention to references to Hebrew Scripture and to issues of halakhah (Jewish law), their allusions to motifs and themes known from later Rabbinic writings in Talmud and Midrash, their evocation of recent or distant events in Jewish history, and their references to other texts in this collection. The work of more than seventy contributing experts in a range of fields, Outside the Bible offers new insights into the development of Judaism and Early Christianity. This three-volume set of translations, introductions, and detailed commentaries is a must-have for scholars, students, and anyone interested in this great body of ancient Jewish writings. The collection includes a general introduction and opening essays, new and revised translations, and detailed introductions, commentaries, and notes that place each text in its historical and cultural context. A timeline of the Second Temple Period, two appendixes (Books of the Bible; Second Temple Literature), and a general subject index complete the set.
Philo: in ten volumes (and two supplementary volumes)
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Syncretistic exegesis. The philosopher Philo was born about 20 BC to a prominent Jewish family in Alexandria, the chief home of the Jewish Diaspora as well as the chief center of Hellenistic culture; he was trained in Greek as well as Jewish learning. In attempting to reconcile biblical teachings with Greek philosophy he developed ideas that had wide influence on Christian and Jewish religious thought. The Loeb Classical Library edition of the works of Philo is in ten volumes and two supplements, distributed as follows. Volume I: Creation; Interpretation of Genesis II and III. II: On the Cherubim; The Sacrifices of Abel and Cain; The Worse Attacks the Better; The Posterity and Exile of Cain; On the Giants. III: The Unchangeableness of God; On Husbandry; Noah's Work as a Planter; On Drunkenness; On Sobriety. IV: The Confusion of Tongues; The Migration of Abraham; The Heir of Divine Things; On the Preliminary Studies. V: On Flight and Finding; Change of Names; On Dreams. VI: Abraham; Joseph; Moses. VII: The Decalogue; On Special Laws Books I-III. VIII: On Special Laws Book IV; On the Virtues; Rewards and Punishments. IX: Every Good Man Is Free; The Contemplative Life; The Eternity of the World; Against Flaccus; Apology for the Jews; On Providence. X: On the Embassy to Gaius; indexes. Supplement I: Questions on Genesis. II: Questions on Exodus; index to supplements.
Philo of Alexandria: on Cultivation: Introduction, Translation and Commentary
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The Jewish exegete and philosopher Philo of Alexandria has long been famous for his allegorical treatises on the Greek Bible. The present volume contains the first translation and commentary in English on his treatise De agricultura (On cultivation), which gives an elaborate allegorical interpretation of Genesis 9:20. Noah's role as a cultivator is analysed in terms of the ethical and spiritual quest of the soul making progress towards its goal. The translation renders Philo's baroque Greek into readable modern English. The commentary pays particular attention to the treatise's structure, its biblical basis and its exegetical and philosophical contents. The volume will be valuable for the insights it gives into an unusual but highly influential method of biblical interpretation.
Philo's Flaccus: The First Pogrom: Introduction, Translation and Commentary
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This book is the first English commentary on Philo s In Flaccum since the publication of Box in 1939. The work contains an introduction in which matters of genre, historical background, the textual evidence etc. are discussed. This is followed by a new English translation of the Greek text. The main part of the book is a detailed philological and historical commentary on Philo s text. Since In Flaccum is our only source for the anti-Jewish pogrom in Alexandria in the year 38 CE, it is of the utmost significance for the study of the origins and early history of antisemitism. The book is of interests for scholars of Judaism, Ancient History, Biblical Studies, Classical Literature, and History of Religions.
Philo of Alexandria's Exposition of the Tenth Commandment
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As part of a larger exposition on the Ten Commandments, Philo offers in Spec.4.78b-131 a detailed exposition of both the Tenth Commandment, which he reads simply as You shall not desire, and the Mosaic dietary laws, which he identifies as a distinct set of subsidiary laws designed to promote observance of the Tenth Commandment. Setting his exposition in the context of Middle-Platonic moral psychology, this dissertation answers two fundamental questions: First, what, in Philo's view, does the Tenth Commandment prohibit? (All desire? A certain type? What type?) Second, how, in Philo's view, is the Tenth Commandment observed? (What are the mechanics of its observance? What role do the dietary laws play in its observance?)
God's Acting, Man's Acting
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The topic tackled in this book is that of the double face nature of God's acting: the two-sided coin of God as transcendent and immanent, unknowable and revealed, immobile and, at the same time, a maker; the two sides of the notion of acting in humans who, attempting to imitate God, contemplate and produce. In both contexts, divine and human, it would not be proper to give precedence either to one or to the other: the result would be barren. God's acting and man's acting are, at the same time, speculative and practical, and it is precisely out of their copresence that the order of the world unfolds.
Italian Studies on Philo of Alexandria
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The essays collected in Italian Studies on Philo of Alexandria give an overview of the main trends of current Italian research on Philo of Alexandria, making much of this research accessible for the first time in the English language. Over the past few years, there has been renewed interest in Italy in research on Philo. Philo s thought can best be addressed in a multidisciplinary study to examine its complexity and its implications. The essays in the volume are accordingly approached from various perspectives: historical, linguistic, philological, and philosophical.
Jewish Cult and Hellenistic Culture
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This is a collection of 12 essays, written since 1997, on themes related to Hellenistic (Greek-speaking) Judaism. They include a review essay on recent scholarship on Hellenistic Judaism, a discussion of the question of anti-Semitism in antiquity, a study of the Hellenistic reform in Jerusalem, several studies of individual texts and an essay on the circumstances that led to the first Jewish revolt against Rome.
One God, One Law
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This book studies the influence of Hellenism and Greco-Roman philosophy on Philo of Alexandrias view of the Mosaic law. In particular, the book examines how Philo integrated Greco-Roman conceptions of law, such as Unwritten Law, the Law of Nature, and the Living Law," into his understanding of the Mosaic law of the Jews and the lives of the Patriarchs. Philo transformed Greco-Roman law and shaped it into something peculiar to a Jewish understanding of the cosmos and its creation by one God. Martens examines Philos creativity in adapting Greco-Roman law to create something new in the annals of philosophy and the apologetic purposes his new philosophy served for Judaism."
Past Renewals
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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 notion of a discourse tied to a founder, situating practices of pseudepigraphy and authoritative interpretation within a variety of ways of seeking perfection in ancient Judaism.
Philo's Scriptures - Citations from the Prophets and Writings
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Philo's rare citations from the Prophets and Writings shed light on the nature of his sources, and the specific quotations from the Prophets provide evidence for the existence, already in the 1st century CE, of an important traditional Haftarah Cycle
Philo of Alexandria
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Philo (20BCE?-45CE?) is the most illustrious son of Alexandrian Jewry and the first major scholar to combine a deep Jewish learning with Greek philosophy. His unique allegorical exegesis of the Greek Bible was to have a profound influence on the early fathers of the Church. Philo was, above all, a philosopher, but he was also intensely practical in his defence of the Jewish faith and law in general, and that of Alexandria's embattled Jewish community in particular. A famous example was his leadership of a perilous mission to plead the community's cause to Emperor Caligula. This monograph provides a guide to Philo's life, his thought and his action, as well as his continuing influence on theological and philosophical thought.
Philo of Alexandria and Post-Aristotelian Philosophy
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The essays collected in this volume focus on the role played by the philosophy of the Hellenistic, or post-Aristotelian age (from the school of the successors of Aristotle, Theophrastus and other Peripatetics, Epicurus, Sceptical Academy and Stoicism, to neo-Pythagorenism and the schools of Antiochus and Eudorus) in Philo of Alexandria s works. Despite many authoritative studies on Philo's vision of Greek philosophy as an exegetical tool in allegorizing the Scripture, there is not such a comprehensive overview in Philo s treatises that takes in account both the progress achieved in the recent interpretation of Hellenistic philosophy and analysis of ancient doxographical literature.
Pontius Pilate in History and Interpretation
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This study reconstructs the life of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor responsible for the execution of Jesus. The first section provides the historical and archaeological background. The following chapters look at six first-century authors: Philo, Josephus and the four gospel writers. Each chapter asks how Pilate is being used as a literary character in each work, why each author describes Pilate in a different way, and what this tells us about the relationship between each author and the Roman state.
Reading Philo
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Guidebook par excellence to a significant ancient Jewish scholar A contemporary of both Jesus and the apostle Paul, Philo was a prolific Jewish theologian, philosopher, and politician -- a fascinating, somewhat enigmatic figure -- who lived his entire life in Alexandria, Egypt. His many books are important sources for our understanding of ancient Judaism, early Christianity, and the philosophical currents of that time. Reading Philo is an excellent introductory guide to Philo's work and significance. The contributors -- all well-known experts on Philo of Alexandria -- discuss Philo in context, offer methodological considerations (how best to study Philo), and explore Philo's ongoing relevance and value (why reading him is important). This practical volume will be an indispensable resource for anyone delving into Philo and his world.
Strangers in the Light
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The author of the present work wants to throw new light on the intended readers of 1 Peter by investigating what it could possibly mean that they were to live as Strangers in the Light. It is argued that the author of 1 Peter considers his readers as living a life influenced by social circumstances very much comparable to those of the Diaspora proselytes to Judaism. Hence similar discussions in Jewish Diaspora works can illuminate his descriptions and exhortations. Among these Diaspora works, the works of Philo of Alexandria should be drawn into the discussions in a much more comprehensive way than has been done so far. In addition to a study of the role of Silvanus in the making of the letter, this volume contains four studies that carry out what the author calls 'philonic readings' of central issues of 1 Peter 2,5-11. The study will demonstrate the usefulness of Jewish diaspora works for understanding the social life of the early Christians.
The Word Is near You
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The study deals with a difficult and much-debated text in Paul's Letter to the Romans, 9:30-10:21. The study in particular analyses Paul'suse and interpretation of Deuteronomy 30:12-14 in Romans 10:4-17. Scholars have characterized Paul's exegesis here as idiosyncratic, fanciful, baffling, and arbitrary. By a comparison with Jewish writings near Paul in time, such as the writings of Philo of Alexandria and Baruch, the thesis is argued that Paul's treatment of Deuteronomy 30:12-14 can be located within Jewish exegetical method, expository structure, terminology as well as content and context. In comparison with Baruch and Philo, it has been shown that Paul'shandling of Deuteronomy 30:12-14 can be placed within a Jewish context as to the way the biblical quotations are rendered. The thesis is substantiated that Paul's expository rendering of Deuteronomy 30:12-14 follows the method of exegetical paraphrase of a biblical quotation. So, in comparison with Baruch and Philo, Paul's interpretative rendering of Deuteronomy 30:12-14 falls within a form of exposition, in which words, phrases and sentences from the Old Testament quotation are either repeated or replaced by interpretative terms and supplemented with other qualifying terms. Thus, Paul'schristological exposition of Deut 30:12-14 can be located within the method of exegetical paraphrase, with a parallel in Baruch's application of this OT Scripture to the personified 'Wisdom'.
