Jewish Inscriptions of Graeco-Roman Egypt


Book Description

This book collects all known Jewish inscriptions in Egypt between the third century BC and the sixth century AD. The entry on each inscription provides text, translation, bibliography and commentary. Hitherto, it has been necessary to refer to an older collection (1952, but essentially pre-war) together with a separately published revision (1964), with very limited indexing. Here the aim has been to include inscriptions not in the earlier collection, to bring together the necessary information on each inscription, and to supply full indexing. The inscriptions form a vivid primary source for Jewish history and religion.




John and Anti-Judaism


Book Description

This study argues that the Gospel of John's anti-Judaism can be well understood from the perspective of trends apparent within the context of broader Greco-Roman culture. It uses the paradigm of collective memory and aspects of social identity theory and self-categorization theory to explore the theological and narrative functions of the Johannine Jews. Relying upon a diverse range of historical testimony drawn from Greco-Roman literature, inscriptions, and papyri, this work attempts to understand the social identities and social locations of Diaspora Jews as a first step in reading John's Gospel in the context of the political and social instability of the first century CE. It then attempts to understand John's theology, its portrayal of Jewish social identity, and the narrative and theological functions of "the Jews" as a group character in light of this historical context. This work attempts to demonstrate that while John's treatment of Jews and Judaism is multivalent at both social and theological levels, it is primarily focused upon strengthening a Christologically centered Christian identity while attempting to mitigate the attractiveness of Judaism as a religious competitor.




Visualizing the Afterlife in the Tombs of Graeco-Roman Egypt


Book Description

This book explores the visual narratives of a group of decorated tombs from Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt (c.300 BCE-250 CE). The author contextualizes the tombs within their social, political, and religious context and considers how the multicultural population of Graeco-Roman Egypt chose to negotiate death and the afterlife.




Jews in a Graeco-Roman World


Book Description

This book contains studies of the social, cultural, and religious history of the Jews in the Graeco-Roman world. Some of the sixteen contributors are specialists in Jewish history, others in classics. They tackle from different angles the extent to which Jews in this period differed from other peoples in the Mediterranean region, and how much Jewish evidence can be used for the history of the wider classical world. The authors make extensive use not only of types of evidence familiar to classicists, such as inscriptions and the writing of Josephus, but also Jewish religious literature, including rabbinic texts. The various studies demonstrate that, although Jews lived to some extent apart from others and with distinctive customs, in many ways this showed the cultural presuppositions and preoccupations of their gentile contemporaries. The book aims to encourage wider use of the Jewish evidence by classicists and will be important for all students of the classical world.




Paul, Luke and the Graeco-Roman World


Book Description

The quality of contributions in this volume reflects the eminence of Sandy Wedderburn, who taught at St Andrews before moving to Durham and finally to Munich to succeed Ferdinard Hahn. The topics addressed reflect Wedderburn's interests and include a comparison of the Lord's Supper with cultic meals in Qumran and in Hellenistic cults, glossolalia in Acts, the Lukan prologue, 'new creation' in Paul, and Adam and Christ in Romans. The contributors include David Aune, Richard Bauckham, Richard Bell, James Dunn, Ferdinand Hahn, Christina Hoegen-Rohls, Robert Jewett, Hans Klein, H.-W. Kuhn, David Moessner, Stanley Porter, Heikki Raisanen, Margaret Thrall, Oda Wischmeyer and Chrisitian Wolff. This is volume 217 in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement series.




Jews in a Graeco-Roman Environment


Book Description

A collection of articles published previously.




Judaism and Crisis


Book Description

In their long history, Jews encountered political, social, cultural, and religious crises which threatened not only their very existence but Jewish identity as well. Examples for such crises include the Babylonian Exile, the so-called Hellenistic Religious reforms, the first and second Jewish war, the inquisition, and the Shoah, but also the encounter of modernity or socio-economic developments. Political, cultural, and religious crises did not coin Jewish culture, thought, and religion but forced Jews from the very beginnings of Judaism until today to rethink and shape their Jewish identity anew. This volume asks how Jews coped with events that threatened Jewish existence, culture, and religion and how they responded to them. Each crisis was different in nature and evoked hence different developments in Jewish culture, thought, and religion.




Jews and Christians in Their Graeco-Roman Context


Book Description

A collection of essays, most of which were published previously. Partial contents:




Saxa judaica loquuntur, Lessons from Early Jewish Inscriptions


Book Description

In Saxa judaica loquuntur (‘Jewish stones speak out’), Pieter W. van der Horst informs the reader about the recent boom in the study of ancient Jewish epigraphy and he demonstrates what kinds of new information this development yields. After sketching the status quaestionis, this book exemplifies the relevance of early Jewish inscriptions by means of a study of Judaism in Asia Minor on the basis of epigraphic material. It also highlights several areas of research for which this material provides us with insights that the Jewish literary sources do not grant us. Furthermore, the book contains a selection of some 50 inscriptions, in both their original languages and English translation with explanatory notes.




Early Christian Ethics in Interaction with Jewish and Greco-Roman Contexts


Book Description

In Early Christian Ethics in Interaction with Jewish and Greco-Roman Contexts experts from various fields analyze the process of transformation of early Christian ethics because of the ongoing interaction with Jewish, Greco-Roman and Christian traditions.