Galilee in the Late Second Temple and Mishnaic Periods, Volume 1


Book Description

Drawing on the expertise of archaeologists, historians, biblical scholars, and social-science interpreters who have devoted a significant amount of time and energy in the research of ancient Galilee, this accessible volume includes modern general studies of Galilee and of Galilean history, as well as specialized studies on taxation, ethnicity, religious practices, road systems, trade and markets, education, health, village life, houses, and the urban-rural divide. This resource includes a rich selection of images, figures, charts, and maps.




Galilee in the Late Second Temple and Mishnaic Periods, Volume 2


Book Description

This second of two volumes on Galilee in the Late Second Temple and Mishnaic Periods focuses on the site excavations of towns and villages and what these excavations may tell us about the history of settlement in this important period. The important site at Sepphoris is treated with four short articles, while the rest of the articles focus on a single site and include site plans, diagrams, maps, photographs of artifacts and structures, and extensive bibliographic listings. The articles in the volume have been written by an international group of experts on Galilee in this period: Christians, Jews, and secular scholars, many of whom are also regular participants in the twenty site excavations featured in the volume. The volume also features detailed maps of Galilee, a gallery of color images, timelines related to the period, and helpful indices. Together with Volume 1: Life, Culture, and Society, this volume provides the latest word of these topics for the expert and nonexpert alike.




Excavating the Land of Jesus


Book Description

How do archaeologists unearth the daily life of people from Jesus’s time? Contrary to popular belief, archaeology of first-century Roman Galilee is not about illustrating or proving the Gospels, drawing timelines, or hunting treasure. Rather, it is about understanding the lives of people, just like us, who lived in the time of Jesus. How do we understand Jesus and his mission as part of a larger world? How do we interpret material culture alongside textual evidence from the Gospels? How do we know where and how to dig? James Riley Strange teaches students how to address these problems in this essential textbook. Drawing on professional experience as a scientific archaeologist in Israel, Strange explains current methodology for ground surveying, excavating evidence, and interpreting data. Excavating the Land of Jesus is the ideal guide for students seeking answers in the dirt of the Holy Land.




The Significance of Yavneh and Other Essays in Jewish Hellenism


Book Description

This volume collects thirty essays by Shaye J.D. Cohen. First published between 1980 and 2006, these essays deal with a wide variety of themes and texts: Jewish Hellenism; Josephus; the Synagogue; Conversion to Judaism; Blood and Impurity; the boundary between Judaism and Christianity. What unites them is their philological orientation. Many of these essays are close studies of obscure passages in Jewish and Christian texts. The essays are united too by their common assumption that the ancient world was a single cultural continuum; that ancient Judaism, in all its expressions and varieties, was a Hellenism; and that texts written in Hebrew share a world of discourse with those written in Greek. Many of these essays are well-known and have been much discussed in contemporary scholarship. Among these are: The Significance of Yavneh (the title essay), Patriarchs and Scholarchs, Masada: Literary Tradition, Archaeological Remains, and the Credibility of Josephus, Epigraphical Rabbis, The Conversion of Antoninus, Menstruants and the Sacred in Judaism and Christianity, and A Brief History of Jewish Circumcision Blood.




Bar Kokhba


Book Description

This biography of the ancient Jewish military leader examines how he mounted a years-long revolt against Rome that changed the course of history. In AD 132, a bloody struggle began between two determined leaders over who would rule Judea. One was the powerful Roman Emperor Hadrian, who some regarded as divine. The other was Shim’on—known today as Bar Kokhba—a Jewish military commander in a district of a minor province, who some believed to be the ‘King Messiah’. In Bar Kokhba, ancient historian Lindsay Powell examines the clash between these two men, and the two ancient cultures they represented. In the ensuing conflict, the Jewish militia resisted the onslaught of the professional Roman army for three-and-a-half years. They established an independent nation with its own administration, headed by Shim’on as its president. The outcome of that David and Goliath contest was of great consequence, both for the people of Judaea and for Judaism itself. Drawing on archaeology, art, coins, inscriptions, militaria, as well as secular and religious documents, Lindsay Powell sheds light on Bar Kokhba’s singular life and legacy. She also describes her personal journey across three continents to establish the facts.




The Literature of the Sages


Book Description

This volume abandons the document-based approach of standard introductions and investigates aggregates of classical rabbinic texts through three broad perspectives – intertextuality, east and west, halakhah and aggadah – generating fresh insights that will reset the scholarly agenda.







The Memory of the Temple and the Making of the Rabbis


Book Description

When the rabbis composed the Mishnah in the late second or early third century C.E., the Jerusalem Temple had been destroyed for more then a century. Why, then, do the Temple and its ritual feature so prominently in the Mishnah? Against the view that the rabbis were reacting directly to the destruction and asserting that nothing had changed, Naftali S. Cohn argues that the memory of the Temple served a political function for the rabbis in their own time. They described the Temple and its ritual in a unique way that helped to establish their authority within the context of Roman dominance. At the time the Mishnah was created, the rabbis were not the only ones talking extensively about the Temple: other Judaeans (including followers of Jesus), Christians, and even Roman emperors produced texts and other cultural artifacts centered on the Jerusalem Temple. Looking back at the procedures of Temple ritual, the rabbis created in the Mishnah a past and a Temple in their own image, which lent legitimacy to their claim to be the only authentic purveyors of Jewish tradition and the traditional Jewish way of life. Seizing on the Temple, they sought to establish and consolidate their own position of importance within the complex social and religious landscape of Jewish society in Roman Palestine.




A Companion to Late Ancient Jews and Judaism


Book Description

An innovative approach to the study of ten centuries of Jewish culture and history A Companion to Late Ancient Jews and Judaism explores the Jewish people, their communities, and various manifestations of their religious and cultural expressions from the third century BCE to the seventh century CE. Presenting a collection of 30 original essays written by noted scholars in the field, this companion provides an expansive examination of ancient Jewish life, identity, gender, sacred and domestic spaces, literature, language, and theological questions throughout late ancient Jewish history and historiography. Editors Gwynn Kessler and Naomi Koltun-Fromm situate the volume within Late Antiquity, enabling readers to rethink traditional chronological, geographic, and political boundaries. The Companion incorporates a broad methodology, drawing from social history, material history and culture, and literary studies to consider the diverse forms and facets of Jews and Judaism within multiple contexts of place, culture, and history. Divided into five parts, thematically-organized essays discuss topics including the spaces where Jews lived, worked, and worshiped, Jewish languages and literatures, ethnicities and identities, and questions about gender and the body central to Jewish culture and Judaism. Offering original scholarship and fresh insights on late ancient Jewish history and culture, this unique volume: Offers a one-volume exploration of “second temple,” “Greco-Roman,” and “rabbinic” periods and sources Explores Jewish life across most of the geographic places where Jews or Judaeans were known to have lived Features original maps of areas cited in every essay, including maps of Jewish settlement throughout Late Antiquity Includes an outline of major historical events, further readings, and full references A Companion to Late Ancient Jews and Judaism: 3rd Century BCE - 7th Century CE is a valuable resource for students, instructors, and scholars of Jewish studies, religion, literature, and ethnic identity, as well as general readers with interest in Jewish history, world religions, Classics, and Late Antiquity.