Never Before Available in Paperback, Louis Ginzberg's landmark seven-volume The Legends of the Jews assembles the many elaborations and embellishments of Biblical stories that flourished in the centuries following the Bible's own creation. Ginzberg devoted most of his life to gathering these legends from their original sources - written in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Syrian, Aramaic, Ethiopic, Arabic, Persian, and Old Slavic - and reproducing them completely, accurately, and vividly. He presents them in their traditional Biblical sequence and reconciles the sometimes contradictory versions of the same stories found in different sources. In addition to four volumes of the legends themselves, The Legends of the Jews includes two indispensable volumes of notes, which provide the sources for every legend, as well as a comprehensive index to the people, places, and motifs found in the legends and their sources.

Essays on Moses from Buenos Aires: Moses in Three Traditions and in Literature brings together papers presented at the International Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature’s Seminar in Biblical Characters in Three Traditions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) and in Literature. In 2015, this Meeting took place at the Pontifical Catholic University in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with the biblical character of concern being Moses, resulting in a myriad of approaches taken in understanding traditions concerning him. The Seminar has provided a forum for scholars of the three traditions and literature to express freely, and in a scholarly atmosphere, their learned opinions concerning one biblical character at each meeting. The purpose is two-fold: (1) to take advantage of the academic freedom proffered by the Seminar in a courteous, yet intensive, environment, and (2) through the proceedings volumes, to provide a growing and specialized research library on the development of learned opinions on specific biblical characters. This volume will appeal to the university and seminary scholar – both professorial and student – as well as the interested, intelligent reader.

This book about receptions of Simon Magus uncovers further facets of one who was held to be the evil archetype of heretics. Ephraim Nissan and Alberto Ferreiro explore how Simon Magus has been represented in text, visual art, and music. Special attention is devoted to the late medieval Catalan painter Lluís Borrassà and the Italian librettist and musician Arrigo Boito. The tradition of Simon Magus’ demonic flight, ending in his crashing down, first appears in the patristic literature. The book situates that flight typologically across cultures. Fascinating observations emerge, as the discussion spans flight of the wicked in rabbinic texts, flight and death of King Lear’s father and a Soviet-era Buryat Buddhist monk, flight and doom of the fool in an early modern German broadsheet, and more. The book explains and moves beyond extant scholarly wisdom on how the polemic against Mani (the founder of Manichaeism) was tinged with hues of Simon Magus. The novelty of this book is that it shows that Simon Magus’ receptions teach us a great deal about the contexts in which this archetype was deployed.