Emil Schürer's Geschichte des judischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi, originally published in German between 1874 and 1909 and in English between 1885 and 1891, is a critical presentation of Jewish history, institutions, and literature from 175 B.C. to A.D. 135. It has rendered invaluable services to scholars for nearly a century. The present work offers a fresh translation and a revision of the entire subject-matter. The bibliographies have been rejuvenated and supplemented; the sources are presented according to the latest scholarly editions; and all the new archaeological, epigraphical, numismatic and literary evidence, including the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bar Kokhba documents, has been introduced into the survey. Account has also been taken of the progress in historical research, both in the classical and Jewish fields. This work reminds students of the profound debt owed to nineteenth-century learning, setting it within a wider framework of contemporary knowledge, and provides a foundation on which future historians of Judaism in the age of Jesus may build.

This work traces the development of the term and category of the goy from the Bible to rabbinic literature.

Emil Schürer's Geschichte des judischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi, originally published in German between 1874 and 1909 and in English between 1885 and 1891, is a critical presentation of Jewish history, institutions, and literature from 175 B.C. to A.D. 135. It has rendered invaluable services to scholars for nearly a century. The present work offers a fresh translation and a revision of the entire subject-matter. The bibliographies have been rejuvenated and supplemented; the sources are presented according to the latest scholarly editions; and all the new archaeological, epigraphical, numismatic and literary evidence, including the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bar Kokhba documents, has been introduced into the survey. Account has also been taken of the progress in historical research, both in the classical and Jewish fields. This work reminds students of the profound debt owed to nineteenth-century learning, setting it within a wider framework of contemporary knowledge, and provides a foundation on which future historians of Judaism in the age of Jesus may build.

Ancient evidence reveals that the earliest, written translation of the Bible in Greek was completed in Alexandria in 281 BCE, probably by seventy-one scholars, invited especially from Judaea by Ptolemy II. The work was organised by Demetrius of Phalerum, the trusted librarian of Ptolemy II, and the translation was made despite Jewish opposition and the project's high cost. Ptolemy wanted the translation to increase his famous library, to attract scholars to Alexandria and to start his reign with an impressive event. The date of the translation, early in the reign of Ptolemy II, shows that the library was built by Ptolemy Lagus, and that Demetrius of Phalerum was first placed in charge.

Critical presentation of the whole evidence concerning Jewish history, institutions, and literature from 175 BC to AD 135; with updated bibliographies.

This book is the first full presentation of the 'Apocryphon of Ezekiel', the name given to five fragmentary apocryphal texts attributed to the prophet Ezekiel, and preserved only in quotations by early Christian writers and one of the Chester Beatty papyri. After a brief introduction to the apocryphon and many other Ezekiel traditions of early Judaism, including the partially published Second Ezekiel material from Qumran, the history of research on the Apocryphon as a whole and on each of the fragments is detailed. The body of the book consists of the presentation of each of the witnesses to the five fragments, along with a discussion of the transmission history of each saying. The final chapter makes the case for the existence of a Jewish Apocryphon of Ezekiel which was composed in either Greek or Hebrew around the turn of the era, and which was known, and quoted, by several early Christian writers. This monograph thus provides scholars of Early Judaism and Early Christianity with another important witness for the reconstruction of the wide variety of Early Jewish thought, and for understanding the continuing influence and appropriation of Jewish apocryphal traditions in the Early Christian world.

This insightful volume represents the “hands-on” experience in the world of academia of two Jewish scholars, one of Orthodox background and the other a convert to the Jewish faith. As a series of separate but interrelated essays, it approaches multiple issues touching both the historical Jesus (himself a pious Jew) and the modern phenomenon of Messianic Judaism. It bridges the gap between the typically isolated disciplines of Jewish and Christian scholarship and forges a fresh level of understanding across religious boundaries. It delves into such issues as the nature and essence of Jesus’ message (pietistic, militant or something of a hybrid), and whether Messianic Jews should be welcome in the larger Jewish community. Its ultimate challenge is to view sound scholarship as a means of bringing together disparate faith traditions around a common academic table. Serious research of the “great Nazarene” becomes interfaith discourse.