Bart Ehrman--the New York Times bestselling author of Misquoting Jesus and a recognized authority on the early Christian Church--and Zlatko Plese--a foremost authority on Christian Gnosticism--here of
In The Institution of the Hasmonean High Priesthood, Vasile Babota offers an interdisciplinary study of the historical process (167–140 B.C.E.), which led to the establishment of the Hasmonean rebelli
This volume includes a new translation and a detailed verse-by-verse commentary, which touches upon philological, literary, and historical questions. The extensive introduction discusses the work's da
This volume covers a wide range of topics around 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch, two Jewish apocalypses of the first century CE, including their place of origin and their similarities with the Qumran literature,
Journey inside the pages of Scripture to meet a personal God who enters individual lives and begins a creative work from the inside out. Shaped with the individual in mind, Immersion Bible Studies enc
The Apocalypse of Abraham is a vital source for understanding both Jewish apocalypticism and mysticism. Written anonymously soon after the destruction of the Second Jerusalem Temple, the text envisions heaven as the true place of worship and depicts Abraham as an initiate of celestial priesthood. Andrei A. Orlov focuses on the central rite of the Abraham story – the scapegoat ritual that receives a striking eschatological reinterpretation in the text. He demonstrates that the development of the sacerdotal traditions in the Apocalypse of Abraham, along with a cluster of Jewish mystical motifs, represents an important transition from Jewish apocalypticism to the symbols of early Jewish mysticism. In this way, Orlov offers unique insight into the complex world of the Jewish sacerdotal debates in the early centuries of the Common Era. The book will be of interest to scholars of early Judaism and Christianity, Old Testament studies, and Jewish mysticism and magic.
Patterson (religious and ethical studies, Willamette U., Oregon) explores controversies surrounding the Gospel of Thomas since it was discovered with the Dead Sea Scrolls, and what various scholars ha
In The Genizah Psalms David M. Stec presents an edition of the Hebrew text of MS 798 of the Antonin Collection together with an English translation, introduction, commentary and analysis of language.
In The Slavonic Texts of 2 Enoch, Grant Macaskill publishes the manuscript evidence for this important pseudepigraphon in a format that allows synoptic comparison of the variants, along with a critica
A New Reading of the Animal Apocalypse of 1 Enoch offers a full theological analysis of this second-century BCE allegory and uses this as the basis for a new commentary on the text, presented in a fre
Two of the 15 texts were printed during the 18th century in Armenian, says Stone (emeritus, comparative religion and Armenian studies, Hebrew U. of Jerusalem), but this is the first publication of the
In "Abraham in the Book of Jubilees," Jacques van Ruiten offers a systematic analysis of one of the most important and extensive Second Temple Jewish treatments of the figure of Abraham (Jub. 11:14-23
These accounts of the Maccabean revolt, by which the sons of Mattathias reclaimed the temple of Jerusalem, tell an important story of the founding of the Jewish people. “The Hammerers” is the meaning
Jews have sometimes been reluctant to claim Jesus as one of their own; Christians have often been reluctant to acknowledge the degree to which Jesus' message and mission were at home amidst, and shape
Francois Bovon and Christopher Matthews utilize manuscript evidence gathered within the last half-century to provide a new translation of the apocryphal Acts of Philip. Discovered by Bovon in 1974 at
The Gospel of Thomas -- found in 1945 -- has been described as "without question the most significant Christian book discovered in modern times." Often Thomas is seen as a special independent witness
