Constructs Of Identity In Hellenistic Judaism

This book collects twenty two previously published essays and one new one by Erich S. Gruen who has written extensively on the literature and history of early Judaism and the experience of the Jews in the Greco-Roman world. His many articles on this subject have, however, appeared mostly in conference volumes and Festschriften, and have therefore not had wide circulation. By putting them together in a single work, this will bring the essays to the attention of a much broader scholarly readership and make them more readily available to students in the fields of ancient history and early Judaism. The pieces are quite varied, but develop a number of connected and related themes: Jewish identity in the pagan world, the literary representations by Jews and pagans of one another, the interconnections of Hellenism and Judaism, and the Jewish experience under Hellenistic monarchies and the Roman empire.

"This volume assembles twenty-three essays by Erich S. Gruen, who has written extensively on the literature and history of early Judaism and the experience of the Jews in the Greco-Roman world. Twenty-two of the articles have previously been published, and one new one was composed for the volume"--Back cover.

This book collects twenty two previously published essays and one new one by Erich S. Gruen who has written extensively on the literature and history of early Judaism and the experience of the Jews in the Greco-Roman world. His many articles on this subject have, however, appeared mostly in conference volumes and Festschriften, and have therefore not had wide circulation. By putting them together in a single work, this will bring the essays to the attention of a much broader scholarly readership and make them more readily available to students in the fields of ancient history and early Judaism. The pieces are quite varied, but develop a number of connected and related themes: Jewish identity in the pagan world, the literary representations by Jews and pagans of one another, the interconnections of Hellenism and Judaism, and the Jewish experience under Hellenistic monarchies and the Roman empire.

The book addresses critical issues of the formation and development of Jewish identity in the late Second Temple period. How could Jewish identity be defined? What about the status of women and the image of 'others'? And what about its ongoing influence in early Christianity?

Jewish Paideia examines the diverse and complex views on education in the Hellenistic and early Roman Diaspora and how these understandings of education were inextricably bound to continually evolving constructions and reshapings of self- and communal identity.

This is the third volume of the projected four-volume history of the Second Temple period, collecting all that is known about the Jews from the period of the Maccabaean revolt to Hasmonean rule and Herod the Great. Based directly on primary sources, the study addresses aspects such as Jewish literary sources, economy, Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Diaspora, causes of the Maccabaen revolt, and the beginning and end of the Hasmonean kingdom and the reign of Herod the Great. Discussed in the context of the wider Hellenistic world and its history, and with an extensive up-to-date secondary bibliography, this volume is an invaluable addition to Lester Grabbe's in-depth study of the history of Judaism.

This book is the first systematic enquiry into the ways Philo saw himself as a Jew and perceived of Jewish culture in the multi-ethnic environment of first century Alexandria. Applying the theories of ethnicity and culture developed by Frederik Barth and Clifford Geertz, the book gives emphasis to the nature and dynamics of social constructs which shaped Philo's discourse and religion. Particular attention is in this context paid to his construction of others. Furthermore, Rome is for the first time taken into account as a political, cultural and religious factor which exercised an all-encompassing influence. Philo's writings are thus interpreted with a view to the question how he negotiated not two, but three main traditions, namely the Jewish, the Roman and the Greek, and how his positions integrated him into the contemporary Roman discourse. Philo''s views on these matters have important implications beyond his own figure and the Jewish community. They are crucial for a better understanding of the Hellenistic world which was in the first century to a large extent characterized by the encounter between the Greek East and the Roman West. Philo's construction of Jewish identity and culture is moreover indispensable for a proper appreciation of early Christian writers who lived in the same world and confronted very similar issues.

Judith Lieu's study explores how a sense of being a Christian was shaped within the setting of the Jewish and Graeco-Roman world. By exploring this theme she reveals what made early Christianity so distinctive and separate.