When Judaism Lost The Temple

This book presents a study of religious thought in two Jewish apocalypses, 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch, written as a response to the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple by the Romans in 70 CE. The true nature of the crisis is the perceived loss of covenantal relationship between God and Israel, and the Jewish identity that is under threat. Discussions of various aspects of thought, including those conventionally termed theodicy, particularism and universalism, anthropology and soteriology, are subordinated under and contextualized within the larger issue of how the ancient authors propose to mend the traditional Deuteronomic covenantal theology now under crisis. Both 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch advocate a two-pronged solution of Torah and eschatology at the centre of their scheme to restore that covenant relationship in the absence of the Temple. Both maintain the Mosaic tradition as the bulwark for Israel's future survival and revival. Whereas 4 Ezra aims to implant its eschatology into the Sinaitic tradition and make it part of the Mosaic Law, 2 Baruch extends the Deuteronomic scheme of reward and retribution into an eschatological context, making the rewards of the end-time a solution to the cycle of sins and punishments of this age. Considerable emphases are also placed on the significance of the portrayals of the pseudonymous protagonists, Ezra and Baruch, the use of symbolism in the two texts as scriptural exegesis, as well as their relationship with each other and links with the Hebrew Bible and other Jewish and Christian writings.

God's Gold charts the fate of the greatest religious treasure in history, the central icons of the Jewish faith - looted from the Temple of Jerusalem. The golden candelabrum, silver trumpets and bejewelled Table of the Divine Presence were ransacked by the Roman emperor Vespasian and his son, Titus, in AD 70. Cast adrift in Mediterranean lands exposed to 550 years of turbulent history and the rule of four different civilisations, only an intriguing trail of clues betrays their ever-changing destiny. The Temple treasure is an immeasurably precious hoard, but it has yet greater significance as an intimate symbol of man's communications with God. The gold's recovery is central to the broken dreams of Israel for messianic redemption by building a new House of God on the Temple Mount and to hopes for a return to an age of biblical sacrifice. Using untapped historical texts and new archaeological sources, Sean Kingsley reveals the incredible history of this treasure, its composition and religious, political and financial meaning across the ages. Unexpected discoveries send him on a physical pilgrimage to trace the treasure's destiny, which exposes facts more astonishing than fiction.

The Temple of Jerusalem: From Moses to the Messiah brings together an interdisciplinary and broad-ranging international community of scholars to discuss aspects of the history and continued life of the Jerusalem Temple in Western culture, from biblical times to the present. This volume is the fruit of the inaugural conference of the Yeshiva University Center for Israel Studies, which convened in New York City on May 11-12, 2008 and honors Professor Louis H. Feldman, Abraham Wouk Family Professor of Classics and Literature at Yeshiva University.

"This book describes a physical and intellectual journey in the author's life that traces his involvement in the excavation of a site on Mount Ebal, which the Bible describes as the home of the Lost Ark. Here, Koeningsberg discusses his experiences and the thought process that brought him to a series of conclusions about the nature of the site that contradict almost axiomatic beliefs about early Israel and certain biblical materials - and which re considered seriously by experts in the field."

In The Jerusalem Temple in Diaspora, Jonathan Trotter shows how different diaspora Jews’ perspectives on the distant city of Jerusalem and the temple took shape while living in the diaspora.

These twenty studies ask whether changes in different fields of ancient Jewish culture were caused by the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, what changed for other reasons, and what did not change despite that event.

This book uncovers the meaning and significance of the Jewish Temple and its Service during the last centuries of its existence. The non-biblical sources indicate that the Temple and its rites were seen as holding the universe together, providing order and meaning in a world which would overwise easily lapse into chaos.