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Edited by John J. Collins and Daniel C. Harlow

“Culled from The Eerdman Dictionary of Early Judaism, a monumental groundbreaking reference work published in late 2010, Early Judaism: A Comprehensive Overview contains fifteen major essays from a diverse group of internationally renowned scholars. This volume provides the most comprehensive and authoritative overview available of Judaism in the Hellenistic and early Roman periods.” [From the cover]

“Early Judaism” has been the accepted name for the Judiasm of the Hellenistic and early Roman period in the Society of Biblical Literature, and this is the name we have adopted here. The boundaries of the period are admittedly fuzzy. The primary focus falls on the period between Alexander the Great in the late fourth century B.C.E. and the emperor Hadrian and the Bar Kokhba Revolt in the early second century C.E. It is impossible to study this period, however, without taking some account of the Persian period and the post exilic biblical books, on the one hand, and of the subsequent development of rabbinic Judaism on the other.

“The present volume reprints the thirteen major essays that constituted the first part of the Dictionary. … We have also pulled from the Dictionary the alphabetical entries on Philo and Josephus.” [From Preface]

Contents

Preface
Chronology
Maps

  • Early Judaism in Modern Scholarship
    John J. CollinsJewish History from Alexander to Hadrian,  Chris Seeman & Adam Kolman Marshak
  • Judaism in the Land of Israel
    James C. VanderKam
  • Judaism in the Diaspora
    Erich S. Gruen
  • The Jewish Scriptures: Texts, Versions, Canons
    Eugene Ulrich
  • Early Jewish Biblical Interpretation
    James L. Kugel
  • Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha
    Loren T. Stuckenbruck
  • The Dead Sea Scrolls
    Eibert Tichelaar
  • Early Jewish Literature Written in Greek
    Kate Berthelot
  • Philo
    Gregory E. Sterling, David T. Runia, Maren R. Niehoff, and Annewies van den Hoek
  • Josephus
    Steve Mason, James S. McLaren, and John M. G. Barclay
  • Archaeology, Papyri, and Inscriptions
    Jurgen K. Zangenberg
  • Jews Among Greeks and Romans
    Miriam Pucci Ben Zeev
  • Early Judaism and Rabbinic Judaism
    Lawrence H. Schiffman

Eerdmans, ©2010, Soft cover, 512 pages