Library of Second Temple Studies 2018 (2 vols.)

by Edith M. Humphrey; Isaac W. Oliver; Gabriele Boccaccini

Publisher:

Bloomsbury

, 2018

Overview

The Library of Second Temple Studies is a premier book series that offers cutting-edge work for a readership of scholars, teachers, postgraduate students and advanced undergraduates in the field of Second Temple studies. All the many and diverse aspects of Second Temple study are represented and promoted, including innovative work from historical perspectives, studies using social-scientific and literary theory, and developing theological, cultural and contextual approaches.

Key Features

• Leading scholarship from a diverse field of disciplines
• In-depth analysis from world-class scholars
• Provides a clear and balanced window into the worlds inhabited by biblical characters

Product Details

• Title: Library of Second Temple Studies 2018 (2 vols.)
• Editor: Lester L. Grabbe
• Series: Library of Second Temple Studies
• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Publication Date: 2018
• Volumes: 2
• Pages: 536
• Resource Type: Monographs
• Topic: Judaica

The Early Reception of Paul the Second Temple Jew: Text, Narrative and Reception History

• Editors: Isaac W. Oliver & Gabriele Boccaccini
• Series: Library of Second Temple Studies
• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Publication Date: 2018
• Pages: 344

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Paul’s relationship to Christianity—as a Pharisaic Jew whose moment of revelation on the road to Damascus has made him the most famous early Christian—is still a topic of great interest to scholars of early Christianity and Judaism. This collection of essays from world-renowned scholars examines how Christians of the first two centuries perceived Paul’s Jewishness, and how they seized upon Paul’s views on Judaism in order to advance their own claims about Christianity.

The contributors offer a comprehensive examination of various early Christian views on Paul, in texts contained both in and outside of the New Testament, demonstrating how the reception of Paul’s thought affected the formation of Judaism and Christianity into separate entities. Divided into five sections, the arguments focus upon Paul’s reception in Ephesians, the other Deutero-Pauline Epistles, the Acts of the Apostles, Marcion of Synope and the reaction of Paul’s opponents. Featuring essays from scholars including Judith Lieu, James H. Charlesworth and Harry O. Meier, this volume forms a perfect resource for scholars to reassess Paul’s Jewishness and relationship with Judaism.

Isaac W. Oliver is a professor of religious studies at Bradley University, USA.

Gabriele Boccaccini is Professor of Second Temple Judaism and Early Rabbinic Literature at the University of Michigan, USA.

The Ladies and the Cities: Transformation and Apocalyptic Identity in Joseph and Aseneth, 4 Ezra, the Apocalypse and The Shepherd of Hermas

• Author: Edith M. Humphrey
• Series: Library of Second Temple Studies
• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Publication Date: 2018
• Pages: 192

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Transcendence in general and transformation in particular have long been established as key motifs in apocalypses. The transformation of a seer during a heavenly journey is found commonly in such esoteric apocalypses as I Enoch. No heavenly journey occurs in the apocalypses treated here. Rather, symbolic women figures—“ladies” in the classical sense—who are associated with God’s city or Tower, undergo transformation at key points in the action. The surface structures of Joseph and Aseneth, 4 Ezra, the Apocalypse and The Shepherd of Hermas are traced, and the crucial transformation episodes are located within each structure. Transformation of figures which represent God’s people points to the significance of identity within the apocalyptic perspective. Earlier analyses have demonstrated that the apocalyptic perspective urges the reader to consider life from a different stance in time and in space (“temporal” and “spatial” axes). The present analysis suggests that the apocalypse also charts its revelations along an “axis of identity” so that the reader is invited to become, as it were, someone more in tune with the mysteries he or she is viewing. Of special interest is the treatment of the increasingly well-known romance Joseph and Aseneth alongside apocalypses, a parallel which is fruitful because of the curious visionary sequence, closely related to apocalypse in content and form, which is found in the inner centre of that work.

Edith M. Humphrey is the William F. Orr Professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

About About Lester L. Grabbe

Lester L. Grabbe is Professor Emeritus of Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism at the University of Hull. He is founder and convenor of the European Seminar in Historical Methodology. A recent book is Ancient Israel: What Do We Know and How Do We Know it?