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Für die formative Phase sowohl des antiken Judentums als auch des frühen Christentums stellt die Makkabäerzeit in vielerlei Hinsicht eine Referenzgröße dar. Neben der politischen Bedeutung, die ein eigenständiger jüdischer Staat im Zeitalter des Hellenismus besaß, sind als solche paradigmatische Entwicklungen das komplexe Ineinander von Ethnos und Bekenntnis im Judentum, die Durchsetzung der Tora und der Bibel als verbindliche Textcorpora oder die Herausbildung religiöser Institutionen und Parteien zu nennen. Im Bereich der Theologie wirkten die Diskurse der Makkabäerzeit entscheidend auf die jüdische und christliche Eschatologie, Martyrologie und Soteriologie ein. Der vorliegende Band versucht erstmalig eine Gesamtschau dieser Epoche in mehrdimensionaler Sicht: In thematisch ausgerichteten, interdisziplinären Gruppen befassen sich ausgewiesene Expertinnen und Experten sowohl synchron mit der Zeitgeschichte und Literatur als auch diachron mit der weitreichenden Rezeption der Makkabäerbücher und ihrer Zeit.

This book about religious struggle studies four texts from postexilic Judah and applies them first to Judah and then, importantly, to modern America. Two of these texts--the books of Jonah and Job--speak out in favor of the theology of grace and against the theology of retribution, as advocated by the Jerusalem hardliners. This struggle to define God continues even today. Despite the biblical evidence--especially the example of Jesus--many Americans still believe in the God of retribution. Two other texts--the book of Ruth and the story of Rahab--demonstrate that if people reject xenophobia/nativism and misogyny, the entire community is blessed. Since xenophobia/nativism and misogyny are rampant in modern America, this message is rather timely. The last chapter argues that it is the mission of both synagogues and churches to define God correctly and then to help people overcome their resentment and prejudices and become partners with God, but that many predominantly white churches have failed in their mission, as evidenced by the fact that so many of their members voted for Donald Trump.

In this study, Michael Tuval examines the religion of Flavius Josephus diachronically. The author suggests that because Diaspora Jews could not participate regularly in the cultic life of the Jerusalem Temple, they developed other paradigms of Judaic religiosity. He interprets Josephus as a Jew who began his career as a Judean priest but moved to Rome and gradually became a Diaspora intellectual. Josephus'first work, Judean War, reflects a Judean priestly view of Judaism, with the Temple and cult at the center. After these disappeared, there was not much hope left in the religious realm. Tuval also analyzes Antiquities of the Jews, which was written fifteen years later. Here the religious picture has been transformed drastically. The Temple has been marginalized or replaced by the law which is universal and perfect for all humanity. The book is optimistic about the future of Judaism, and does not hint that the absence of the Temple hinders human-divine communication. Paradoxically, in later years Josephus continued to emphasize his priestly identity. The explanation offered for this anomaly is a complex one. The author also argues that Josephus continued to see the priests as the natural leaders of post-destruction Judaism.

The writings of Flavius Josephus provide much of what we know about the first century CE - which witnessed the birth of Christianity, the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem, and the concomitant rise of rabbinic Judaism. However, Josephus was an author, not a video camera, and what he wrote often reflects much apart from what actually happened in the first century: Josephus'works were affected both by his literary models and by current events, and they functioned in various ways for Josephus as an individual and also as a Jew and a Roman, writing in a time of tumult and radical change. Moreover, as all ancient works, texts by Josephus often raise such basic philological questions as what the original text is, what it means, what sources (if any) it reflects, and how it relates to other texts. Daniel R. Schwartz argues that by building from the bottom up - first establishing the text and its meaning, then moving on to issues of Josephus'models, sources, and purposes, as well as comparing his testimony with that supplied by other relevant sources, such as the works of Philo and the New Testament - we may nevertheless reconstruct, with some confidence, the events and processes of this crucial era.

In ancient Israelite literature Exile is seen as a central turning point within the course of the history of Israel. In these texts “the Exile” is a central ideological concept. It serves to explain the destruction of the monarchic polities and the social and economic disasters associated with them in terms that YHWH punished Israel/Judah for having abandoned his ways. As it develops an image of an unjust Israel, it creates one of a just deity. But YHWH is not only imagined as just, but also as loving and forgiving, for the exile is presented as a transitory state: Exile is deeply intertwined with its discursive counterpart, the certain “Return”. As the Exile comes to be understood as a necessary purification or preparation for a renewal of YHWH's proper relationship with Israel, the seemingly unpleasant Exilic conditions begin, discursively, to shape an image of YHWH as loving Israel and teaching it. Exile is dystopia, but one that carries in itself all the seeds of utopia. The concept of Exile continued to exercise an important influence in the discourses of Israel in the Second Temple period, and was eventually influential in the production of eschatological visions.

Drawing from more than one thousand easily replicated examples, the author analyzes how biblical writers encoded messages into their texts. The Exilic Code dates portions of the Bible, establishes Ezra as an exilic person, brings to light a School-of-Daniel scripture factory, names Second Isaiah and the Suffering Servant, identifies the individual who triggered Josiah's reforms, and traces coding from the Deuteronomistic Historian in the seventh century BCE to Daniel's apocalypse in the second. The book also introduces a simplified form of intertextuality that one can profitably apply to biblical texts. For students of the New Testament, The Exilic Code not only identifies the substitute-king motif that underlies the synoptic gospels, but also sheds light upon why Jesus called himself Son of Man.

The time of the Babylonian capitivity (c.587-539 BCE) is of seminal importance for the formation of the Hebrew Bible as well as for the religious development of Judaism. Previous studies of this era have usually privileged the perspective of the community of captives (the Golah), and the period is known as the `Exilic Age'. Jill Middlemas challenges this consensus, arguing that the Golah community represents only one viewpoint, and that the experiences and contributions of the majority of the Judaean population, those who remained in Judah, need to be more fully appreciated.

For at least 15 years, and with several significant works, Hugh Williamson contributed to the movement to recapture the importance of the biblical books of Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah. Behind his widely acclaimed commentaries on these books lay many detailed historical and exegetical studies, published in a variety of journals, Festschriften and other works. The most important of these are here collected together for the first time, providing the scholar of the post-exilic period with a valuable resource in furthering research on this formative period in early Jewish history.

In the first of four volumes on A History of the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period, Lester Grabbe presents a comprehensive history of Yehud - the Aramaic name for Judah - during the Persian Period. Among the many crucial questions he addresses are: What are the sources for this period and how do we evaluate them? And how do we make them'speak'to us through the fog of centuries? This first volume, Yehud: A History of the Persian Province of Judah offers the most up to date and comprehensive examination of the political and administrative structures; the society and economy; the religion, temple and cult; the developments in thought and literature; and the major political events of Judah at the time.

Most studies about women, Jewish and other, are usually confined to the domestic sphere: the home, the family, the bed. Yet women were present at all historical events, and it is not only their presence but also their significance for these events which should be recognized. All the sources seem to militate against an approach which assumes the presence of women at public events. When dealing with politics, war and religion they ignore women; when dealing with women, they confine themselves to their prescribed region of the home. In this book Tal Ilan seeks to discover women in public places and at the main events of Second Temple Judaism. The primary principle guiding her work is that if by chance women are mentioned in sources, they should not be treated as a means for explaining the event but rather as an end in themselves. Thus sources showing women as remote or obscure turn out to yield much relevant material. Tal Ilan investigates women's association with the Pharisees and other sects, and analyses women's role in the writings of Josephus, Ben Sira and other important sources. Furthermore she presents us with new insights into famous women: Shelamzion Alexandra, Beruriah, Berenice and others. Special space is devoted to the importance of the Judaean Desert Documents for women's history.

A long-awaited and much-needed comprehensive analysis of the material evidence concerning Persian-period Judah. Carter analyses the settlement pattern and population distribution of the province, using both excavations and archaeological surveys. His meticulous examination arrives at a rather low estimate of the population during this period, on the basis of which he examines Yehud's socio-economic setting and considers the implications of a small Yehud for some of the prominent theories concerning the province in the Persian-period.

Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement series, 291