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In its biblical context, the injunction stipulating that "the outsider who encroaches shall be put to death" seems to apply to any non-priest or non-Levite who tries to participate in the tabernacle services. This interpretation seems to have been adopted during the Second Temple period, as attested to by the Temple Scroll (11QTa). There is no source that states that an unauthorized entrant to the temple is subject to capital punishment, except for a gentile: Philo and Josephus write that a gentile who enters the temple court is subject to the death penalty. Several scholars propose that this punishment derives from a reinterpretation of the biblical injunction, and it seems that this interpretation originated during the Hasmonean rebellion. The claim that Herod innovated the injunction subjecting a gentile who ascended beyond the balustrade to death is difficult to accept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both ritual studies and masculinity studies are relative newcomers to the field of New Testament studies. This article endeavours to combine insights from both of these fields and to show how such a combination can be heuristically helpful. In particular, it explores how the respective masculinities of "king" Herod and Jesus are narratively constructed in Mark 6 through the presentation of their behaviour during their participation in rituals, meals to be exact. The two key female characters are also discussed and analysed, in relation to ritual failure. In doing so, new light is shed on this chapter of the Gospel of Mark. In addition, and experimentally, a new matrix for the analysis of the masculinity/religion interface is presented and tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a reconstruction and analysis of the Herodian family as a presence in the city of Rome over more than three generations. The scholarly tendency to view the Herods as an aspect of a broader governmental system overlooks the workings of the particular relationships that elevated the Herods in their own land as well as at the centre of Roman power. Beginning with the foundation of a lasting connection between the Herods and the Julio-Claudians laid by Herod the Great and Augustus, this paper traces the legacy of that connection and its impact on affairs in both Judaea and Rome. The peculiar challenges of retaining status in both Roman and Jewish contexts are assessed and their importance as a vital aspect of our understanding of first-century Judaean politics is established. Examination, finally, of the development of their aspirations and their negotiation of dynastic change shows vividly the processes of 'Romanisation' in the context of an elite family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]