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We understand the world around us in terms of built spaces. Such spaces are shaped by human activity, and in turn, affect how people live. Through an analysis of archaeological and textual evidence from the beginnings of Hasmonean influence in Galilee, until the outbreak of the First Jewish War against Rome, this book explores how Judaism was socially expressed: bodily, communally, and regionally. Within each expression, certain aspects of Jewish identity operate, these being purity conceptions, communal gatherings, and Galilee's relationship with the Hasmoneans, Jerusalem, and the Temple in its final days.

This book charts the shifting boundaries of Judaism from antiquity to the modern period in order to bring clarity to what scholars mean when they claim that ancient texts or groups are “within Judaism,” as well as exploring how rabbinic Jews, Christians, and Muslims have negotiated and renegotiated what Judaism is and is not in order to form their own identities. Belief in Jesus as the Messiah was seen as part of first-century Judaism, but by the fourth or fifth century, the boundaries had shifted and adherence to Jesus came to be seen as outside of Judaism. Resituating New Testament texts within first- or second-century Judaism is an historical exercise that may broaden our view of what Judaism looked like in the early centuries CE, but normatively these texts remain within Christianity because of their reception history. The historical “within Judaism” perspective, however, has the potential to challenge and reshape the theology of contemporary Christianity while at the same time the long-held consensus that belief in Jesus cannot belong within Judaism is again challenged by the modern Messianic Jewish movement.

A diverse group of scholars charts new paths in the quest for the historical Jesus. After a decade of stagnation in the study of the historical Jesus, James Crossley and Chris Keith have assembled an international team of scholars to envision the quest anew. The contributors offer new perspectives and fresh methods for reengaging the question of the historical Jesus. Important, timely, and fascinating, The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus is a must read for anyone seeking to understand Jesus of Nazareth. ContributorsMichael P. Barber, Augustine Institute Graduate School of Theology, United States of AmericaGiovanni B. Bazzana, Harvard Divinity School, United States of AmericaHelen K. Bond, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom James Crossley, MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion, and Society, Norway, and Centre for the Critical Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements, United Kingdom Tucker S. Ferda, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, United States of AmericaPaula Fredriksen, Boston University, United States of America, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, IsraelDeane Galbraith, University of Otago, Aotearoa New Zealand Mark Goodacre, Duke University, United States of AmericaMeghan R. Henning, University of Dayton, United States of AmericaNathan C. Johnson, University of Indianapolis, United States of AmericaWayne Te Kaawa, University of Otago, Aotearoa New Zealand Chris Keith, MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion, and Society, NorwayJohn S. Kloppenborg, University of Toronto, CanadaAmy-Jill Levine, Hartford International University for Religion and Peace, United States of America, and Vanderbilt University, United States of AmericaBrandon Massey, University of Münster, Germany Justin J. Meggitt, University of Cambridge, United KingdomHalvor Moxnes, University of Oslo, NorwayRobert J. Myles, Wollaston Theological College, University of Divinity, AustraliaWongi Park, Belmont University, United States of AmericaJanelle Peters, Loyola Marymount University, United States of AmericaTaylor G. Petrey, Kalamazoo College, United States of AmericaAdele Reinhartz, University of Ottawa, CanadaRafael Rodríguez, Johnson University, United States of America Sarah E. Rollens, Rhodes College, United States of AmericaAnders Runesson, University of Oslo, NorwayNathan Shedd, William Jessup University, United States of America, and Johnson University, United States of AmericaMitzi J. Smith, Columbia Theological Seminary, United States of America, and University of South Africa, South AfricaJoan Taylor, King's College London, United KingdomMatthew Thiessen, McMaster University, CanadaRobyn Faith Walsh, University of Miami, United States of AmericaMatthew G. Whitlock, Seattle University, United States of AmericaStephen Young, Appalachian State University, United States of AmericaChristopher B. Zeichmann, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada

Frühjüdische Gruppen wie die Essener und Pharisäer folgten dem deuteronomistischen Ideal, ihren Anhängern die Torah einzuprägen. Diesem Ziel dienten Synagogen und ihnen angeschlossene Elementarschulen. Wie in der gesamten Antike basierte auch der frühjüdische Unterricht auf der Schulung des Gedächtnisses. Jesus von Nazareth wuchs in einer frommen Familie auf und erhielt durch Elternhaus und Synagoge eine tiefe Kenntnis der heiligen Schriften Israels. Rainer Riesner zeigt, wie Jesus als messianischer Lehrer und endzeitlicher Offenbarer auftrat. Diesen Anspruch, der verhüllt hinter seiner öffentlichen Verkündigung stand, erschloss er dem engsten Kreis seiner Jünger. Das bedeutete für sie ein herausragendes Tradierungsmotiv. Wie andere frühjüdische Lehrer fasste Jesus Kernpunkte seiner Verkündigung in kurzen, poetisch geformten Lehrsummarien zusammen, die er den Hörerinnen und Hörern einprägte. Seine originellen Gleichnisse waren aufgrund ihrer Bildhaftigkeit gut zu behalten. Weil die Jünger Jesus ständig begleiteten, konnten sie seine Lehrworte, die er wiederholt vortrug, zuverlässig memorieren. Besonders durch den von Jesus berufenen Zwölferkreis bestand eine Traditionskontinuität in die nachösterliche Zeit. Die Jesus-Überlieferung wurde wegen ihrer besonderen Autorität als eigenständige Tradition weitergegeben, die in Missionspredigt und Paränese meist nur anspielend gebraucht wurde. Schon früh unterstützten informelle schriftliche Aufzeichnungen die feste mündliche Überlieferung. Der ausschließliche Gebrauch der Kodexform weist auf eine Entstehung der synoptischen Evangelien mithilfe solcher Notizen hin.

Media studies is an emerging discipline that is quickly making an impact within the wider field of biblical scholarship. This volume is designed to evaluate the status quaestionis of the Dead Sea Scrolls as products of an ancient media culture, with leading scholars in the Dead Sea Scrolls and related disciplines reviewing how scholarship has addressed issues of ancient media in the past, assessing the use of media criticism in current research, and outlining potential directions for future discussions.

These essays reflect the lively debate about the sectarian movement of the Scrolls. They debate the degree to which the movement was separated from the rest of Judaism, and whether there was one or several watershed moments in the separation. Notable contributions include a cluster of essays on the Teacher of Righteousness and a thorough survey of the archaeology of Qumran. The texts are problematic in historical research because they rely on biblical stereotypes. Nonetheless, possible interpretations can be compared and degrees of probability debated. The debate is significant not only for the sect but for the nature of ancient Judaism.

Recent research has considered how changing imperial contexts influence conceptions of Jewishness among ruling elites (esp. Eckhardt, Ethnos und Herrschaft, 2013). This study integrates other, often marginal, conceptions with elite perspectives. It uses the ethnic boundary making model, an empirically based sociological model, to link macro-level characteristics of the social field with individual agency in ethnic construction. It uses a wide range of written sources as evidence for constructions of Jewishness and relates these to a local-specific understanding of demographic and institutional characteristics, informed by material culture. The result is a diachronic study of how institutional changes under Seleucid, Hasmonean, and Early Roman rule influenced the ways that members of the ruling elite, retainer class, and marginalized groups presented their preferred visions of Jewishness. These sometimes-competing visions advance different strategies to maintain, rework, or blur the boundaries between Jews and others. The study provides the next step toward a thick description of Jewishness in antiquity by introducing needed systematization for relating written sources from different social strata with their contexts.

Die Schriftfragmente und Ruinen, die 1947 - 1956 am Toten Meer entdeckt wurden, geben bis heute Rätsel auf. War die Gemeinschaft, die hier lebte, eine Art Kloster, eine absonderliche Sekte oder eine Schreibwerkstatt? Kam Johannes der Täufer oder Jesus hierher? Der renommierte Bibelwissenschaftler Reinhard Kratz verabschiedet in seinem bahnbrechenden Buch viele der gängigen Hypothesen und zeigt, dass wir in Qumran Zeugnisse des entstehenden «biblischen Judentums» vor uns haben, das sich von anderen Jahwe-Verehrern abgrenzte und bis heute in Judentum und Christentum lebendig ist. Die Fragmente von rund tausend hebräischen, aramäischen und griechischen Handschriften, die in Höhlen nahe der Siedlung Hirbet Qumran zutage gefördert wurden, sind eine der spektakulärsten Entdeckungen des 20. Jahrhunderts. Die Texte geben Einblick in die Lebens- und Vorstellungswelt einer bis dahin völlig unbekannten Gruppe des Judentums der hellenistisch-römischen Zeit. Reinhard Kratz erklärt die Geschichte der Funde und ihrer Erforschung, rekonstruiert die Organisation der Gemeinschaft und erläutert, wie und warum hier so viele Texte entstanden. In einem souveränen Durchgang durch die wichtigsten Schriften macht er deutlich, dass die Gemeinschaft Teil einer Bewegung war, die sich auf die biblischen Schriften, besonders Tora und Propheten, berief und vom traditionellen jüdischen Opferkult distanzierte. Klar und anschaulich entsteht so ein neues, plastisches Bild von der Vielfalt des antiken Judentums und der frommen Bewegung, aus der auch das Christentum hervorging.

Steve D. Fraade offers a new translation, with notes, and detailed commentary to the Dead Sea Scroll most commonly called the Damascus Document, based on both ancient manuscripts from caves along the western shore of the Dead Sea, and medieval manuscripts from the Cairo Geniza. The text is one of the longest and most important of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Its importance derives from several aspects of its contents: its extensive collections of laws, both for the sectarian community that authored it and for the rest of Israel; some of the oldest examples of scriptural interpretation, both legal and narrative, both implicit and explicit, with important implications for our understanding of the evolving status of the Hebrew canon; some of the clearest expressions, often in hortatory form, of the community's self-understanding as an elect remnant of Israel that understands itself in dualistic opposition to the rest of Israel, its practices, and its leaders; important expressions of the community's self-understanding as a priestly alternative to the sacrificial worship in the Jerusalem Temple; expressions of an apocalyptic, eschatological understanding of living as the true Israel in the'end of days;'important expressions of attitudes toward woman, sexual activity, and marriage; importance for our understanding of ancient modes of teaching and of ritual practice; importance for the study of the history of the Hebrew language and its scribal practices. The volume contains a substantial introduction, dealing with these aspects of the Damascus Document and locating its place within the Dead Sea Scrolls more broadly as well as the historical context of ancient Judaism that gave rise to this text.

Covering the period from 200 BCE to 600 CE, this book describes important aspects of identity formation processes within early Judaism and Christianity, and shows how negotiations involving issues of ethnicity, stereotyping, purity, commensality, and institution building contributed to the forming of group identities. Over time, some of these Jewish group identities evolved into non-Jewish Christian identities, others into a rabbinic Jewish identity, while yet others remained somewhere in between. The contributors to this volume trace these developments in archaeological remains as well as in texts from the Qumran movement, the New Testament and the reception of Paul's writings, rabbinic literature, and apocryphal and pseudepigraphical writings, such as the Book of Dreams and the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies. The long timespan covered in the volume together with the combined expertise of scholars from various fields make this book a unique contribution to research on group identity, Jewish and Christian identity formation, the Partings-of-the-ways between Judaism and Christianity, and interactions between Jews and Christians.

For almost two millennia, readers of the New Testament have been trying to figure out Paul. The struggle with his words begins already within the canon itself. While Acts portrays with ease a Torah-observant, Pharisaic-messianic Paul working in partnership with James and other leaders in Jerusalem, the author of 2 Peter famously admitted that the apostle to the nations is difficult to understand. From that moment on debate has ebbed and flowed on all things Pauline; on women as leaders in assemblies and on the status of Jews and Gentiles in God's plan, just to mention two of the contentious topics associated with Paul. For clergy, scholar, and lay person, Paul's letters hold weight and continue to draw in new readers. Anders Runesson seeks to listen to the voice of the historical Paul - a Jew proclaiming a form of Judaism to non-Jews to save them from divine wrath - but also to probe what it means to breathe new life into this historical figure in the twenty-first century.'The Paul-within-Judaism movement is here to stay, and Anders Runesson is arguably its most hermeneutically sophisticated spokesperson. In this remarkable book, Runesson expertly guides us through difficult questions of social history, exegesis, ancient reception history, and modern constructive theology, all of which we need in order to understand Paul?beyond the parting of the ways paradigm.?'Matthew V. Novenson, University of Edinburgh'In this compelling book, Anders Runesson incarnates Roman-period types of Judaism?thus, the seedbed of later Christianities?within their institutional matrix, the ancient synagogue. Radically reconceiving the so-called?parting of the ways,? he traces a developmental arc from Paul through Theodosius I to explore how and why this apocalyptic Jewish movement, with its odd outreach to ethnic others, became the anti-Jewish arm of the late Roman state. If new ideas are food for thought, Runesson has served a feast.'Paula Fredriksen, author of'Paul, the Pagans? Apostle''This is the mature fruit of intensive research over a significant period of time, drawing together Runesson?s explorations on Paul and Pauline theology, locating him firmly within his Jewish context on the one hand, and taking seriously that he is addressing gentiles. The historical depth and methodological rigor as well as the key awareness of hermeneutical presuppositions render this a rich and challenging source for scholars and students alike. But this is not only another academic contribution to the important field of Pauline studies, Runesson demonstrates how this approach to Paul is also relevant for theologizing in contemporary churches and interreligious interaction today. Thus the volume is a must for all engaged in Pauline Studies as well as in contemporary church and interreligious work.'Kathy Ehrensperger, Abraham Geiger Kolleg, Potsdam'In recent years, Anders Runesson has emerged as a leading voice in the (distinct but related) projects of reading Matthew and Paul'within Judaism.'In this significant volume on Paul, he draws on material from a number of his previous articles and book chapters, working it into a cohesive and comprehensive account of Paul's'Judaism for gentiles'and its place within a larger interpretive horizon. Over against approaches that see Paul as the architect of a'parting of the ways,'Runesson understands him as working towards a'joining of the ways'-mixed groups of Jewish and gentile Christ-believers existing within the larger environment of Jewish diaspora synagogues. An impressive achievement, highly recommended.'Terence L. Donaldson, Professor Emeritus, Wycliffe College, University of Toronto'In these important essays, Anders Runesson provides readers with an account of a thoroughly embodied and socially embedded Paul, a first-century Jewish Messiah follower seeking to live in the Roman world. The volume is a must read for anyone interested in thinking about the historical P

A struggle is currently underway to figure out one of the central groups in the gospel story... the Pharisees. Were they'hypocrites or heroes'? Or as one recent writer put it, maybe they were just'good guys with bad press.'Scholars of Judaism and of the NT have been painstakingly correcting, even rehabilitating, the image of the first-century Pharisees, but this seems not yet to have affected most readers of Scripture. Here at last is a book that lays out for the non-specialist the evidence for the origin and true nature of the Pharisees... and challenges them to re-read the gospel stories with real Pharisees in mind rather than caricatures.

Für das antike Judentum liegt bislang keine umfassende Geschichte des Lesens vor: Diese Forschungslücke will Jonas Leipziger füllen, indem er anhand der Trias von Rezeptionsakten, Materialität und Schriftgebrauch die Entwicklung von rituellen Lesepraktiken im antiken Judentum nachzeichnet.Er nimmt eine historische Kontextualisierung jüdischer Lesepraktiken vor, indem er deren methodische Grundlagen klärt (I), die Voraussetzungen der Formen von Textrezeption herausarbeitet (II) und die materialen Dimensionen des Lesens (Rollen, Codices; nomina sacra) untersucht (III). In einer historisch differenzierten Darstellung diskutiert er verschiedene soziale Orte von Lesepraktiken (IV) und unterschiedliche Gemeinschaften und ihre spezifischen Praktiken des Lesens (V). Schließlich werden Praktiken der Schriftrezeption dargelegt, die in schrifttragenden Artefakten eine magische Präsenz und inhärente Wirkmächtigkeit sehen (VI).Die Studie zeigt somit auf, wie sich jüdische Lesepraktiken historisch entwickeln, macht eine kontinuierliche jüdische Rezeption der griechischen Bibel – auch in Codex-Form – von der Antike bis in die Neuzeit deutlich und leistet dadurch einen grundlegenden Beitrag für die Erforschung der Geschichte des antiken Judentums.