| Second Edition
Shaye J. D. Cohen
“Out of the innumerable religious traditions, cults, and movements of the early Roman Empire, two alone transformed themselves to outlast that empire—even to our own time. [...]Those two are rabbinic Judaism and Christianity. The present book investigates that extraordinarily fertile period of Jewish history—the three and a half centuries ‘from the Maccabees to the Mishnah’—which gave rise to these two religions that have been so central a part of our own history, and so problematic to each other.”
—“Foreword to the First Edition”
CONTENTS
Foreword to the First Edition by Wayne A. Meeks
Preface to the First Edition
Preface to the Second Edition
1. Ancient Judaism: Chronology and Definitions
Chronology
Periodization and Perspective
From Preexilic Israel to Second Temple Judaism
Unity and Diversity
Timeline
2. Jews and Gentiles
Political: Gentile Domination
The Maccabean Rebellion
The Rebellion Against the Romans (66–74 CE)
The Wars of 115–117 CE and 132–135 CE
Conclusion
Cultural: Judaism and Hellenism
“Hellenism,” “Hellenization,” and “Hellenistic Judaism”
Judaism and Hellenistic Culture
Conclusion
Social: Jews and Gentiles
Anti-Judaism and “Anti-Semitism”
Philo-Judaism
Conclusion
3. The Jewish “Religion”: Practices and Beliefs
Practices
The Worship of God
Ritual Observances
Ritual and Ethics
“Legalism” and “the Yoke of the Law”
Women’s Judaism
Beliefs
Kingship of God
Reward and Punishment
Redemption
Conclusion
4. The Community and Its Institutions
The Public Institutions of the Land of Israel
The Temple
The Sanhedrin
The Public Institutions of the Diaspora
The Synagogue
Private Organizations
Sects
Professional Guilds
Schools
Conclusion
5. Sectarian and Normative
“Sect” and “Heresy”
The Focal Points of Jewish Sectarianism
Law as Focal Point
Temple as Focal Point
Scripture as Focal Point
“Orthodox” and “Normative”
Proto-Sectarianism in the Persian Period
Ezra and Nehemiah
“The Congregation of the Exile” and Nehemiah 10
Isaiah 65
Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes
Sources Written in Greek: Josephus
Sources Written in Greek: The New Testament
Sources Written in Hebrew: Qumran Scrolls
Sources Written in Hebrew: Rabbinic Texts
The Names of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes
Summary: From the Persian Period to the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes
Other Sects and Groups
“Fourth Philosophy,” Sicarii, and Zealots
Christians
Samaritans
Therapeutae
Conclusion
6. Canonization and Its Implications
“Canon” and “Canonical”
The History of the Biblical Canon
The Torah
The Prophets
The Writings
The Tripartite Canon
Why These and Not Those?
Conclusion
The Implications of Canonization
From Prophecy to Apocalypse
Scriptural Interpretation
Conclusion
7. The Emergence of Rabbinic Judaism
“The Rabbis” and “The Rabbinic Period”
What Is the Mishnah?
From Second Temple Judaism to Rabbinic Judaism
Relations with Gentiles
Rabbinic Religion
Society and Institutions
The End of Sectarianism
Canon and Literature
Conclusion
Suggestions for Further Reading
Glossary of Technical Terms
Index
Item Number: BKW691
Publication data: Louisville, KY/London, United Kingdom: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006
Format: softcover
Number of pages: xiv + 250
Dimensions (l × w × h): 22.9 cm × 15.4 cm × 1.8 cm
ISBN-10: 0‒664‒22743‒0
ISBN-13: 978-0-664-22743-2
$29.95 (USD)
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