Ancient Judaism: New Visions and Views
Overview
In Ancient Judaism: New Visions and Views, Michael Stone examines a broad range of basic issues in the study of Second Temple Judaism and calls for a radical rethinking of approaches to Jewish history. Stone challenges scholars and students to question theologically conditioned histories of ancient Judaism devised by later orthodoxies—whether Jewish or Christian—and to acknowledge religious experience as a major factor in the composition and transmission of ancient religious documents. He urges readers to look above and beyond the spectacles of tradition and cultural memory that too often distort understanding of the ancient past.
Addressing an assortment of ideas regarding the authorship, transmission, and interpretation of the canonical Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, apocryphal and pseudepigraphic literature, and more, Stone’s Ancient Judaism underscores the stunning complexity of both the raw data and the resulting picture of Judaism in antiquity.
Stone brings the ancient Near East to life with a fresh and original perspective, making Ancient Judaism: New Visions and Views a must-have for anyone interested in the Second Temple Period. Produced with scholarly rigor yet accessible to nonspecialists and students this volume is, with the Logos Bible Software, completely searchable and fully linked to the original-language texts in your library. This makes the Logos edition of Ancient Judaism: New Visions and Views useful and accessible for students, pastors, academics, and laity.
- Maintains academic yet readable style
- Includes bibliographical references
- Contains an index of subjects and names and an index of ancient sources
Drawing on his vast knowledge of the Judaisms of the late Second Temple period, Michael Stone analyzes the scholarship of the past 60 years, indicating areas of significant progress and promise as well as some dead ends. Students of early Judaism and Christian origins should read, mark, and inwardly digest this book and keep it on their shelves, both for what it discusses and for the light its methodological clarity sheds on topics yet to be explored.
—George W. E. Nickelsburg, University of Iowa
Michael Stone’s work is unique in contemporary biblical and pseudepigrapha studies. In this book he covers a wide range of subjects and illuminates the way in which scholarly debate has been conducted. Stone’s wide knowledge and the originality of his approach converge here to produce studies of insight and perceptiveness that push the boundaries of our understanding of the world of the pseudepigrapha, their history, and their reception. Scholars and students alike continue to be in his debt.
—Christopher Rowland, Queen’s College, Oxford
- Title: Ancient Judaism: New Visions and Views
- Author: Michael E. Stone
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Publication Date: 2011
- Pages: 256
