A History of the Jews and Judaism in the Early Greek Period

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This will be a volume on the Jews and Judaism in the early Greek period, from Alexander to the end of Ptolemaic rule over Palestine. (It will form volume 2 of a projected 4-volume History of the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period.) Although sources become much more abundant in the Greek period, there are still major gaps in our knowledge of the Jews of Palestine and elsewhere in the Hellenistic world. The few sources relating directly to the Jews will be analysed in detail, in the light of current scholarship, including papyri, inscriptions, and literary Jewish and Graeco-Roman writers. The institutions of the wider Hellenistic world--especially in the Ptolemaic empire--will be examined as the context for better understanding the Jewish people and the Jewish religion at this time. In some cases, a proper understanding of the Hellenistic institutions might help in reconstructing the situation in Palestine even where we do not have direct knowledge of the Jewish community there. The volume will (a) list and evaluate the primary sources, (b) survey the main secondary literature, (c) engage with the various theories, models, and controversies about writing a history of the Jews in this period, in the context of the Greek empires, to provide a substantial historical synthesis.