Jewish Writings of the Second Temple Period: Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, Qumran Sectarian Writings, Philo, Josephus

This volume describes that part of the rich literary production of ancient Judaism which was not contained in the Hebrew Bible nor in rabbinic literature. These writings originated in the Second Temple period, which proved highly creative in the midst of strong external influences and internal movements.

Prime example are the Dead Sea Scrolls, documents of an extremely separatist sect. Their discovery in 1947 revolutionized our understanding of Second Temple Judaism and its literature. The scrolls appear more or less related in spirit to a group of writings trasmitted by Christianity and known as the Pseudepigrapha. Yet another group are the Apocrypha, closely related to later biblical writings and incorporated within the Greek Old Testament. Finally, the encounter with Greek culture is documented by Jewish authors writing in Greek, notably Philo and Josephus.

After a historical outline which sets the stage, the chapters of this book describe and analyse these documents. Selective bibliographies for further reading conclude the chapters.

Michael E. Stone is professor of Armenian studies and Gail Levin de Nur Professor of Religious Studies at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the author of numerous books and scholarly articles in biblical, early Jewish, and Armenian studies. He is the editor of Jewish Writings of the Second Temple Period (Fortress and van Gorcum, 1984), the author of 4 Ezra (Hermeneia; Fortress, 1990), and with George W. E. Nickelsburg, coeditor of Early Judaism: Texts and Documents on Faith and Piety, rev. ed. (Fortress, 2009).