Scriptures, Sects, and Visions

This short volume is at once a survey of recent particular discoveries which bid to transform our knowledge of Judaism in the Hellenistic Era, and a synthesis of the history of Judaism . . . The richness and freshness of Professor Stone's understanding of Judaism in the Hellenistic Age stems not only from his mastery of new lore; it arises also from a broad and objective humanistic mind prepared to relinquish cherished but antiquated views and bold to make new constructions. --Frank Moore Cross, Jr. Hancock Professor of Oriental Languages Harvard University This work integrates the important finds of the past thirty years into a fresh picture of Second Temple (Intertestamental) Judaism--its varieties, its contacts with Gnosticism and Hellenism, the ancient roots of its apocalyptic--whose dynamic complexity was never before imagined; a book widely learned yet readily accessible to the common reader. --Moshe Greenberg Professor of Bible Hebrew University of Jerusalem Professor Michael Stone's Scriptures, Sects and Visions is not only an achievement in compactness, but a welcome elucidation of new discoveries and reinterpretations essential to the understanding of postbiblical Judaism and the beginnings of Christianity. --Judah Goldin Professor of Oriental Studies University of Pennsylvania

Michael Stone is Professor of Armenian Studies and Gail Levin de Nur Professor of Religious Studies at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is also the author of 'Adam's Contract with Satan: The Legend of the Cheirograph of Adam' (2000).