This landmark contribution to ongoing debates about perceptions of the Jews in antiquity examines the attitudes of Greek writers of the Hellenistic period toward the Jewish people. Among the leading Greek intellectuals who devoted special attention to the Jews were Theophrastus (the successor of Aristotle), Hecataeus of Abdera (the father of "scientific" ethnography), and Apollonius Molon (probably the greatest rhetorician of the Hellenistic world). Bezalel Bar-Kochva examines the references of these writers and others to the Jews in light of their literary output and personal background; their religious, social, and political views; their literary and stylistic methods; ethnographic stereotypes current at the time; and more.

An anthology of excerpts from ancient works on Jews and Judaism, in Greek and Latin, with a Russian translation, accompanied by comments by Stern. Inter alia, contains texts by Manetho, Apion, Seneca, Tacitus, Juvenal and citations of Celsus (from Origen's "Contra Celsus") expressing anti-Jewish views.

The Eerdmans Critical Commentary offers the best of contemporary Old and New Testament scholarship, seeking to give modern readers clear insight into the biblical text, including its background, its interpretation, and its application. Contributors to the ECC series are among the foremost authorities in biblical scholarship worldwide. Accessible to serious general readers and scholars alike, each volume includes the author's own translation, critical notes, and commentary on literary, historical, cultural, and theological aspects of the text. - Back cover.

A comprehensive corpus of texts relating to Jews and Judaism by the Greek and Latin authors of Antiquity. The collection furnishes valuable source material on the place of Jews and Judaism in the Mediterranean world during the rise and spread of Hellenism, concluding with concepts of Judaism held by the Neoplatonist philosophers. The writings of each author are accompanied by an introduction, a critical apparatus, an English translation and a detailed commentary in which the sources are examined in the context of the latest scholarship and archaeological findings.