The roots of the Hasmonean Revolt: the reign of Antiochus IV -- Questions of identity: the "teacher of righteousness," the "man of lies," and Jonathan the Hasmonean -- The succession of high priests: John Hyrcanus and his sons in the Pesher to Joshua 6:26 -- Alexander Jannaeus and his war against Ptolemy Lathyrus -- A prayer for the welfare of King Jonathan -- The Pharisees' conflict with Alexander Jannaeus and Demetrius' invasion of Judaea -- The successors of Alexander Jannaeus and the conquest of Judaea by Pompey -- The assassination of Pompey -- The changing notion of the enemy and its impact on the Pesharim.

In this important collection of studies, copublished by Eerdmans and Brill, one of the world's foremost experts on the Dead Sea Scrolls outlines a comprehensive theory that reconstructs the complex development of the ancient texts that eventually came to form the Old Testament.

Kenneth Atkinson tells the exciting story of the nine decades of the Hasmonean rule of Judea (152 - 63 BCE) by going beyond the accounts of the Hasmoneans in Josephus in order to bring together new evidence to reconstruct how the Hasmonean family transformed their kingdom into a state that lasted until the arrival of the Romans. Atkinson reconstructs the relationships between the Hasmonean state and the rulers of the Seleucid and the Ptolemaic Empires, the Itureans, the Nabateans, the Parthians, the Armenians, the Cappadocians, and the Roman Republic. He draws on a variety of previously unused sources, including papyrological documentation, inscriptions, archaeological evidence, numismatics, Dead Sea Scrolls, pseudepigrapha, and textual sources from the Hellenistic to the Byzantine periods. Atkinson also explores how Josephus's political and social situation in Flavian Rome affected his accounts of the Hasmoneans and why any study of the Hasmonean state must go beyond Josephus to gain a full appreciation of this unique historical period that shaped Second Temple Judaism, and created the conditions for the rise of the Herodian dynasty and the emergence of Christianity.

Originally written to appeal to both scholars and general readers interested in the Dead Sea Scrolls, all of the articles in this volume have been updated to take into account current discussions of this extraordinary archaeological find."--BOOK JACKET.

Acclaimed professor Craig A. Evans gives a thoroughly researched and colorfully illustrated overview of the Dead Sea Scrolls and their importance for Christianity.

"In this book Kenneth Atkinson adds to his already impressive body of work on the Hasmoneans, proposing that the history and theological beliefs of Jews during the period of the Hasmonean state cannot be understood without a close investigation of the histories of the Ptolemaic and the Seleucid Empires, as well as the Roman Republic. By bringing together evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls and classical sources, Atkinson offers a new reconstruction of this vital historical period, from the 2nd to the 1st centuries B.C.E., when the Hasmonean family changed the fates of their neighbors, the Roman Republic, the religion of Judaism, and created the foundation for the development of the nascent Christian faith. The book also contains many new reconstructions of events in classical history, including the most detailed examination of Pompey the Great's assassination in light of Jewish sources. This section on his death uncovers new information that explains the discrepancies in the classical accounts of this pivotal event that shaped Middle Eastern and Roman history, and which helped end the Republic."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

The eight essays in this book on the subjects of eschatology and messianism evidenced in the Dead Sea Scrolls were originally delivered at a conference for a lay audience, and are therefore accessible to the interested reading public.