Top scholars celebrate the enduring heritage in learning bequeathed by Anthony J. Saldarini (1941-2001). Twenty-nine essays focus on the areas of Christianity and Judaism to which Dr. Saldarini was devoted: earliest Christianity, Judaism in late antiquity, and the interchange between Judaism and Christianity then and now.

In these volumes, top scholars in the study of religion celebrate the enduring heritage in learning bequeathed to coming generations by Anthony J. Saldarini (1941-2001). Twenty-nine commemorative essays focus on the topical areas of formative Christianity and Judaism to which Dr. Saldarini devoted his efforts: earliest Christianity, with special attention to the Gospels; Judaism in late antiquity; and the interchange between Judaism and Christianity then and now. So too the disciplines represented in these pages match his history (including archaeology), literature, religion, and theology. Recognizing the standards of learning set by Dr. Saldarini in all of these areas, the colleagues represented in these volumes memorialize him by following in the model he set, of meeting the highest standards of the diverse fields that intersect in the study of Judaic and Christian antiquity. The print edition is available as a set of two volumes (9789004136595).

Top scholars celebrate the enduring heritage in learning bequeathed by Anthony J. Saldarini (1941-2001). Twenty-nine essays focus on the areas of Christianity and Judaism to which Dr. Saldarini was devoted: earliest Christianity, Judaism in late antiquity, and the interchange between Judaism and Christianity then and now. The print edition is available as a set of two volumes (9789004136595).

Weber’s classic study which deals specifically with: Types of Asceticism and the Significance of Ancient Judaism, History and Social Organization of Ancient Palestine, Political Organization and Religious Ideas in the Time of the Confederacy and the Early Kings, Political Decline, Religious Conflict and Biblical Prophecy.

The publication of this new edition of Elias Bickerman's acclaimed Studies in Jewish and Christian History along with his famous book, The God of the Maccabees, brings Bickerman's central studies on ancient Judaism and early Christianity to a new generation of students and scholars.

Integrating patristics and early Jewish mysticism, this book examines Gregory of Nyssa's tabernacle imagery, as found in Life of Moses 2. 170-201. Previous scholarship has often focused on Gregory's interpretation of the darkness on Mount Sinai as divine incomprehensibility. However, true to Exodus, Gregory continues with Moses's vision of the tabernacle 'not made with hands' received within that darkness. This innovative methodology of heuristic comparison doesn't strive to prove influence, but to use heavenly ascent texts as a foil, in order to shed new light on Gregory's imagery. Ann Conway-Jones presents a well-rounded, nuanced understanding of Gregory's exegesis, in which mysticism, theology, and politics are intertwined. Heavenly ascent texts use descriptions of religious experience to claim authoritative knowledge. For Gregory, the high point of Moses's ascent into the darkness of Mount Sinai is the mystery of Christian doctrine. The heavenly tabernacle is a type of the heavenly Christ. This mystery is beyond intellectual comprehension, it can only be grasped by faith; and only the select few, destined for positions of responsibility, should even attempt to do so.

Akiva Cohen investigates the general research question: how do the authors of religious texts reconstruct their community identity and ethos in the absence of their central cult? His particular socio-historical focus of this more general question is: how do the respective authors of the Gospel according to Matthew, and the editor(s) of the Mishnah redefine their group identities following the destruction of the Second Temple? Cohen further examines how, after the Destruction, both the Matthean and the Mishnaic communities found and articulated their renewed community bearings and a new sense of vision through each of their respective author/redactor's foundational texts. The context of this study is thus that of an inner-Jewish phenomenon; two Jewish groups seeking to (re-)establish their community identity and ethos without the physical temple that had been the cultic center of their cosmos.