The academic study of Judaism requires a systematic inquiry into the history, literature, and religion—and eventually the theology—as revealed in the historical documents themselves. Under this premise, Three Questions of Formative Judaism encounters the canonical writings of Judaism in the context of their creation at a certain time and place. How something is said thus becomes as important as what is said. Bringing nearly fifty years of research to bear on these fundamental questions, Jacob Neusner challenges his readers to face the difficult, often unasked or neglected questions about the nature, background, and purposes of Rabbinic Judaism and rewards them with an enriched understanding and a stronger foundation for tackling the even more elusive questions concerning the theology of formative Judaism. This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details.

This theological commentary to the Rabbinic Midrash explores a simple proposition, in three parts. I. The reading of Scripture by principal parts of the Rabbinic Midrash is formed by compositions and composites that are animated by a cogent theological system. II. These primary components of the Midrash-compilations, further, are in part aimed at systematic demonstrations of theorems of a theological character. III. While forming a principal part of a large theological structure and system, each document is unique. This commentary in its concluding chapter presents what is common to the animating theology of Rabbinic Judaism in all its documentary components and what is unique to Leviticus Rabbah.

[This book] introduces students to the major Western world religions - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - their beliefs, key concepts, history, as well as the fundamental role they have played, and continue to play, in Western culture.-Back cover.

This Comparative Handbook surveys the Judaic environment of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Analogies are traced with the Pseudepigrapha (together with Philo and Josephus), discoveries related to Qumran, and Rabbinic Literature (inclusive of the Targumim).