Sperber uses rabbinic texts, classical sources, and archaeological evidence to describe what a typical Palestinian city looked like, and how it operated, during the Roman period 100-400 AD. His portrait provides a background for understanding everyday life in the urban environment of the New Testament.

The most impressive legacy of the Dynasty of Akkade (ca. 2310-2160 B.C.E.) was the widespread, popular legends of its kings. Dr. Westenholz offers an annotated edition of all the known legends of the Akkadian kings, with transliteration, translation, and commentary. Of particular interest to biblical scholars is the inclusion of "The Birth Legend of Sargon," which is often compared to Moses in Exodus.

Aristophanes' Peace was performed at the City Dionysia in Athens in 421 BC as a decade-long war with Sparta seemed finally to be drawing to an end, and is one of only eleven extant plays by the greatest Old Comic poet. Olson's edition of the play, which replaces Platnauer's of 1969, is based on a complete new collation of the manuscripts, many of which have never been adequately reported before. The extensive commentary explores matters of all sorts, but it focuses in particular on the realities of day-to-day life in classical Athens and also examines the practical problems of staging. The substantial introduction includes essays on Aristophanes' early career, the politics of the Greek world in the late 420s, and the poet's theology.

The commands "Keep this festival", for the Israelites at Passover and for Jesus' disciples at the Lord's Supper, mark Judaism and Christianity as historical religions. They proclaim the God who has revealed himself both through the thoughts of his messengers and through events and their consequences. His acts demonstrate his nature to those who believe and may guide others to belief. The papers collected here explore some of the ways that the ancient Hebrew writers and their contemporaries presented history and how their work should be understood today. Assessed against the background of the wealth of documents available from the ancient world, these studies examine the similarities and differences with the intent of providing criteria for approaching the writings of the Hebrew Bible. Recent publications display a growing tendency to treat the Hebrew narratives as products of their authors' beliefs, molded by their theology, and in some sense created to suit it, rather than arising from actual events. The contributors to this volume favor a positive approach to the Hebrew texts, taking into account the variety of contemporary concerns and perspectives.

This book analyzes Zimri-Lim's interactions with sovereigns from the Habur and with Yamut-bal and Numha tribal polities. It describes how Zimri-Lim's disproportionate dependence on tribal connections left him vulnerable when these alliances began to falter in his tenth regnal year.

Western democracies often trace their political roots back to Ancient Greece. While politics today may seem the dusty domain of lawmakers and pundits, in the classical era virtually no aspect of life was beyond its reach. "Political life" was not limited to acts of a legislature, magistrates, and the courts but routinely included the activities of social clubs, the patronage system, and expression through literature, art, and architecture. Through these varied means, even non-enfranchised groups (such as women and non-citizens) gained entry into a wider democratic process. Beyond the citizen world of "traditional" politics, there existed multiple layers of Greek political life-reflecting many aspects of our own modern political landscape. Religious cults served as venues for female office-holders; private clubs and drinking parties served significant social functions. Popular athletes capitalized on their fame to run for elected office. Military veterans struggled to bring back the "good old days" much to the dismay of the forward-thinking ambitions of naive twenty-somethings. Liberals and conservatives of all classes battled over important issues of the day. Scandal and intrigue made or ended many a political career. Taken collectively, these aspects of political life serve as a lens for viewing the whole of Greek civilization in some of its characteristic and distinctive dimensions.

This book is a study of the transformation of the landscape, civic life, and moral values of the pagan city of Rome following the conversion of the emperor Constantine in the early fourth century. It examines the effects of the rise of Christianity and the decline of paganism in the later Roman empire.

This book surveys four thousand years of pottery production and presents totally unexpected fresh information, using technical and analytical methods. It provides a study of ancient pottery of Jerusalem, from the earliest settlement to the medieval city and brings to light important aspects that cannot be discovered by the commonly accepted morphological pottery descriptions. Thus, third millennium BCE pottery appears to have been produced by nomadic families, mb ceramics were made by professional potters in the Wadi Refaim, the pottery market of the IA.II pottery cannot be closely dated and is still produced during the first centuries after the exile. The new shapes are made by Greek immigrant potters. The book contains a chapter on the systematics of ceramic studies and numerous notes about the potters themselves. H. J. Franken is Emeritus Professor at the State University Leiden, The Netherlands.

The World of the Aramaeans is a three-volume collection of definitive essays about the Aramaeans and the biblical world of which they were a part The World of the Aramaeans is a three-volume collection of definitive essays about the Aramaeans and the biblical world of which they were a part. Areas of interest include the language, epigraphy and history of the Aramaeans of Syria as well of their neighbours, the Israelites, Phoenicians, Ammonites, Moabites and Edomites. The second volume, devoted to history and archaeology, includes contributions by Brian Peckham, Wolfgang Rollig, Carl S. Ehrlich, Guy Couturier, Stafania Mazzoni, Timothy P. Harrison, Michael Heltzer, John S. Holladay Jr., Michele Daviau, Paolo Xella, Emile Puech, Piotr Bienkowski, Bezalel Porten and John Gee.

The Torah Unabridged is a detailed examination of legal reasoning in the Hebrew Bible. Focusing on the exegetical operations by which biblical laws related to intermarriage were applied to circumstances and persons that lie outside the sphere of their explicit content, this book reconstructs the ways in which laws regarding intermarriage evolved, were interpreted, and were applied across time and place. William A. Tooman argues that the "exegetical impulse" to expand upon the gaps left by laws relating to marriage in the Torah is expressed in several distinctive ways in later texts in the Hebrew Bible. Adopting a diachronic approach, Tooman examines the techniques biblical writers used in their appropriation, expansion, and manipulation of legal ideas within earlier biblical texts in order to apply the laws to more situations, circumstances, and people. Tooman's analysis reveals that from Exodus to Ezra-Nehemiah, legal reasoning on intermarriage moved in a singular direction: toward an ever-greater restriction of marriage between Israelites/Jews and gentiles. The final chapter sums up the ways that this was accomplished, summarizing the logical and exegetical operations executed in the process of expanding the relevance of these laws, and describing the hermeneutical assumptions that motivated the process. Grounded in a detailed philological analysis of the Hebrew texts, this tightly argued monograph is an important impetus to further debate in the field. It will be welcomed by biblical scholars and by specialists in the history of law.

As political power in Rome became centered on the emperor and his family, a system of honors and titles developed as one way to negotiate this new power dynamic. Classified under the modern collective heading 'imperial cult' (or emperor worship or ruler cult), this system of worship comprises religious rituals as well as political, economic, and social aspects. In this article, Gwynaeth McIntyre surveys the range of ancient literary sources and modern scholarly debates on how individuals became gods in the Roman world. Beginning with the development of exceptional honors granted to Julius Caesar and his deification, she traces the development of honors, symbols, and religious rituals associated with the worship of imperial family members. She uses case studies to illustrate how cult practices, temples, and priesthoods were established, highlighting the careful negotiation required between the emperor, imperial family, Senate, and populace in order to make mortals into gods.

BOOKS AND READERS IN ANCIENT GREECE AND ROME by FREDERIC G. KENYON. Originally published in 1932. PREFACE: THIS book is the outcome of a course of three lectures which I was invited by the University of London to deliver at King's College in March 1932. The material has been slightly expanded, but the general scale of treatment has not been altered. It does not claim to replace the standard works on ancient book-production, but to supple ment them, and that especially with regard to the period during which papyrus was the principal material in use. It is in respect of this period that our knowledge has increased in the course of the last two generations. The object of this book is to bring together and make available for students the results of these discoveries. In particular, use has been made of the remarkable collection of papyrus codloss . recently acquired by Mr. A. Chester Beatty, which has greatly extended our knowledge of this transitional form of book, which appears to have had a special vogue among the Christian community in Egypt. Although the subject of the book is primarily bibliographical, namely, the methods of book-con struction from the date of Homer ( whenever that may have been) until the supersession of papyrus. . in the fourth centur f yJLera ne of vi Preface its main objects has been to show the bearings of the material and form of books on literary history and criticism, and to consider what new light has been thrown by recent research on the origin and growth of the habit of reading in ancient Greece and Rome. F. G. K. Contents include: I. THE USE OF BOOKS IN ANCIENT GREECE i II. THE PAPYRUS ROLL . . . .38 III. BOOKS AND READING AT ROME . 73 IV. VELLUM AND THECODEX . . . 86 APPENDIX 120 INDEX . . . . . .134 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS A poetess with tablets. and stylus. Naples Museum-Photograph, Anderson . . . Facing page 16 A papyrus roll open. British Museum . 40 Papyrus roll before opening. British Museum 48 Teacher and students with rolls. Treves Museum. Photograph, Giraudon . . . Facing page 56 A book-box ( capsa) containing rolls with sillybi page 59 A reader holding a roll of papyrus . . 64 Roman inkpots. British Museum . Facing page 74 Roman pens and styli. British Museum 80 A papyrus codex. Heidelberg University Between pages 88 and 89. THE USE OF BOOKS IN ANCIENT GREECE. UNTIL within a comparatively recent period, which may be measured by the lifetime of persons still living, our information with regard to the physical formation and the habitual use of books in ancient Greece and Rome was singularly scanty. Our ancestors were dependent on casual allusions in Greek and Latin authors, intelligible enough to those for whom they were written, but not intended for the information of distant ages, and in no case amounting to formal descriptions.

In this volume, Julius Bewer attempts to construct a coherent history of the tramsission of the New Testament documents in the early Syriac tradition.

This is the first book-length study in English of the Byzantine emperor Basil II. Basil II, later known as 'Bulgar-slayer', is famous for his military conquests and his brutal intimidation of domestic foes. Catherine Holmes considers the problems Basil faced in governing a large, multi-ethnic empire, which stretched from southern Italy to Mesopotamia. Her close focus on the surviving historical narratives, above all the Synopsis Historion of John Skylitzes, reveals a Byzantium governed as much by persuasion as coercion. This book will appeal to those interested in Byzantium before the Crusades, the governance of pre-modern empires, and the methodology of writing early medieval political history.

This sourcebook presents a wealth of material relating to every aspect of Roman spectacles, especially gladiatorial combat and chariot racing.
Draws on the words of eye-witnesses and participants, as well as depictions of the games in mosaics and other works of art.
Offers snapshots of "a day at the games" and "the life of a gladiator."
Includes numerous illustrations.
Covers chariot-races, water pageants, naval battles and wild animal fights, as well as gladiatorial combat.
Combines political, social, religious and archaeological perspectives.
Facilitates an in-depth understanding of this important feature of ancient life.