This book addresses the ongoing close relations between ordinary Christians and Jews on a daily basis at a time when church leaders were increasingly trying to establish boundaries between Christians and other religious groupings, especially Jews. Until recently, most historical studies of late antique Christian-Jewish relations had been primarily based on the writings of the church fathers.This new study makes use of a new type of source material: fourth to late sixth century council documents in which clear indications are given of the daily relationships between Christians and Jews. The texts from the eastern and western Mediterranean describe contacts between Christianity and Judaism at the level of ordinary people. These contacts remained close for a much longer period than the church leaders would have liked.

Self-restraint or self-mastery may appear to be the opposite of erotic desire. But in this nuanced, literary analysis, Diane Lipsett traces the intriguing interplay of desire and self-restraint in three ancient tales of conversion: The Shepherd of Hermas, the Acts of Paul and Thecla, and Joseph and Aseneth. Lipsett treats "conversion"--marked change in a protagonist's piety and identity--as in part an effect of story, a function of narrative textures, coherence, and closure. Her approach is theoretically versatile, drawing on Foucault, psychoanalytic theorists, and the ancient literary critic Longinus. Well grounded in scholarship on Hermas, Thecla, and Aseneth, the closely paced readings sharpen attention to each story, while advancing discussions of ancient views of the self; of desire, masculinity, and virginity; of the cultural codes around marriage and continence; and of the textual energetics of conversion tales.

Converso and Morisco are the terms applied to those Jews and Muslims who converted to Christianity in large numbers and usually under duress in late Medieval Spain. The Converso and Morisco Studies series examines the implications of these mass conversions for the converts themselves, for their heirs (also referred to as Conversos and Moriscos) and for Medieval and Modern Spanish culture. As the essays in this collection attest, the study of the Converso and Morisco phenomena is not only important for those scholars focusing on Spanish society and culture, but for all academics interested in questions of identity, Otherness, nationalism, religious intolerance and the challenges of modernity. Contributors: Luis F. Bernabe Pons, Michel Boeglin, Stephanie M. Cavanaugh, William P. Childers, Carlos Gilly, Kevin Ingram, Nicola Jennings, Patrick J. O'Banion, Francisco Javier Perea Siller, Mohamed Saadan, and Enrique Soria Mesa.

Designing public policies to meet the needs of a diverse society is challenging, and the variety of necessary perspectives are often clouded by competing ideas about social responsibility, personal freedom, religious beliefs, and governmental intervention. Here, prominent Jewish scholars and commentators address various social issues and public policies from a Jewish perspective, using Jewish sources and documents to elucidate responses and propose solutions that are in keeping with Jewish law as set out by the major documents of the Jewish faith. Abortion, stem cell research, welfare reform, euthanasia, genetic engineering, and other hot-button issues are topics of primary concern to politicians, lawmakers, religious leaders, and ordinary citizens alike. Designing public policies to meet the needs of a diverse society is challenging, and the variety of necessary perspectives are often clouded by competing ideas about social responsibility, personal freedom, religious beliefs, and governmental intervention. Here, prominent Jewish scholars and commentators address various social issues and public policies from a Jewish perspective, using Jewish sources and documents to elucidate responses and propose solutions that are in keeping with Jewish law as set out by the major documents of the Jewish faith. Their conclusions about ways to consider issues of public concern and private consideration, and their adherence to conservative politics, may surprise readers. What emerges is the notion that Jewish thought can contribute to the American political discourse and is available to anyone looking for answers to today's toughest questions. Creating a public policy to address social issues that is both responsible and morally guided can be a difficult proposition for lawmakers. Making personal decisions about these same issues can be even more difficult as people struggle for guidance. Addressing many of the issues that are hotly debated in the media and in the corridors of our government, conservative, reform, and orthodox commentators carefully outline an approach for lawmakers and individuals. This approach incorporates Jewish law into a public policy philosophy that is both conservative-leaning and politically available. Taken as a whole, the essays underscore that Jewish tradition mostly (albeit not invariably) leads one to the politically conservative side of the aisle.

"Genizat Germania" is a project at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz focused on the search for and analysis of Hebrew and Aramaic binding fragments found in the books and files of archives and libraries. In recent years this systematic search has revealed several hundred new fragments, including some rare Talmudic, Midrashic and liturgical fragments. The new discoveries both in Germany and elsewhere in Europe have broadened the knowledge of Jewish literature in the Middle Ages and Early Modern periods. This volume collects the papers of international scholars which cover recent discoveries in Germany, the "European Genizah" or fragments found in Italy, Poland, Great Britain and Austria, the approaches of similar projects in Austria and the Czech Republic, as well as an extensive bibliography.

This is the full four-volume set of the Laws and Customs of Israel published in 1915-1916, bound in two volumes. Based on the codes Chayye Adam and Kizzur Shulchan 'Arukh, this Hebrew-English compendium is an invaluable source for Judaic traditions and customs.

Early Christology must focus not simply on historical but also on theological ideas found in contemporary Jewish thought and practice. In this book, a range of distinguished contributors considers the context and formation of early Jewish and Christian devotion to God aloneGCothe emergence of GCGBPmonotheismGC[yen]. The idea of monotheism is critically examined from various perspectives, including the history of ideas, Graeco-Roman religions, early Jewish mediator figures, scripture exegesis, and the history of its use as a theological category. The studies explore different ways of conceiving of early Christian monotheism today, asking whether monotheism is a conceptually useful category, whether it may be applied cautiously and with qualifications, or whether it is to be questioned in favor of different approaches to understanding the origins of Jewish and Christian beliefs and worship. This is volume 1 in the Early Christianity in Context series and volume 263 in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series

This anthology of addresses and essays by former Jewish Theological Seminary Chancellor Gerson D. Cohen is written in a popular style and is intended for a wide audience. The pieces offer an overview of Gerson D. Cohen's thoughts on such topics as the centrality of religion to Judaism, eschatology, Jewish history in its cultural context, Jewish scholarship and Zionism. In the book's Foreword, Rabbi Gillman writes: "I envy the readers who will encounter Gerson Cohen for the first time through the pages of this book."

This innovative study shows how the imaginary constructions of self and Other are shaping identification with Jewishness in the twenty-first century. The texts and artworks discussed in this book test a diverse range of ways of identifying as Jews and with the Jewish people, while engaging with postmodern and postcolonial discourses of hybridity and multiculturalism. This book selects six key areas in which the boundaries of Jewish identities have been interrogated and renegotiated: nation, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, and the Holocaust. In each of these areas Sicher explores how major and emerging contemporary writers and artists re-envision the meaning of their identities. Such re-envisioning may be literally visual or metaphorical in the search for expression of artistic self between the conventional paradigms of the past and new ways of thinking.

According to the biblical narrative, in addition to the Ten Commandments, Moses received a series of supplementary instructions to guide the people as they set about establishing a society in conformity with the covenant that are to be found in the so-called the Book of the Covenant. The book, which is imbedded in the biblical book of Exodus essentially contains addenda or amendments to longstanding customary laws with which the children of Israel were already familiar, and for this reason its various components vary widely in scope, depending on the extent of differentiation from customary law that they entail. This study of the ordinances in the Book of the Covenant focuses not only on what they meant for the ancient Israelites but also how those laws, rules, instructions, and admonitions were treated and in some instances modified as they were incorporated into the huge corpus of Jewish Law, as it emerged over a period of some two and a half millennia.

This is the third volume of the hard-copy edition of a journal that has been published online (www.macdiv.ca/jgrchj) since 2000. Volume 1 was for 2000, Volume 2 was for 2001-2005, and Volume 3 is for 2006. As they appear, the hardcopy editions will replace the online materials.The scope of JGRChJ is the texts, language and cultures of the Graeco-Roman world of early Christianity and Judaism.The papers published in JGRChJ are designed to pay special attention to the 'larger picture' of politics, culture, religion and language, engaging as well with modern theoretical approaches. Craig A. Evans Messianic Hopes and Messianic Figures in Late Antiquity Richard van Egmond The Messianic 'Son of David' in Matthew Ronald Weed Aristotle on Justice (dikaiosuvnh): Character, Action and Some Pauline Counterparts Michael Wojciechowski Paul and Plutarch on Boasting Barry F. Parker Romans 7 and the Split between Judaism and Christianity Craig S. Keener Paul's 'Friends' the Asiarchs (Acts 19.31) Lois K. Fuller The 'Genitive Absolute' in New Testament/Hellenistic Greek: A Proposal for Clearer Understanding Jonathan M. Watt Contextual Disconnection in Bart Ehrman's Lost Christianities Sean A. Adams Luke's Preface and its Relationship to Greek Historiography: A Response to Loveday Alexander Robert Stephen Reid Ad Herennium Argument Strategies in 1 Corinthians

Is Jewish identity flourishing or in decline? Community leaders and scholarly researchers continually seek to determine the attitudes, beliefs, and activities that best measure Jewish identity. At issue, according to these studies, is the very survival of the Jewish community itself. But such studies rarely ask what actually is being examined when we attempt to assess "Jewish identity" or any identity. Most tend to assume that identity is a preexisting, relatively fixed frame of reference reflecting shared cultural and historical experiences.

Drawing on recent work in such fields as cultural studies, poststructuralist theory, postmodern philosophy, and feminist theory, Mapping Jewish Identities challenges this premise. Contesting conventional approaches to Jewish identity, contributors argue that Jewish identity should be conceptualized as an ongoing dynamic process of "becoming" in response to changing cultural and social conditions rather than as a stable defining body of traits.

Contributors, including Daniel Boyarin, Laura Levitt, Adi Ophir, and Gordon Bearn, examine such topics as American Jews' desires to connect with a lost immigrant past through photography, the complicated function of the Holocaust in the identity formation of contemporary Jews, the impact of the struggle with the Palestinians on Israeli group identity construction, and the ways in which repressed voices such as those of women, Mizrahim, and Israeli Arabs have changed our ways of thinking about Jewish and Israeli identity.

The conversations in this collection open by challenging ideas that have become standard and subjecting them to critical re-examination. The central thread of all these essays is a reflection on the processes of reading and theologizing. Many focus on the relation of Paul to the energetic and complex Judaism of the 1st century, and one reads the Gospel of John in this light. Others highlight eschatology. Among the contributors to this volume are David E. Aune, Jouette Bassler, Daniel Boyarin, Neil Elliott, Victor Paul Furnish, Lloyd Gaston, Steven J. Kraftchick, Robert C. Morgan, J. Andrew Overman, Mark Reasoner, Peter Richardson, and Robin Scroggs. Juanita Garciagodoy and David H. Hopper offer appreciations of Calvin Roetzel as a teacher and colleague.

The Hebrew Bible in Fifteenth-Century Spain: Exegesis, Literature, Philosophy, and the Arts investigates the relationship between the Bible and the cultural production of Iberian societies between the anti-Jewish riots of 1391 and the Expulsion of 1492. During this turbulent and transformative period, the Bible intersected with virtually all aspects of late medieval Iberian culture: its languages of expression, its material and artistic production, and its intellectual output in literary, philosophical, exegetic, and polemical spheres. The articles in this cross-cultural and interdisciplinary volume present instantiations of the Hebrew Bible's deployment in textual and visual forms on diverse subjects (messianic exegesis, polemics, converso liturgy, Bible translation, conversion narrative, etc.) and utilize a broad range of methodological approaches (from classical philology to Derridian analysis).

This study analyzes the specific textual formation of Mishna Sotah. Diverging significantly from its origins in the book of Numbers, the Mishnaic ritual was traditionally read by scholars as an "ancient Mishna," narrating an actual ritual practiced in the second temple. In contrast to this generally accepted view, this book claims that while Sotah does contain some traditions, its overall composition has a clear ideological and academic form. Furthermore, comparisons with parallel Tannaitic sources reveal the ideological redaction, which carefully selected only those opinions which support its rewriting of the ritual as a public punitive ritual, while rejecting all reservations and opposition to its specific punitive character even ignoring the possibility of innocence of the suspected adulteress. The author s groundbreaking conclusion is that, regardless of the form the real ritual did or did not take at the temple, the specific Mishnaic ritual was (re)invented by the rabbis in the second century C.E. From its very inception, it was purely textual, reflecting rabbinic imagination rather than memory.

Contributors to Women and Judaism describe the many ways in which women are claiming a place in and changing the face of this ancient religion. "Women and Judaism," the editor writes, "carries an intention to do more than bring the reader new ideas to ponder. For Jewish women, it's a charge to claim and re-claim their rightful place in their tradition ... For non-Jewish sisters, we hope that it encourages you to bring change in your traditions as you learn of our effort to be counted as full members of an ancient spiritual community." In this all-encompassing exploration of Judaism for the modern woman, readers attend the first the Bat Mitzvah 70 years ago, hear an imagined response of biblical mothers asked to give up their children, and learn how each holiday contains an ecological message. Readers explore the power of women within a patriarchal tradition, including the story of the first woman rabbi. Readers see demonstrations of how women keep body, mind, and spirit alive, read a new view of biblical women as heroic role models, and enter the memory of women Holocaust survivors. Some contributors write about sexuality, power, and vulnerability, while others present the newest women's rituals, including Rosh Hodesh and mikveh. An introduction by Rabbi Malka Drucker Suggestions for further reading

Designed for general readers and scholars, this study explores the Lutheran commentary in Bach's St. John Passion and suggests that fostering hostility to Jews is not its subject or purpose. Also included are a literal, annotated translation of the libretto and an appendix discussing anti-Judaism and Bach's other works.

Postmodernity marks a time of creative conflict when the voices of the other, previously rendered silent by the majority, are prominently heard. What effect has postmodernism had on Judaism?

The neat narratives and metanarratives of the Jewish past are being questioned and deconstructed, allowing for different versions of Jewish history to emerge. For example, a postmodern exploration of the place of women in Talmudic culture can upset portraits of women as powerless and rabbis as closed off to female experience thereby helping to secure a place for women today. Similarly, an analysis of Zionism using concepts drawn from postmodern thinkers problematizes such basic Zionists concepts as nation, exile, and normalization, and raises significant questions concerning the relationship of Israel and the diaspora.

The twelve contributors, including Daniel Boyarin, Elliot R. Wolfson, and Laurence J. Silberstein, shed new light on the central texts and issues of Judaism through their postmodern interpretations. They offer up provocative perspectives on Bible and Midrash; Talmud and Halakhah; Kabbalah; Zionism; the Holocaust; feminism; literature; pedagogy; and liturgy.

This book focuses on the interpretation of Malachi 2:10-16, which censures the lax marital practice of its contemporaries. In particular, Hugenberger investigates Malachi's identification of marriage as a "covenant" in response to recent scholarly challenges to this identification.
Taking the issues raised by Malachi as his point of departure, Hugenberger examines the nature of covenant and oath (including "verba solemnia and oath-signs), and, in light of these findings, explores the theory of marriage implied elsewhere in the Old Testament. Included in this investigation are an analysis of the concentric literary structure of Malachi and a study of the Old Testament's ethical perspectives on divorce, polygamy, and sexual fidelity.
An extensive bibliography and indices complete the book.