The history and everyday lives of Jews and Christians in Roman-Byzantine Palestine were both separate and intertwined from the time of Jesus and afterwards. At first, it was not always easy to tell Jew and Christian apart and even when their ways parted, many aspects of their respective societies and material culture were similar and often indistinguishable from one another. Beliefs might have evolved differently, there may have been tension between the communities, particularly over Jerusalem and the meaning of its Temple, and Jews and Christians did engage in theological polemics, but their daily lives intersected and when it came to dress, recreation, leisure, and pets, they were often the same. Jews cannot be understood without Christians nor can Christians of ancient Palestine be understood without Jews. Separate, but together, different, but often identical. This work includes the previously-published collected studies of the author on Jews and Christians in Roman-Byzantine Palestine.

The history and everyday lives of Jews and Christians in Roman-Byzantine Palestine were both separate and intertwined from the time of Jesus and afterwards. At first, it was not always easy to tell Jew and Christian apart and even when their ways parted, many aspects of their respective societies and material culture were similar and often indistinguishable from one another. Beliefs might have evolved differently, there may have been tension between the communities, particularly over Jerusalem and the meaning of its Temple, and Jews and Christians did engage in theological polemics, but their daily lives intersected and when it came to dress, recreation, leisure, and pets, they were often the same. Jews cannot be understood without Christians nor can Christians of ancient Palestine be understood without Jews. Separate, but together, different, but often identical. This work includes the previously-published collected studies of the author on Jews and Christians in Roman-Byzantine Palestine.

This long-awaited companion volume to The Literature of the Sages, First Part (Fortress Press, 1987) brings to completion Section II of the renowned Compendia series, published cooperatively with Van Gorcum of Amsterdam. The Literature of the Sages, Second Part, explores the literary creation of thousands of ancient Jewish teachers, the often- anonymous Sages of late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Essays by premier scholars provide a careful and succinct analysis of the content and character of various documents, their textual and literary forms, with particular attention to the ongoing discovery and publication of new textual material. Incorporating groundbreaking developments in research, these essays give a comprehensive presentation published here for the first time. This volume will prove an important reference work for all students of ancient Judaism, the origins of Jewish tradition, and the Jewish background of Christianity.