This volume takes a fresh view of the role representations of the past play in the construction of Jewish identity. Its central theme is that the study of how Jews construct the past can help in interpreting how they understand the nature of their Jewishness. The individual chapters illuminate the ways in which Jews responded to and made use of the past. If Jews choices of what to include, emphasize, omit, and invent in their representation of the past is a fundamental variable, then this volume contributes to the creation of a more nuanced approach to the construction of the histories of Jews and their thought.

A comprehensive bibliography of the Pseudepigrapha and related literature, covering 1850 to 1999, providing an indispensable resource for scholar and library. This comprehensive bibliography of research on the Pseudepigrapha and cognate literature covers the period from 1850 to the present day - thus encompassing almost all the secondary literature on this topic. A reference work designed for both institutions and individual scholars, it systematically presents a structured bibliography for each ancient text, highlighting elements such as 'Texts and Textual Issues', 'Translations', 'General Studies', and 'Specific Studies'. In addition, this book covers a host of topics related to the context and content of the classic pseudepigrapha, providing an indispensable reference tool for anyone, scholar or student, engaged on, or interested in, research in the Pseudepigrapha.

Written by an international group of expert scholars, the essays in this volume are devoted to the topic of biblical apocrypha, particularly the "Old Testament Pseudepigrapha," within the compass of the Slavonic tradition. The authors examine ancient texts, such as 2 Enoch and the Apocalypse of Abraham, which have been preserved (sometimes uniquely) in Slavonic witnesses and versions, as well as apocryphal literature that was composed within the rich Slavonic tradition from the early Byzantine period onwards. The volume's focus is textual, historical, and literary. Many of its contributions present editions and commentaries of important texts, or discuss aspects pertaining to the manuscript evidence.

The video-game is among the most prominent media of the explosion of apocalyptic popular culture in the twenty-first century. Apocalyptic video games are a global phenomenon, international in their scope and democratic in their appeal. This book will be the first volume dedicated to the subject of apocalyptic video games. Its two dozen invited contributions address the subject comprehensively, from game design to player experience, and from the perspective of content, theme, sound, ludic textures, and social function. The volume offers scholars, students, and general readers a thorough discussion of one of the most fascinating illustrations of "apocalyptic" in the popular imagination and novel insights into an important facet of contemporary digital culture. Special Feature: The volume concludes with a curated Q&A with game designers on the concept and construction of “apocalyptic” game worlds.

This volume is the first study of the Aramaic Dead Sea New Jerusalem text conducted in light of the complete extent of the preserved manuscript copies and with full reference to previous reconstructions. In addition to presenting an edition of the Cave Four copies (4Q554, 4Q554a, 4Q555), Lorenzo DiTommaso discusses the genre of the NJ, the order of its material, and its antecedents and parallels in ancient urban design. He suggests that its New Jerusalem is not a heavenly city and that categories of earthly and heavenly Jerusalems perhaps impose an inappropriate taxonomy on the various ancient Jewish and Christian expressions of the New Jerusalem. The author demonstrates that the NJ shares virtually no points of contact with the Temple Scroll, and that neither text is likely dependent on the other. He also argues that the New Jerusalem of the NJ is neither an eschatological focus of pilgrimage nor a mustering point for the final battle, that the text's eschatological horizon is established by a review of history and anticipates a time when once-hostile nations are humbled, and that it was conceivably composed in the first third of the second century BCE, shortly before the Maccabean revolt.

The study of early Judaism and early Christianity has been revolutionised by new evidence from a host of sources: the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Pseudepigrapha, the New Testament Apocrypha, the Nag Hammadi writings and related texts, and new papyrus and amulet discoveries. Now scholars have entered the "next generation" of scholarship, where these bodies of evidence are appreciated in conversation with each other and within the contexts of the wider Jewish, Christian, and Greco-Roman cultures from the fourth century BCE to the fourth century CE. This volume features chapters from leading scholars who approach the study of early Judaism and early Christianity from this synthetic approach. The chapters engage in an inter-generational and international dialogue among the past, present and future generations of scholars, and also among European, North-American, African and South-American scholars and their various methodologies and approaches -- linguistic, historical or comparative. Among the chapters are contributions by Professors James Charlesworth (Princeton), Andre Gagne (Concordia) and Loren Stuckenbruck (Munich), as well as papers from researchers from North America, Europe, South America and Africa.