Judaism in Late Antiquity

In the first English attempt to address the Syriac homilies of Aphraates, Gavin sets a context for the material by considering the church and the sermons themselves. The topic of how the Jews are treated in the homilies is given special attention.

This study explores the Emperor Julian's actions in regards to the Jews, especially his advances toward rebuilding the Jewish Temple. It offers the reader an insight into an aspect of Julian’s reign not often examined by Christian historians.

In this stellar study of what the works of select patristic authors (Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Eusebius Ephraem, and Jerome) reveal about the Aggadah, Samuel Krauss offers an insightful and provocative reading of the sources.

As the oldest organized religion in Sassanian Iraq, Judaism serves as a kind of model for other religious organizations in the region. After considering the growth of Judaism in Iraq during the Sassanian period, Morony notes the connections between the Jewish and Aramaean populations as well as the intermixed ethnic communities in which Jews played a part. Social, administrative, and religious issues are all considered. Messianic expectations as they continued to develop in the Jewish community in diaspora round out this discussion of Judaism as a fully developed religion in Iraq under Islamic rule.

Does God take into account only the physical act, or does He also consider intention? Does inward motivation truly matter in the areas of criminal or cultic law? Were there differences between the biblical, hellenistic and rabbinic views on intention? This book explores what the Old Testament, Philo, and the early Rabbis thought about human intentionality in a legal context.

Ritual and historical perspectives each provide only a partial view of early Jewish weddings. Combining these approaches allows for a new look at practices rejected or highlighted by early rabbis and their successors, and First Came Marriage: The Rabbinic Appropriation of Early Jewish Wedding Ritual investigates the process by which early Jews married and the various moves they used to minimize, elaborate or codify these practices.

This volume contains the Syriac text of one of Dionysius bar Salibi’s polemical writings, that against the Jews, based on a manuscript now located at the Harvard Semitic Museum. An English translation was promised by the editor, but never appeared.

The Sasanian Empire was home to many religious communities. It was also a place of meeting and transformation. The studies in this volume encompass a diverse array of topics concerning these religious communities inhabiting the Sasanian Empire. Some include the Roman East in their deliberations. Most, however, deal with the interaction of one or other religious community based in the Sasanian Empire with the dominant religion of the empire, Zoroastrianism.

This study investigates how the Rabbis handled the Book of Chronicles, highlighting issues including intermarriage. While genealogical lists contain intermarriage in Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah is generally opposed. Ezra did compose some of the lists and intermarriage was acceptable only under certain conditions.

Moral insights and comments about Tzedakah ("Charity") are found throughout the vast body of rabbinic literature. This book attempts to present a survey of the rabbinic sources concerning Tzedakah and to provide the reader with an analysis of the system of Tzedakah as created and understood by the Rabbis.