Product Description: In 68 CE, devout Jews left more than one thousand handwritten documents in caves northwest of the Dead Sea. The cave that most defined the beliefs and hopes of these Jews is Cave I. In it were placed many manuscripts, including two copies of the Qumran Psalter or Thanksgiving Hymns...read more

This volume draws attention to ancient religious texts, especially the so-called 'non-canonical' texts, by focusing on how they were used or functioned in Early Judaism and Early Christianity. The contributors are biblical scholars who have chosen one or more Jewish or Christian apocryphal or pseudepigraphical texts, with the aim of describing their ancient functions in their emerging social settings. These show the fluidity of the notion of scripture in the early centuries of the Church and in Judaism of late antiquity, but they also show the value of examining the ancient religious texts that were not included in the Jewish or Christian biblical canons. These chapters show that there is much that can be learned from examining and comparing these texts with canonical literature and evaluating them in their social context. No ancient text was created in a vacuum, and the non-canonical writings aid in our interpretation not only of many canonical writings, but also shed considerable light on the context of both early Judaism and early Christianity.

Product Description: The Odes of Solomon, pseudepigraphically attributed to the son of David, are forty-two odes or hymns that date from the earliest periods of Christianity. No extant manuscript preserves a complete copy of these odes; portions, however, are preserved in one Greek papyrus, one leather Coptic manuscript, one leather and one paper Syriac manuscript...read more

Product Description: In the Seminar "The Pseudepigrapha and Christian Origins" of the "Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas", chaired from 2000 to 2006 by Professors James H. Charlesworth (Princeton) and Gerbern S. Oegema (McGill), the relation between the Pseudepigrapha and the New Testament has been discussed systematically and intensively in a way never seen before...read more

Product Description: The Temple Scroll is the longest manuscript found in the Qumran Caves and perhaps the most important halakhic composition known from the Second Temple Period. The scroll presents itself as a rewritten Torah, which begins with the renewal of the Sinaitic covenant and then turns to the building of the Temple...read more

Product Description: Two millennia ago a gifted poet in the Middle East composed the Earliest Christian Hymnbook called the Odes of Solomon, that gifted poet was the anonymous Odist who became the early poet laureate of Christianity. The poetry, hymns and odes of the first followers of Jesus are evidently present in the New Testament and this volume translates The Odes of Solomon with some of the hymns being obviously Christian while others perhaps Jewish...read more

Product Description: Description: That the earliest followers of Jesus wrote poetry, hymns, and odes is evident already in the New Testament. This volume is a translation of The Odes of Solomon, a collection of early Christian hymns or odes; some are obviously Christian, others perhaps Jewish...read more

Resurrection is the central feature of the New Testament gospels and lies at the center of many of Paul's letters as well. In addition, the doctrine of the resurrection lies at the core of the Christian church's faith. The essays in this stunning collection explore the idea of resurrection as the idea appears not only in the New Testament texts but also in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the pseudepigraphal Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, and in contemporary theology. Charlesworth asks where the concept of resurrection appears and the ways we know it, and he also examines the concept of resurrection in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament. Casey Elledge explores the earliest evidence we have for a notion of a resurrection of the dead and investigates the hope for Israel in Judaism and Christianity found in the Testaments. Crenshaw looks at the Hebrew Bible's ideas of resurrection, and Hendrikus Boers examines the meaning of Christ's resurrections in Paul's writings. W. Waite Willis explores a theology of resurrection.>

A richly illustrated study provides a definitive analysis of the significance of the serpent in the religions of the ancient world, drawing on biblical passages, various religious texts, and other sources to describe both the positive and negative connotations of the serpent image throughout the ancient world.

Product Description: The Psalms of Solomon, the most important early psalm book outside the canonical psalter, reflects the turmoil of events in the last pre-Christian century and gives an apparently eyewitness account of the first invasions of the Romans into Jerusalem...read more