Studies in the Cult of Yahweh: Studies in the New Testament, Early Christianity, Magica

Front Cover
BRILL, 1996 - 334 pages
These two volumes collect some of the most influential and important scholarly essays by the late Morton Smith (1915-1991), for many years Professor of Ancient History at Columbia University in New York City. Smith was admired and feared for his extraordinary ability to look at familiar texts in unfamiliar ways, to re-open old questions, to pose new questions, and to demolish received truths. He practiced the "hermeneutics of suspicion" to devastating effect. His answers are not always convincing but his questions cannot be ignored.
The essays of Volume I center on the Hebrew Bible ("Old Testament"), Ancient Israel and Ancient Judaism, of Volume II on the Christian Bible ("New Testament"), Early Christianity and Ancient Magic. Volume II also contains an assessment of Smith's scholarly achievement and a complete list of his publications.
 

Contents

The Common Theology of the Ancient Near East 15
15
On the Differences Between the Culture of Israel and
28
The Present State of Old Testament Studies
37
Pseudepigraphy in the Israelite Literary Tradition
55
East Mediterranean Law Codes of the Early Iron Age
84
Terminological Boobytraps and Real Problems in SecondTemple
95
Palestinian Judaism in the First Century
104
Notes on the Hellenization of Judaism
116
Goodenoughs Jewish Symbols in Retrospect
184
The Work of George Foot Moore
201
Zealots and Sicarii Their Origins and Relation
211
On the Wine God in Palestine
227
Helios in Palestine
238
The Gentiles in Judaism 125 BCE AD 66
263
Were the Maccabees Priests?
320
Index
326

What is Implied by the Variety of Messianic Figures?
161
The Dead Sea Sect in Relation to Ancient Judaism
168

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About the author (1996)

Morton Smith, Ph.D. (1948), Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and Th.D. (1957), Harvard University, was for many years Professor of Ancient History at Columbia University in New York City.
Shaye J.D.Cohen, Ph.D. (1975), Columbia University, was a student of Morton Smith, and is currently Ungerleider Professor and Chair of the Program of Judaic Studies at Brown University.

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