Introduction / Lynn LiDonnici and Andrea Lieber -- pt. 1. Interpreting ritual texts. Three Jewish ritual practices in Aristeas [sections] 158-160 / Benjamin G. Wright III -- Prayers in Jubilees / John C. Endres -- Amulets and angels: visionary experience in the Testament of Job and the Hekhalot literature / Rebecca Lesses -- Is the Prayer of Manasseh a Jewish work? / James R. Davila -- "According to the Jews:" identified (and identifying) 'Jewish' elements in the Greek magical papyri / Lynn LiDonnici -- pt. 2. Mapping diaspora identities. Imago mundi of the Genesis Apocryphon / Esther Eshel -- Jubilees in the Hellenistic context / Cana Werman -- "Gather the dispersed of Judah:" seeking a return to the land as a factor in Jewish identity of late antiquity / Esther G. Chazon -- Sectarian consciousness in the Dead Sea scrolls / John J. Collins -- Between motherland and fatherland: diaspora, pilgrimage and the spiritualization of sacrifice in Philo of Alexandria / Andrea Lieber -- pt. 3. Rewriting tradition. Case of the blasphemer (Lev. 24:10-16) according to Philo and Josephus / Louis H. Feldman -- Chaste betrayals: women and men in the apocryphal novels / Adele Reinhartz -- Damascus document's "Three nets of Belial:" a reference to the Aramaic Levi document? / Hanan Eshel -- Why did Antiochus have to fall (II Maccabees 9:7)? / Daniel R. Schwartz -- End of the matter? Jubilees 50:6-13 and the unity of the book / James C. VanderKam
Summary
Examines Jewish ritual praxis in late antiquity, highlighting the ways in which text and ritual intersect in the process of interpretation. This book explores the rewriting of biblical stories in Hellenistic and later Jewish sources, and the ways that authors work through the tradition to reflect their realities and their hopes for the future
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 285-305) and indexes
