Synopses & Reviews
Includes bibliographical references (p. 367-401) and indexes.
Synopsis
An exciting development of recent years in the study of early Judaism and Christianity has been the growing recognition of the importance of the extra-biblical traditions for understanding these religious movements -- apocryphal and pseudepigraphical literature, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Nag Hammadi Gnostic texts.
This book is designed to provide access to the wealth of later Jewish, Christian, and some Islamic texts, citations, and traditions relating to biblical figures. An international group of outstanding scholars treats the evolution of the biographical traditions of fourteen biblical figures during the second temple, late antique, and medieval periods: Adam and Eve (Gary A. Anderson), Seth (John D. Turner), Enosh (Steven D. Fraade), Enoch (Philip S. Alexander), Noah (Devorah Dimant), Abraham (George W. E. Nickelsburg), Melchizedek (Birger A. Pearson), Levi (Marinus de Jonge and Johannes Tromp), Joseph (Harm W. Hollander), Baruch (J. Edward Wright), Ezekiel (Benjamin G. Wright, Aviva Schussman), and Ezra and Nehemiah (Theodore A. Bergren).
Table of Contents
Adam and Eve in the "Life of Adam and Eve" / Gary A. Anderson -- The gnostic Seth / John D. Turner -- Enosh and his generation revisited / Steven D. Fraade -- From son of Adam to second god: transformations of the Biblical Enoch / Philip S. Alexander -- Noah in early Jewish literature / Devorah Dimant -- Abraham the convert: a Jewish tradition and its use by the apostle Paul / George W.E. Nickelsburg -- Melchizedek in early Judaism, Christianity, and Gnosticism / Birger A. Pearson -- Jacob's son Levi in the Old Testament pseudepigrapha and related literature / Marinus de Jonge and Johannes Tromp -- The portrayal of Joseph in Hellenistic Jewish and early Christian literature / Harm W. Hollander -- Baruch: his evolution from scribe to apocalyptic seer / J. Edward Wright -- Talking with God and loosing his head: extrabiblical traditions about the prophet Ezekiel / Benjamin G. Wright -- The prophet Ezekiel in Islamic literature: Jewish traces and Islamic adaptions / Aviva Schussman -- Ezra and Nehemiah square off in the apocrypha and pseudepigrapha / Theodore A. Bergren.