Scriptures, Sects, and Visions

This short volume is at once a survey of recent particular discoveries which bid to transform our knowledge of Judaism in the Hellenistic Era, and a synthesis of the history of Judaism . . . The richness and freshness of Professor Stone's understanding of Judaism in the Hellenistic Age stems not only from his mastery of new lore; it arises also from a broad and objective humanistic mind prepared to relinquish cherished but antiquated views and bold to make new constructions. --Frank Moore Cross, Jr. Hancock Professor of Oriental Languages Harvard University This work integrates the important finds of the past thirty years into a fresh picture of Second Temple (Intertestamental) Judaism--its varieties, its contacts with Gnosticism and Hellenism, the ancient roots of its apocalyptic--whose dynamic complexity was never before imagined; a book widely learned yet readily accessible to the common reader. --Moshe Greenberg Professor of Bible Hebrew University of Jerusalem Professor Michael Stone's Scriptures, Sects and Visions is not only an achievement in compactness, but a welcome elucidation of new discoveries and reinterpretations essential to the understanding of postbiblical Judaism and the beginnings of Christianity. --Judah Goldin Professor of Oriental Studies University of Pennsylvania