Sarah Pearce | |
---|---|
Born | 1965 |
Nationality | British |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | University of Oxford, University of London |
Doctoral advisor | Geza Vermes, Martin Goodman |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Classics |
Institutions | University of Southampton |
Notable works | Philo,The Land of the Body:Studies in Philo's Representation of Egypt The words of Moses:studies in the reception of Deuteronomy in the Second Temple Period |
Sarah J. K. Pearce is Ian Karten Professor of History and Head of the School of Humanities at the University of Southampton. She is known in particular for her work on Jews in the Hellenistic world and the Roman Empire,especially the life and work of Philo of Alexandria. [1]
Pearce read Divinity at the University of London gaining her BA in 1988. She moved to the Oriental Institute of the University of Oxford and gained her D.Phil. in 1995 with a dissertation on the reception of the Bible in the Second Temple period. [2] Her work was published in an expanded version in 2013 as The words of Moses:studies in the reception of Deuteronomy in the Second Temple Period. [3]
Pearce moved to the University of Southampton in 1996 firstly as a Parkes Fellow and then as the first Ian Karten Fellow. She became lecturer,senior lecturer and then Professor of History. [4] [2] [5] [6] She is a member of the University of Southampton's Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations. [7] Pearce was a co-director of the AHRB funded Greek Bible in the Graeco-Roman World Project (2001 to 2006) with Tessa Rajak at the University of Reading. [8] Pearce was a collaborator on the AHRC project based at the University of Oxford (2013 to 2016) on The Reception of Josephus in Jewish Culture from the Eighteenth Century to the Present. [9]
Pearce is working on a new English translation and commentary on Philo's On the Decalogue for the Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series. [1]
The Essenes were a mystic Jewish sect during the Second Temple period that flourished from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE.
Flavius Josephus was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader,best known for The Jewish War,who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly descent and a mother who claimed royal ancestry.
Moses is considered the most important prophet in Judaism and one of the most important prophets in Christianity,Islam,the Druze faith,the BaháʼíFaith and other Abrahamic religions. According to both the Bible and the Quran,Moses was the leader of the Israelites and lawgiver to whom the authorship,or "acquisition from heaven",of the Torah is attributed.
The Torah is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible,namely the books of Genesis,Exodus,Leviticus,Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense,Torah means the same as Pentateuch or the Five Books of Moses. It is also known in the Jewish tradition as the Written Torah. If meant for liturgic purposes,it takes the form of a Torah scroll. If in bound book form,it is called Chumash,and is usually printed with the rabbinic commentaries.
Herod Agrippa,also known as Herod II or Agrippa I,was a King of Judea from AD 41 to 44. He was the last ruler with the royal title reigning over Judea and the father of Herod Agrippa II,the last king from the Herodian dynasty. The grandson of Herod the Great and son of Aristobulus IV and Berenice,he is the king named Herod in the Acts of the Apostles 12:1:"Herod (Agrippa)".
Amalek was a nation described in the Hebrew Bible as a staunch enemy of the Israelites. The name "Amalek" can refer to the nation's founder,a grandson of Esau;his descendants,the Amalekites;or the territories of Amalek,which they inhabited.
The Pharisees were a social movement and a school of thought in the Levant during the time of Second Temple Judaism. After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE,Pharisaic beliefs became the foundational,liturgical,and ritualistic basis for Rabbinic Judaism.
Philo of Alexandria,also called Philo Judaeus,was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria,in the Roman province of Egypt.
Pseudo-Philo is the name commonly used for the unknown,anonymous author of Biblical Antiquities. This text is also commonly known today under the Latin title Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum,a title that is not found,per se,on the Latin manuscripts of Pseudo-Philo's Biblical Antiquities. Pseudo-Philo's Biblical Antiquities is preserved today in 18 complete and 3 fragmentary Latin manuscripts that date between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries CE. In addition,portions of Pseudo-Philo's Biblical Antiquities parallel material also found in the Chronicles of Jerahmeel,a 14th-century Hebrew composition. The Latin text of Pseudo-Philo's Biblical Antiquities circulated in some Latin collections of writings by Philo of Alexandria. Scholars have long recognized the pseudonymous character of the text now known as Pseudo-Philo's Biblical Antiquities. Primary in this regard is a vastly differing approach to and use of the Jewish Scriptures than that of Philo of Alexandria. For the sake of convenience and due to the lack of a better option,scholars continue to follow the lead of Philo scholar Leopold Cohn in calling the author “Pseudo-Philo.”
Antiquities of the Jews is a 20-volume historiographical work,written in Greek,by historian Flavius Josephus in the 13th year of the reign of Roman emperor Flavius Domitian which was around AD 93 or 94. Antiquities of the Jews contains an account of history of the Jewish people for Josephus' gentile patrons. In the first ten volumes,Josephus follows the events of the Hebrew Bible beginning with the creation of Adam and Eve.
James Hamilton Charlesworth was the George L. Collord Professor of New Testament Language and Literature until January 17,2019,and Director of the Dead Sea Scrolls Project at the Princeton Theological Seminary. His research interests include the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Hebrew and Christian Bibles,the Dead Sea Scrolls,Josephus,the Historical Jesus,the Gospel of John,and the Revelation of John.
A burnt offering in Judaism is a form of sacrifice first described in the Hebrew Bible. As a tribute to God,a burnt offering was entirely burnt on the altar. This is in contrast to other forms of sacrifice,which were was partly burnt and most of it eaten in communion at a sacrificial meal.
Hellenistic Judaism was a form of Judaism in classical antiquity that combined Jewish religious tradition with elements of Greek culture. Until the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the early Muslim conquests of the eastern Mediterranean,the main centers of Hellenistic Judaism were Alexandria in Egypt and Antioch in Syria,the two main Greek urban settlements of the Middle East and North Africa region,both founded at the end of the fourth century BCE in the wake of the conquests of Alexander the Great. Hellenistic Judaism also existed in Jerusalem during the Second Temple Period,where there was conflict between Hellenizers and traditionalists.
There is no scholarly consensus as to when the Hebrew Bible canon was fixed. Some scholars argue that it was fixed by the Hasmonean dynasty,while others argue it was not fixed until the second century CE or even later.
The Biblical character Moses is discussed or alluded to in surviving works by a number of Judeo-Hellenic or Judeo-Roman authors,including Eupolemus,Artapanus,Josephus,and Philo,as well as the non-Jewish Hellenistic authors discussed in the main article Moses.
Louis Harry Feldman was an American professor of classics and literature. He was the Abraham Wouk Family Professor of Classics and Literature at Yeshiva University,the institution at which he taught since 1955.
Demetrius the Chronographer was a Jewish chronicler (historian) of the late 3rd century BC,who lived probably in Alexandria and wrote in Greek.
Jewish magical papyri are a subclass of papyri with specific Jewish magical uses,and which shed light on popular belief during the late Second Temple Period and after in Late Antiquity. A related category of contemporary evidence are Jewish magical inscriptions,typically on amulets,ostraca,and incantation bowls.
The history of the Jews in Alexandria,Egypt,dates back to the founding of the city by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE. Jews in Alexandria played a crucial role in the political,economic,and religious life of Hellenistic and Roman Alexandria,with Jews comprising about 35% of the city's population during the Roman Era. Alexandrian Jewry were the founders of Hellenistic Judaism and the first to translate the Torah from Hebrew to Koine Greek,a document known as the Septuagint. Many important Jewish writers and figures came from or studied in Alexandria,such as Philo,Ben Sira,Tiberius Julius Alexander and Josephus. The position of Alexandria's Jewry began deteriorating during the Roman era,as deep antisemitic sentiment began developing amongst the city's Greek and Egyptian populations. This led to the subsequent Alexandrian pogrom in 38 CE and the Alexandria riot in 66 CE,which was in parallel with the outbreak of the First Jewish–Roman War. Alexandria's Jewry began to diminish,leading to a mass emigration of Alexandrian Jews to Rome,as well as other Mediterranean and North African cities. By the beginning of the Byzantine era,the Jewish population had again increased,but suffered from the persecutions of the Christian Church,and during the subsequent Muslim conquest of Egypt,the number of Jews in Alexandria increased greatly,with some estimates numbering around 400,000. Following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948,and the ensuing Six-Day War,almost all of Alexandria's Jewish population were expelled from the country and emigrated to Israel.
Gregory E. Sterling is an American religious scholar,academic and researcher. He is the Reverend Henry L. Slack Dean and Lillian Claus Professor of New Testament at Yale Divinity School. He is a former dean of the Graduate School of University of Notre Dame where he also served on the faculty for 23 years.