Peshat and Derash Plain and Applied Meaning in Rabbinic Exegesis: (Oxford University Press) Publisher's Comments: This comprehensive and critical narration of the history and repercussions of Rabbinic exegesis of the Bible and Talmud investigates the tension that has often existed between the plain sense of the divine text and its creative interpretation. Details...

Prophetic Figures in Late Second Temple Jewish Palestine The Evidence from Josephus: (Oxford University Press) Publisher's Comments:Isolated passages from the writings of Josephus are routinely cited in general studies of early Jewish prophecy, but the present work is the first comprehensive examination of this material. Gray begins with a discussion of the significance of the belief--wid... Details...

Published Material from the Cambridge Genizah Collection A Bibliography 1980–1997 Series: Cambridge University Library Genizah Series (No. 13): (Cambridge University Press) Publisher's Comments: This second volume of the bibliography of published material from the Cambridge Genizah collections is an indispensable tool for scholars. The guide to every book, article and reference dealing with the 140,000 Genizah fragments at Cambridge covers most are... Details...

Qumran Cave 4: (Oxford University Press) Publisher's Comments: This is the fourth and last volume of parabiblical texts from Qumran Cave 4 and reveals once again the interest in biblical themes characteristic of Second Temple period Judaism, exhibited in many of the Qumran compositions. It is devoted to a small group o... Details...

Qumran Cave 4 (Qumran Cave 4 #12): (Oxford University Press) Publisher's Comments: The scholarly world has eagerly awaited the full presentation of the three Samuel scrolls from Cave 4. It is no exaggeration to say that the critical study and exegesis of the books of Samuel are no longer possible without these three scrolls. The final pub... Details...

Qumran Cave 4 (Qumran Cave 4 #9): (Oxford University Press) Publisher's Comments: This definitive scholarly edition continues the publication of the biblical Dead Sea Scrolls from Qumran Cave 4. It contains twenty-four manuscripts of the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, and Kings, antedating previous Hebrew texts by a millennium. Th... Details...

Qumran Cave 4 (Qumran Cave 4 Vol. XIV #2): (Oxford University Press) Publisher's Comments: This volume contains a collection of compositions from cave 4 at Qumran written during the Second Temple period and linked to the Hebrew Bible through text, characters, themes, or genre. While some of the documents represent a reworking, rewriting, or parap... Details...

Rabbinic Authority: (Oxford University Press) Publisher's Comments: This book examines the nature and sources of the unique authority accorded in Judaism to the Sages of the first five centuries C.E. These teachers--often referred to reverentially as Chazal, a Hebrew acronym for "our Sages of blessed memory"--occupy a centr... Details...

Rabbinic Interpretation of Scripture in the Mishnah: (Oxford University Press) Publisher's Comments: This volume offers a systematic and detailed description of early rabbinic hermeneutics as it can be reconstructed from the Mishnah (third century c.e.). Samely clarifies the conditions of a modern appreciation of rabbinic hermeneutics and provides a unifie... Details...

Reading the Rabbis The Talmud as Literature: (Oxford University Press) Publisher's Comments: Traditionally, the Talmud was read as law, that is, as the authoritative source for Jewish practice and obligations. To this end, it was studied at the level of its most minute details, with readers often ignoring the composite whole and attending only to f... Details...