Introductions, annotations, and a selection of handpicked digitized books for online reading. These titles were chosen to enhance the study of the ancient historical and cultural context of the Bible.
Strack (1848-1922) was a Professor of the Old Testament at the University of Berlin. His classic introduction to Rabbinic literature was revised and updated by Gunter Stemberger, an established expert on Rabbinic history and literature. This book is the only comprehensive one-volume introduction to the subject that I know. I...
Geroge M. Lamsa was a native Aramaic speaker born in the Middle East. He translated the Aramaic Peshitta Bible, which means "simple" or "straight," into English. Without going into arguments of manuscript primacy, Aramaic was indeed spoken broadly in the first century across the entire Levant...
The Mishna is a collection of written traditions of the oral Torah in the form of discussion. These discussions were preserved by the rabbis of the first and second centuries CE. A number of English translations of this ancient document are in existence. This English translation of the Mishnah by...
Misconceptions about ancient Jewish sacrifice have led scholars to overlook the significance and symbolism of the Jerusalem temple to the ancient Jewish worshippers. The author of "Purity, Sacrifice, and the Temple," Jonathan Klawans, challenges the idea that the eucharist replaced ancient Jewish sacrifice and that these cultic rituals...
Aramaic language is much closer to Hebrew than Greek. And since a version of Aramaic was widely spoken in Israel in the first century CE many feel that its valuable to consider the NT message in Syriac to see the nuance of meaning. The presumption is that much more in...
Today, New Testament exists in many languages. But New Testament in Syrian Aramaic (Syriac) is a very ancient translation. Some Syrian Aramaic manuscripts even predate the copies of the Koine Greek New Testament used as a base of the original texts of the New Testament. Aramaic was widely spoken in...
One of the world's foremost experts on the Dead Sea Scrolls provides an authoritative English translation of the two hundred longest and most important nonbiblical Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran. This book is also supplied with introductory information about the history, discovery, and publication of each manuscript....
Midrash Rabbah is a homeletic, ethical, and moral commentary on the Torah expounded by the Rabbis during Talmudic times. The Midrash represents the essence of Judaism, its ethical standards, and its insight into the human heart in a unique literary form. For centuries the Midrash Rabbah commentaries nourished the Jewish...
Midrash Rabbah is a homeletic, ethical, and moral commentary on the Torah expounded by the Rabbis during Talmudic times. The Midrash represents the essence of Judaism, its ethical standards, and its insight into the human heart in a unique literary form. For centuries the Midrash Rabbah commentaries nourished the Jewish...