Good sources of intertestamental period?

[daveleau]

Hi everyone!

What are some good sources for study of the Intertestamental period? I need to write a paper with a minimum of 5 sources, and I have 3 (a 1960's commentary on the Apocrypha, my textbook discussing the period and the Apocrypha itself.) Can you think of a couple of other good books that discuss the Maccabean period and the rule of the Herods?

Thanks!
Dave

 

[AngCath]

Between the Testaments by DS Russell

 

[FreezBee]

Flavius Josephus is always a possibility
I've actually had him recommended by Thomas Thompson for writing a paper about the Achaemenid period!


cheers

- FreezBee

 

[filosofer]

The Intertestamental Period by Raymond Surburg (CPH, 1975). Excellent resource.

New Testament History by F. F. Bruce
In Christ's love,
filo

 

[dcyates]

Hi everyone!

What are some good sources for study of the Intertestamental period? I need to write a paper with a minimum of 5 sources, and I have 3 (a 1960's commentary on the Apocrypha, my textbook discussing the period and the Apocrypha itself.) Can you think of a couple of other good books that discuss the Maccabean period and the rule of the Herods?

Thanks!
Dave

Aside from the suggestions you've already received, other quality resources dealing with the intertestamental period that you might utilize are:

John H. Hayes and Sara R. Mandell, The Jewish People in Classical Antiquity: From Alexander to Bar Kochba (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998);

Martin Hengel, The Zealots; trans. by David Smith (Edinburgh, UK: T&T Clark, 1989);

Helmut Koester, History, Culture, and Religion of the Hellentistic Age; vol. 1, 2nd edn. (New York/Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1995; which is a truly excellent sociological introduction to the period);

Doron Mendels, The Rise and Fall of Jewish Nationalism: Jewish and Christian Ethnicity in Ancient Palestine; 2nd edn. (Grand Rapids, MI/Cambridge, UK: Wm B. Eerdmans, 1997 [1992]; which, despite its subtitle, spends eleven of its thirteen chapters dealing with the intertestamental period);

Victor Tcherikover, Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1999);


Anthony J. Tomasino, Judaism Before Jesus: The Events and Ideas that Shaped the New Testament World (Downers Grove, IL/Leicester, UK: InterVarsity Press, 2003).

And also, of course, there are very good entries in such reference works as:
The Anchor Bible Dictionary (Gen. ed. David Noel Freedman, 1992);
Dictionary of Judaism in the Biblical Period (eds. Jacob Neusner and William Scott Green, 1996);
Dictionary of New Testament Background (eds. Craig A. Evans and Stanley E. Porter, 2000);
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (Gen. ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, 1988);
The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible (Gen. ed. George A. Buttrick, 1990 [1962]); et cetra.