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Summary
There is very little evidence of the historical Jesus--who he was, what he said. As Bloom writes, "There is not a sentence concerning Jesus in the entire New Testament composed by anyone who ever had met the unwilling King of the Jews." Bloom has used his unsurpassed skills as a literary critic to examine the character of Jesus, noting the inconsistencies, contradictions, and logical flaws throughout the Gospels. He also examines the character of...
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Hinges of history volume 2
Summary
In this insightful book, Thomas Cahill, internationally-acclaimed historian and author of the runaway bestseller How the Irish Saved Civilization (RB# 94747), reveals the changes in thinking that made Western civilization possible. A New York Times best-seller, The Gifts of the Jews is his accessible portrait of an ancient society and their vision that would later inspire the concept of individual worth. Until the third millennium, it was a widely-held...
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Summary
Martin Goodman is professor of Jewish studies at the University of Oxford, where he is president of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies and a fellow of Wolfson College. His books include Rome and Jerusalem: TheClash of Ancient Civilizations and The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies.
A sweeping history of Judaism over more than three millennia
Judaism is one of the oldest religions in the world, and it has preserved its distinctive identity...
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Traces the history of the struggle between the Roman and Jewish world that led to the eventual destruction of Jerusalem, recounting the rebellions, riots, and attacks that occurred between the two groups and exploring the influence those attacks had on the city of Jerusalem and its people.
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Summary
These twenty-four lectures offer an introduction to the history, literature, and religion of ancient Israel and early Judaism as it is presented in the collection of texts called the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible, and the Tanakh. Attention is given not only to the content of the biblical books but also to the debates over their meaning and the critical methods through which they have been interpreted.
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Surveys the history, traditions, and practice of Judaism from biblical times to today, with explanations of the major aspects of Jewish culture. Focuses on Judaism from within and how it is understood by its adherents, past and present. Covers topics such as the sacred books of Judaism, modes of worship, the calendar and holidays, and rites of passage such as bar and bat mitzva and marriage. Illustrates how Judaism reinvented itself by embracing the...
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"Hard to believe but true: - The Passover Seder is a Greco-Roman symposium banquet - The Talmud rabbis presented themselves as Stoic philosophers - Synagogue buildings were Roman basilicas - Hellenistic rhetoric professors educated sons of well-to-do Jews - Zeus-Helios is depicted in synagogue mosaics across ancient Israel - The Jewish courts were named after the Roman political institution, the Sanhedrin - In Israel there were synagogues where the...