History of the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period (vol. 1)

Lester L. Grabbe is Professor of Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism at the University of Hull. His other books include Like a Bird in a Cage, Did Moses Speak Attic? and Judaic Religion in the Second Temple Period.

…is a detailed overview of the scholarship on and primary textual and archaeological sources for the study of Persian period Yehud that eschews privileging of the biblical material but seeks to arrive at objective results by means of a careful synthesis of biblical and extrabiblical data.

• Preface; Part 1: Introduction; 1. Introduction; Part 2: Sources; 2. Archaeology: Material Remains and Artefacts; 3. Archaeology: Written Material; 4. Ezra-Nehemiah (Including 1 Esdras); 5. Other Biblical Books; 6. Persian, Mesopotamian and Egyptian Sources; 7. Greek and Latin Writers; Part 3: Society and Institutions; 8. Administration and Economy; 9. Society and Daily Living; 10. Religion: Temple, Cult and Practice; 11. Religion: Law, Scripture and Belief; Part 4: Historical Synthesis; 12. Early Persian Yehud; 13. Yehud in the Fifth Century; 14. Yehud in the Fourth Century; 15. A Holistic Perspective; Appendices; 1. The Question of Persian Influence on Jewish Thought and Religion; 2. 'Diaspora' Jewish Communities; Indexes; Names and Subjects; Citations; Modern Scholars