The Idea of Israel in Second Temple Judaism
A New Theory of People, Exile, and Israelite Identity

A new paradigm for how the biblical concept of Israel impacted early Jewish apocalyptic hopes for restoration.

Jason A. Staples (Author)

9781108842860, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 20 May 2021

450 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.8 cm, 0.75 kg

'… The Idea of Israel in Second Temple Judaism is convincing and significant: it will affect everyone working in this field for decades and will likely be cited as a watershed moment for the topic … For those interested in biblical studies, history, or theology, this book is an important read.' Luke Beavers, Southern Theological Review

In this book, Jason A. Staples proposes a new paradigm for how the biblical concept of Israel developed in Early Judaism and how that concept impacted Jewish apocalyptic hopes for restoration after the Babylonian Exile. Challenging conventional assumptions about Israelite identity in antiquity, his argument is based on a close analysis of a vast corpus of biblical and other early Jewish literature and material evidence. Staples demonstrates that continued aspirations for Israel's restoration in the context of diaspora and imperial domination remained central to Jewish conceptions of Israelite identity throughout the final centuries before Christianity and even into the early part of the Common Era. He also shows that Israelite identity was more diverse in antiquity than is typically appreciated in modern scholarship. His book lays the groundwork for a better understanding of the so-called 'parting of the ways' between Judaism and Christianity and how earliest Christianity itself grew out of hopes for Israel's restoration.

Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction: investigating the idea of Israel
Part I. Israel's Disputed Birthright: 1. Jews and Israelites in antiquity: the need for a new paradigm
2. The other Israelites: Samaritans, Hebrews, and non-Jewish Israel
Part II. Restoration Eschatology and the Construction of Biblical Israel: 3. Judah's bible and the narrative construction of biblical Israel
4. Between disaster and restoration: the prophets, exile, and restoration eschatology
5. The restoration of Israel in the Persian and Hellenistic periods: incomplete, delayed, failed
Part III. Israel and Restoration Eschatology in the Diaspora: 6. Exile and Diaspora theology
7. Israel, Jews, and restoration eschatology in Josephus
8. Israel and restoration in Philo of Alexandria
9. Exile and Israel's restoration in the dead sea scrolls
10. Israel, Jews, and restoration in other second temple narrative literature
11. Israel in second temple eschatological and apocalyptic literature
12. Israel, Hebrews, Jews, and restoration eschatology
Bibliography
Index of primary sources
General index.

Subject Areas: Judaism [HRJ], Old Testaments [HRCF1], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]