Pseudo-Philo : Rewriting the Bible

This is a full-length, systematic literary treatment of Pseudo-Philo – a long, well-written reinterpretation of the Hebrew Bible by a Palestinian Jew of the first century AD, and an important source of information about Jews of that period. Murphy also includes a concordance of the Latin text which will prove useful to serious scholars of Pseudo-Philo.

This is a literary and theological study of the Biblical Antiquities of Pseudo-Philo. Using the methodologies of redaction and literary criticism, Murphy provides an analysis of the whole of the Biblical Antiquities. After a chapter-by-chapter analysis, Murphy addresses several topics more generally--major characters, major themes, and the historical context of the work. At the end of this book are full concordances to the Latin text which will be valuable tools for future research. This book will prove an important resource for students of Jewish interpretation of the Bible at the end of the Second Temple period. It sheds light on Jewish thought of the period regarding covenant, leadership in Israel, women in Israel, relations with Gentiles, divine providence, divine retribution, eschatology, and many other subjects. The study furnishes a broad interpretive context for future work on the Biblical Antiquities and gives students of the Bible access to an important literary and religious product of first-century Judaism.