Biblical Figures Outside the Bible (1998 Stone/Bergren), edited volume

Biblical Figures Outside the Bible (1998) is a volume edited by Michael E. Stone and Theodore A. Bergren.

Abstract

An international array of scholars treat the evolution of biographical tradition of fourteen biblical figures during the second temple, late antiquity, and medieval periods.

"An exciting development of recent years in the study of early Judaism and Christianity has been the growing recognition of the importance of the extra-biblical traditions for understanding these religious movements—apocryphal and pseudepigraphical literature, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Nag Hammadi Gnostic texts.One major source for surviving works and traditions, however, has been largely ignored. This is the wealth of later Jewish and Christian (and to some extent Islamic) texts, citations, and traditions relating to biblical figures. One reason for the relative neglect of this material is that it is difficult to access, requiring a range of knowledge extending beyond the biblical traditions, through patristics, and into medieval studies.This book is designed to provide access to some of these complex traditions and to do it in such a way as to present the reader both with specialized insights and also with a work of general reference value. An international array of outstanding scholars treat the evolution of the biographical traditions of some fourteen biblical figures during the second temple, late antique, and medieval periods: Adam and Eve (Gary A. Anderson), Seth (John D. Turner), Enosh (Steven D. Fraade), Enoch (Philip S. Alexander), Noah (Devorah Dimant), Abraham (George W. E. Nickelsburg), Melchizedek (Birger A. Pearson), Levi (Marinus de Jonge and Johannes Tromp), Joseph (Harm W. Hollander), Baruch (J. Edward Wright), Ezekiel (Benjamin G. Wright, Aviva Schussman), Ezra and Nehemiah (Theodore A. Bergren). The figures were selected on the grounds of the richness and interest of the traditions connected with them and their importance in the thought worlds of early Judaism and Christianity. Michael E. Stone is Gail Levin de Nur Professor of Religion and Professor of Armenian Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and co-author of Faith and Piety in Early Judaism: Texts and Documents, also published by Trinity Press. Theodore Bergren is Associate Professor of Religion at the University of Richmond (Virginia).1999 Biblical Archaeology Society Publication Award for the category Best Book Relating to the Old Testament>"--Publisher description.

Editions

Published in Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1998.

Table of contents

• Adam and Eve in the "Life of Adam and Eve" / Gary A. Anderson
• The gnostic Seth / John D. Turner
• Enosh and his generation revisited / Steven D. Fraade
• From son of Adam to second god: transformations of the Biblical Enoch / Philip S. Alexander
• Noah in early Jewish literature / Devorah Dimant
• Abraham the convert: a Jewish tradition and its use by the apostle Paul / George W.E. Nickelsburg
• Melchizedek in early Judaism, Christianity, and Gnosticism / Birger A. Pearson
• Jacob's son Levi in the Old Testament pseudepigrapha and related literature / Marinus de Jonge and Johannes Tromp
• The portrayal of Joseph in Hellenistic Jewish and early Christian literature / Harm W. Hollander
• Baruch: his evolution from scribe to apocalyptic seer / J. Edward Wright
• Talking with God and loosing his head: extrabiblical traditions about the prophet Ezekiel / Benjamin G. Wright
• The prophet Ezekiel in Islamic literature: Jewish traces and Islamic adaptions / Aviva Schussman
• Ezra and Nehemiah square off in the apocrypha and pseudepigrapha / Theodore A. Bergren