The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ: Volume 2

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Emil Schrer's Geschichte des judischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi, originally published in German between 1874 and 1909 and in English between 1885 and 1891, is a critical presentation of Jewish history, institutions, and literature from 175 B.C. to A.D. 135. It has rendered invaluable services to scholars for nearly a century. The present work offers a fresh translation and a revision of the entire subject-matter. The bibliographies have been rejuvenated and supplemented; the sources are presented according to the latest scholarly editions; and all the new archaeological, epigraphical, numismatic and literary evidence, including the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bar Kokhba documents, has been introduced into the survey. Account has also been taken of the progress in historical research, both in the classical and Jewish fields. This work reminds students of the profound debt owed to nineteenth-century learning, setting it within a wider framework of contemporary knowledge, and provides a foundation on which future historians of Judaism in the age of Jesus may build.

Reviews

Without any doubt . . . a major work of scholarship . . . * Journal of Jewish Studies *
The obsolete has been excised fomr text, notes, and bibliographies, which have all been revised. And of course a quantity of wholly new material, unknown to Schrer, has had to be incorporated, such as archaeological finds, the Qumran and Bar Kokhba documents and the Babylonian tablets which have recently been throwing light on obscure areas of Seleucid (and Parthian) chronology...All that was best in the original has been preserved: notably its depth of learning, laudable succinctness, and remarkable clarity of organization. -- Malcolm Colledge * The Classical Review *
The appearance of Vol. I of the new Schrer is of such significance that it is not exceeded in importance by any recent publicati9on and approached by very few. Schrer is the handbook par excellence for scholars, who are now in greatest debt to the editors for a labor of devotion and an achievement of sheer excellence...It is impossible to overpraise this volume. -- Samuel Sandmel * The Classical World *
The editors have rendered a magnificent service to scholarship by this excellent translation and updating of Schrer's classic. -- John Collins * The Catholic Biblical Quarterly *
The Vermes-Millar version of Schrer's justly famous history of the Jewish people in the age of Jesus Christ is a truly monumental achievement in its well nigh total recasting of the entire work. The up-to-date bibliographical coverage alone, the wide trawl of the most recondite sources in many languages, Semitic, Greek, etc., and the cautious but firm exercise of judgement will ensure its authoritative survival deep into the 21st century. The publication of the eagerly awaited indexes, which places the key to this great compendium of both reference and literature into the hands of readers from many disparate disciplines, is bound to be a literary event of profound significance. -- Professor Edward Ullendorff, F.B.A., Emeritus Professor of Semitic Languages, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
With the completion of this project, the world of scholarship will possess an indispensable tool for the study of this period, which is the heyday of Judaism. -- Magen Broshi * The Jerusalem Post *
This is one of the few indispensable books. -- D.M. Lewis * Journal of Theological Studies *
...it is the opinion of this reviewer that the new Schrer will be an indispensable resource for future historical work on this period... -- Howard Kee * Religious Studies Review *

Author Bio

Emil Schurer (1844 1910) was a German Protestant theologian. He lectured at Leipzig, Giessen, Kiel, and Gttingen and founded and edited the journal Theologische Literaturzeitung. He devoted most of his scholarly life to the creation of his magisterial work on the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ. Geza Vermes, F.B.A., was Professor Emeritus of Jewish Studies and Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College, University of Oxford, and Director of the Forum of Qumran Research at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, UK. Fergus Millar, F.B.A., is Emeritus Camden Professor of Ancient History in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford, UK. Matthew Black, F.B.A., was Emeritus Professor of Biblical Criticism, and former Principal of St. Mary's College at the University of St. Andrews, UK. Pamela Vermes was former Literary Editor of the Journal of Jewish Studies, Oxford, UK.