An Introduction to Second Temple Judaism: History and Religion of the Jews in the Time of Nehemiah, the Maccabees, Hillel, and Jesus

by Lester L. Grabbe

An internationally respected expert on the Second Temple period provides a fully up-to-date introduction to this crucial area of Biblical Studies. This introduction, by a world leader in the field, provides the perfect guide to the Second Temple Period, its history, literature, and religious setting. Lester Grabbe magisterially guides the reader through the period providing a careful overview of the most studied sources, the history surrounding them and the various currents within Judaism at the time. This book will be a core text for courses on the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, as well as Qumran, Intertestamental Literature and Early Judaism.

Genres: Judaism, History, Religion, Ancient History, Nonfiction

176 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 10, 2010

Reviews

[Grace · Rating 2 out of 5]

An Introduction To Second Temple Judaism: History And Religion of the Jews in the Time of Nehemiah, The Maccabees, Hillel and Jesus, written by Lester Grabbe and published in 2010, is a slim introduction to the Second Temple Period of Jewish history. Grabbe’s guiding thesis is the idea that Judaism in this period can be divided into ‘streams’ which are grouped into several larger categories: textual, revolutionary, eschatological, and inverted. Each of these categories gets their own section of the book.
In the section that covers ‘textual Judaism’, Grabbe includes priests, scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes, as well as a discussion of wisdom literature. His overview of the priests themselves is clear and sound, including their political and religious roles, but it, along with the section on the scribes, fails to adequately establish them as a separate ‘stream’ of thought - it can be assumed that the priestly stream includes the followers of priestly Judaism and not just the hereditary priest lines and the scribes, but this is not made clear. His treatment of the Pharisees reveals a problem present throughout the book: Grabbe seems sometimes unwilling to draw fairly obvious consensus conclusions based on historical evidence. In this section, he insists that the question of the rabbinic movement’s Pharisaic heritage is unsettled as we do not have one direct bridge source - despite the fact that this is not usually how thought movements evolve, and from the evidence we do have it is extremely likely that these two are linked somehow. If not, where did the Pharisees go and the rabbis come from? The sections on the Sadducees and Essenes are both straightforward and short, although the former mentions another group, the Boethusians, as potentially being part of this category but gives no context as to who they are.
The streams of the ‘revolutionary Judaism’ category are generally given as: the Maccabees/Hasmoneans, Josephus’ ‘bandits’, the Sicarii, the Zealots, and the participants in the Bar Kokhba revolt. This section also includes a discussion of messianic expectations in this time period. The section on the Maccabees explains their origins well, but skips over the entire Hasmonean period, going right from the victory of the Maccabees to the Hasmonean downfall. The discussions of the Sicarii and the Zealots are thorough. When it comes to Grabbe’s overview of the Bar Kokhba revolt, however, we find a similar problem as above in the section on the Pharisees: Grabbe does not accept that it is extremely likely Simon Bar Kokhba was seen as a messianic figure, despite all evidence of this and the clear academic consensus on this point. This is especially bizarre as he lists several compelling pieces of pro-messianic evidence - such as the title Bar Kokhba itself - and then seems to dismiss them because Bar Kokhba participated in the daily economic tasks required to run a political group, despite admitting in the section about messianic expectations that political leadership of the nation of Israel is a large component of many conceptions of the Jewish messiah. In the conclusion of the revolutionary section, the many perspectives of the period are summarized, but Grabbe also mentions ‘millenarian’ movements. This is not only not an applicable term, it is contrasted here with ‘political’ movements, these given as two different kinds of revolutionary groups. This framework is ridiculous, and fails to acknowledge the various motives of these groups as well as the fundamental fact that the political and the religious were deeply intertwined at this time.
The next section covers the stream of ‘eschatological Judaism’: unlike the others, few groups are named. Instead, Grabbe discusses apocalypses, resurrection, and other more general ideas. He attributes apocalypticism as a concept to the Persians, but provides no evidence for this claim, later listing other ‘Near Eastern’ potential origins for the phenomenon. He provides a rough timeline of notable Israelite apocalyptic literature along with more speculation about the genre’s origins. He then asserts that Israelites likely did not have a concept of the afterlife until the Persian or early Hellenic period, again a bold throwaway claim, before discussing the development of the ideas of resurrection and the immortal soul, while claiming that several groups and notable figures ‘still held to the old belief of no afterlife’. He then discusses end time calculation and perceptions of the return of the messiah, a section which would be much better served as combined with the ‘messianic expectations’ section of the previous chapter.
The final category discussed in the book is termed ‘inverted Judaism’. It discusses the connection between gnosticism and Judaism, as well as providing what is meant to be an overview of gnostic cosmology. To undertake this, he must argue that gnostic groups are generally linked by one cosmology, contributing to this chapter’s magnification of previous dual speculative and overly dismissive trends in Grabbe’s writing. From claims that certain names ‘look Semitic’ to linking long chains of beings to one ‘original’ being or archetype with little or no reasoning provided, this section suffers greatly from strange choices about including or excluding information. The wild speculation is not even necessary, as the clear evidence for a link between gnosticism and Judaism also presented is more than enough to establish and elaborate on the connection.
Generally, An Introduction covers the diversity of Second Temple Jewish thought with fairly accessible language and format befitting its intent for undergraduates in the field, but suffers from several systemic issues. Each chapter ends with a list of sources for further reading, which is a useful resource for a book aimed at an interested undergraduate audience, but the bulk of the works included were written by the author himself. Throughout the book, Grabbe alternates between grasping at straws to promote pet theories, and stubbornly ignoring obvious connections to shun accepted ideas. The author also repeatedly attempts to promote the idea that religious concepts present in Judaism must have their origin in ‘Near East’ civilization, showing an orientalist bent and a fascination with all things stemming from one source. In one striking example of this, the ‘European Greeks’ are contrasted with the ‘Near Eastern Seleucids’, with Grabbe asserting that even while the Judea region was under Greek rule, the ‘Near Eastern empires’ still held some kind of psychological sway over the culture, as it could not truly have been ruled and influenced by the incompatible Greeks. Despite the volume’s 2010 publication date, it is clearly a product of an earlier time and mode of thought, perhaps the era in which Grabbe himself was educated or did the majority of his work (as this book was published during his retirement). Its accessibility may actually be a detriment if it is picked up by students wanting a focused introduction to the subject who lack the background knowledge to question some of the author’s claims or who read it with a less critical eye due to its appearance as a basic reference work. The metaphor of streams itself that underlies the entire work both seems patronizing and much too convoluted when it could simply be a discussion of different modes of thought, especially as Grabbe admits that a person can belong to multiple streams, not making a distinction between groups such as the Essenes which would not have allowed for horizontal movement and vague concepts such as ‘those who anticipate the messiah’. The work was also shoddily proofread, with frequent typos present. Overall, I would not recommend this as an introduction to the topic for self study, but would instead recommend students with some basic background in critical reading study this work alongside an expert professor who can provide a different academic perspective and the time to discuss the problematic academic ideas and practices in it.

[J.J. Richardson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An overview

Grabbe gives an interesting overview of the streams that run through the history of 2nd Temple Judaism, . . but his bias is a bit overwhelming. This is a case example of a biblical minimalist look at Jewish history, so it's left with not knowing much of anything other than, "A lot happened!". The read was a bit dry but as an overview it wasn't so bad. I've heard from some scholarly friends that Grabbe has since moved into more of a maximalist position. If that is true, I wonder how he'd write this book now.. .

[Jared Saltz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grabbe inserts himself in a very crowded field of books discussing the same topic. The main claim to fame he has over Schiffman, Sandmel, Nickelsburg, Cohen, Bickerman, Radin, or Tcherikover is his brevity, but he also loses some nuance and topical areas due to this fact. It would be very useful in a short survey, as it does hit most of the necessary issues and has short chapters, but this is definitely not what I'd buy if I only wanted a single volume in the understanding of 2TP Judaism.

[Benjamin Vroman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read. I read this book to get some context for understanding the New Testament and the background for early Christianity. This book was short, informative, easy to read, and included a good list of books at the end of each chapter for further study.

The author had theories and shared them liberally, but he seemed to clearly indicate what was interpretation and speculation from what was more objective. Definitely recommend this book.

[Timothy Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good overview of the state of Judaism at the time of Jesus and afterward. I would have liked a little more depth in the different branches in Judaism but this is an introduction after all so I can't get too upset about that. Definitely worth a read for those who are interested in religion or this time period.

[Jonathan Caldwell · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a fine introduction to a few issues surrounding Second Temple Judaism. I expected more. But even for an introduction, I would go somewhere else. The author does not really interact with secondary literature and seems to put more emphasis on extracanonical literature than scripture. He does not have the highest view of scripture as accurate history.

[Malcolm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great overview.

I have been doing a paper concerning second temple period. This book has helped clarify and support many other readings I have done.
Easy to read and quick to get a good overview.

[Ryan Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

An informative, if somewhat dry, introduction to the complexities of Jewish society and thought during the Second Temple period. A good source for a general understanding with many suggestions for further reading.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A concise introduction to the topic. I was surprised at the number of (minor grammatical) errors it contained for such a short work, indicating minimal proofreading. But overall it’s a good and short introduction to Second Temple Judaism.

[Briana Grenert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice and succinct.

[Hany Abdelmalek · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book draws attention to the variety of differences and the pluralism of pre-70 Judaism. Moreover, It serves as a brief background for the study of Judaism and the New Testament era.

[Will Waller · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book receives the oh-so-undaring score of three stars because it was such a middle of the road kind of textbook. Since it's been awhile since I read this book (having saved the final chapter to read until just now), I'm going to do this review based upon my memory.

This book is a, and I stress this, cursory look at pre-70 CE Judaism following the building of the second temple. It is certainly an introduction and many references in its annotated bibliography will lead you further into study. Furthermore, the book's thesis is middle of the road: Judaism in this period was more varied than you can unite into a single stereotype, so don't. The author doesn't. It investigates the many currents that push up against modern Judaism (again varied so this statement is naturally flawed) and go with modern Judaism. Apocalypticism, gnosticism, messiahism, and revolutary notions all go into the strange mix in Palestine during this period. Add to it Romans, Persians, and those weird folks out by the Dead Sea at Qumran and you've got a real mix.

So pick up this book but do not expect much to stick outside of the "we don't have conclusive evidence nor will we ever that this or that was the prevading case in Judaism." And so you get a middle of the road grade.

[jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grabbe's book was a disappointment to me. It came highly recommended, but fell short of expectations that naturally should accompany the reading of a leading historian and my experience with the works of other leading historians on the subjects of his book. There is, in Grabbe's work much for future reference, but the experience of reading it was far from inspiring. The work is astute, but dry and not a little given to the state of and uncertainty of what we can know with historical assurance--minimalist to a high degree and protectionist, in my opinion, to the point of withering my interest in reading of anything new apart from be warned away from the excesses of others.

[Zach Freeman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this one for a class - it's well-organized and to the point but there are a surprising number of typos. Not really a book you would pick up outside of a class.