This was the age of sects (Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, the Qumran community, the Jesus movement (Christians), Sicarii, Zealots, and others) and sectarian literature; apocalypses and varied speculations about God’s control of human events, the nature of evil, and the secrets of the end time; the growth of the synagogue, liturgical prayer and scriptural study; the “golden age” of Diaspora Judaism, especially in Egypt, which produced a rich literature in Greek, seeking to package Jewish ideas in Hellenistic wrapping; and Judaism’s intense interaction with its ambient culture, producing in some
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