The second generation of scholars—or is it the third?—offers a new perspective on the texts from the Qumran caves Dead Sea Scroll scholarship is undergoing a virtual revolution. New ideas and perspectives are percolating among the small group of scholars who dedicate themselves to primary research on the content of the scrolls. Recent publications focus […]
The Temple Scroll and its contents have already been described at some length for BAR readers by the scroll’s editor, the late Yigael Yadin. Until his untimely death in 1984, Professor Yadin was Israel’s most famous archaeologist.a The Temple Scroll is the longest of all the Dead Sea Scrolls (27 feet), and it may well be […]
Jews lived under Rome starting 63 BCE. This was a very important time in Jewish history. Prof. Steven Fine, Yeshiva University, Produced by Down Low Pictures for COJS
The Roman Judean period was a period of ultimate crisis for the Jews. There’s been no period like this first century after the Temple was destroyed. Prof. Steven Fine, Yeshiva University, Produced by Down Low Pictures for COJS
We don’t know a lot about what the Jews were like in ancient Rome in the second century BCE, when Jews and Romans had a mutual enemy known as the Seleucid Greeks. Prof. Steven Fine, Yeshiva University, Produced by Down Low Pictures for COJS
Seleucus II Kallinikos, the king of Syria portrayed on a silver coin 246-226 BCE, with the god Apollo on reverse side.
Jews came together in synagogues because Jews need holy places when there is no Temple. There is an architectural identity between synagogues and the Temple. Prof. Steven Fine, Yeshiva University, Produced by Down Low Pictures for COJS
Arsinoë II was a Ptolemaic Greek Princess of Ancient Egypt and through marriage was Queen of Thrace, Asia Minor and Macedonia as wife of King Lysimachus and later co-ruler of Egypt with her brother-husband Ptolemy II Philadelphus.
The synagogue of Sardis is notable for its size and location. In size it is one of the largest ancient synagogues excavated. In location it is found in the center of the urban center, instead of on the periphery as synagogues typically were. This attests to the strength and wealth of the Jewish community in […]
