Lexington Books
Pages: 216
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜
978-1-4985-4242-5 • Hardback • December 2016 • $103.00 • (£79.00)
978-1-4985-4243-2 • eBook • December 2016 • $97.50 • (£75.00)
Malka Simkovich is a visiting assistant professor of Jewish studies at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.
Introduction: The Problem of Jewish Universalism
Part I: Biblical Prophetic Literature: Four Eschatological Relationships Between Israelites and Non-Israelites
Chapter One: Three Models of Particularist Relationships in Prophetic Literature
Chapter Two: Nation Alongside Nation in the Universal Worship of God
Part II: Relationships Between Israelites and Gentiles Built on Biblical Models in the Greco-Roman Period, 334 bce–118 ce
Chapter Three: Particularist Relationships in the Late Second Temple Period
Chapter Four: The Universalized Worship Model in the Second Temple Period
Part III: A Life in Common: The Rise of Ethical Universalist Literature in the First Century bce
Chapter Five: Philo’s “Radical Allegorizers”
Chapter Six: Ethical Universalism in the Late Second Temple Period
Part IV: Summary and Implications of the Argument
Bibliography
This thoughtful and well-crafted book is a must-read for anyone seeking a roadmap through the much-vexed questions surrounding Biblical and late Second Temple conceptions of Jewish universalism. Simkovich first defines universalism and then systematically works through several distinct but often intertwined manifestations of it. With clarity and erudition, the author illuminates the complexity of key Biblical and post-Biblical texts and demonstrates that the same text could have both universalistic and particularistic reflexes.
— Joel S. Kaminsky, Morningstar Family Professor of Jewish Studies, Smith College
This is a fascinating study, in which the author connects the dots between late Biblical and Prophetic and Jewish-Hellenistic writings in order to draw a picture of an emerging Jewish universalism in antiquity.
— Gerbern S. Oegema, McGill University