Negotiating Identities - (Coniectanea Biblica) by Karin Hedner Zetterholm & Anders Runesson & Cecilia Wassén & Magnus Zetterholm (Paperback)

About the Book

Relying on archaeological remains and ancient sources, this book describes important identity formation processes within early Judaism and Christianity and shows how negotiations involving issues of ethnicity, stereotyping, purity, commensality, and institution building contri...

Book Synopsis

Covering the period from 200 BCE to 600 CE, this book describes important aspects of identity formation processes within early Judaism and Christianity, and shows how negotiations involving issues of ethnicity, stereotyping, purity, commensality, and institution building contributed to the forming of group identities. Over time, some of these Jewish group identities evolved into non-Jewish Christian identities, others into a rabbinic Jewish identity, while yet others remained somewhere in between. The contributors to this volume trace these developments in archaeological remains as well as in texts from the Qumran movement, the New Testament and the reception of Paul's writings, rabbinic literature, and apocryphal and pseudepigraphical writings, such as the Book of Dreams and the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies. The long timespan covered in the volume together with the combined expertise of scholars from various fields make this book a unique contribution to research on group identity, Jewish and Christian identity formation, the Partings-of-the-ways between Judaism and Christianity, and interactions between Jews and Christians.

Review Quotes

"This impressive collection of contributions by leading international experts provides comprehensive, thorough, and methodically innovative insights into the intersections and complex relationships between Judaism and Christianity in their historical, social, cultural, and religious contexts. This remarkable book is indispensable for anyone interested in the multifaceted identity formation and early interaction of both world religions from the Hellenistic-Roman period to Late Antiquity." --Michael Tilly, University of Tübingen

This impressive collection of contributions by leading international experts provides comprehensive, thorough, and methodically innovative insights into the intersections and complex relationships between Judaism and Christianity in their historical, social, cultural, and religious contexts. This remarkable book is indispensable for anyone interested in the multifaceted identity formation and early interaction of both world religions from the Hellenistic-Roman period to Late Antiquity.

About the Author

Karin Hedner Zetterholm is associate professor of Jewish Studies at Lund University.
Anders Runesson is professor of New Testament at the University of Oslo.
Cecilia Wassén is associate professor of New Testament Exegesis at Uppsala University.
Magnus Zetterholm is associate professor of New Testament Studies at Lund University.