The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ - by Emil Schürer & Fergus Millar & Geza Vermes (Paperback)

About the Book

First published in English between 1885 and 1891, this book provides a critical presentation of Jewish history, institutions, and literature from 175 B.C. to A.D. 135.

Book Synopsis

Emil Schürer's Geschichte des judischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi, originally published in German between 1874 and 1909 and in English between 1885 and 1891, is a critical presentation of Jewish history, institutions, and literature from 175 B.C. to A.D. 135. It has rendered invaluable services to scholars for nearly a century.

The present work offers a fresh translation and a revision of the entire subject-matter. The bibliographies have been rejuvenated and supplemented; the sources are presented according to the latest scholarly editions; and all the new archaeological, epigraphical, numismatic and literary evidence, including the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bar Kokhba documents, has been introduced into the survey. Account has also been taken of the progress in historical research, both in the classical and Jewish fields. This work reminds students of the profound debt owed to nineteenth-century learning, setting it within a wider framework of contemporary knowledge, and provides a foundation on which future historians of Judaism in the age of Jesus may build.

Review Quotes

"...a first-rate textbook on the intertestamental period." Menahem Stern, Journal of Jewish Studies
The Classical Review

The appearance of Vol. I of the new Schürer is of such significance that it is not exceeded in importance by any recent publication and approached by very few. Schürer is the handbook par excellence for scholars, who are now in greatest debt to the editors for a labor of devotion and an achievement of sheer excellence...It is impossible to overpraise this volume.
Catholic Biblical Quarterly

The obsolete has been excised from text, notes, and bibliographies, which have all been revised. And of course a quantity of wholly new material, unknown to Schürer, has had to be incorporated, such as archaeological finds, the Qumran and Bar Kokhba documents and the Babylonian tablets which have recently been throwing light on obscure areas of Seleucid (and Parthian) chronology...All that was best in the original has been preserved: notably its depth of learning, laudable succinctness, and remarkable clarity of organization.
The Classical World

About the Author

Emil Schurer (1844 - 1910) was a German Protestant theologian. He lectured at Leipzig, Giessen, Kiel, and Göttingen and founded and edited the journal Theologische Literaturzeitung. He devoted most of his scholarly life to the creation of his magisterial work on the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ.

Geza Vermes, F.B.A., was Professor Emeritus of Jewish Studies and Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College, University of Oxford UK, and Director of the Forum of Qumran Research at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, UK.

Fergus Millar, F.B.A., is Emeritus Camden Professor of Ancient History in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford, UK.

Matthew Black, F.B.A., was Emeritus Professor of Biblical Criticism, and former Principal of St. Mary's College at the University of St. Andrews, UK.

Pamela Vermes was former Literary Editor of the Journal of Jewish Studies, Oxford, UK.