Die Makkabäer

In many respects, the Maccabean period represents a bench mark for the formative phase as well as for ancient Judaism and early Christianity. Alongside the political significance of an independent state in Hellenistic times, there belongs the paradigmatic developments of the complex intertwining of ethnos and confession in Judaism, the establishment of the Torah and the Bible as binding text corpora, and the emergence of religious institutions and parties. In the field of theology, discourses on the Maccabean period had a decisive effect on Jewish and Christian eschatology, martyrology and soteriology. This volume makes the first attempt at providing a complete overview of this epoch from a variety of angles. In thematically ordered interdisciplinary groups, proven experts synchronously consider contemporary events and literature, and take a diachronic look at the far-reaching reception of the Maccabean books and their time.