Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period

Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period

This volume presents the most important portions of Erwin Goodenough's classic thirteen-volume work, a magisterial attempt to encompass human spiritual history in general through the study of Jewish symbols in particular. Revealing that the Jewish religion of the period was much more varied and complex than the extant Talmudic literature would lead us to believe, Goodenough offered evidence for the existence of a Hellenistic-Jewish mystic mythology far closer to the Qabbalah than to rabbinical Judaism.

Erwin R. Goodenough

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press

Edited, with a foreword by Jacob Neusner

Series: Bollingen series

Part I. The question, the method -- ch. 1. The problem -- ch. 2. Method in evaluating symbols -- Part II. The answer -- ch. 3. The Shofar -- ch. 4. Pagan symbols in Judaism : astronomical symbols -- Part III. The synagogue at Dura-Europos -- ch. 5. Interpreting the art of the synagogue at Dura-Europos -- ch. 6. Cosmic Judaism : the Temple of Aaron -- ch. 7. The Judaism of immaterial reality : the Ark vs. paganism -- ch. 8. Summary : Judaism at Dura.

Book