Exploring Jewish Literature of the Second Temple – A Guide for New Testament Students (Christian Classics Bible Studies)

I love this book.The (Christian) author claims to be writing from an Evangelical standpoint, but the book never gets 'preachy', and the scholarship is never less than meticulous.Aimed at students of the New Testament, this book is refreshingly readable. It will gently take you by the hand and lead you through the fascinating and sometimes bizarre landscape of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the writers Philo and Josephus, and a wide range of other apocryphal and pseudepigraphical books.While the book can be just picked up and read from cover to cover, to get the most benefit I would suggest you treat it like a sort of college course. This will involve buying several other books (Like Josephus, Philo, the Dead Sea Scrolls, etc - most of which are cheaply available on Amazon.)The author provides numerous quotes from all the works in question, but suggests sections from the original writings as pre-reading for each chapter. This is how I've been using the book, and it's been a wonderful experience.The book doesn't shy away from the 'proper' scholarly terms for stuff. You'll occasionally encounter expressions like 'Sitz im Leben' or 'Vorlage', but the author (bless him!!) always provides a plain English translation of the theological terms when he uses them.I really can't recommend this book highly enough for anyone looking for a good and thorough introduction to the writings and ideas underlying the books of the New Testament.

Want to understand the mindset of the New Testament writers? Read this book. Honestly, there is no better way to enter into the cultural milieu that informed the NT writers. For example, one can't (I think) gain a full(er) understanding of Jude's Epistle without understanding where he drew so many of his examples (e.g., The Testament/Assumption of Moses or, even more importantly, 1 Enoch). Similarly, the writer of "Hebrews" is better understood if one has been exposed to what the Qumran community thought (e.g., regarding Melchizedek; comparing what Apollos (?) wrote about him as compared to what DSS 11QMel says). In other words, the NT authors (and for that matter, the OT ones) didn't write in a vacuum; they wrote using the cultural touchpoints of their day. If readers of the Bible want a deeper, more mature understanding of it, readers have to do more than "read Scripture at face value." Here's an example. If today I said that everyone is talking about the Hail Mary bomb that a QB threw in yesterday's NFL game virtually everyone would understand what I was talking about. Now fast forward 500, 100, 1500 years and tell me the everyday reader reading my statement would have an idea of what I was talking about if that reader has no understanding of the cultural setting I wrote from.That's why this book is a must for the serious Bible reader/studier.Bottom Line, this is a well-written, excellently-organized intro for non-scholars to Second Temple literature.5 stars.

Received the product as expected (as ordered) and the shipping was prompt and the product arrived in excellent condition. Thank you. Very comprehensive book with lots of information.

No complaints,satisfied.

Though well written for the layman and an enjoyable read, I did feel, however, that the author sometimes attempted, though with reserve, to make connections between the 2nd temple literature and Christianity in ways that were forced. Some of the literature simply not conducive to a better understanding of Christianity, not even relevant; therefore, attempts to find similar sayings or theology between the literature and the Bible is unnecessary. I mean, there's always going to be some similarity on the general, every-day life, but that's not of any contribution to or comparison of the Bible's content or the Christian life.Again, the author did note that some of the literature pretty much irrelevant to a biblical or Christian context, but to then list what could be similarities between the literature and Christian thought seemed forced.Over all, however, it was a very good read.

This book pretends to cover Jewish literature of the Second Temple Period. However it covers only a subset of it. I could hardly believe it (but on the other hand I have already had similar experiences with the editor, IVP). For example Helyer does not seem to know about important literature such as pseudo-orphic poetry. Another kind of example is very important literature which is only very partially covered (the so important Sibylline oracles are hardly covered, only book V is spoken of). I suspect that the cause may be that Helyer still identifies ancient Judaism too much with modern Judaism (i.e. the Pharisean strand) so that he spends too much much space on rabbinic Judaism or rather fundamentalist strands (related to the Dead Sea Scrolls). On the contrary the Jewish literature of the time was very broad, rich, open and enlightened by Hellenism. Only Philo gets an acceptable treat, the huge bulk of Hellenic Judaism is savaged or ignored. Would it be that Hellenism is not fit for fundamentalism?The book would be OK (the advantage being that it is low-level, very accessible) if the subject had been limited, e.g. strands of rabbinic or cultic kinds, or hardly influenced by Hellenism (and then excise the part on Philo). But with such a broad title, the books totally fails to cover the huge subject claimed.Extensive surveys of the Jewish literature of the time are found in very expensive volumes such as those by Albert-Marie Denis published at Brill's or Peters'. A cheap, intelligent and accessible introduction is John Collins'  Between Athens and Jerusalem: Jewish Identity in the Hellenistic Diaspora (The Biblical Resource Series)  (Eerdmans, 2000), e.g. covering the judaic Sibylline and Orphic literature. Collins, although not pretending to be a survey, will help the readers of the current book realize the kind of things they are missing if relying on Helyer's book. Between Athens and Jerusalem: Jewish Identity in the Hellenistic Diaspora (The Biblical Resource Series)