Reactions to Empire: Sacred Texts in their Socio-Political Contexts

The authors of this volume explore various instances of theo-political visions of authoritative texts in Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism, and Early Christianity, and as such offer a broader perspective on the topos , ""sacred texts in their context."" Instead of a narrow exploration of the ""political intent"" of a singular text or group of texts, the volume contains the treatment of a wide range of texts, out of different corpora, with their discrete contexts. Their juxtaposition, as well as that of the respective scholarly approaches of the essays, offers fresh insights on the matter. Each of the essays in the collection addresses the issue of oppressive imperial ideology and the extent to which the authors of sacred texts engaged their political contexts, and eight of the essays specifically present reactions to the Roman Empire.