Books by Martha Himmelfarb

The seventh-century CE Hebrew work Sefer Zerubbabel (Book of Zerubbabel)-a tale of two messiahs-is the first full-fledged messianic narrative in Jewish literature. Martha Himmelfarb offers a comprehensive analysis of this rich understudied text, illuminating its distinctive literary features and the complex milieu from which it arose.

Considers a range of texts-including the Book of Watchers, Book of Jubilees, legal documents from the Dead Sea scrolls, writings of Philo of Alexandria, and the Book of Revelation-to explore the tensions inherent in Second Temple Judaism's emphasis on ancestry as the primary criterion for inclusion among the chosen people of Israel.