Books in the Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha Supplement S. series

The aims of this significant study are to present pictures of the past as it manifested itself in Jewish literary works written in the Persian and Hellenistic periods, and to reveal the origin of materials and methods used in them in order to construct historical traditions. The works investigated are literary works of three types: pseudohistorical narratives (i.e. historical legends), visions and their interpretations, and 'rewritten Bibles' (i.e. works retelling the historical tradition of the Bible, with alterations in order to create a new structure of history).

This is the most thorough investigation yet published on the early Christian apocalypse called the 'Ascension of Isaiah'. Knight examines all the critical issues in the study of this document, including matters of date, provenance and purpose. Particular attention is paid to the book's concepts of christology (with a view both to that christology's Jewish mediatorial background and to its relationship with wider Christianity) and millenarianism (with a view to the social setting of the writer and his readers). Questions concerning the author as haggadist and exegete are also addressed.

What are the antecedents of the 'Antichrist' figure and its associated themes in Jewish literature prior to the New Testament? G.W. Lorein offers texts and translations of all the relevant passages, together with a discussion of their meaning and significance.

Much study has taken place of the prophetic and apocalyptic writings in recent decades, but the relationship between the two has been little explored. A major explicit debate on the question is very much needed, -- and is now provided.