Second Temple Literature

In the Second Temple Period, “Torah” was not limited to the Five Books of Moses. The book of Jubilees and the Temple Scroll saw themselves as "Torah," while Qumran's Community Rule and Damascus Document claim that their own sectarian rules likewise constituted Torah.

The Sons of Elohim sleeping with women and producing demigods (Gen 6:1-4) is sandwiched between the birth of Noah and the flood. This juxtaposition of passages prompted 1 Enoch and Genesis Apocryphon to question whether Lamech was Noah's father or whether Noah was a demigod.

The Torah describes Phinehas as a zealot, who kills Zimri in an act of vigilante fervor, and is rewarded by God with eternal priesthood. Anticipating the rabbis’ discomfort with Phinehas’ vigilantism, Josephus transforms Phinehas into a military general and Zimri’s sin into a dangerous sedition requiring a military response.

The Missing Links

When and why washing became immersion: between traditional-rabbinic and scientific-critical approaches to the origin of immersion and the mikveh.^[1]

An Ancient Jewish Novel for Shavuot

A Surprising Look at Shabbat in the Second Temple Period