Apocalyptic

This chapter describes the following apocalyptic texts: Reuyot Yeṭezqel; Sefer Eliyahu; Sefer Zerubavel; and The Secrets of Rabbi Shimon bar Yoṭai (Rashbi). For each of these texts, details on the contents, dating, language, printed editions, translations, commentaries, bibliography, electronic resources and manuscripts are provided.

Targumim

This chapter describes the following texts: Targumim to the Pentateuch (Targum Onqelos, Targum Neofiti, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, and Fragment Targumim); and Targumim to the Prophets (Targum Jonathan of the Prophets and Targumic Toseftot). For each of these texts, details on the contents, dating, language, printed editions, translations, commentaries, bibliography, electronic resources and manuscripts are provided.

Talmudic Texts

This chapter describes the following Talmudic texts: the Mishnah; the Tosefta; the Talmud Yerushalmi/Palestinian Talmud; the Talmud Bavli/Babylonian Talmud; Minor Tractates; and external tractates (Tractate Derekh Erets Zuta and Pereq HaShalom, Tractate Derekh Erets Rabbah, Tractate Kallah, Kallah Rabbati, Tractate Soferim, Tractate Semaṭot, Avot DeRabbi Natan and (Sefer) HaMaasim). For each of these texts, details on the contents, dating, language, printed editions, translations, commentaries, bibliography, electronic resources and manuscripts are provided.

Historical Introduction

This chapter first sets out the aim of this book, which is to provide a guide on Jewish literature composed in the first millennium ce in Hebrew or Aramaic, either in Palestine under Roman rule or in Babylonia under the rule of the Sassanid kings of Persia. It offers essential information on the printed editions of each; their contents and likely date of redaction; translations into European languages; modern commentaries, whether in a European language or Hebrew; electronic texts, if available; and the manuscripts in which each is found. The discussions then turn to how to approach the Jewish literature of Late Antiquity and the character of Late Antique Jewish literature.

Liturgical Texts

This chapter describes the following liturgical texts: prayers (the Shema liturgy, the Amidah prayer); Piyyutim by the following authors Yose ben Yose, Yannai, Elazar BeRabbi Qallir, Hadutahu and Shimon bar Megas; and synagogue prayers in Greek. For each of these texts, details on the contents, dating, language, printed editions, translations, commentaries, bibliography, electronic resources and manuscripts are provided.

Historiography

This chapter describes the following texts: Seder Olam; The Scroll of Fasting; Scholion to Megillat Taanit; and Toledot Yeshu. For each of these texts, details on the contents, dating, language, printed editions, translations, commentaries, bibliography, electronic resources and manuscripts are provided.

Mystical (Hekhalot) and Magical Literature

This chapter describes the following texts: Sefer Hekhalot (Third Enoch; Hebrew Enoch); Hekhalot Rabbati; Hekhalot Zutarti; Shiur Qomah; Ḥarba DeMoshe; Sefer HaRazim; and Sefer Yetsirah. For each of these texts, the contents, dating, language, printed editions, translations, commentaries, bibliography, electronic resources and manuscripts are provided.

Contemporary Documents in Hebrew and Jewish Aramaic

This chapter describes contemporary documentary texts, written on stone, mosaic or papyrus, or on amulets or magic bowls. It does not aim to provide a full bibliography of these documents, but simply to offer a guide to those publications that gives the reader the easiest access to the original text, a photograph of it and, where available, a translation.

Midrashic Texts

This chapter describes the following Midrashic texts: Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael; Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon bar Yoṭai; Sifra; Sifre Numbers; Sifre Zuta (Numbers); Sifre Deuteronomy; Mekhilta Deuteronomy (Midrash Tannaim); Sifre Zuta (Deuteronomy); Baraita DeMelekhet HaMishkan; Genesis Rabbah; Leviticus Rabbah; Pesiqta DeRav Kahana; Lamentations Rabbati; Shir HaShirim Rabbah; Esther Rabbah; Ruth Rabbah; and Qohelet Rabbah. For each of these texts, details on the contents, dating, language, printed editions, translations, commentaries, bibliography, electronic resources and manuscripts are covered.