Religion and society in Roman Palestine : old questions, new approaches / edited by Douglas R. Edwards.

"First published in 2004. Transferred to Digital Printing 2008."--T.p. verso of paperback edition.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Foreword / Martin Goodman -- 1. Constructing the world of Roman Palestine : an introduction / Douglas R. Edwards -- 2. First century Jewish Galilee : an archaeological perspective / Mordechai Aviam -- 3. Jewish settlement in the southeastern Hula Valley in the first century C.E. / Idan Shaked and Dina Avshalom-Gorni -- 4. The Galilean response to earliest Christianity : a cross-cultural study of the subsistence ethic / Milton Moreland -- 5. Language and writing in early Roman Galilee : social location of a potter's abecedary from Khirbet Qana / Esther Eshel and Douglas R. Edwards -- 6. Dionysos and Herakles in Galilee : the Sepphoris mosaic in context / Sean Freyne -- 7. The first-century synagogue : critical reassessments and assessments of the critical / Lee I. Levine -- 8. City coins and Roman power in Palestine : from Pompey to the Great Revolt / Mark A. Chancey -- 9. Imagined households / Cynthia M. Baker -- 10. Gender, difference, and everyday life : the case of weaving and its tools / Miriam Peskowitz -- 11. Why scroll jars? / Jodi Magness -- 12. Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls : the contention of twelve theories / Magen Broshi and Hanan Eshel -- 13. Opening up our view : Khirbet Qumran in a regional perspective / Jurgen Zangenberg.

"This collection of papers combines important archaeological and textual evidence to examine diverse aspects of religion and society in Roman Palestine. A range of international experts provides an unprecedented look at issues of acculturation, assimilation and the preservation of difference in the multicultural climate of Palestine in the Roman period. Key themes include the nature of ethnicity and ritual, the character of public and private space in Jewish society, the role of gender and space, the role of peasants, the impact of Roman rule, and ritual and the regional framework of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls." "Religion and Society in Roman Palestine will be relevant to ancient historians, interpreters of the historical Jesus and subsequent Jesus movements, and those interested in the development of Judaism from Qumran to the rabbis."--BOOK JACKET.