Paradise in Antiquity

Markus Bockmuehl is a Fellow of Keble College and Professor of Biblical and Early Christian Studies at the University of Oxford. He is the editor of The Cambridge Companion to Jesus (Cambridge, 2001) and the co-editor (with Don Hagner) of The Written Gospel (Cambridge, 2005). Guy G. Stroumsa is Professor of the Study of the Abrahamic Religions and a Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall at the University of Oxford, and Martin Buber Professor of Comparative Religion, Emeritus, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of The End of Sacrifice (2009) and the co-editor (with Graham N. Stanton) of Tolerance and Intolerance in Early Judaism and Christianity (Cambridge, 1998).

1. Introduction Guy G. Stroumsa; Part I. Paradises of Second Temple Judaism and Christian Origins: 2. The Messiah in the Garden Joachim Schaper; 3. Philo's scholarly inquiries into the story of Paradise Maren R. Niehoff; 4. Paradise in the Biblical Antiquities of Pseudo-Philo Richard Bauckham; 5. Paradise, gardens and the afterlife in the first century CE Martin Goodman; 6. Paradise in the New Testament Grant Macaskill; 7. Quis et Unde? Heavenly obstacles in Gos. Thom. 50 and related literature Simon Gathercole; Part II. Contemporizing Paradise in Late Antiquity: 8. Tertullian and the law of Paradise Sabrina Inowlocki; 9. The language of Paradise: Hebrew or Syriac? Linguistic speculations and linguistic realities in late antiquity Yonatan Moss; 10. The Tree of Life and the turning sword: Jewish biblical interpretation, symbols and theological patterns and their Christian counterparts Menahem Kister; 11. Erotic Eden: a rabbinic nostalgia for Paradise Galit Hasan-Rokem; 12. Augustine on Virgil and Scripture Gillian Clark; 13. Paradise as political theme in Augustine's City of God Emile Perreau-Saussine; 14. Locating Paradise Markus Bockmuehl; Epilogue: a heaven on earth Alessandro Scafi; Bibliography; Index.