Between Cooperation and Hostility

Multiple Identities in Ancient Judaism and the Interaction with Foreign Powers

edited by Rainer Albertz and Jakob Wohrle

Book cover: Between Cooperation and Hostility

Extent: 280 pages

Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht

Subjects: Jewish Studies

Series: Journal of Ancient Judaism. Supplements

Series volume number: 11

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(March 2013)

ISBN: 9783525550519

Price: $127.00

In stock

The question of why the cooperation of Jews with the Persian and Ptolemaic empires achieved some success and why it failed with regard to the Seleucids and the Romans, even turning into military hostility against them, has not been sufficiently answered. The present volume intends to show, from the perspectives of Hebrew Bible, Judaic, and Ancient History Studies, that the contrasting Jewish attitudes towards foreign powers were not only dependent on specific political circumstances. They were also interrelated with the emergence of multiple early Jewish identities, which all found a basis in the Torah, the prophets, or the psalms.


The question of why the cooperation of Jews with the Persian and Ptolemaic empires achieved some success and why it failed with regard to the Seleucids and the Romans, even turning into military hostility against them, has not been sufficiently answered. The present volume intends to show, from the perspectives of Hebrew Bible, Judaic, and Ancient History Studies, that the contrasting Jewish attitudes towards foreign powers were not only dependent on specific political circumstances. They were also interrelated with the emergence of multiple early Jewish identities, which all found a basis in the Torah, the prophets, or the psalms.

  • Edited by Rainer Albertz
  • Edited by Jakob Wöhrle

"[This volume] joins a lively and growing scholarly discussion that invites us to consider more deeply and seriously the role that power played in Israelite and Jewish life in antiquity." -- Michael L. Satlow, Review of Biblical Literature, 02/2014