The volume assembles twenty previously published studies by Devorah Dimant which have been
re-edited updated and furnished with an introductory essay written especially for this
collection. The studies survey and analyze Jewish works composed in Hebrew Aramaic or Greek
during the Second Temple period and discuss their contents ideas and connections to the Dead
Sea Scrolls. Particular attention is paid to central issues such as the apocalyptic worldview
and literature and its relationship to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Among others specific themes
related to the Aramaic Tobit and 1 Enoch are analyzed as well as the links detected between the
Hebrew Qumran writings Pseudo-Ezekiel and the Apocryphon of Jeremiah and the later apocalyptic
works 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch. The introductory essay provides a general framework and pertinent
terminology for discussing the literature in question. Together these essays offer a broad and
fresh perspective of the Jewish literary scene in antiquity with special attention to the one
nurtured in the land of Israel.
