Seth Schwartz

Using Greek and Greek literary forms, Jewish authors expressed Jewish themes and ideas.

Under Greek rule, Jews faced pressures to adopt Hellenistic language and culture, which some integrated and others resisted.

Amid his larger building program, Herod remade Jerusalem into a sprawling, overcrowded, and multilingual city.

Textual and archaeological sources from late antiquity shed light on shifts in identity, institutions, and interpretation.

Jews in Hellenistic Egypt adopted and adapted elements of Greek culture even as they retained their own Jewish traditions.

Knowledge of ancient Jewish history is derived from important collections of historical, literary, and religious material.

The relationship between the Roman Empire and Judea was fraught from the start. Even as Herod aimed to unite Jews around a renovated Temple in Jerusalem, the incompatibility of the two cultures came to the fore, culminating in revolt.

Jewish communities adapted to Christian and Sasanian rule through synagogue-centered life, new leadership models, and growing rabbinic and liturgical traditions.

The Persian period was a time of great change for Jews, both within and beyond the province of Yehud.

After leading a revolt against the Seleucids, the Hasmoneans assumed the priesthood, formed a monarchy, and expanded their territory and cultural reach.

A wide variety of textual and material sources illuminate the emergence of Jewish culture.

Shifts in the geography of Jewish settlement led to the emergence of new population centers.