The Oxford History of the Biblical World (104 page)

Although the name
Jerusalem
probably originally meant “foundation of [the god] Shalem,” it has often been interpreted to mean “city of peace” (Hebrew
’ir shalom).
Tragically, peace has eluded Jerusalem for most of its history. Today Jerusalem often seems to embody that which separates the children of Abraham. News stories bear daily witness to the enduring tensions between Jerusalem the ideal and Jerusalem the real.

Roughly a millennium ago, Muqqadisi, a Muslim geographer and historian and a native of Jerusalem, would describe it as a place oppressive to the poor, lacking in learned men, “a golden basin filled with scorpions.” However, he would also celebrate Jerusalem as “the most illustrious of cities,” where the advantages of the present and the next world meet. Perhaps the visions of and yearnings for Jerusalem the holy, the ideal Jerusalem, embedded in centuries of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim literature, can serve as a reminder of that which brings together the children of Abraham and all of humankind.

Armstrong, Karen.
Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996. A thoughtful history of Jerusalem from the Bronze Age to the present.

Bowersock, Glenn W.
Julian the Apostate.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1978. An authoritative study of the last pagan Roman emperor.

Brooten, Bernadette.
Women Leaders in the Ancient Synagogue: Inscriptional Evidence and Background Issues.
Brown Judaic Studies, 36. Chico, Calif.: Scholars Press, 1982. A pioneering study of inscriptions that provide evidence for the communal leadership roles of some Jewish women in late antiquity.

Brown, Peter.
The World of Late Antiquity
AD
150–750.
New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971. A pioneering, elegant, and lavishly illustrated historical and cultural survey.

Cameron, Averil.
The Later Roman Empire
AD
284–430.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1993.

_________.
The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity
AD
395–600.
New York: Routledge, 1993. Excellent companion volumes on the history of late antiquity with special attention to issues of cultural change.

Chuvin, Pierre.
A Chronicle of the Last Pagans.
Trans. B. A. Archer. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990. A study of the persistence and the ultimate defeat of paganism in the context of the ascendance of Christianity in the Roman Empire of the fourth to sixth centuries.

Fox, Robin Lane.
Pagans and Christians.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987. A comparative study of the complex intellectual and historical relationships between paganism and Christianity through the reign of Constantine.

Gager, John G.
The Origins of Anti-Semitism: Attitudes toward Judaism in Pagan and Christian
Antiquity.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. A balanced examination of pagan and early Christian views on Judaism, including those in the New Testament and in the writings of the church fathers.

Gamble, Harry.
The New Testament Canon: Its Making and Meaning.
Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985. A helpful study of the evolution of the New Testament canon and the complex issues in reconstructing its history.

Grabar, Oleg, ed.
The Shape of the Holy: Early Islamic Jerusalem.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996. A valuable recent study with special attention to the significance of early Islamic monuments, especially the Dome of the Rock.

Grant, Michael.
The Roman Emperors: A Biographical Guide to the Rulers of Imperial Rome 31
BC-AD
476.
New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1985. Sketches of the lives and reigns of the Roman emperors from Augustus to Zeno.

Kee, Howard Clark, et al.
Christianity: A Social and Cultural History.
New York: Macmillan, 1991. A sociologically grounded history of Christianity from its origins to the present.

Kraemer, Ross Shepard, ed.
Maenads, Martyrs, Matrons, Monastics: A Sourcebook on Women’s Religions in the Greco-Roman World.
Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988. A valuable collection of primary sources on Jewish, Christian, and pagan women’s religious practices and opportunities in the Hellenistic and Late Antique Mediterranean world.

________.
Her Share of the Blessings: Women’s Religions among Pagans, Jews, and Christians in the Greco-Roman World.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. Historical and anthropological study of women’s religious practices and opportunities.

Levine, Lee I.
The Ancient Synagogue: The First Thousand Years.
New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2000. A monumental and comprehensive study of the development of the institution of the synagogue.

MacMullen, Ramsay.
Christianizing the Roman Empire (
A.D
. 100–400).
New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1984. An analysis of the growth and ultimate triumph of Christianity in the Roman Empire and the concomitant conflict between paganism and Christianity.

________.
Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries.
New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1997. A sequel to the preceding volume.

McManners, John, ed.
The Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990. A comprehensive and lavishly illustrated history of Christianity from its inception to the present, with contributions by nineteen leading scholars.

Meyers, Eric M., and James F. Strange.
Archaeology, the Rabbis, and Early Christianity.
Nashville: Abingdon, 1981. A helpful introduction to the importance of material culture in reconstructing the evolving histories of Judaism and Christianity in Roman and early Byzantine Palestine.

Neusner, Jacob.
Rabbinic Judaism: Structure and System.
Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995. A thoughtful analytical study of the key characteristics of rabbinic Judaism as present in its formative documents.

Pelikan, Jaroslav.
Mary through the Centuries: Her Place in the History of Culture.
New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1996. A thoughtful study of the changing depictions of the mother of Jesus from the New Testament to the present.

Peters, F. E.
Jerusalem: The Holy City in the Eyes of Chroniclers, Visitors, Pilgrims, and Prophets from the Days of Abraham to the Beginnings of Modern Times.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
Press, 1985. A superb collection of primary sources from the Bronze Age to the nineteenth century, with helpful accompanying comments.

Schüssler Fiorenza, Elisabeth.
In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins.
New York: Crossroad, 1983. A pioneering feminist analysis of women in the New Testament and early Christianity in historical context.

Shanks, Hershel, ed.
Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism: A Parallel History of Their Origins and Early Development.
Washington, D.C.: Biblical Archaeology Society, 1992. A valuable introduction by nine leading scholars to Christianity and rabbinic Judaism, in historical context, during their first six centuries.

Smallwood, E. Mary.
The Jews under Roman Rule: From Pompey to Diocletian.
Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1976. A political history of the Jews in the pagan Roman Empire.

Wegner, Judith Romney.
Chattel or Person: The Status of Women in the Mishnah.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. A careful analysis of the Mishnah’s categories of women, and the opportunities and restrictions that it envisioned for women.

Wilkinson, John.
Egeria’s Travels.
London: SPCK, 1971. The text of the itinerary of the fourth-century Christian pilgrim with an accompanying helpful discussion.

________.
Jerusalem Pilgrims before the Crusades.
Warminster, England: Aris & Phillips, 1977. An overview, with selected texts of early Christian pilgrims to the Holy City.