Meeting ID: 865 668 4896 | Passcode: 18 | Zoom

Ancient Jewish literature was far more varied than most people realize today. The Hebrew Bible that Jews eventually canonized represents only a small slice of what was actually written, read, and valued by Jewish communities in antiquity. Many other Jewish texts didn’t make it into that final canon, yet they didn’t simply vanish. Ironically, it was Christians, not Jews, who preserved a great number of these works, copying and safeguarding them for centuries even as Jewish tradition moved on without them. As a result, anyone wanting a fuller picture of ancient Jewish thought has to look beyond the traditional Jewish canon entirely.

Come read through some of these lesser-known Jewish texts, including the Gospels, Jubilees, and Maccabees, and see what a wider window they open onto ancient Judaism. Some of these works contain ideas that never found lasting acceptance within mainstream Jewish tradition and were essentially left behind. Others contain concepts that, despite being sidelined at first, eventually found their way back into normative Judaism through more roundabout paths. And still others reveal something more troubling: Jewish ideas and texts that were later taken up and turned against the Jewish people themselves, repurposed in ways their original authors surely never intended.

Class Schedule

Thursdays from 12PM to 1:30PM

Classes can be attended in-person at Har Zion Temple or over Zoom. Participants are encouraged to attend the full series.