the primary task, even if it also means that many important sociologicalcontributions to the study of Paul go unmentioned. This collection ofessays undoubtedly succeeds in its goal of critically assessing the con-tinuing significance of Meeks’ work and helpfully points the wayforward in the ongoing challenge and task that motivated Meeks’ origi-nal line of investigation.

Matthew P. O’ReillyUniversity of Gloucestershire

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Ancient Judaism: New Visions and Views, Michael E. Stone,Eerdmans, 2011 (ISBN-13 978-0-8028-6636-3), xiv + 256 pp., pb $30/£19.99rirt_1079 372..502

Ancient Judaism is written by Michael Edward Stone, who is professoremeritus of comparative religion and Armenian studies at the HebrewUniversity of Jerusalem. He has taught there since the mid-sixties.Years of exposure to visionary apocryphal and pseudepigraphaltexts apparently did not leave Stone untouched, as he himself herepresents new visions and views on ancient Judaism. While thesevisions do not appeal to transmundane origins – on the contrary, theyare steeped in scholastic argument – they even so seek to challengethe status quo.

Stone sets out his new visions and views in the following chapters:1. Our Perception of Origins: New Perspectives on the Context ofChristian Origins; 2. Adam and Enoch and the State of the World; 3.Apocalyptic Historiography; 4. Vision and Pseudepigraphy; 5. Bibleand Apocrypha; 6. Multiform Transmission and Authorship; and 7.The Transmission of Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha. The body of thetext uses footnotes. These chapters are followed by a useful bibliog-raphy, an index of subjects and names and an index of ancientsources.

The first chapter describes in utilitarian and esthetic terms thepurpose of studying ancient Judaism. Stone depicts the eastern Medi-terranean basin a few centuries before the Christian era as a pillar ofwestern civilization today. ‘[T]he present day cannot be comprehendedin depth without seeking to understand the past well’ (p. 2). He dis-cusses how the inquirer’s presuppositions as well as selective preser-vation of sources throughout the ages can skew the view of history. Forexample, he points out how views of Christian and Jewish orthodoxies(over)emphasized the study of certain segments of ancient Judaism or

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how evidence was misappropriated to serve a theological polemicalagenda. Such inquiries’ theological aims differ from the one ofhistorical inquiry. Not only skewed appropriation of sources, but eventransmission of the sources themselves is suspect, because of theirenlistment in the ranks of orthodoxy. Therefore Stone argues, for thesake of the historical inquiry into ancient Judaism, that these sourcesneed to be examined for what they do not tell and do tell and how thisevidence should be weighed.

Chapter Two juxtaposes two explanations for the deplorable state ofthe world. The first emphasizes the sin of Adam and/or Eve. Thesecond revolves around Enoch, the Watchers and giants, where evilsprings forth from demonic (sins and) teachings. The chapter outlinesclusters of traditions revolving either around the Adamic or Enochicaxis. It shows that two competing views existed in ancient Judaism, oneof human and the other of demonic causality, which would haveimpacted the perception of suffering.

The next chapter describes apocalyptic historiography, which viewstime from a beginning to the end (eschaton). It divides this timespanup into periods that follow a pattern. Stone discusses the importanceof typological numbers, especially the number seventy – eventuallytracing back to Jer. 23:11. The number seventy became particularrelevant for apocryphal periodization, for example 6000 and 1000years – a cosmic week. Furthermore, biblical past events were used toschematize the pattern of history and understand the current state ofevents.

In Chapter Four, Stone reasserts his position of 1974, namely that ‘akernel of actual visionary activity lay behind the pseudepigraphic’apocalyptic visionary texts. He spars with the common view that thesetexts represent fictitious forgeries. Focusing on IV Ezra, he argues byusing the phenomenon of conversion experience for an overall cogentthread in Ezra’s visions. He then discusses pseudepigraphy in general,such as its literary form and its acknowledgement of and yet rivalrywith the ‘normative written tradition’.

In Chapter Five, Stone represents a different view than he earlierheld. He discusses the formation of ‘canon’ of the Hebrew Bible anddenotes the term ‘canon’ in the Second Temple period as a misnomer.Drawing boundaries of what possibly constituted ‘biblical’ books,he also discusses the fine line between the inspired and theauthoritative.

Chapter Six discusses the transmission of three traditions from theSecond Temple period. Stone argues that while clusters of these tradi-tions appear in later texts, they are thusly reworked that a clear ‘stem-matic’ relation (a term borrowed from textual criticism) cannot beidentified. Yet it is evident that a relationship exists. Stone postulates anumber of motives for reworking these traditions. He concludes, ‘this

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phenomenon [of reworking] . . . in the first millennium C.E. . . . . issurely related to authorial practice and transmission’ (p. 171).

The final chapter highlights the importance of apocrypha andpseudepigrapha, namely: it serves as backdrop to early Christianity andJudaism and it fills the gap of ‘canonical’ Jewish and Christian writings.He notes that rabbinic literature hardly contains any reliable Jewishtradition before the Mishnah. Apocrypha and pseudepigrapha haverather been preserved by churches. Other repositories exist as well,most notably the exotic library of Qumran. Stone tries to answer whyrabbinic tradition did not preserve these apocryphal and pseude-pigraphal Second Temple works composed in Aramaic and Hebrew.He hypothesizes that ‘this loss is related to change in literary genres onthe one hand and to a concurrent change in understanding of authorityon the other’ (pp. 184–5). Looking ahead, Stone expects new SecondTemple works to surface, either from Qumran or gleaned from availableJewish and Christian sources.

In retrospect, one may debate to what extent each of the views pre-sented were new. Notwithstanding, save the first chapter, each chapterpresented new conclusions and many chapters contained more thantheir fair share of new inferences. Thus, the book accomplished itsvision. However, a few critical notes may be made. Stone justifies thestudy of ancient Judaism because understanding it, aids enlightenmentabout today’s West. He wears the badge of a historian of religion. Hepresents it in a sense at odds with a theological and/or exegeticalapproach. Indeed, corrections about history (wie es eigentlich gewesen)should be taken to heart by others. Still, it can be argued in accordancewith (some) sociologists of religion that not the history of religionsapproach, but rather orthodoxy did and to a large extent still doesconstitute the vehicle by which ancient Judaism impinges uponwestern civilization. Therewith, the suggestion to think outside of thebox of orthodoxy, somewhat undermines its utilitarian aim to studyancient Judaism for informing western civilization today. Moving on,the book Ancient Judaism deals with sources such as the Hebrew Bible,the Dead Sea Scrolls, rabbinic literature, and a variety of nascent Chris-tian literature; yet the bulk of the discussion really revolves aroundapocrypha and pseudepigrapha. It is perhaps not surprising as thework was penned by the maestro of the field himself. Furthermore, notunimportantly, the book is well written. It often introduces the reader tothe broad context and carefully threads to the deeper waters of thecutting-edge discussions at hand. Rich footnotes and bibliographic ref-erences enable ample further inquiry. This book should be of greatinterest to those making their ways into apocrypha, pseudepigrapha,and those interested in ancient Judaism or early Judaism or Christian-ity. In addition, the book contains numerous tangible ideas for furtherresearch. A last but not least distinct feature is that Stone’s book exhibits

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work of a very competent generalist – an ever rarer phenomenonamidst the increasing scholarly populous of scattered micro-specialists.

Stefan BosmanKing’s College, University of Aberdeen

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Wandering in Darkness: Narrative and the Problem of Suffering,Eleonore Stump, Oxford University Press, 2010 (ISBN 978-0-19-927742-1), xix + 668 pp., hb $99rirt_1080 375..505

Historical theologian Eleonore Stump has written a book in which shelays out the theological conditions through which it is possible tobelieve that suffering can be redeemed. Rather than a theodicy, in whichshe would have to prove that a greater good overcomes suffering, she ismaking a defense by presenting a ‘possible’ reason why God wouldallow evil (p. 19). Through the device of the defense she is able tomanifest a certain logic to the reader – the logic of medieval Catholicism– as a coherent and contestable frame of intelligibility through whichhuman suffering can be interpreted.

Stump shows how suffering violates a person’s will by underminingher flourishing – the objective side of suffering, and taking away thedesires of her heart – the subjective side of suffering. She argues thatsuffering is the primary subject for theodicy and she distinguishessuffering from evil and pain. Ineluctably, there is a kind of mysteryabout suffering as indicated by the book’s title: people can sufferwithout knowing they are suffering and not know when they areactually suffering.

One of the book’s important themes is that relational knowledge –which she describes as ‘second-person’ knowing – cannot beadequately accounted for in conceptual terms. For this reason, analyticphilosophy cannot represent important kinds of knowing. Storiesprovide better vehicles for communicating such personal knowledge.

Stump draws from Aquinas’ theology to show how a person’s great-est good is to be connected in a relationship of love with God and withothers. She defines love as desiring the good of others and desiringunion with them. According to this depiction of value, deeper unionwith God is the only thing that could possibly outweigh suffering. Suchlove is only possible for a person who is unified toward seeking thegood.

Nevertheless, universal fragmentation – what Stump describes as‘willed loneliness’ – seems to be an inherent part of the human

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