Friday Book Giveaway!

We are live again after about 24 hours of blogger being down. I lost Thursday'a post, which isn't the end of the world. Those of you who read it will get the pun. In any case, lets get on to this week's giveaway.

This week's giveaway is not a recent title, but it is one well worth having.

Anyone interested in the non-canonical literature that was part of the Jewish and Christian world during and after the second-temple period needs to have read George W. E. Nickelsburg's Jewish Literature between the Bible and the Mishnah (Fortress, 2005). Here is the blurb.

In this fully revised and expanded edition, Nickelsburg introduces the reader to the broad range of Jewish literature that is not part of either the Bible or the standard rabbinic works. This includes especially the Apocrypha (such as 1 Maccabees), the Pseudepigrapha (such as 1 Enoch), the Dead Sea Scrolls, the works of Josephus, and the works of Philo. This new edition also has an enormously helpful CD-ROM, including biblical citation hyperlinks to the NRSV, web links to primary documents, chapter summaries, and discussion questions.

George W. E. Nickelsburg is Emeritus Professor of Religion at the University of Iowa, where he taught for more than three decades. His many works include 1 Enoch 1 (Hermeneia, 2001) and Jewish Literature between the Bible and the Mishnah (1981), both from Fortress Press.

And since I feel so strongly about the need for students of Early Judaism and Christianity to be familiar with this literature, I am giving away the second edition of Nickelsburg's book, which also comes with a handy CD.

So blog fans, leave your name and I will choose a winner on Sunday, May 15th. But please, please, please remember to check back and see if you win. I am going to initiate a 5 day grace period for winners. If those selected do not contact me in that period I will pick another winner.

Good luck!