An accessible textbook bottom:0.5em;">

Dr. Grabbe has been a major voice in the history of Judaism in the Second Temple Period (i.e., c. 515BCE-70CE) for two decades, since the publication of his two-volume history with Fortress Press. That work reflected a careful sifting of all available primary sources for the reconstruction of the history of the period and has proven an invaluable resource to all who has delved into the historical questions of the intertestamental period since. In the interim, he has written major books on the religious thought and practices of the period and guides to reading Ezra-Nehemiah (works reflecting the beginning of the period) and Wisdom of Solomon (a work from the later end of the period). He boils that erudition down to 176 pages here in an excellent companion text for any course on Second Temple Judaism or Jewish Environment of the New Testament, as well as for any reader who wishes to improve his or her grasp of this era.