Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Mediterranean Religions

Eric Orlin is Professor of Classics at the University of Puget Sound. He is the author of Temples, Religion and Politics in the Roman Republic (1997) and Foreign Cults in Rome: Creating a Roman Empire (2010), in addition to articles on religion, memory, and culture during the age of Augustus. Lisbeth S. Fried has written over forty articles on the ancient Near East and biblical studies. In addition, she is the author of Ezra, a Commentary (forthcoming), Ezra and the Law in History and Tradition (2014), and The Priest and the Great King: Temple-Palace Relations in the Persian Empire (2004), and editor of Was 1 Esdras First? An Investigation into the Priority and Nature of 1 Esdras (2011). She is currently preparing a critical commentary on Nehemiah. Jennifer Knust is Associate Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Boston University. Author of a number of books and articles, her recent publications include Unprotected Texts: The Bible’s Surprising Contradictions on Sex and Desire (2011) and, with Zsuzsanna Varhelyi, Ancient Mediterranean Sacrifice (2011). Michael Satlow is Professor of Religious Studies and Judaic Studies at Brown University. He has written on the social and religious history of Jews in antiquity as well as on method and theory in the study of religion. He has held fellowships from the ACLS and John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, among others. His most recent book is How the Bible Became Holy (2014).Michael E. Pregill holds the position of Interlocutor in the Institute for the Study of Muslim Societies and Civilizations at Boston University, where he is developing a new digital scholarship initiative dedicated to interdisciplinary approaches to Islam. His monograph, The Living Calf of Sinai: Bible and Qur’an between Late Antiquity and Islam, is forthcoming.

• Abraham. Acolyte. Aeon. Aggadah. Apis. Assumption. Baptism. Byzantine Rite. Catharsis. Church of Rome. Codex Vaticanus. Constantinople. Cult Statue. Dead Sea scrolls. Demeter. Dionysius Exiguus. Eldad and Modad. Exorcism. Falcon. Fascinus. Flavia Domitilla. Glossolalia. Hagiography. Harpokrates. Healing Cults. Heaven. Heliopolis. Herodotus. Incubation. jackal, sacred. Jannes and Jambres. Jonah. Jude, Epistle of. Kerdir. Kirta Epic. Kronos. Lady Elat. Leviathan. Liturgy of John Chrysostom. Maccabees, First Book of. Magic bowls, Aramaic. Marduk. Midrash Rabbah. Monk. Nazirite. Netinim. Obadiah. Oracle. Pantheon. Peplos. polis religion. priestess. Ptolemaic kingdom. Renenutet. rites of passage. Sacrament. Samaritan Pentateuch. Saturnalia. Selkhet. Sinai, Mt. Sophokles. Taurobolium. Theodoric. Tobiad. Urartu. Vestal Virgins. Witchcraft. Yeshiva. Yohanan ben Zakkai. Zealots. Ziggurat.

"This volume provides a valuable entrance for students and scholars into a myriad of diverse topics in ancient religions. In addition to serving as a convenient reference work on the practices, beliefs, divinities, and institutions of Mediterranean antiquity, it introduces readers to methodologies, debates, and theoretical approaches that exhibit both the commonalities among religions and the uniqueness of each of them."Erich S. Gruen, University of California Berkeley, USA"A splendid achievement. An extremely useful and informative resource that treats the religions of the ancient Mediterranean holistically and not as discrete entities. The result is a needed widening of horizons."Karl Galinsky, University of Texas at Austin, USA