ABSTRACT
The attempt to treat "Jewish and Christian groups" within the same section runs the risk of flattening the diversity of late Second Temple Judaism. Still, all the groups treated here focused their attention in one way or another on the Hebrew Bible (or a Greek translation thereof), so I have opted to keep them together. As a nod to the differences, however, the chapter is divided into four distinct sections. The first of these sections deals with Philo as one of several different types of exegetes active in Alexandria. Ideally, it would be desirable to treat Hellenistic Jewish exegesis more generally by examining the other Jewish exegetes working in Alexandria, such as the "hyper-allegorizers" that Philo mentions on occasion. The problem, however, is one of evidence: Philo tells us very little about these individuals, and none of their writings appears to have survived. In the second section I will discuss a group, rather than an individual — namely, the Qumran Sectarians. The third section treats what I will provisionally call "scribal culture" in Palestine exclusive of Qumran. It is not possible to call this a "group" per se. Nevertheless, I will argue that the Judaism of Jesus and the religious authorities he clashed with is characterized by a distinctive way of dealing with texts relative to Qumran and Philo's group in Alexandria. The fourth and final section deals with the beginning of the Christian movement. For the present, we will treat only that phase of Christianity in which "scripture" still referred to the Greek Bible. Obviously, Christians in various places and at various times became quite attached to the writings that would eventually constitute the New Testament. Paul's letters were read in worship, Gospels were written, and commentaries were written on these letters and Gospels. Forays into this phase of Christian textual practice will be the subject of a future study.
