Fortress Press

“Over the last 75 years, no area of biblical scholarship has been more exciting than late Second Temple Judaism, what used to be called the ‘intertestamental period.’ The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (1947-55) triggered a revival of interest in Pseudepigrapha—Jewish writings from the period around the turn of the era that were preserved by Christians in translation. Together, these bodies of literature shed rich new light on the period in which Jesus lived and Christianity was born. Unfortunately, much of this material remains unknown outside of academia. Matthias Henze has rendered a great service to nonspecialists by writing an eminently accessible ‘beginner’s guide’ to Jewish literature around the turn of the era, highlighting its relevance to early Christianity. This book deserves a very wide readership.” 

“Mind the Gap provides a highly readable introduction to second-Temple Judaism. At the same time, it offers a persuasive argument for the importance of second-Temple Jewish literature for understanding Jesus, Paul, and the New Testament. In doing so, it also constitutes an eloquent corrective to the explicit and implicit supersessionism and anti-Judaism that can still be found on the shelves of New Testament scholarship. The ‘gap’ that is ‘minded’ in this book is the centuries-long gap between the Old and New Testaments of the Protestant, a gap that was in fact filled by a broad range of Jewish texts. But the book also addresses an important gap in scholarship: the tendency of many New Testament scholars to situate figures such as Jesus and Paul vis-à-vis biblical Israel rather than the Judaism of their own time and place. The studies of particular topics—messianism, exorcism, resurrection—and the detailed exegeses of particular passages show that neither Jesus nor Paul were engaged in a radical opposition, to Judaism but rather were deeply immersed in Jewish society, Jewish ideas, Jewish beliefs, and Jewish practices.”  

“With a mastery of the sources in the Hebrew Bible, Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, Dead Sea Scrolls, and New Testament and their scholarly treatment, Matthias Henze demonstrates how Israelite religion was transformed in the Greco-Roman period and how the four evangelists depict Jesus of Nazareth as a child of that transformation.” 

“In Mind the Gap, Matthias Henze offers a series of invaluable glimpses into the historical and theological relevance of Second Temple Jewish literature for the Christian interpretation of the New Testament. Written with uncommon clarity that speaks to specialists, lay readers and students alike, the book is written by one of the very few scholars who combines real expertise in both Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity. There is no better contemporary introduction to this subject!”