III. PRIMARY SOURCES AND THEIR STUDY
This category classifies ancient texts as bodies of literature in their own right, arranged by tradition and then chronologically within each tradition. A corpus is filed here together with the scholarship devoted to it so that editions, translations, introductions, and monographs on a given body of literature stand in one place. Works that study a corpus specifically for what it contributes to the interpretation of the Old or New Testament are classified with the biblical material they serve in “IV. Biblical Studies.” Works consulted by lookup rather than read (e.g., background commentaries keyed to the biblical text, cultural handbooks, and similar reference tools) are classified in “II. General Reference.”
A. Introduction, Method, and Multi-Tradition Collections
3. Comparative Method and Its Critics
Note: This section holds methodological reflection on the use of ancient sources in biblical interpretation: the comparative method, its gains, and its abuses (e.g., parallelomania, parallelophobia, chronological snobbery, backgrounding the foreground, selective and prejudicial use of backgrounds, history-of-religions approaches, and the debates surrounding them).
4. Multi-Tradition Anthologies and Sample Collections
Note: This section is for anthologies that gather texts from more than one tradition. For anthologies confined to a single tradition, see the “Text Collections and Anthologies” heading within that tradition below.
B. Ancient Near Eastern Sources
5. Sources by Region
6. Sources by Genre
C. Greco-Roman Sources
5. Authors and Works
6. Religion, Cult, and Practice
7. Documentary and Material Sources
D. Jewish Sources (Second Temple through Rabbinic)
4. Sects, Movements, and Institutions
6. The Septuagint as a Jewish Translation
Note: This section is for the Septuagint studied as a Jewish translation of the Hebrew Scriptures (i.e., its origins, translators, revisions, and reception). For Septuagint editions used as working texts, together with their lexica, concordances, and parsing keys, see “Septuagint Old Testaments and Language Resources” in “IV. Biblical Studies.”
7. The Apocrypha / Deuterocanonical Books
Note: See “Appendix A” for a list of Old Testament apocryphal / deuterocanonical books. Separately bound apocrypha belonging to a Bible translation family (e.g., the RSV, NRSV, JB apocrypha, etc.) are filed with their translation family under “I. Bibles.” These books are canonical Scripture in some traditions and extra-canonical literature in others; this classification reflects that dual standing rather than resolving it.
8. The Pseudepigrapha
Note: See “Appendix B” for a list of Old Testament pseudepigrapha.
9. The Dead Sea Scrolls / Qumran Literature
Note: See “Appendix C” for a list of Dead Sea Scroll manuscripts. For the Scrolls as witnesses to the text of the Hebrew Bible, see “Text Collections and Manuscript Histories” under “Bible Texts, Manuscripts, and Canon Formation” in “IV. Biblical Studies.”
d. Categories and Authority
10. Philo of Alexandria
Note: See “Appendix D” for a list of Philo’s works.
11. Josephus
d. Works
12. Targums (Interpretations within Translations)
Note: For the Targums as witnesses to the text of the Hebrew Bible, see “Text Collections and Manuscript Histories” under “Bible Texts, Manuscripts, and Canon Formation” in “IV. Biblical Studies.”
e. Works
13. Rabbinic Literature
d. Mishnah
Note: See “Appendix E” for a list of the Mishnah’s orders and tractates.
e. Tosefta
Note: See “Appendix F” for a list of the Tosefta’s orders and tractates.
f. Talmud
i. Babylonian Talmud
Note: See “Appendix G” for a list of the Babylonian Talmud’s orders and tractates.
ii. Jerusalem Talmud
Note: See “Appendix H” for a list of the Jerusalem Talmud’s orders and tractates.
g. Midrashim
Note: See “Appendix I” for a list of rabbinic midrashim.
14. Later Jewish Writings (Medieval and Modern)
Note: This section is for post-rabbinic Jewish literature treated as a literature in its own right—the writings themselves and the scholarship devoted to them. For the history, practice, and institutions of the Jewish people in these same periods, see “Judaism” in “VII. Historical Studies.”
E. Early Christian/Patristic Era Sources (to ca. AD 750)
Note: The patristic era is taken to close with John of Damascus (d. ca. 749) in the East and with Gregory the Great (d. 604) and Isidore of Seville (d. 636) in the West; writers after that boundary are classified under “Medieval Christian Sources” below. Where a figure straddles the line, file by the author rather than by the individual work.
5. The Apostolic Fathers
6. New Testament Apocryphal Writings
Note: See “Appendix J” for a list of New Testament apocryphal books.
7. Gnostic and Nag Hammadi Writings
Note: Nag Hammadi texts belonging to the apocryphal gospel, acts, epistle, and apocalypse genres (i.e., the Gospels of Thomas, Judas, Mary, Philip, and the Egyptians, the Apocalypse of Adam, the two Apocalypses of James, and the Letter of Peter to Philip) are classified under “New Testament Apocryphal Writings” above and listed in “Appendix J.” This section is for the remainder of the Gnostic corpus (i.e., the Gospel of Truth, the Apocryphon of John, the Tripartite Tractate, Pistis Sophia, the Books of Jeu, and the like), for the Nag Hammadi codices treated as a collection, and for scholarship on Gnosticism.