For anyone who has ever pondered what everyday life was like during the time of Jesus comes a lively and illuminating portrait of the nearly unknown world of daily life in first century Palestine.

"Raised in a wealthy family in Sepphoris with ties to the ruler of Galilee, Ana is rebellious and ambitious, a relentless seeker with a brilliant, curious mind and a daring spirit. She yearns for a pursuit worthy of her life, but finds no outlet for her considerable talents. Defying the expectations placed on women, she engages in furtive scholarly pursuits and writes secret narratives about neglected and silenced women. When she meets the eighteen-year-old...

"Winner of the 1993 Best Scholarly Book in Archaeology Award, Biblical Archaeological Society" Donald B. Redford, Professor of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Toronto, has published extensively on archaeology and Egyptology. Covering the time span from the Paleolithic period to the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., the eminent Egyptologist Donald Redford explores three thousand years of uninterrupted contact between Egypt and Western...

Beginning with the crucifixion of Jesus and ending, seventy years later, with the destruction of Pompeii, the wminent novelist and critic limns a dazzling, intellectually provocative recreation of the beginnings of Christianity.

Surveys the history of the Jewish people in Palestine and their activities around the First and Second Temples the site of which is now marked by the Western or Wailing Wall, with an emphasis on events before 70 A.D.

The renowned classicist presents a revisionist portrait of Pontius Pilate that reconstructs the social, religious, and political climates behind his fateful encounters with Jesus.