Sample Sources
The sources below are those contained in our three curated collections—covering themes of Passover, Gender Roles, and Holocaust Resistance. They represent a fraction of the thousands of sources that will be available when the full site launches in 2024.
Renovation of the Temple
In the eighteenth year of the reign of King Herod, after the acts recorded above, he undertook a very great task, namely the renovation of the Temple of God at his own expense. He both expanded it and…
Pilate Imports Standards to Jerusalem
Pilate was sent by Tiberius to Judaea as procurator, and in a covert operation at night he smuggled into Jerusalem under wraps those portrait plaques of the emperor which are called standards. When…
A Thwarted Plot to Surrender to the Romans
[Matthias] had given Simon his possession of the city, and yet Simon had him not only killed but tortured as well. Matthias was the son of Boethus, a member of a high-priestly family, and absolutely…
Jewish Unrest and Its Suppression in Alexandria and Cyrene
With Masada thus captured, the Roman general left a garrison in the fortress and went back with his army to…
Origen’s Challenge to the Patriarch’s Authority
But what, then, is to be said of this, that the prophets had foretold beforehand of him that Rulers will not cease from Judah, nor leaders from his loins, until he should come, for whom it is reserved…
Hasmonean Victory and Hanukkah
What is Hanukkah? Our rabbis taught that on the twenty-fifth of Kislev [begin] the days of Hanukkah [lit., “dedication”], which are eight. One should not eulogize during them nor fast during them…
Hillel’s Appointment as Patriarch
One time the fourteenth day [of the month of Nisan, when the Passover offering was cooked,] coincided with the Sabbath. [The people] asked Hillel the elder, “Does the Passover offering override the…
Poems of Lament
[ . . . ] Do not give our inheritance to foreigners, nor our produce to the sons of foreigners. Remember that [we are the removed one]s of your people…
“Testimonium Flavianum” of Josephus
Now Jesus, a wise man, was living around this time—if indeed one should properly call him a man. For he was a performer of incredible works, a teacher of those men who receive the truth with pleasure…
Polemic against the Sabbath
“Since you, Trypho, admit that you have read the teachings of him who is our Savior, I do not consider it out of place to have added those…
Moses Establishes the Gerousia
For it is not fit that causes should be openly determined out of regard to gain or to the status of the suitors, but rather, the judges should esteem what is right before all other things. For…
Pompey’s Conquest
His triumph had such a magnitude that, although it was distributed over two days, still the time would not suffice, but much of what had been prepared could not find a place in the spectacle, enough…