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.
Burning of the Synagogue at Callinicum
Ambrose, bishop, to the most charitable prince and blessed emperor, Theodosius the Augustus. [ . . . ]
A report was made by the military count of the East that a synagogue had been burned and that…
When the Zoroastrian Priests Came to Jewish Babylonia
Rabbah bar Bar Ḥanah was sick. R. Judah and the rabbis entered to ask him [questions]. [ . . . ] At that moment, a Zoroastrian priest came and took the lamp from before them. [Rabbah bar Bar Ḥanah]…
Alexander’s Ascent into the Air
The sages say: The only [idolatrous image] that is forbidden is one which has a staff, or a bird, or a sphere in its hand. “A staff”: with which it suppresses the world; “a bird”: My hand has found…
Hadrian’s Massacre at Beitar
The voice is the voice of Jacob (Genesis 27:22, NJPS): [ . . . ] R. Judah bar Illai used to interpret [the verse]: The voice is the voice of Jacob crying out from what the hands, those being the hands…
Divergent Conceptions of Fate
Jewish doctrine in fact takes three forms. The adherents of these sects are called Pharisees, Sadducees, and, thirdly, Essenes. [ . . . ] Of the two schools mentioned first, the Pharisees constitute…
The Damascus Document
And now, listen, all those who know justice, and understand the actions of God; for he has a dispute with all flesh and will carry out judgment on all those who spurn him. For when they…
Sermon on the Mount
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke…
The Council at Jerusalem
Then certain individuals came down from Judaea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” And after Paul and Barnabas had no…
Pompey Rewards Hyrcanus II with the High Priesthood
Pompey did not touch the money or any other of the holy treasures, but just one day after its capture he instructed the sacristans to cleanse the temple and resume the usual rites. He also reinstated…
Philo on the Jewish Settlement of Alexandria
What then did the governor of the country do? He knew that the city, as the rest of Egypt, has two kinds of inhabitants, us and them, and that there are no less than one million Jews living in…
The Decree of Caesar Augustus to the Jews of Cyrene
Caesar Augustus, high priest and tribune of the people, ordains as follows: Since the nation of the Jews has been found agreeable to the Roman people, not only at this time but also in the past, and…
Scribes Appointed by David
David, desiring to appoint his son king over all the people, called together their rulers in Jerusalem, along with the priests and Levites. Having first counted the Levites, he found them to be thirty…