It was once common consensus that there was no significant Jewish community in ancient and medieval Armenia. The discovery and excavation (1997-2002) of a Jewish cemetery of the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries in southern Armenia substantially changed this picture. In this volume, Stone and Topchyan assemble evidence about the Jews of Armenia from earliest times to the fourteenth century. Based on research of the Greco-Roman period, the authors are able to draw new conclusions about the transfer of Jews--including the High Priest Hyrcanus--from the north of Palestine and other countries to Armenia by King Tigran the Great in the first century BCE.\nThe fact that descendants of King Herod ruled in Armenia in Roman times and that some noble Armenian families may have had Jewish origin is discussed. The much-debated identification of the "Mountains of Ararat" of Noah's Ark fame as well as ancient biblical and other references to Ararat and the Caucasus are re-assessed, and new evidence is adduced that challenges the scientific consensus. The role of Jews during the Seljuk, Mongol, and later times is also presented, from surviving sources in Armenian, Arabic, Hebrew, and others.\nThe volume also includes studies of medieval Jewish sources on Armenia and the Armenians and of communication between Armenia and the Holy Land. Documents from the Cairo Geniza, newly uncovered inscriptions, medieval itineraria, and diplomatica also throw light on Armenia in the context of the Turkic Khazar kingdom, which converted to Judaism in the latter part of the first century CE. It responds both to new archeological discoveries in Armenia and to the growing interest in the history of the region that extends north from the Euphrates and into the Caucasus.

Jews in Ancient and Medieval Armenia: First Century BCE - Fourteenth Century CE

History

Stone, Michael E.

Topchyan, Aram

Russia

Oxford University Press

This is the first English translation of the major Armenian epic on Adam and Eve composed by Arak'el of Siwnik' in the early fifteenth century. Arak'el writes extremely powerful narrative poetry, as in his description of the brilliance of paradise, of Satan's mustering his hosts against Adam and Eve, and Eve's inner struggle between obedience to God and Satan's seduction. In parts the epic is in dialogue form between Adam, Eve, and God. It also pays much attention to the typology of Adam and Christ, or Adam's sin and death and Christ's crucifixion. By implication, this story, from an Eastern Christian tradition, is the story of all humans, and bears comparison with later biblical epics, such as Milton's Paradise Lost. Michael E. Stone's version preserves a balance between literary felicity and faithfulness to the original. His Introduction sets the work and its author in historical, religious, and literary context.

Adamgirk`: The Adam Book of Arak`el of Siwnik`

Literature & Fiction

History & Criticism

Adam’s Contract with Satan The Legend of the Cheirograph of Adam
Michael E. Stone
The legend of Satan’s second deception of Adam and Eve throughout Oriental Christian cultures.
According to a legend known from Greece in the West to Armenia and Georgia in the East, Satan deceived Adam and Eve a second time. The Devil tricked them into concluding a contract, submitting their offspring to his rule "until the Unbegotten is born and the Undying One dies." Christ’s baptism puts an end to this contract and their servitude. Though it never became incorporated into Christian belief, this legend spread by way of popular and artistic sources through Eastern Christendom, and is alive still in the popular tales of Bulgaria and Greece. The legend of the Contract is painted on Romanian churches and has spread in Armenian legends. In Adam’s Contract with Satan, Michael Stone pursues the tale through its sometimes exotic transmission and explores the world-view that emerges from it, contrasting it with the Western view, perpetuated by Augustine, of Adam’s sin in the Garden. This fascinating tale becomes a detective story that involves the pursuit of a tradition and its transmission, and an exploration of its implications for the understanding of the human condition.
Michael Stone is on the faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he holds the double appointment of Gail Levin de Nur Professor of Religion and Professor of Armenian Studies. He is author of over 40 books and 250 articles in the fields of ancient Judaism and Armenian Studies.
July 2001 265 pages, 10 b&amp;w photos, 6 x 9, index, append. cloth 0-253-33902-2 $39.95 s / £30.50

Adam's Contract with Satan: The Legend of the Cheirograph of Adam

Indiana University Press

Scriptures, sects, and visions: A profile of Judaism from Ezra to the Jewish revolts

Fortress Press

Texts and Concordances of the Armenian Adam Literature: Vol. I, Genesis 1 4, Penitence of Adam, Book of Adam

Religion & Spirituality

Christian Books & Bibles

Scholars Pr

Scriptures Sects and Visions: A Profile of Judaism from Ezra to the Jewish Revolts

Emerging Judaism: Studies on the Fourth and Third Centuries B.C.E.

Satran, David

Ancient Judaism questions a broad range of basic assumptions made by students of Second Temple Judaism and calls for a radical rethinking of approaches to Jewish history studies. Michael Stone challenges theologically conditioned histories of ancient Judaism devised by later orthodoxies, whether Jewish or Christian, and he stresses the importance of understanding religious experience as a major factor in the composition of ancient religious documents. Addressing the Dead Sea Scrolls and apocalyptic literature as well as recent theories, Stone emphasizes the stunning complexity of both the raw data and the resulting picture of Judaism in antiquity.

Ancient Judaism: New Visions and Views

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

The editors have assembled here the fragments of literature and the biographical traditions associated with the prophet Ezekiel. The earliest collection of Ezekiel apocryphal citations was made in 1722 by J. Fabricius in his renowned Codex Pseudepigraphus Veteris Testamenti . These were developed by subsequent scholars who provide the foundation for the work done here. The editors believe that there was indeed an apocryphal book in Ezekiel's name that circulated in antiquity and their aim is to gather a more comprehensive collection of citations attributed to Ezekiel than has been possible. Sections are as follows: the apocryphon of Ezekiel; traditions about the prophet from Armenian and Latin hagiographies, from martyrologies and other writings; and other non-apocryphal writings associated with the name of Ezekiel. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

The Apocryphal Ezekiel (Early Judaism and Its Literature)

UNKNO

Testament of Abraham

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Books by Stone, Michael E.