Guignebert C. (ed.) The Jewish World in the Time of Jesus

London: Routledge, 1997. — 299 p.The present volume is of special interest, because it deals with one of the most troubled periods of human history, but one which was, nevertheless, the most rich with promise. In the volumes dealing with the Hellenistic and the Roman world, we have seen on the one hand, the tendency to large-scale political combinations and universal empire, and on the other, the growth of religious intermingling, of what might be called a spiritual "endosmosis." In this period the divergent civilizations of the East and the West meet and mingle, producing a tendency at the same time to both scepticism and faith. Amongst the finer minds, the progress of thought and a quickened sense of human misery and oppression give rise to a passionate desire to understand life and death, and the problem of evil, to attain happiness or salvation. We see the birth of a moral crisis in a restless and troubled world as the Christian era draws near.