This is an important contribution to the field and essential reading for scholars working in this material. --Daniel M. Gurtner "Religious Studies Review" This is a book well worth reading, not just putting on the shelf to adorn a library. Scholars of Second Temple literature will profit significantly from the wide-ranging and regularly insightful probing of texts that span the literary landscape from epic and tragedy to the gospels of the New Testament. --Erich S. Gruen "Review of Biblical Literature" Adams's monograph is a tremendous piece of scholarship. All students of the first century should read it and consider its implications. He convincingly argues that much of the discourse on Judaism and Hellenism should be rethought in light of the literary culture that developed between these two.

New Testament scholars will find this work helpful as well, as the conclusions he draws here should cause us to rethink some aspects of the origins and development of the literature that became the New Testament canon. --J. Brittain Brewer "Calvin Theological Journal" This monograph is to be recommended for its many insights into the concept of genre and its relation to the literary practice of a distinctive group of writers within the Greco-Roman context. --David Runia "Vigilae Christianae" This volume is a treasure trove of information and a model for how to build an argument. Throughout, Adams offers insightful textual analysis to support his thesis that writers use texts in social contexts to form cultural identity. --Elizabeth E. Shively "Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society" No certain answer is available on a number of these topics, but Adams has a helpful discussion with extensive literature. --Lester L.

Grabbe "Journal for the Study of the Old Testament" Readers will be well served by dipping into the detailed commentary offered in each of the chapters of this impressive book. Adams deserves our thanks for his efforts. --Robert Kugler "Byran Mawr".